17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”
(Colossians 1:17-18 NKJV).
Last week, we ended with verse 17. Let us pick up there today. Christ’s eternal presence is so important to know and to live in. He is the Alpha and Omega; He is the beginning and the end as Jesus Christ describes Himself in Revelation 1:11. How good the Lord has been to reveal Himself to us. He has an endless life which He has shared with us. Keep renewing your mind with this reality, “I consist in Him.” Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Paul said, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being . . . For we are also his offspring (Acts 17:28). If this is wear your faith has brought you on a daily basis, you are in a good place. “My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my … He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved (Psalm 18:2 KJV).
We have access to the inheritance that Vs 12 refers to at the moment we are translated or conveyed into the kingdom of light. We must embrace the revelation of being qualified. We are present and always will be in the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of His dear Son, filled with light. In Him, there is no darkness! “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declares to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). There are many in His church that has not heard because it has not been conveyed the way those apostles received it. Christ’s apostles are the source of the message. Many other messages have been conveyed down through church history, but this is the message! The issue is about 2 kingdoms, one of “darkness” and the other of “light.” The issue is about 2 governments, one is steeped in darkness, and the other is full of light that brings freedom and liberty. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).
Salvation:“
Sozo” is the Greek word for salvation, yet its root meaning goes beyond just the forgiveness of sins. According to Strong’s Concordance, Sozo also carries the idea of being physically healed of diseases and to be delivered from your enemy. In the spiritual sense, that enemy is the devil and his demons.
It takes five English words to describe what the Greek language is communicating regarding our salvation. The Greek word Soza speaks of salvation, but to be translated correctly in English these words are also needed: “wholeness, healing, safety, and deliverance.”
When we were saved from our sins, we were delivered from the deceiver and the originator of sin in his rebellion toward God in heaven. Lucifer, the son of the morning which spoke of light was judged by God. He is now known as, the devil, Satan, and the great dragon. God also removed from heaven a 1/3 of the angels and cast them into hell and delivered them into chains in darkness, to be reserved for judgment (2 Peter 2:4). In verse 9, Peter declares, “then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the Day of Judgment.”
All of this and more is what Colossians 1:13 is addressing in the “conveying or translation” from one kingdom to another. Our minds need to be washed continually by God’s word to remind us of our present standing in Christ before heaven’s throne. We daily must apprehend all that the Lord has provided and accomplished in the new birth on our behalf. The flesh and the devil consistently remind us of our former state, but they make it the reality of the present. We must draw from our inheritance in heaven and consistently remind ourselves that the Lord has changed everything in this translation from one kingdom to another. This in part is what Paul means when he says, “we have the mind of Christ.”
14 “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:14-16).
This is true “spirituality.” It is Jesus’ life through the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and directing us in His good work. It is reasoning, centered in God’s completed “Cannon,” the Holy Scriptures, known as the “Word of God.”
In Him is found our redemption and the forgiveness of sins. Our life is in His redemption. Our life is in His forgiveness. We are to grow up into the full realization of what Christ has accomplished on our behalf. Receive your inheritance and walk in all it has provided for you!
In Verse 15, Paul speaks to Christ by saying, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” This scripture is packed with a revelation that only the Spirit of God can unpack for us.
He, Jesus, confounded the Pharisees when He said, “Most assuredly I say to you before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). Jesus represented Himself as the “I AM” 7 TIMES in the Gospels. We must understand that the “I AM” of the Old Testament was none other than the Pre-incarnate Christ. It was Jesus speaking to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. It was Jesus speaking to Moses at the burning bush.
Before Father God created, the He had in His heart and mind the Son. This is laid out in Ephesians Chapter 1 and emphasized throughout the entire book of Ephesians. Remember that the Godhead is a “mystery.” We can only understand this mystery to the degree that the Holy Spirit gives us understanding. You and I cannot solve the mystery in our intellect. If we did, we would be God. Do you see how that takes us back to the Garden and the deception of the Serpent, “hath God said.” He purposed to get Eve to take things into her own hands rather than waiting and depending on God’s timing and right to reveal the knowledge she wanted.
ARE YOU READY TO GO DEEPER?
The image of the invisible God was not speaking to “physical,” but addressing His Christ “nature” as “sinless.” In the upper room, Philip asked Jesus to “reveal the Father.” Jesus was surprised as He answered Philip, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, Show us the Father?” There is no one like Jesus, no other leader born of women can say what Jesus said to His disciples. From that upper room, He was going to die, be buried, and descend into Sheol, the place of the dead, and the third-day rise fully regenerated and restored as Man and yet God. He was glorified by the Father by being seated as a Man in the Throne of God which was to be the promised throne of David from whom Christ seed came. God lifted King David in Christ and seated him in the heavenly places as promised in 2 Samuel 7.
How is He the firstborn over all creation? Christ is the “firstborn of the dead.” He is the First Man raised from the “grave,” from lower Sheol where the unrighteous dead were held awaiting judgment. He was raised through upper Sheol, where the righteous were awaiting the Messiah’s deliverance. “When He arose, the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many” (Matthew 27:52-53). Can you see what God did in making Jesus the “firstborn over all creation?” His birth as a man was the beginning of the end of the Old Creation, beginning with Adam. It was as well the beginning of the end of the “Law of Moses” as a means of righteousness. When Jesus died and rose again, He fulfilled the Law and He began a whole new creation of the Spirit. In the Upper Room when the obedient 120 waited for the “Promise of the Father” the Holy Spirit came in signs and wonders, in the power of Christ’s Resurrection and they were all filled with the Spirit. On the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out in the streets on those believing Jews, a new creation had begun. A Redeemed Israel was emerging. The Sign of Christ Messianic reign was about to be experienced in all of the creation.