SELECTED EXPOSITIONS FROM THE BOOK OF COLOSSIANS
By Mike Balloun
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1
THE CHANGING OF A DISPENSATION
COLOSSIANS CHAPTER I
VERSES 24-29
VERSE
25: “Whereof
I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to
me for you, to fulfill the word of God...” Paul, ‘an apostle of Jesus
Christ, by the will of the
Father,’ was appointed a
minister to show how God fulfilled His Old Testament Word that resulting in the closing
(or the suspending) of one dispensation related to His Jewish household (Acts 13: 26), and
now the beginning of another dispensation / household (the Nation of the One New Man).
After
Adam’s fall, God’s authority and calling in the Earth was
then given to the nation of
The closing dispensation (of the blessing of the world
coming from the Nation of Israel) was a period of time documented by God in the
Old Testament that started in the Garden with the promise (Genesis
3: 15) of the Messiah from the Seed
of the Woman (a Jewish woman)
that culminated in the final refusing of that Jewish Seed by the Leaders of
the Nation of Israel approximately 4000 years later at the time Paul was
writing this letter from Rome in around 62 A.D. See Acts 28: 28, which
records when Paul turned from the Jew first, and offered the Kingdom of heavens
to the Gentiles... “Be it
known therefore unto you, that the salvation
of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.” It was the now passing
dispensational Word of separating a seed or people from the seed of the serpent, that encompassed the promises to Abraham, in that his seed
would be the great blessings of all kindreds of the Earth. (Genesis
12: 2, 3... “And I will make of
thee a great nation, and I will bless
thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
See Acts 2: 25 where Peter speaks to the leaders of
The 11 Disciples were were
unsuccessful in the commission of Matthew 28: 18-20 (which was to spread the heavenly Kingdom message to
the nations) in answer to Joel’s prophecy of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
upon the Nation of Israel, which happened at Pentecost (Joel
2, Acts 2: 17-18) It was not successful in that the Leaders of Israel
continued to refuse Christ and the Holy Spirit throughout the time of the
re-offer or ruling with the Messiah, documented in the Book of Acts. In that
they were called to be God’s witnesses / ministers on the promises of Abraham
in proselyting the Gentiles, and being a blessing. They were to bring all
non-Jews into the
Saul, a great religious zealot, before his
And now in the closing of the Book of Acts, comes the opening of a new Dispensation (a new ‘household’). God used this one Jew, Paul, who was raised up on a supernatural plain in direct
communication with the resurrected Christ to fulfil the heavenly call that the
Nation of Israel would not. He was to take the Word of the Lord; of the gospel
hope of glory in Christ Jesus, not now first
to the Jew (Acts
13: 26, Acts 28: 28) but now first to the Gentile, who would readily
receive it. This would result in the forming of a new spiritual Nation more
worthy of the call, drawing upon the Messiah’s Atonement power (under the law
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus) unto qualifying fruitfulness for the
inheritance of the mysterious heavenly kingdom glory. (See the parable in Matthew
21: 33-45
which speaks of the
Jews’ rejection of Christ... “Hear another parable: There was a certain householder (God
the Father), which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round
about, and digged a
winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen (Jews), and went into a far country: And when the time
of the fruit drew near, he sent his
servants (prophets) to
the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen
took his servants and beat one, and killed another, and
stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them
his son (Jesus), saying, They will reverence
my son. But when the husbandmen
saw the son, they said among
themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let
us seize on his inheritance. And
they caught him, and cast him out of
the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do to those husbandmen? They say unto him, He
will miserably destroy those wicked men, and
will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen. (the Nation of the One New
Man), which shall render him the
fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in
the scriptures, The stone which the
builders rejected, the same is become
the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s
doing, and it is
marvellous in our eyes? Therefore
say I unto you, The
VERSE 26 “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages (unknown to the Angels and spirit rulers of this
World - 1st. Corinthians 2: 6-16) and
from generations (Men), but now (since the Nation of Israel persisted in rejecting
God’s Christ, the Nation is rejected from
the mysterious calling and) (it) is made manifest to his saints (individuals within the New
Body / Nation then formed). It is
the closing of one long Dispensation. How could it be on the one hand,
Scripture says that God would fulfil His clear Word told to
As expressed before, it was not a mystery that God
would bless the Gentiles through Abraham’s seed, but what was a great mystery was the timing, the extent, and the manner
by which God would reach out and bless the Gentiles. This was a mystery unknown
throughout the ‘ages’, even to the Angels, now to be revealed through Paul
and the ambassadors of the New Nation, while preaching Christ crucified and
resurrected to the Gentiles. These having faith in Christ, while Christ yet
remains in Heaven in the
This was the dawning of the new dispensation and time
of God revealing the mystery expounded (in Paul’s important epistles of Ephesians,
Philippians,
and Colossians)
more clearly to the saints now being brought into the ‘Body of Christ’, the Nation of the One New Man, that they might be incentivised to
walk worthy of the Lord unto reward. “That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you into his kingdom and glory.”
[1st.
Thessalonians
2: 12]
“Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the
inheritance: for ye serve the
Lord Christ.” [Colossians 3: 24] The calling to walk worthy of the Lord is an unveiled
message now 2000 years old, covering around 40 generations of men. This
Dispensation ends at the filling up of the Gentiles;
when the
fullness of the Gentiles comes in. It is to be followed by a
new Dispensation where the Nation of Israel, now dethroned, is brought back
into their Earthly calling, which comes by
their repentance that occurs only
after the purging judgment of Jacob’s Trouble.
Paul, in Romans 11: 25-36 says, “For
I would not, brethren, that ye (prideful
Gentiles) should be ignorant of this
mystery, lest ye
should be wise in your own conceits; that
blindness in part is happened to Israel, until
the fullness of the Gentiles be come in (to the Nation of the One New Man). And so (afterwards) all
VERSE
27 “To whom God would (it
is His desired will now, that which He kept secret in His wisdom before to) make known (to those saved who have a heart to understand) what is the riches of the glory (of Christ) of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory...”
The Book of
Colossians and the Book of Ephesians should be studied together. Let’s read Ephesians 3... “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you
Gentiles, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is
given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery;
(as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may
understand my knowledge in the mystert of Christ).
Which
in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now
revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers
of his promise in Christ by the gospel: Whereof I
was made a minister, according to the
gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me,
who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I
should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the
mystery, which from the
beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who
created all things by Jesus Christ: To the
intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be
known by the church and manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ
Jesus our Lord: in whom we have
boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my
tribulations for you, which is your glory. For
this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom
the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with the might of his Spirit in
the inner man;
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in
love,
May be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and
length,
and depth, and
height; And
to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all
the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout
all ages, world without end. Amen.”
Our gift of eternal life from
eternal death in reconciliation with God through faith in Christ’s Atonement
is assured, but our eternal quality of life is to be attained / worked out in the greater riches of Christ’s glory, as a reward for embracing His hard-earned provisions
for our spiritual maturity. Which is to say, growing in spiritual maturity and
going from glory to glory (2nd Corinthians 3:
18
- see the Greek). Which is to also say; growing from the lesser opinion / glory of them by God
to a greater
opinion / Glory of them by Him. (Those
being of a lesser opinion, or
having less of God’s glory being those in the “Body”
merely receiving the gift part of Christ’s Atonement,
having not drawn upon the inexhaustible riches of Christ and are not walking
according to the attainment of what God intended us to be... (Christlike) which answers to “How shall we escape, if we
neglect so great salvation” Hebrews 2: 3 with 2: 10). The redeemed
in selfless pursuit of the higher calling in the riches of Christ in the
hope of glory, being more meritorious, are held in a higher opinion by God (for it is His opinion / glory that marks the true worth
of a thing) and the through
continuing to behold the Head in loving obedience. That pursuit (in becoming what
we were created to be; the pursuit in which you and I
today are to be in) ascribes unto God the true selfless reverential recognition
and appreciation of Him and His graciousness (this
being the meaning of worshiping Him in spirit and truth). This is the living
hope of bringing us into a
greater reconciliation of restoration ‘glory’. It is not a partial
reconciliation like Adam received, but a glory to be realised only by
those ‘in Christ’ judged worthy based on their standard of
living on the Earth, who rise in the
First Resurrection. Which will then
be the realised attainment in the fullness of Christ’s Atonement glory ...
which is to say; full of the glory that God created Man to have, that glory
which was lost in the Garden but recovered by Christ.
These first resurrected out from among all the dead in Sheol /
Hades will be then gloriously changed; in the reuniting of spirit with soul in a
spiritual body, into the likeness and glory of Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Man. It is the time of the Birth of the New
Creation in Christ, in the holy (whole) condition, equivalent with God’s
creation intention. A unity of nature so fit and adapted that they are
naturally welcomed into the very Presence of God’s glory / splendour / majesty
forever as His first-born sons.
Then was (is) the time of the revealing of this
mystery of the riches of hidden glory
that answers to the riches of
His grace (divine influence
upon the heart) provision in Christ to the saved revealed by Paul (provision to
finish the race, that we may attain and come into
oneness of unity with the Father). By riches
of glory, we are to understand
the unimagined bounty coming from God that will be bestowed
upon those who expressed the God-pleasing kind of love (agape) toward Him
through wise obedience to His Christ, in faith’s unseen hope, while alive on
the Earth. Riches of the greatest value unto which we may
attain according to the determined pursuit and service in
fear and trembling. Riches of glory of differing kinds
and shades to manifest in unfading splendour, to be awarded in the great
catching up of the living overcomers and those of the First Resurrection,
gloriously raised up from among the unworthy dead. (See 1st. Peter 5:
1-4, Revelation 20:
4-6 and also 1st. Corinthians 15: 35-58 which shows that every seed comes up differently and
that we will rise according to how we
lived... “But
some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and
with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And
that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare
grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body
as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All
flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another
of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies
of terrestrial: but the glory of
the celestial os one, and the glory of
the terrestrial is another. There is
one glory of the sun, and another glory
of the moon, and another glory of
the stars: for one star
differeth from another star in glory. So also
is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is
raised in incorruption: it is sown in
dishonour; it is raised in
glory; it is sown in
weakness; it is raised in
power: It is sown a
natural body; it is raised a
spiritual body. There is a natural
body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is
spiritual,
but that which is natural; and afterward
that which is spiritual.
The first man is of the earth, earthly;
the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthly, such are
they also that are earthly: and as is the heavenly, such are
they also that are heavenly. And as we
have born the image of the
earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
It is the reward of the
inheritance for service to the Lord.
(Colossians
1:
12;
3:
2) The hope for glory is the ‘prize’.
Hope is not a certainty, but must be attained. (1st Corinthians 9: 12 - 10: 12) The terms for the reward / prize are set before the redeemed /saved
Gentiles throughout Colossians and the New Testament with numerous warnings to [regenerate] Christians
for not only not attaining, but not even having run
the race, contend with merely being saved. Very different is the word to the unprofitable servant
... than that of the faithful servant.
We, having a corrupted perishing body, and are under
affliction, test, trial, temptation, and chastisement. But
hope in Him, who rewards the
diligent, calms the renewed mind
from running amok. The renewed mind to this mystery is to learn the Word in the
wisdom of God concerning the hope of glory; that wisdom and understanding in
the knowledge of God which undergirds your faith and guards against deceivers
/ beguilers. This epistle’s (epistle to the Colossians) arrangement is to confirm and teach the hope of glory
reward and warn of the penalties of loss due to doctrinal presumption, in the
turning away from Christ’s revealed wisdom to the enemy’s wisdom and / or by
disqualifying conduct. (See Ephesians 5: 1-21 where
Paul names just some of the things that disqualify a believer from the reward
of glory.)
VERSE 28: “Whom we
(Paul, Timothy, and Epaphras) preach,
warning every man, and
teaching every man in all wisdom; that we
may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus...” Paul’s ministry was three-fold, covering every man...
to the lost Gentile, to the ‘saved’ Jew, and
as here demonstrated in the Epistle to the Colossians, to the ‘saved’
One New Man. ‘Warning should be the first of all (pre-eminent) ministry
Word. Man is condemned ‘in Adam’ under the curse of the Law of sin and death and in
need of the ‘gift’ of eternal life. Not only is every lost man in need
of conviction, but every ‘saved’ man also has the old
man of the flesh within, and the
incited enemy without to contend with. We war with these forces
which try to disqualify us from the ‘prize’. These forces try to
keep the ‘saved’ man from attaining unto the great purpose of God’s
redemption, which is the heart desire and sovereign purpose of God... to have
New Creation sons worthy by overcoming, of inheritance in ruling over His
Creation in His glory.
So few ‘saved’ attain, or even know they are in a battle for their
soul’s glory, because most ministry, for hundreds of years, is wrongly founded
upon a God of unconditional
love that beguilingly assures the
redeemed member of the ‘Body’ ‘that he may rest assured that his being reconciled with God in redemption is certain guarantee for him to also be a
partaker of the glory of Christ when He returns’ (Acts 20: 26-32) Paul’s ministry Word did not ever soothe the conscience of sinning
Christians, but it warned always of disinheritance from the
Kingdom. The merely ‘saved’
Gentile was / is yet in great need of wisdom and understanding in the knowledge
of what it means being “in Christ”...
not only as opposed to being in Adam or in Moses, or in some ‘ism’
... but in Christian religious deception. Right qualifying conduct is
founded on right belief / doctrine in order that we may present every
man perfect (having availed themselves completely in the fulness
of the Atonement) in Christ Jesus.
VERSE
29 “Wherefore
I also labour, striving according
to his working (in the accomplishing of His will in having many sons brought into ruling glory with His only Begotten Son), which worketh in me mightily.” Paul laboured mightily in ministry on all three
fronts: To the ‘saved’ Jew to turn him from the law
of Moses so he might be freed to be found “in Christ”... To the lost Gentile that he might receive the Lamb of God as his
substitutionary blood offering and be saved from
eternal death... And then worked heartily and labouriously among those ‘saved’ members of the Body of Christ, to instruct them in
the Truth, to warn them of the enemy, to correct them when they erred, to
intercede on their behalf according to the Father’s will. All that in the end
they might be matured through obedience and sufferings of the flesh to Christ’s
commands, all things in the hope of ‘presenting every man’ as being found worthy of the first resurrection inheritance of glory at Christ’s
return.
Read Philippians 3: 7-21... “But what things were gain to me, those
I counted loss for Christ.
Yea
doubtless, and
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord: for whom
I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dung, that I may win
Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is
of the law, but that which is
through the faith of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God by faith: That I
may know him, and the power of
his resurrection, and the
fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death;
if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the
dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that
I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect (maturing), be
thus minded: and if
in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereunto
we have already attained, let us walk in the
same rule, let us mind the
same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example.
(For many walk, of whom I
have told you often, and now tell you
even weeping, that they are the
enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end
is destruction, whose God is their
belly, and whose glory is
in their shame, who mind earthly
things.) For our conversation is in
heaven; from whence also we
look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ: Who shall change our
vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his
glorious body, according to the working
whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”
Paul exampled by his conduct and heartfelt prayer the
wisdom and understanding of the knowledge of God in the calling of His
Christ... in the willing loss of all for the attainment unto
the resurrection out from among the dead into a glorious body. Paul
willingly suffering on numerous levels, counting all sufferings in his pursuit
of knowing Christ in a more excellent and intimate way is not to be compared
with the hope of glory. Romans 8: 16-18... “And
of children, then
heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us.”
He worked in the support of himself,
he wrestled with spirit beings and often suffered antagonism from Satan’s
allies, both Jew and Gentile. He suffered “the care of all the churches.” See also 1st. Corinthians 9: 16-27. The
key to worthiness of inheritance is the suffering of self-denial... “For
though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to
glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I
preach not the gospel! For if I do this
thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a
dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. What is my reward then? Verily
that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel. For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law; To them that are without the law, as without law, (being not
without law to God, but under the law
to Christ,) that I might gain
them that are without law. To the weak became I
as weak, that I might gain
the weak: I am made all
things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So
run that ye may obtain. And
every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as
uncertainly: so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under (beat) my
body, and
bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (disqualified from the prize).
* *
*
2
WALKING WORTHY OF OUR CALLING
COLOSSIANS 2: 1-5
[1]
For I would have you know how greatly I strive for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the
flesh; [2] that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and unto all
riches of the fill assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, even Christ [3] in
whom are all treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden. [4]
This I say, that no one may delude you with persuasiveness
of speech. [5] For though I am
absent in the flesh, yet I am with you
in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness
of your faith in Christ. (Revised Version)
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There is a vulnerability in
immaturity down here in this World when one is born again from above, becoming
a spiritual baby in Christ. (Naturally
speaking, a baby cannot stay a baby but spiritually, a newborn may stay a baby
according to Scripture - Hebrews 5 & 6). It reminds us of Adam and Eve’s naiveness; who having
an instinct for growing in ‘knowledge’ of God,
were then susceptible to the conspiracy of Satan to deceive them into
forfeiting God’s governing appointment in this Realm.
THE PERILS OF A BABY
Philosophy ... can be defined as
natural Man’s study of facts and information unto an understanding of reality
of existence, as opposed to just another Man’s idealistic or imagined ideas.
Theology
... is the natural Man’s study of the
nature of God and Man’s religious beliefs derived.
Then there is ‘Christian’ theology... of the kind that seminaries and ‘Christian’ private schools teach (that often take the
once loving Christ-centered pulpit / baby and rather than Scripturally prepare
them, only succeed in dampening them into apathetic ‘peace’
with God, in the perpetuating of age-old denominational error that will quiet
their zeal and most likely eliminate them from the
hope of glory, as well as all
whom they will wrongly instruct in the Word of God... including their own
children). These three schools of
thought are mixed up in different measures into deadly
concoctions of Man’s wisdom and are served up to the unsuspecting seeker of
wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. (Revelation 17)
Nevertheless,
there is a true Christian
theology, which is the sought
after knowledge of God rooted in the Bible; both the
Old and New Testaments, that can be seen only through the eyes of Christ.
This New Testament of Christ was the basis of Paul’s appeal to the Colossians; as Paul’s Letters were to be received as Christ’s last Testament /
Will. Read Galations 3: 15-17... “Brethren, I speak after the
manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or
addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He
saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed,
which is Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul,
that it should make the promise of none effect.” That Testament (Covenant) promise
of God to Abraham was sealed by the death blood of appointed animals. (Genesis
3: 8-18) Thereby “...the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land...” That Seed of inheritance being Jesus the Christ, the Son of
God, come in the flesh / body of man, born of a Woman, Who fulfilled all God’s
Written stipulations for Man’s inheritance. Who then received from Him (as the
victorious Son of Man / Son of God) the sure Word of the inheritance of the
promises of Abraham, along with all the additional promises of God written in
His Word that would be attained by His Christ. Who
then willingly died that He might ‘legally’ bequeath a sharing
of His great bounty with His spiritual seed, to be born from above into His Body.
And so in Christ’s New Testament / Will, sealed in His own
blood (Hebrews 9: 16), He would dictate in Writing... according to the conditional stipulations to be set out, those whom He would give
out of all His treasures. Thus, within that New Testament bequeathing, it is
briefly Written (maybe in about 10 percent of His Testament)... that all the
Gentiles who hear the Word of faith in the unseen Messiah
who believe in their hearts and confess Him as the Redeemer, shall inherit the gift of eternal life even as did the redeemed Jews. BUT then an extensive amount (about 90 percent) of His
Written Testimony is in relation to
the reward / sanctification. For 90% speaks of how once redeemed a believer must then go
on to maturity and learn to
daily live a life of worthiness in accordance to His stipulated Testament /
Will in order to be [chosen] partakers of His glory and co-rule with Him in this Realm.
Last verses of Colossians 1: “Wherefore I am made
a minister, according to the
dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God; Even the mystery
which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is
Christ in you, the hope of
glory: Whom we preach,
warning every man, and
teaching every man in all (Christ’s) wisdom;
that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
Whereunto I also labour, * striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily...” With Colossians 2: 1... “For I would that ye
knew (fully understand) what great
* conflict I have for you...” in that you are yet immature, lacking in wisdom in
your understanding of being in Christ and the spiritual war, and the attempts
of Satan to eliminate you from overcoming in the hope of glory. Paul is in agony for all the churches of Christ, who may be disqualified. Christlikeness agonizes and is in conflict
for us every day.
* agonizomai... from
agon (G0073), conflict... To contend for victory in the public games. (1st
Corinthians
9: 25)
It generally came to mean to fight; wrestle. (John 18: 36) Figuratively, it is the task
of faith in persevering amid temptation and opposition. (1st Timothy 6:
12;
2nd
Timothy 4:
7)
It also came to mean to take pains, to wrestle in an award contest, straining
every nerve to the uttermost towards the goal. (Luke 13: 24, 1st Corinthians 9:
25,
Philippians
3: 12-21, Hebrews 4:
1)
Special pains and toil (Colossians 1: 29, 4: 12) imply hindrances in the
development of the Christian life.
Deriv.: antagonizomai (G0464), to
antagonize, strive against; epagonizomai (G1864), to struggle in company with,
strive together with.
Synonym: to lay hold upon, take hold of, help, eo toil, feel fatigue; to work; to beat the breast in
grief, lament, to fight, strive, to carry on a war, fight, to contend in competitive
games, strive, to contend, be a soldier, go to war, to equip with weapons, arm
oneself.
Antonym: to repose, rest, to refresh, to make peace, to
relax, loosen, to conciliate, reconcile, to settle down, to quit.
We
all were born-again when we believed in Christ our Redeemer in our heart,
confessed Him with our mouths, and received the gift of eternal life. Paul’s
ministry charge by the Lord is given here in this
Passage and is recorded throughout Scripture. It is primarily about the redeemed being matured,
lest he lose what God intended for these He redeems. Paul is compelled as the servant of Christ to teach, pray for,
warn, and struggle mightily for every eternally saved person now in Christ.
That they would come into the wisdom and understanding of the great conflict in running the race unto spiritual maturity so as to attain the prize of glory in Christ. (1st Corinthians 9: 23-27, Ephesians 1: 3: 13-14) Paul’s warning of being
deceived and being disqualified from attaining the reward is also accompanied
by implied threats of what could be punishment for unfaithfulness. Just
as there is a threat of being disinherited from a Will
for not abiding by the stipulations that need to be fulfilled, there are threats of punishment for being a castaway /
being found unfaithful /not answering the call. Being born-from-above does not come
without betrothal to wed Him at His return from heaven to this Realm.
If one becomes engaged, then that one is to avail
themselves of correct training in required faithfulness. Man’s wisdom is that God will accept you if your chaste or
unchaste. But He only weds those who are
faithful. In light of these things said so far, let us read 2nd Corinthians Chapters 10-13. (Let us take the time to read it here, and then
examine ourselves, whether we be in faith.)
We
were dark by nature, as the Gentiles... prone to seek ‘wisdom’. (1st. Corinthians 1: 22...
“For the Jews require assign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom...”) Without the enlightening wisdom and understanding in
Christ, we redeemed unknowingly are easily overcome by carnal reasonings and
sensuality, which will eliminate us from the hope of glory. Our great need is a
renewed mind to the Bible through Christ’s New Testament Words, to
be enlightened by the Holy Spirit, in wisdom and
understanding and knowledge of God to be found in Christ... “For though we walk
in the flesh, we do not war after
the flesh: (For the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strong holds.) Casting
down imaginations, and every
high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ...” [2nd. Corinthians 10:
3-5] By crucifying the carnality
within our redeemed souls we are purged. ... [2nd Corinthians 10: 3-5] By crucifying
the carnality within our redeemed soul we are purged. We are then maturing children in accordance with the
spiritual New Man’s continuing enlightened conscience in obedient faith. Hebrews
11: 6 says, “But
without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to
God must believe that He is, and that
he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Diligently seeking Him will result in His rewarding; by the imparting of wisdom
(which
is to be able to grasp the truth) and understanding (which is to
apply the truth) in the knowledge (which
is to be able to present the truth)
of God.
The
soul prospers (unto its hope for salvation) in the doing of the Word, being enriched and maturing in the
yielding to the wisdom imparted and
following in understanding... that essential
supernatural dynamic which is found only when Jesus’ Words are the
centre of our living. Whereas following beguiling worldly thinking and
enticing words about God is the great peril of our soul’s salvation.
To
have the maturing power of the spirit of wisdom and understanding in the
knowledge of God was Paul’s stock prayer for the redeemed, now having the
revelation of the hope of glory. It is “the riches
of the full assurance of understanding” that is
the great subject at hand, and is what is being aimed at throughout the
Epistle.
“For I would (desire) that
ye knew (understand) what great conflict (against the enemies of God’s salvation plan; the
same Greek word as in Colossians 1: 29) I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for
as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; That their hearts might be comforted (strengthened), being knit together in love (agape, the atmosphere wherein
true spirituality may grow and thrive, where the secrets of God may be unfolded
... as opposed to when the gathering is carnal in their thinking; being in
strife - James 3: 14-18), and
unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the
acknowledgement (in the
Greek, acknowledgement is ‘after-knowledge’, as in the knowledge that comes after
redemption ... ALFORD translates it
as, “thorough knowledge.”) of
the mystery of God (in Kingdom of
heavens inheritance), and
of the Father, and of Christ in whom (Christ the God Man; who has the key and in Whom) are hid all treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. (The treasures
of wisdom are hid, not from us, but
for us, in Christ. It is the great discovery of a gold mine in the
Word, but unless you are willing to give up all you have for it and press after
the mining for the full knowledge of the hope of glory in Him, the treasure of
the kingdom of heavens will
remain largely hidden. Matthew 13: 44, 119: 162 ...
where the truth application of the parable goes beyond merely being apprehended to our apprehending).
And this I say, lest any man should beguile you
with enticing (plausible) words. Ponder this critical statement
above. The wolves of Satan dwell among the sheep of Christ. And this I say ... that your redemption experience in the rebirth of
the spirit by the divine nature of God was based upon the Atonement of Jesus the God /
“O foolish Galations! Who has
bewitched you that you should not (grasp and) obey the truth, before
whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the [not] ‘Spirit’] (there is no article in the Greek) pneuma (spirit / divine nature) by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith. Are you so foolish? Having
begun (your walk unto
maturity) in [not] the Spirit pneuma
(spirit, under the law of the spirit of the life of Christ Jesus), are you now being made perfect (2nd
Corinthians
7: 1) by
the flesh?” (which is to say; by being
deceived / beguiled by plausible words of man’s wisdom in perfecting oneself
under the Law of Moses).
These
are the enticing words of then (and today), which the Messianics among them
argued that now that they had been redeemed, they must adhere to the Law of
Moses ... be circumcised, observe kosher eating, observe the feasts, and generally look to the Law of
Moses for their wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of Yahweh /
God. That is not dissimilar to Denominationalism that prescribes their own Religious laws of the flesh based upon man’s
wisdom, contrary to the wisdom of Christ. It is each individual’s duty to
examine what they have or are being taught in the light of the Words of Christ
in the counsel of the spirit / Spirit to see
if these things be so, as did the Bareans. (Acts
17: 10-11)
Today,
even more widespread are the specious / beguiling messages that misconstrue
these words of Paul to the Galations that are meant to
correct and instruct the believer that the Law of Moses was given to point to
the necessity of Christ, His Atonement, His commandments, and most of all His
New Testament provisions unto worthiness for Kingdom inheritance. Being without the wisdom of Truth of their being now in Christ, and
thereby under the “... law of
the spirit of life in Christ Jesus”, today’s false
teachers of the ‘Grace only message’ wrongly
teach a ‘freedom’ from law-keeping, which
results in not recognizing that the
redeemed are held to an even higher moral standard than those under the law of
Moses in order to receive the Kingdom inheritance (See the requirements in Matthew
5-7) On the one hand, the
message redirects their consciences as to how they live their lives on Earth,
and on the other hand assures
upon death a Christian’s grand unconditional acceptance by God and Heaven’s
bountiful inheritance solely by imputation of Christ’s offering of His sinless
life for us. This is to say nothing to the further deepening and
broadening deception, in that although these false teachers assure Heaven and
all its blessings is promised to the dead Christian by ‘Grace only’ yet contrary they all teach that to attain the ‘blessings’ of certain so called ‘spiritual or biblical’ laws must be kept! It’s bad seed gone to head... and answers to Satan’s
beguiling cleverness; a web of intricate deception. In that his first line of
defence against the redeemed is the ‘Grace only’
message, and his second line of defence answers to spiritual biblical curiosity
in the redeemed, with sundry squelching from coming into the Truth of their
inheritance calling in Christ Jesus. These leavening answers being defined and
redefined over the last 2000 years to fit all the various denominational,
non-denominational, and otherwise independent groups of individuals professing
to be Christians throughout the World. These answers
that are represented as truth are what seems legal to man. In error, they teach
that since men who are redeemed by the gracious gift of eternal life will
naturally sin, being that they have the old man within which cannot be
reformed, God will impute His righteousness unto them by way of the ‘all-inclusive’ redemption gift of eternal life. This
is the religion of religious men’s enticing words, guided by the great fallen angel, that construes Scripture to mean that by ‘grace only’ we receive all
the treasures that are hid in Christ, without any further ‘works’ of our own.
All such religious teaching in the wisdom of men (no
matter how beautifully articulated in grand and brilliant speech) and all ‘wise’ and wonderfully composed books that appeal to
our logical reasonings, and all like sermons written over hundreds and hundreds
of years by the most intelligent of men in Christendom on the planet (no matter
how widely received, all are are yet void of
the wisdom of Christ. These are
those who had started on the right path of redemption in Christ but had gained
no further wisdom / ‘grasping’ and rightly
dividing the word of truth that can only be found in Christ’s wisdom clearly
set out in Scripture. His Truth is given only to those
who are willing to seek and see. In His / Christ’s marvellous Atonement, there
is the gift of the divine nature, with the love of God, and assurance of
eternal life... BUT
far beyond that true statement is the Truth of the provision of the ‘prize’ in
the hope of glory in the Kingdom of heavens. This cannot be attained by
imputation in Christ’s righteousness alone, nor by any
righteous works under the earthly Law of Moses, nor by keeping the works of
Noahatic Law, nor by keeping any of the righteous laws based upon man’s
interpretation of Scripture in his wisdom. It can be attained only in the
wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of God discovered in Christ’s
Testament. That dynamic process (wisdom / grasping the Truth
and then understanding / applying it in your living) answers to the redeemed
soul daily beholding the ‘Head’
in the putting off / crucifying the conduct of the old man, and putting on the loving / selfless nature
of Christ, and walking gratefully in the newness of life in Christ under the
heavenly law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Wherein only is found the enlightening wisdom and enabling understanding power,
help, and guidance of the Holy Spirit, brought to bear upon the willing and
yielded heart, to be sanctified / matured in living
hope, no matter what the cost, unto
the inheritance of the Kingdom of heavens, kept by the power of God. (1st. Peter 1:
3,
5) This attainment answers to the Holy Spirit’s Words
of John in Revelation 12: 9-11... “And the great dragon was cast out (of heaven of this Earth after the Return of Christ
to the unseen heaven of this Earth’s Realm to take possession of His Kingdom
and bring in His co-rulers), that
old serpent, called
the Devil, and Satan
(names acquired at the Garden of Edem relative / in relation to Man), which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into
the earth, and his angels were
cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven,
Now is come salvation, and
strength, and the kingdom of
(heavens of) our God, and the
power (authority) of his Christ:
for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
And they (having been both redeemed from the death penalty of sin as the seed of
Adam, and further purged by a conscience under the law of the spirit of life in
Christ Jesus in sanctifying power), and by (reason of) the word
of their testimony (true
witness in obedient faithfulness worked out by reason of the treasures of
Christ’s Atonement, full of wisdom, understanding and knowledge of God / Christ
in the hope of glory); and (therefore) they
loved not their lives unto death.”
This
then is the answer of Christ in the perfecting of the saints to the enticing
false interpretation of being made ‘perfect’: that it is by imputation of Christ’s work
only. When this lie is believed, the serpent / devil / Satan will have altered
the course of that redeemed one from living the life of a true overcoming
witness, to a life that results in judgment and being found as immature babies,
unworthy to share in Christ’s Glory.
Paul has great conflict for the souls of those in the Churches and prays
earnestly over them that they may present every man ‘perfect’
(present them as a chaste virgin before the Bridegroom). This state of ‘perfection’ describes those who are rooted and
grounded in Christ’s Words; who are not only willing to suffer loss of all
things, but who chose a part that will insure he does all he can in this life so as to obtain the ‘prize’
through wisdom and understanding of the treasures hidden in Christ. These words
of Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, are warnings against the clever
reasonings of man’s wisdom, which is guided by the
spirit of this World. That spirit is of the same one whose subtle
clever words stole from Adam and Eve their glory from the beguiling spirit.
(Likewise, Satan today attacks our minds as did Eve’s mind,...
but it can be offset with the Truth.)
The Book of Ecclesiastes could be set forth as to where all the wisdom of the World, and philosophy
will lead. This leading to the the discovery that “all is vanity” (lies of Satan, the flesh, and the
world).
For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in
the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
“... yet am I with you in the spirit...” at the
very least this meant... ‘my thoughts and prayers are with you’. But most likely in the
power of the Holy Spirit, Paul being the appointed Apostle with supernatural
powers that he was, had literally joined and beheld them in ‘spirit’, or by vision, although his body was in prison in
Paul
said in verse 5 that he
joyfully beheld that “order”, which is a Greek military term for a certain
formation ... such as a square made up of equal armed men on each side. For
example, 4 groups of four men back to back each facing
a different direction. So the mental illustration is
that of men standing in formation in firm resolve and were prepared together in
solidarity to fend off attacks having Christ behind and in the middle of them.
The Colossians were in good standing in as far as they
had advanced in spiritual growth.
In that their redemption was unassailable, but their
hope of glory was being assaulted by Satan’s emissaries.
Satan
works hard to assault us today in regards to our spiritual growth. We are to be
vigilant if we are to assure that we fulfil God’s purposes in Christ for us.
Let us not be found to be susceptible foolish babies who fell
prey to the devices of Satan. We are in a battle for holiness, so we must understand the
war we are in. We will either
overcome or be overcome. We are either walking contrary to the Word, or we are
walking contrary to God. If we are not
in a conflict with the enemy of our souls, we are already beaten. Lord God, grant us a spirit of wisdom and
understanding on the knowledge of You. Help us to
grasp the Truth. Lay the weight of our calling on our hearts. Help us to choose
Your path and accomplish in us all that you desire,
that we may be found worthy to enter in and receive honour and respect forever
as the Bride of Christ within the
holy City.
(It is noteworthy
that there is no mention of the Holy Spirit directly in the Book of Colossians. Paul had not seen these Colossians and had not established this
Church. It was probably the work of Epaphras, a faithful minister and fellow servant, but no Apostle himself. The
dispensation has changed as finally declared by Paul in prison at Rome. The Nation of
Israel is set aside, they
are no longer God’s witnesses in the Earth, and the dispensation of Mercy
and Grace on the Gentile, now to be incorporated
into the ‘Nation of the One New Man’, has
begun. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon Israel with the appointed signs
and wonders will now all but cease as the channel of the Holy Spirit is
diverted to the mysterious calling of the Gentile. The calling out of a New Nation
is to be accompanied by the Holy Spirit shedding the
love of God abroad on the hearts of the Gentile (at redemption) out of Satan’s
kingdom. Those in this Dispensation believe without seeing Christ,
without seeing signs and wonders, which is a greater faith than that found in
the Nation of
*
* *
3
CHRIST’S DAY OF TRIUMPH
COLOSSIANS CHAPTER 2
VERSES 14-15
-------
“Blotting out the handwriting that was against us, which was contrary to
us, and
took
it
out of the way, nailing it to his
cross; And
having spoiled principalities and
powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it.”
Here Paul includes unseen parts of this Realm with the
unseen earthly things, and in the doing, he brings in the ‘spirits’ / fallen angels (principalities and powers) who rule
on and over the Earth from the first heaven, as well as in the underworld of
Hades (Hades being the abode of
the dead in the Greek). So it is, that Jesus the Christ’s / Son of God’s incarnation
work of Atonement included 1) on the Earth 2) in the centre of the Earth 3) in the unseen
heaven surrounding the Earth, and 4) in the heaven of heavens.
On the Earth, on the Cross, Christ put away the
ordinances / decrees of God’s Law in regard to the Curse of death resulting
from Adam’s sin and the Law of Moses, in that Jesus the Christ was “...made a curse for us: (He willingly gave up life on the Earth under the
Curse; “forsaken” by God - Psalm 22: 1) ... for it is written,
Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree...” And after dying on the Cross, Jesus the Son of Man’s
‘internal spirit’ went back to God as all men’s
do at dying; albeit Jesus’ spirit was remarkable, having never been tainted by
spiritual death. Then, His fleshly body went to the grave, and He as Man
created as a ‘living
soul’ (see Genesis
2: 7, as opposed to being a spirit being) and was taken to Sheol / Hades; the intermediate place of the dead, in the middle of the
Earth (as every dead - [and
disembodied] - soul has
since Adam’s sin). See Ecclesiastes
12: 7... “Then
shall the dust (body) return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall
return to God who gave it.”
See also Luke 23: 46...
“And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave
up the ghost.” Jesus was
under the Law of Moses being a circumcised Jew of the seed of Abraham. And being hung on a tree, He was cursed by the Law of Moses
as a condemned soul. Having died on the Cross, He was immediately ‘under arrest’ and brought into the place / locale of
Death in Sheol / Hades by the ‘angels / spirits of Death / death’; they being
the executioners of the Law upon its condemned. (Luke 16: 22, Psalm 16: 10.) In type, it is Jonah in the belly of the Whale /
belly of the earth for ‘three days and three nights’.
SATAN RULES FROM HEAVEN OF THIS EARTH
AND HAD THE KEYS AND FULL POWER OF THE PLACE CALLED DEATH AND THOSE SPIRIT
BEINGS THERE WERE / ARE HIS TRUSTEES / TORMENTORS... They got
their power over men from the ordinances of the law.
Jesus
was held as captive, and was
afflicted and taunted in the lower parts of Hades; “Death”. (Matthew 12:
40;
18:
34,
Jonah 2,
Romans 10:
7,
Psalm 69)
“... being put to death in the flesh (body as a man), but (in the
God-determined moment ... He was) “quickened
(made alive - filled with life and
life-giving power from the state of death that He was in without His spirit)
by the S
spirit” (pneuma). (1st. Peter 3: 18.) Which is to say, His now glorified / glory-filled ‘spirit’ was sent back to Him by the Father into the place of “Death” ... in the power of God, ordained “before the
foundation of this (present) World ... according to the
working of his mighty power” (1st. Peter 1:
20.) In that moment and in that Place, He suddenly was no longer just a soul / man of
the flesh cursed with death, but became
the life-giving spiritual being. (1st. Corinthians
15: 45-46) All Satan’s ‘spirits / angels’
in authority there in Death’s locale now with all their force resisted His
departure. It is then that He exerted His great conquering spiritual
power as the victorious Second Adam.
“And having spoiled (in the Greek, spoiled is better understood to mean
violently disarmed and stripped the) principalities and powers,
he made a shew of them openly (there in the place
of “Death”, disgracing them by ‘leading captivity captive’ (making a show
of them) throughout ‘Sheol’ / ‘Hades’. That great procession being viewed by
all the hordes and hosts of the Underworld.
Up and out of the Bottomless Pit they came, into the upper regions of Hades,
across the Great Abyss, and now in full view and the ever-increasing sound of
loud cheers of those rejoicing in Abraham’s Bosom / Garden), triumphing over them in it.” (See Judges 5: 12, Psalms 68,
with Ephesians 4: 8 where leading captivity captive speaks of parading
prisoners of war around in triumph.)
Jesus,
the Second Adam, - [immediately after His death] - yet in Hades, without His awaiting,
uncorrupted
body having been dead is now “made alive in (His) spirit” in the power of God. He has now defeated the governing forces; the spirit / angel principalities and powers in the locale of Death, who / which could not hold Him, for the place is for law-breakers. It is the great Day of His Triumph. The
victorious Son of God / Son of Man is now - [after His
Resurrection] -
a life-giving spiritual being; the first begotten - [and
taken out] - from the ‘dead’. (Revelation 1:
5,
18.) And now in this, His great
overcoming capacity, He determines to make a great ‘proclamation’ to other spirits / angels in Hades. Those spirit-beings hearing this ‘proclamation’ to other spirits / angels
in Hades. Those spirit-beings hearing this ‘proclamation’ are those who were not among His captives
which He led in His victory train throughout Hades. Rather, these are those who had been chained for thousands of years in the
dark dungeons of the prison ‘Tartarus’
located among the Bottomless Pit in the lower
parts of Hades. And the timing of that
proclamation being quite possibly before His departure in Resurrection from
Hades back to His body - [then, and without
any corruption, lying] - in the tomb. (See 1st. Peter 3:
19-20 “By which He went and preached (/ proclaimed) unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient,
when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah,
while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” See also 2nd Peter 2: 4-9... “For if
God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast
them down to hell, and delivered them
into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah and eight persons, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes
condemned them with an overthrow, making
them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with
the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that
righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing
and hearing, vexed his righteous
soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of
temptations and to reseve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished...” And see Jude
3-7... “Beloved,
when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common
salvation, it was needful for
me to write unto you, and exhort you that
ye should earnestly
contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in
unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly
men, turning the grace of
our God, into lasciviousness,
and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that
the Lord, having saved the people out of the land
of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept not their
first estate, but left their own
habitation, he hath reserved in
everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even
as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them
in like manner, giving themselves
over to fornication, and going after
strange flesh, are set forth for
an example, suffering the
vengeance of eternal fire.”
THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT CLASSES OR
GROUPS
OF FALLEN
SPIRITS / ANGELS...
1) those angels
/ spirits who chose to give up their
God-appointed government ‘habitation’ “which kept not their
first estate” in which
they were to abide / remain (who may or may not have been a part of Lucifer’s
original rebellion) to become - [in
appearance] - as men and who entered into the material realm
which was under the curse of Adam’s sin from the garden of Eden. And these spirits / angels / sons of God “... took them wives ... and bear
children to them...” The
result was Nephilim / giants ... an ungodly, unauthorized offspring that increased the hardness of the hearts of men
towards God, in that they were
wicked and filled the Earth with violence. (Genesis 6: 1-5.) For which God judged these spirits / angels who chose to be like men and their progeny,
the Nephilim / along with natural
men to die like men in the Great Flood of Noah’s day. The Nephilim / the offspring of angels,
drowned and were disembodied as the natural men (save 8) were drowned and
disembodied. And the first class or group of spirits /
angels, being then still spirits (not subject to physical death, but yet in the form of men - (Hebrews 12: 2, Genesis 19: 1-4) ... God chained and put into darkness in a place, locale in - [a lower place in] - Hades called Tartarus. (This place / locale can be contrasted with the place where Scripture reveals wicked souls
/ men go who are brought into Hades; where
they are delivered up to the place of Torment. (Luke 16: 22-23.)
A WORD ON HADES
(Starting
with fallen Adam and Eve, souls partially restored / reconciled
- being
repentant and propitiated by the blood - their spirits are re-generated
with eternal life, but with physical bodies, doomed
to die ... are then to be separated from the living.
Being
born-again as spirit eternal beings, with the promise of a full future
restoration of spirit, soul, body, they
must then enter into an intermediate place, being yet in the continuing state
of death ... until the fullness of the promise is
complete. (Genesis 3: 15.) That
intermediate place for the ‘dead’
having
been provided for, in that God created Hades in the Centre of
the Earth presumably 6000 years ago at re-Creation or shortly thereafter as a
result of man’s fall, wherein there is a Garden of comfort to
those souls deemed in need of comfort, and other places, such
as Tartarus in Hades, which were set aside for men and spirits
/ angels
passing from the living, who were deemed not fit for comfort,
pending
the final great judgment day.)
Now
before we speak further on those two classes or groups of fallen angels... A WORD ON THAT WHICH IS KNOWN AS THE ‘GAP THEORY’
(Not to be confused with some modern-day interpretations / explanations
being called ‘Gap Theory’ which vary widely and contains error mixed with
partial truth.) The name comes from the observation that there is a long gap of
time between Genesis 1 and Verse 2... Genesis 1: 1 ...“In the
beginning God (Elohim)
created the heaven(s) and the earth.” The existence of a pre-Adamic World is discovered in the description of the Creation being
described as an uninhabitable condition in Verse 2... “And
the earth was (“was”
should be “became” here as it is translated in Genesis
2: 7, 4: 3, 9: 15, 19: 26, Exodus 32: 1; Deuteronomy 27: 9; 2nd Samuel 7: 24,
etc.) without form (Tohu - meaning formless), and void (Bohu - meaning
undistinguishable, ruin, destruction); and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” (Note that
the principle of creation being cursed as a result of
the fall of the being that held dominion over it is not a new concept. Just as re-creation was cursed
due to Adam’s fall, the original Creation being cursed due to Lucifer’s set the precedent.) This judgment death of
a physical kind had already been experienced by some beings, as ‘written / testified’ in
the fossils of this earth... albeit not made in the image of Man as God was,
nor for the same purposes, but eventually for a similar earthly structure. Some
presumably with intelligent life, were living on the
Earth as a part of then unfallen Lucifer’s Kingdom at the appointment of
God, and also after his rebellion (Ezekiel 28 & Isaiah 14). These pre-Adam
earthly material living beings also were judged and died in the first great
flood waters that first covered the Earth as seen in that ‘judged state’ of Genesis 1: 2 (the
Earth being in darkness, chaos, and void / without form). And
those very flood waters that brought those earthly but eternal created beings
death also formed their grave, becoming the habitat for those disembodied
spirits. Thus, a reason and purpose for that Age-lasting existence of the
water-covered Earth. And at the same time, the heavens of that / this Realm,
Lucifer’s greater part of his Kingdom from which he ruled, having fallen under
God’s judgments, was also in a state of destruction, and became the eternal /
age-lasting restricted abode of the (then and still now) relegated fallen
Cherub and his governing angles who followed him into that original sin. (The Prison / place of quarantine for him and his co-conspirators
being the destroyed heavens of this world.)
Now the
Nephilim were / are neither spirits / angels nor ‘living
souls’ / men, but were born of
women in this earth’s material bodies, and when the first of them died in
Noah’s day, it was in the judgment manner and form of those who were a apart of
the rebellion of Lucifer, whose outward bodies died in the Original Creation
destruction; that is to say by flood waters. Allusions to the Nephilim / Anakims
/ Emims / Rephaim / Zamzummin (all names of the ‘giants’ in various
clusters) in Scripture could place their disembodied abode in the flood waters,
which is to say in the Seas too with those pre-Adam beings then fallen becoming
the ‘devils and demons’
who now manifest in this re-Creation Age of the last 6000 years among fallen
man... “And the
sea gave up the DEAD which were in it...” [Revelation 20:
13a.] Which ‘dead’
then would answer to the Nephilim and the ‘demons / devils’, ‘intelligent beings’
- but neither souls or
spirits. Revelation 20: 13 is
the time and the place that answers to the words of those devils being
dispossessed from a man by Christ “... art thou come hither to torment us before the time?”
[Matthew 8:
29.] See also Job 26: 5 where “dead” in Hebrew is ‘Rephaim / giants’.
See also Vulgate translation... “Behold
the giants (dead) groan under the waters, and they
that dwell with them.”)
For they are neither men nor spirits, but illegitimate beings, who presently
are working malevolently on Earth out of the Seas like the ruling spirits /
angels in this Realm are working malevolently out of its heaven. These unseen
beings of the Sea have a certain limited freedom. In that they must for the
greater part remain unseen with limited power and abilities compared to spirits
/ angels, but apparently are subservient underlings working willingly with the satanic forces causing
disruption yet in God’s ordained salvation plan for man of ‘faith without seeing’ now proceeding on the Earth, which when accomplished, will end in all of their
great demise. Additionally, the above analysis could also answer to the
exclusion of the ‘Seas’ in the New Heaven and New Earth. Revelation 21: 1 ... “And I saw a new
heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven
and the first earth were passed away; and there
was no more sea.” (The seas being associated with the taint of death, defilement, and
befoulment.)
2) So the fallen spirits / angels of this 2nd class / group are not currently a part of that class or group of fallen spirits /
angels who are chained in Tartarus for
leaving their “estate” in the days of Noah. This second group is addressed
in the prophetic Word of the Book of Revelation. These spirits / angels are far greater in number than those who sinned with women, and these had direct involvement with the rejection
of the Gospel of the Messiah by the Leaders of the Nation of Israel, and were
behind the torture and crucifixion of the Son of God. They have had
final judgment pronounced over them according to Scripture, but, for the
purposes of God, their everlasting punishment has been
deferred. They currently remain in complete freedom, until Christ’s Second Coming to this Realm, when He first enters
into its heaven to claim His victorious right and casts these angels / spirits
out of this Realm’s heaven down to Earth. (Revelation 12: 7-13.) And after that “...
short time”
which is 3½ years of great tribulation on the Earth, the chief fallen angel / spirit Satan will then
be chained by an Angel /spirit (most likely by one of the 2/3 - [two thirds of the]
- original governing Angels who did not rebel leading to the great catastrophe of Genesis
1: 2). And all his following are cast into that
same place / locale in Hades that the first class / group of spirits / angels
were chained and cast, 4-5 thousand years ago, called the Bottomless Pit /
Tartarus. And together they will remain
there during the 1000 year / Millennial Period time of Justice and
righteousness.
(Revelation 20: 1-3.) But
after that 1000 years, they will be
unchained and released for a little season to deceive the Nations. (Revelation 20: 3-7.)
And then shortly thereafter, as set forth above, following
the Last Great Rebellion, the devouring fire of God that comes down out of
heaven (Revelation 20: 9.) engulfs the opposing
deceived Nations on the face of the Earth, and brings the fulfilment of the
Judgment long pending in that Satan and the confederacy of spirits / angels
that accompanied him in the original rebellion before the re-creation of Adam,
and continuing rebellion during this Age after re-Creation, will then be cast
into the Lake of Fire to be forever in torment. (Revelation
20: 10.) This
class or group of spirits / angels are forever condemned.
So this class or group of fallen spirits /angels are
those who originally rebelled with Lucifer who did not, or have not left their
habitation, ‘estate’ ... and are of that group
of angels relegated to this heaven and are not yet united with Satan in open
warfare against God, all the while in the over-ruling of this World, its heaven
and earth and continuing presence in the underworld, all in great opposition to
Christ’s successful mission in this Age of Mercy
and Grace to be followed by His
return. This greater group in
terms of numbers, of fallen spirits was unaffected, as it related to the judgment
chaining of the angels in Tartarus who left their “estate”
in the days of Noah and King David.
Then immediately after these spirits / angels are
finally put away in everlasting judgment, then those fallen spirits / angels
who had left their first estate, who had been chained up since Noah and King
David’s day, who therefore had not accompanied Satan in his continuing war
against God throughout the greater part of this Age, including direct
confrontation with the incarnate Son of God, and who did not come up in the
unchaining of the other spirits / angels out of the Bottomless Pit / Tartarus
in the post-Millennial day for a short season, are those spirits / angels that
Peter spoke of that Christ preached / pronounced to and are “... to be reserved unto
judgment.” It is just then that Scripture announces, at the Great
White Throne ... when “... Death and Hades
delivered up the dead that were in THEM” [Revelation 20: 13b]
... (the remaining souls / men and angels
/ spirits in the entire underworld).
IT
IS THE SECOND RESURRECTION as the
First Resurrection preceded it by 1000 years. (Revelation 20: 5-6 with 20: 11-15.) These include the souls / men who are those
redeemed and remained in Hades at the First Resurrection, who were not found worthy to be a part
of Christ’s Bride and adoption
of the Father as First-Born sons to Co-Rule with His Son, as Kings and Priests in His Millennial
Kingdom.
So it is
that the group of fallen angels now to be judged at the Great White Throne, who
were chained up at the Flood of Noah, and later also, had no knowledge of the
plan of God as it related to the incarnation of the Son of God, nor had a
direct part in rejecting and crucifying Him. They were
preliminarily judged right along with ancient men in Noah’s day, and
like men generally then and now, who are all preliminarily judged at death, are
then reserved / kept for final judgment. About these then, we learn from Peter
who uses the comparative in his first Epistle... “By which also he went and preached (proclaimed) unto the spirits in prison. Which sometime (or formally) were disobedient...” To the content and results of this preaching or
proclamation work of Christ on that day of His Triumph, it is yet to be seen / “to be reserved unto judgment” Day. Again, that is to say at the Great White Throne
Judgment by Christ and now His Bride of a 1,000 years - is that time when these words of Scripture
answer to. (1st.
Corinthians 6: 3...
“Know ye not that we shall judge angels?”)
Just a brief word about Christ’s “proclamation” to the spirits
/ angels chained in Tartarus for their unlawful interaction with women... Although Scripture does not directly reveal what was proclaimed, several possibilities / scenarios drawn from
Scripture emerge:
1.) That Christ
preached / proclaimed the ‘Gospel’ of
redemption to them, in that those antediluvian
(pre-flood) angels,
having been of the 2/3rds of the angels assigned to this Realm that had
not rebelled with Lusifer nor had any part in the
Garden of Eden’s conspiracy against Adam and Eve, who later, 1000 years plus,
left the 2/3rds unfallen heavenly Government of this Realm and took on the form
of man, not as a part of a further conspiracy against man, but out of being
drawn away by lust alone, and were then judged accordingly as men in that form,
as they were condemned with man, save 8 souls, in the Flood of Noah, and that
Christ after His Triumph in Hades over Satan’s principalities and powers,
extended His redemption specific for man unto these relatively few now fallen
spirits / angels who had been judged with men. And although they must
complete their sentence, they presumably gladly received His redemption mercy,
and will be judged accordingly at the Great White Throne.
2) Conversely, these spirits / angels were 1/3 [a one third] part of
those spirits / angels who had formed God’s heavenly theocratic government over
this Earth and heavenly Realm under the ruling Cherub Lucifer who had rebelled
against God and who were culpable for the destruction waters and chaotic state
of the Earth and its heaven found in Genesis 1 Verse 2. And later a small portion of these were the key players in the
conspiracy to pollute a pure bloodline, or otherwise cause mankind to completely be disqualified from taking any
dominion and ultimately ruling, in
this part of God’s Universe. That conspiracy,
presumably motivated by Satan, being that a number of fallen angels / spirits
would take on the form of man and take unto themselves as many wives as they
would, in order to produce a race
of wicked and corrupting hybrids called Nephilim. That these Nephilim were the cause of God’s
judgment of a second great flood, in whom only Noah and his survived, is documented in Scripture as related above. (Genesis
6) This was not the end of the
conspiracy, as then after the flood of Noah, there was
another breakout of the same kind in the
Now
as fanciful and unrealistic as all this Scriptural historic events of spirits
and supernatural beings physically invading the Earth may sound today, it does
not stop in Scriptural history, in that the 24th Chapter of Matthew, Christ reveals the prophetic end-time
scenario that there will be a similar repeat of those days of Noah. With these historic and future
catastrophic events in view, it is plausible that in conjunction with Jesus’
Day of Triumph in Hades over these governing principalities and powers of that
region in Hades, that His preaching / proclamation to those chained in
Tartarus, was not so much of the redemptive kind, as that of the warning kind (in that the prophetic Word of Christ in Matthew 24 could involve them personally
again - Revelation
9: 1 and Revelation
20: 7). A warning to those
spirits who were yet seemingly in-judged as it relates to eternity (as it seems
there must have been some defining point of judgment between their having been
chained and incarcerated and when their like heavenly compatriots’ destiny was
finally sealed, that of being cast into the lake of fire forever - that
defining point being the rejection and Crucifixion of Christ?) In that
it is Written and should be understood that in regard to
these spirits / angels alone now in Tartarus, again are “...to be reserved unto
judgment” until the day of
the Great White Throne judgment.
So
it is, that just as Satan and his fellow angels are being cast into the Lake of
Fire forever, this other class of fallen angels, having heard the Proclamation
of Christ in Tartarus, then being legally served / sentenced, are released and
raised up to be judged, as Death and Hades are being emptied. These places in
the Centre of the Earth, having served as the intermediate places for the dead,
are themselves now to be cast forever into the
*
* *
4
UNDERSTANDING CHRIST-LIKE LIVING
COLOSSIANS CHAPTER 3
VERSES 1-4
-------
1 “If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek that things
that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things
that are upon the earth.
3 For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is your life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with
him be manifested in glory.” -
1901 AMERICAN STANDARD VERSION
-------
Something
needs to be said about the pursuit in the religious flesh and its converse of
the pursuit of holiness in the spirit / Spirit. It’s
easy for the modern-day Christian teachers to say... ‘You cannot do these
things in the flesh, if
you do - you are doomed to failure. It cannot be
done! You must do them in the
power of the Holy Spirit.’ ... OK, so
what exactly do they mean? If there is no further Scripturally
coherent understanding or teaching on this vital subject, the
typical Christian, full of religious compromises, just
eventually gives up trying to be holy or trying to overcome due to their
frequent half-hearted failures of the flesh. They chalk up their attempts for
sanctification, believing that they must not have been in
the spirit / Spirit, but in the flesh ... and
sit down and wait for the [Holy] Spirit to do the sanctifying work. This results in no spiritual growth,
and a sense of either hopelessness or presumption. Our failures cannot be put off or
easily dismissed by a religious slogan that tends to inactivity of the ‘will / violation’,
...
a spiritual corroding rust, in that Scripture puts the accountability for continuing in sin
after redemption and conversion squarely on the Christian. The
issue is not too hard in the flesh to overcome the flesh, but
a lack of true identifying with Christ in the spirit / Spirit with a renewed mind to His Word unto a deeper conversion in loving
fearful determination. The ‘will / violation’ gate is rusted shut, and
needs a good shot of oil and a crowbar to open it. Christ and the
realities of here and now and hereafter in His real light will throw the gate
wide open to the empowering Holy Spirit. What hasn’t been reconciled and taught by shallow-minded teachers is the ‘gift’ verses the ‘reward’, and the New Testament hope* of glory as well as the warnings
of the loss and the severity of potential punishment of the ‘saved’ for lack of service after the ‘gift’ of redemption. This common pacifying, half-true
teaching that leads to no or little accountability or responsibility for a [regenerate] believer to be
sanctified arose in
answer to the numerous questionings of personal ‘failures’
among the misguided followers of Christ. Their teachers, for the most part,
unknowingly live in the pretentious religious flesh (attempting
spiritual maturity intellectually by mental assent, outside God’s per scribed way
and personally having little success), while advocating to others a
spiritual approach (unknown to themselves),
saying, ‘you cannot do these things in the flesh, but only in the spirit / Spirit.’ That
essentially describes the majority of modern-day teachers, who
are unknowingly in that religious spiritual darkness that at the best
allows for ‘behaviour modification’ as
opposed to real ‘character change’.
Only
by persistently identifying Christ in loving faith (that
is to say, doing by the conscience-led renewed mind, the Commands of Christ) and
yielding to the Holy Spirit can a [regenerate] believer have the enabling power to overcome the
flesh and change their character. The
religious teachers promote a circumventing message that tends to spiritual
weakness and lukewarmness; a way round real accountability,
without understanding the spiritual principles and their applications set forth
here and in other places of a practical holiness that must
be worked out in the soul, which can only be attained by
applying the rightly divided Word.
[*NOTE: In Heb. 3: 6, ff. & Heb. 6: 11, ff. R.V. the word ‘hope’
(in its context) means to attain if possible and
after divine judgment, what we now ‘hope’
will become a reality. “We desire that each
one of you may shew the same
diligence unto the fulness
of hope to the end”: when Christ will Return
to this Earth and our ‘hope’ will then be
realised. ‘Hope’ - in the sense marked above - ‘the New Testament hope of
glory’ - is not an absolute certainty!]
ONLY
THE RIGHTLY DIVIDED WORD WILL HAVE THE POSSIBILITY TO
BRING
SPIRITUAL REALITIES TO BEAR UPON THE SINCERE
SOUL UNTO A DEEPER EMPOWERING CONVERSION.
What is
assumed by Paul is the
redeemed Colossians’ desire to grow spiritually after receiving Christ as their
Lord.
VERSES 1-4 “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye [not] are
dead’
(died), and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is
our life, shall appear,
then shall ye
also appear with him in glory.”
The
terms “with Christ”
and “in Christ”
are set forth in the previous verses around
10-12 times, and is being contrasted with the Colossian Christian who
was formally “in
Adam’ or ‘in Moses’. This associating in the thrust and
understanding the intent of the “forerunner” who emblazoned the new birth
of the redeemed, which has in view “the salvation of their souls”. It is a trail
heretofore unchartered, in that Christ did, neither Adam nor Moses could have
done. A path which the saved Gentiles are now set upon
in the pursuit of “heavenly
calling” / “the prize of the
high calling” / “the hope of glory” in “the first Resurrection”. In type, the reward is to be the future spiritual ‘Eve’. In Genesis, it says that God [not] made “builded he a woman” for Adam out of his own body. The Bridegroom Jesus awaits
while the Father builds out of
His own Body, a Bride
for the Son of Man / the Second Adam, Who
has now risen from His “deep
sleep” in Hades
into Heaven beside the Father, where He awaits the presentation and wedding
of the Bride in the heavenly Realm “to be bone of His (spiritual) bone, flesh of His (spiritual) flesh.”
So from
another viewpoint, it is to be understood by these Colossian Christians that
these Words are to be taken
both symbolically and literally. That having died as men of
the Earth with Christ on the Cross, the old man
was crucified and buried “... that henceforth we should not serve sin”
In that, the old man, being
crucified and having been buried with Him in Hades, that when the debt of the
old man had been fully satisfied, the Father then quickened the Son and “hath quickened us
together with Christ (where we redeemed as the new man came forth alive in Him). “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus...” (Symbolically and literally in that we are able to go into Heaven
and approach the Throne of Mercy and Grace). So
we are to progressively identify with His death on the cross, in His soul going
down into Hades, as well as in His quickening there and resurrection into
Heaven. Thus, we are to walk in the newness of life, as
a new man with hearts aligned to Him.
Having
identified with Christ’s death on the Cross, His burial, and quickening is
to have received from the Father the ‘gift’ of rebirth of the spirit, becoming a new man with
eternal life, redeemed from Satan’s
kingdom, and thereby placed in the Body of the Second Adam. We are therefore on the one hand,
freed from the dominion of sin inherent in the old
man, as well as on the other hand, freed from the earthly “law of sin and
death” with its curse.
And we are placed under the heavenly “... law of the spitit of life in Christ Jesus...” /
“hid in Christ” / “kept by
the power of God.”
Therefore,
the two aspects of the Atonement of Christ are brought into further
light from these two Verses in Colossians 3, shining on Romans 6: 14... “For sin shall not
have dominion over you: for ye are not under
the law, but under grace.” Sin does not any longer have dominion over those who
are ‘in Christ’, the Second Adam, in that in the first aspect of Christ’s atonement,
the old carnal man, inherent from Adam,
who kept you in trouble and in cross purposes with God, has been crucified and
buried and offset with the birth of the new man. The verse
goes on to say, “for ye
are not under the law” (in that two things were against
me in Adam or Moses... first, the old man’s vibrancy in sinning and secondly,
the law dealing with sin bringing constant condemning judgment against me) but under grace (in its two
applications... the first being His gracious once and for all gift of grace in
the substitutionary Blood propitiation with forgiveness, rebirth of spirit, and
eternal life, and for curbing the overwhelming power of the old man.
This aspect of the Atonement grace is symbolic in the death on the Cross and the Burial. The second application being the
quickening and rising unto living in
newness of life aspect of the
Atonement ... with a further provision of ongoing grace (the divine influence
of the Holy Spirit upon the heart) drawn upon my continuing in loving faithfulness unto more and more
Christlikeness is formed in the soul of the saved.
It
is essential for both a “living hope” and spiritual growth that a redeemed member of the
Body of Christ see themselves fearfully as a work in process. (Philippians 2: 12... “work out your
salvation with fear
and trembling.”) We are
placed under a new set of Laws (being not ‘lawless’,
we are under Christ’s laws which are more exacting as seen in Matthew
5-7), which allows for the sincere pursuer to attain Christlike worthiness
unto both Brideship
with Christ and Sonship of the firstborn kind unto the Father, not as a finished
work accomplished by imputation. The Father seeks a Bride for His Son and the Son seeks
firstborn sons for the Father. While
alive, the redeemed in Christ are generally referred to in Scripture as servants
and children of God with
promises of recompense of reward for
faithfulness or recompense of punishment for unfaithfulness.
The
New Testament often refers to the attainments of the sanctified that the merely redeemed often mistakenly appropriate to
themselves, deceiving themselves. (Revelation 3:
14-22) Many of this day are not rightly
dividing the Word or rightly recognizing that verse 4 of Colossians
3, and those just preceding, are telling of a positioning
starting point for all the redeemed, first that of
having died with Christ and
having received the gift of eternal life, and then afterwards it speaks of the reward
for those who have progressed to an ending place in glory, reserved only for the overcomers.
See 1st. Corinthians 15: 41-42 which speaks of the differing degrees of glory... “there is one glory of the sun, and
another glory of the moon, and another glory of
the stars: for one star
differeth from another star in glory. So also in the resurrection of the dead.”
And
although it is clear in context that the promise of the hope of glory is exclusive, the common misguiding application by Christendom is that
these verses teach all-inclusiveness
for the redeemed. “When
Christ, who is our
life” (exclusive to those who meet the conditions being set forth in 3 verses
preceding) shall appear, then shall ye (exclusive to those who rightly identified with being
risen with Christ and then sought the things above, and shunned the things of this Earth and
World, by setting their affections / desires on things above and thereby
qualified for the reward) also appear with
Him” (mistakenly appropriated by those misguided
and self-assured souls whose affections / desires remain “on things on the earth”, never having progressed in
identifying with Him beyond death and burial, who will suddenly become
conscious of their sorrowful error upon passing from this Earth). This attaining unto the promise and “hope of glory” is entirely contingent upon the saved Colossians
rightly identifying with being “risen with Christ” and seeing the necessity and
responsibility of drawing by loving faith upon His provision of empowering
grace from Heaven to walk in the newness of life, in obedience to the Word of the risen Christ, in the required
practical application of “putting off and putting on” in the
maturing development of the character of
Christ (Colossians 3: 10, 2nd. Corinthians 3: 18) unto “the saving of the
soul” (Hebrews 10: 39, 1st Peter 1:
9), while alive and walking in this Earth. (Colossians 3:
24-25.)
The leavened Church in spiritual
darkness has clearly combined the imputed gift of eternal life at the Cross with the prize of Resurrection life in glory and has
fatally taught the mis-appropriation of the future great promise of reward as a
present possession of the redeemed.
The
Truth being taught by Paul is that all redeemed
Colossians are starting from the same place. All are taught to have the same “hope and glory” at Christ’s Return. All are being
taught they are Bride prospects and First-born
son prospects, in that they are being taught that all the redeemed are under trial. Paul
is expounding on the doctrine of the hope of
glory in that all are starting
from the same place positionally, and are required to mature
in Christlikeness unto that reward experientially, and are warned by him twice to... “Let no man beguile
you of your reward...” (Colossians 2: 4, 18.)
The calling for ruling
sons of God from the saved /
redeemed has now changed from the Nation of Israel, with their future
inheritance in the Earth, to the Nation of the One New Man (Exodus 19: 6, Matthew 21: 43, Acts 28: 28)... in the greater Lamb’s Atonement of Christ, with a greater calling unto the inheritance of
firstborn ruling sons in the heavenly realm of this Earth at His Return. (Hebrews 3:
1,
Romans 8:
19,
Revelation 1:
6;
20:
4-6.) The setting aside of Israel and the
inheritance of the “things on
the Earth” (pre-eminence,
blessing, land, and possessions) came with the setting aside the law of Moses,
and are here being contrasted by Paul with the heavenly
inheritance for firstborn sons who continue identifying with Christ and seeking things above, maturing spiritually, and walking on the Earth worthily; in loving faith, according
to the Master’s dictates.
“When Christ, who is
our life, shall appear,
then shall ye
also appear with him in glory.” The fulfilment of this prophecy is realized in
Revelation 19. The Truth dynamics of which is almost
completely unknown to Christians today. Having “made themselves ready” ... so that when the last Trump is sounding, those faithful alive, judged worthy, are then to be caught up from on the Earth, or if
having died and judged faithful, are
then also caught up from Hades (in the centre of the Earth), both at the same
time united together up into the unseen heaven of this Earth. (1st.
Thessalonians
4: 13-18.)
There in Revelation 19 is further written the leading purpose ... to be wed to the Bridegroom, and then
shortly there after the unseen heaven of this Earth opens to the eyes of all
dwellers on the Earth, who see His Bride
“appear with Him in glory” (in full
answer to Colossians 3: 4, Philippians 3: 20-21).
The
Father’s appointed redeemed children’s identification with Christ in the
trilogy principle of death,
burial, and resurrection is to be received in loving faith in order to spiritually
mature and become first-born ruling sons to appear with Christ at His Return
and rule in this Realm.
“If ye then be risen with Christ...”
Paul, having just explained the spiritual
significance emblematically of their being members of the Head’s Body (in the One New Man), that is to
say in their once having identified with Jesus Christ in His death on
the Cross unto redemption, with their spirit’s rebirth
(the birth of the new man Verse 10). ... they then secondly and
additionally are to identify with His burial / descent into Hades, wherein the fulness of His Atonement was
realized in paying the debt to God for the salvation of man’s soul, beyond
merely redemption with eternal life. He then attained spiritual empowerment in His battle there in overcoming the principalities and powers of
Death (representative of their empowerment provision ‘in Him’
over the old man, the World, and Satan). Paul now further leads the Colossian
believers in understanding the path of approved faith in the Salvation Plan of God for Man’s soul, to the third leg of the spiritual identification trilogy (death,
burial, and resurrection)... “risen with
Christ”.
In
Colossians 2: 12, Paul ties water
baptism negatively-speaking
with burial and positively speaking with being risen with Christ through faith.
So they might see that on the negative side of His Atonement, they are dead to
God’s Earthly law, its written ordinances, with its inevitable disqualifying
curse of separating kind of death (Galations 3: 10), in
which the enemy found much aid for their condemnation when they were in Adam
or in Moses (Romans 7). And then in water baptism, on the positive side,
they were to see they are risen with
Christ into the Heavenly
sphere, under a new law, the law of the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus,
in order to bring unto them the means of sanctifying their soul, being now free from the law of sin and curse of death. (Romans 8).
This
new spiritual law demonstrates the communion with God may be
maintained by the sincerely determined Christ follower, living in the hope of
glory at Christ’s Return, until a personal victory over the flesh, the World,
and Satan are accomplished. It is Hebrews 9 understanding that the purging of the soul from sin
through the spirit / Spirit-led conscience could not be
accomplished in the Old Testament. It is by the application of the new
law in Christ as seen in 1st. John 1: 9... “If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.”
It is the Holy Spirit’s declaration of Psalms 32: 2... “Blessed is the man
unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in
whose spirit there is no guile.” The Heavenly sphere is where Jesus the Head has ascended, that His
body members, by spirit might ascend unto its Tabernacle Throne that they
might exercise the new law against their spiritual enemy and obtain mercy and
find grace in time of need. “Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost (beyond redemption’s gift unto the reward of the
soul’s salvation) that
come unto God by him (not by
imputation, but by obediently minding the things of the spirit / Spirit), seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them.” (The soul’s - [future (1 Pet.
1:
5,
9)] - salvation being a process as opposed to the saving of a man in his
spirit, which was a one-time [past] event.)
The
controversy of the 2nd. Chapter
centred around the enemy’s various strategies to bring the saved / redeemed
Colossian back from the Heavenly law of the spirit of life in Christ with its
keeping power, by cunning deceit, away from the Head, back to relying (if but
only partially) on the religious things of the Earth, by either bringing them under the Law of
Moses or Man’s theology or philosophy, or by what men say they saw in the spiritual realm, none of which may have value in restraining
the ‘flesh’ (un-renewed mind and sensuous body of the saved - Colossians 2: 23).
The enemy’s design to present false ways to spiritual maturity,
to get the saved to vaingloriously exercise their religious flesh in their
pursuit of sanctification and maturing in Christ, to follow things attached to
the Earth, are the enemy’s goal of
circumventing the new heavenly law to get all of them disqualified from the
hope of glorious incorruptibility at Christ’s Return and the right of the overcomer to rule in this Realm in their
stead. The enemy’s agenda has leavened the whole Church. There are few messages about
accountability and responsibility spoken of from Christian pulpits.
Satan wants us to yield to him as Eve did. In the same way when a believer is
convicted by Scripture of walking in sanctification,
Christian leaders and teachers ask the same question, “Hath God really said?” Sermon after sermon is preached
about how much God loves us, while not asking the question, ‘How much do we
love God?’ The focus is on the first part of the Atonement of Christ
/ the minor grace / eternal life. But most of the New
Testament is focused on the second part of the Atonement / the major grace /and
the attainment
of eternal [Gk.
‘aionios’ here = ‘age-lasting’] glory. If we
wisely and rightly divide the Word of Christ in fear and trembling, and whole heartedly set our affections on things above, then we
will not walk in the flesh. Let us not give the old man the power he once had.
He can only have as much as we grant him. With the empowerment of the Holy
Spirit, the old man’s loss of dominion can be established
by the crucifixion of the carnality of the soul.
The
Colossian believers’ affections rightly set on things in Heaven brings
provision to overcome the carnality of the soul within, and the World and Satan without, while walking out their lives on this
Earth.
By
rightly reckoning in their personal identification with the trilogy principles,
it sets their affections above. And the new law properly exercised, without
critically appraising God’s goodness, brings the fullness of the provision of
the Holy Spirit’s power (grace) in the greater part of the Atonement of Christ
to bear directly upon the Father’s
target; the saved / redeemed soul’s affections (mind, will,
emotions,
imagination
and memory)
unto its purging salvation. Which is to say, attaining power
in the daily putting on the new man
and subduing the old man in the hope of
its complete extinguishing in the coming personal glory of those He assembles
from off the Earth and from Hades beneath at His return to rule over this
Realm. (Romans
8: 19)
We have reached the pinnacle / climatic part of this Book of Colossians in these first 4 verses. Practical application of these spiritual principles
will now be forthcoming.
*
* *
5
A SUMMARY OF PAUL’S LETTER
COLOSSIANS 3: 18 - 4: 18
A
Summary of the Epistle:
Doctrine
as it relates to the mystery of Christ the Son of God and Son of Man in the
Gospel of the heavenly calling of the Father unto glory in Jesus Christ (Colossians
1: 1 - 2: 3)
Doctrinal
teachings and warnings in being disqualified from the “hope of glory” by following false beguiling teachings (Colossians
2: 4 - 3: 4)
Doctrinal
instruction in putting off the works of the old man and putting on the works of
the new man created after Christ, and in regards to relationships and walking in
obedience. Which all results are looking forward to the Judgment Seat with its
recompense of reward of inheritance in Christ’s Kingdom or disqualifying
punishment for continued wrong living to be manifest at His Return (Colossians
3: 5 - 4: 6)
Closing
remarks, salutations, instructions on the circulating and the reading of this
Epistle in different ‘Churches / Assemblies’ as
well as the Epistle sent from
All
the saved / ‘born from above’ Colossians are shown
spiritually to be on the same heavenly ground; ‘in Jesus Christ’. THE need now for the eternally saved Colossian is the
pure doctrine that would instruct and exhort him unto a deeper work that would
capacitate and qualify him for the inheritance of eternal glory in Christ’s
coming Kingdom in this Earth’s unseen heaven. Paul was and is God’s appointed
teacher of “...mystery
of Christ, for which (Paul) am
also in bonds: that I may make it manifest (known as it has been revealed to me), as I ought to speak (fearlessly). They have much to be thankful for
Paul’s faithful courage in expounding the ‘mystery of Christ’ even while
in imprisonment under the threat of execution. In that
otherwise Satan and his tares would have easily beguiled them away from the
sanctifying power in the Word of Truth, and they’d find themselves without
fruit or favour when standing and giving account for their service before their
Master at His Judgment Seat. The present-day beguiling interpretations
of Paul’s doctrines leaves these practical living commands of Christ
without teeth in absence of his un-leavened Apostolic teachings. In fact, it is
the sentiment of the modern day ‘Church’ that Jesus Christ’s
Judgment Seat for them is the place of reward for ‘good deeds’ but the passing over of recompense for bad, due to a supposed imputed
relationship with the Judge, deduced by not rightly dividing the Word. (Titus
3: 5 with James 2: 21-24 and 2nd Corinthians 5: 10)
Beguiling
corruption and the misinterpreting Scripture has settled in the un-renewed
minds of [regenerate] Christians that the ‘saved’ members of His Body will escape His many warned terrors and will fall
safely on the side of Christ’s Kingdom glory.
And
even if this disqualifying doctrine is not fully the sentiment of the ‘Church’
today, its radical effect is yet evident in the reduction of critical
importance of a follower of Christ in walking in the Truth of these Chapters
express commands perquisite for [Christ’s
Millennial] Kingdom inheritance. “Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the
reward of the inheritance (of
glory at [the time of] His appearance - Colossians 3: 4); for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong (1st
Corinthians
6: 7-10, Galations 5: 13-21, Ephesians 4-6 compare with Colossians 3 & 4)
shall receive for the wrong
which he hath done (measured just
punishment and exclusion from His Kingdom inheritance): and there is no respect of persons (in the ‘Church’ / Body of Christ).
If
Christians were to grasp these truths of the consequences for continuing in sin
once regenerated, there would be less apathy and more practical application and
effective witnessing. But as it stands today, the
Church in her spiritual slumber, lacks the incentive to move on past mere
justification [by
faith] and the cheap grace message. The lost are called to redemption, but the redeemed are
called to sanctification. Paul’s letter to the Colossians (as with his letter to Ephesians) serve
to offset the beguiling teachings that were being sown into the Church...
Noteworthy
is it that “Luke,
the beloved physician...” (Colossians 4:
14) a Gentile, was mentioned here in the closing remarks
of the Epistle to the Colossians by Paul as among his “...fellow workers unto (for) the
[Luke had also
just recently wrote the Holy Spirit-directed account of Christ’s Life up to His
Ascension into Heaven (the Gospel
of Luke)... which was
the starting place from which Luke wrote the history of the 30 years of the Book of Acts in the re-offer of the
higher calling of the heavenly kingdom salvation to the Nation of Israel
through accepting Jesus as the Christ, up until the determination of Paul’s
declaration of Acts
28: 28... “Be it known
therefore unto you, that the salvation of God (in its
fullness) is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.” And this was the defining point of
the end of one Age / dispensation of the ‘Church’ in which we now discover ourselves in an Age
unlike any that have preceded it and never again will reoccur, that is a time when God’s Wrath is stayed my Mercy while His great
salvation is extended to Gentiles for a peculiar and particular season intended
for the drawing out a people more worthy of His Name. It should be understood that if Christ had immediately taken the
King’s Crown upon His victorious Resurrection,
the result would have been utter destruction of almost all the living; since almost all the living were in open
sinful rebellion, and whosoever was / is
in sinful rebellion would / will be a necessity cast out of His Millennial
Kingdom into the terrors of the underworld. It was therefore
predetermined by God, in the propitiation Atonement of Christ’s
death, that He would initiate the
fullness of the Salvation Plan of God in Christ. In that, although He was Victorious over Satan who
holds the ruling authority in this Realm,
yet he would take up but two of the
three offices of this Kingdom’s future Ruler;
that of High Priest and Prophet, that He
might then provide not only the means through faith in His offering unto
justification with God to escape His coming Wrath,
but the means for the then ‘saved’ to
put away iniquity in their souls. He gave them the promise of a future [millennial] glory to be realised
by adhearing to the instructions He gave as the Redeemer’s required conduct
during this appointed time of His absence in Heaven, in this great
purposeful and merciful reprieve for mankind. This “so great salvation” having been
extended in the Father’s perfect allotted time, then being
completed, His First Born Son will be
sent from Heaven to this earth’s heaven to wrest the Crown and Kingdom from
Satan’s hold, and destroy all that which cannot be
restored in holiness or reconciled in justice unto His Kingdom order.]
Luke,
the beloved physician (who was not an eyewitness to Jesus’ life) wrote two
books of the New Testament, which are the only accounts by a Gentile of both
the proffer and re-offer of the heavenly kingdom inheritance to the Nation of
Israel, and at the termination of the re-offer, were rightly
and instructively addressed to Gentiles. Whose transitional view was undoubtedly shaped by the Holy Spirit during decades of
travelling with Christ’s appointed Apostle to the Gentiles, who, (Paul)
nevertheless had a God-given evangelistic fervour in the re-offer for the
fullness of salvation in Christ to first come to the Nation of Israel. Luke, having understood the high calling and patience of God with
Israel through Paul’s teachings, now in answer to Jesus’ prophetic word in the
Nation of Israel’s continued rejection of Him and His new doctrines, documents
the door closing on the Nation of Israel to obtain the heavenly kingdom glory
by faithful obedience to Christ / the Son of God and Heir of all things.
While as a result of their rejection the door then opened to the Nation of the
One New Man who would gladly receive the calling to the gift of eternal life
and the reward of inheritance and adhere to Christ the Head of His Body, their Saviour and
Master.
Luke’s
clear understanding of the New Testament heavenly kingdom calling and the
End-Time accounting for it, gave him special insight as to what should be more
emphasized in Christ’s spoken words 30 years later, and the most relevant or
encompassing going forward in, considering the great change in the National
calling. (This being why Luke’s emphasis was on Christ
as the Son of Man, not the Messiah of
Paul, in the last years of his ministry, wrote these
two noted Epistles with open disclosures on the mysteries of Christ’s coming with
reward; that of regal glory in ruling in His heavenly Kingdom; when this
kingdom’s current king and god, the fallen angel Satan and his co-conspirator
angel powers / rulers of the darkness of this world, wicked spirits in high /
heavenly places will be chained and incarcerated in Hades’ Pit “that he should
deceive the nations no more”. They will be forever replaced
with those who are judged worthy out of Christ’s [redeemed] ‘body’
who rise to an inheritance as co-rulers with Him. These worthies are those who
continued to behold the Head as faithful servants, who... “Continue in prayer, and watch in the
same with thanksgiving...”
un-beguiled, in the “hope of
the Gospel” of Jesus
Christ. (Colossians 1: 5, 23) Which is to say what Paul said; to be caught up
alive or resurrected in glory out from among the remaining dead in Hades selected by Christ’s
Judgment on the basis of loving faithful “works” done after being redeemed. Out from among the ‘Church’ / Nation of the
One New Man, up into the heaven of this Earth, to co-rule with Him as His Bride
over this Realm, that Nation being primarily derived
from Gentiles. (Philippians 3: 11, Ephesians 2: 11 - 3: 11 with Acts 15: 14-17) That Gospel mystery that Paul was appointed to preach
was repugnant to both Jew and Gentile. It was a calling which
he might have shirked from, given the continuing consequences of suffering...
and that for which he solicited prayer unto God for courage from the Colossian
‘Church’... “Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance,
to speak the ministry of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.” He petitioned for prayer for
continuing courage and perseverance for members of Christ’s ‘body’, which was warranted seeing
that “Demas”
(who here is named among the best blessed fellow workers with Paul during the 2
year period of his imprisonment in Rome when he wrote this Epistle) is seen to
have later deserted God’s call, as declared by Paul in his last Epistle when he
wrote, “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this
present world...” (2nd Timothy 4: 10) What a sad indictment by the enemy’s mirages.
“Salute the brethren
which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church
which is in his house.
And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also the the church
of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise
read the epistle from
What
is ‘The’ New Testament “church”?
It is the entire new ‘Body’, whose members are incorporated into Christ through
faith in His Atonement with the Father for them, consisting of all the redeemed living and all those redeemed now dead in ‘Sheol’ [ / ‘Hades’]. “And he is the head of the body, the church” [Colossians 1: 18] And that which “...the manifest
/ known...”
centres. That making fully known for which Paul was required to
now make fully “...manifest / known...” centres. That making
fully known for which he asked their prayers.
The New Testament Gospel Mystery given to Paul was the full disclosure of God’s
previously wisdom manifest in His sinless incarnate Son’s life being taken
unjustly by this World’s authorities... 1st Corinthians 2:
7,
8 says, “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God
ordained before the world unto our glory: Which
none of the princes of this world knew: for
had they known it, they
would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Let’s break down those
verses to get a better understanding... “But we speak the
wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden
wisdom, which God ordained
(in that He then would justly raise His
sinless Christ, the Son of man, from among the justly condemned dead, and set Him
gloriously at His own right hand in the Heaven, far above all principality, and
power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this
world, but also in that which is to come. And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him
to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of
him that filleth all in all, and all this He planned) before the world (6-day creation) unto our glory (in whom also
we have obtained an inheritance): Which
none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord
(for in Christ, God’s longsuffering with Satan and the fallen angels reached
its end as He finally sealed their eternal fate, and through Whose willing
sacrifice and death and glorious resurrection as the Son of man,
He became the provision) of
glory” (for the person incorporated into His ‘Body’, and sanctified, that he might
rule in Satan’s and his angels’ stead).
God’s
restorative salvation plan through the ‘Church’ into being, as He was “...intent that now unto
the principalities and powers in
heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.” [Ephesians 3: 10] In
that now it is revealed that out of the “body” of
Christ come His co-heirs in His coming heavenly
Kingdom. They being spiritually matured by continuing to behold the Head,
overcomers of the flesh, the world and devil, and thereby fit worthies to replace the existing
satanic rulers in this World’s present ‘theocratic
government’ orchestrated from the unseen heavenly Realm. So it was by
necessity that the mysterious
restorative salvation plan of God, due to the vulnerability for its success, was kept hidden from
both God’s Old Testament ‘Body’ of believers and especially from Satan and his co-rulers.
God’s secret agenda to bring a means by which He might justly
satisfy ‘the restoration of
all things’ (Acts 3: 21) is now being fully made known by
Paul and a good part granted to Gentiles, who through Christ are now being
rescued from Satan’s world / kingdom and brought into the ‘body’ / Church
/ Nation of the One New Man. (Matthew 13: 10-11, Matthew 21: 43, Colossians 1: 26-27, Ephesians 3. - 4:
1)
All
being now most fully expounded by Paul in these two Epistles (Colossians and Ephesians) here read and circulated “...among...” these ‘Churches / Assemblies.’ And again, this further revelation by
Paul is a direct result of the Nation of Israel’s leaders’ continued rejection
of their Messiah which led to their rejection of the inheritance glory of this
mysterious heavenly kingdom; finally declared by Paul while under house arrest
in Rome, just a few months prior to writing these two Epistles. (See Matthew
23: 27 how Jesus wept over the fact that the Jews would
reject Him... “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that
killest the prophets, and stoneth them
which are sent unto thee, how often would I
have gathered thy children together, even as a
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not!”)
The
knowledge of the Messiah coming to
But
what was unknown and mysterious was the heavenly
part of the Messiah’ Kingdom. It would be rejected by
the Nation of Israel, and because of their rejection as God’s witnesses
in the Earth, their calling in the Earth was then suspended in time while a New
Nation of witnesses; the Nation of the One New Man, primarily called out of the
Gentile Nations, was formed. Its citizens / members (now considered neither Jew or Gentile), being born from above, as
ever-increasing members of the risen Christ, and as members of His Body would
be then called to fulfil the calling to rule from the heavenly and greater part
of this Realm. They would attain this by a required personal holiness obtained while living in this World, having, in
the incorporation in that Body, been equipped with a new man / divine nature
and the God-kind of love; agape, with the power of the Holy
Spirit. These are willingly yielded and
taught and trained by the Word of Christ. They
are spiritually mature in Christlikeness, unto the overcoming of the carnality of their old nature (disabled but yet within) by putting on the new man’s nature, unto a judged worthiness for a final
transformation to be realised at the First Resurrection... or if living at the time, caught up, into the glory of a new [immortal]
spiritual being, at Christ’s return, fit for the greater inheritance in
His Kingdom; the heavenly
portion, (1st Peter
1,
1st
Corinthians
15: 51,
1st
Thessalonians
4: 16-17, Revelation 20:
4-6.)
So
it is that the doctrines of the “mystery of Christ” relate to the living redeemed in the Lamb of God
who then by that greater Atonement have the greater Heavenly advantages over
those who were under the ‘Law of Moses’ “Church / Body” bound to the
Earth. As they then are members of the spiritual HEAVENLY Body
that answered Redemption’s call and were set
apart from the ‘living dead’ who are lost in Satan’s kingdom, in that their names
are instantly recorded in THE Lamb’s Book of eternal life as children
of God. And additionally all these; saved eternally are being set apart again (God calls the ‘set apart’ to be set apart; to go on past redemption to sanctification),
being enlisted to also be first-born
adopted sons of God by obtaining the reward, the right of inheritance in the coming heavenly kingdom of Christ by
qualifying works. (Colossians
3: 24-25)
So the redeemed are now positionally
in Christ raised up, in that it
is there, in the 3rd Heaven, where Christ has risen, that as members
of His Body “under the
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus” who are “kept by the power of God” ...“For ye are dead, and your
life is hid with Christ in God” they are thereby with ample provision of mercy
and grace, then fully equipped
unarguably able to pursue the
reward of the High calling, the
hope of glory; the right of the first-born to rule with Christ from the heaven
of this Earth, by the overcoming the flesh, the World, and the devil. This being the purpose behind the
exhortation... “Continue in prayer, and watch
in the same with thanksgiving...” Always staying alert by looking and adhearing to the
character changing commands of the Head which were just enumerated in this
Epistle and the one yet to be read... fighting the good fight of faith, putting on character of Christ, the armour of God, and wrestling
with those rebel ruling spirits over the future
right of rule in this Earth’s heavenly realm. (Ephesians 6: 10-18)
This being the obvious implication of Paul... ‘Being
now a part of the Heavenly Body in Christ living on the Earth, you
all are now under the test and trial, and therefore commanded to
overcome the flesh and make yourselves ready, that you might be caught up in
glory specifically to this Earth’s heaven at His second appearance and
completely changed into a new spiritual [and
immoral] creature fit
for union with Christ, and
to co-rule with Him as His Bride from this realm’s heavenly kingdom’
Some
yet lost, will be redeemed and eternally saved and brought into the Church / Body
as servants of Christ, being then called and equipped to overcome unto the
Reward (which answers to Colossians Chapter 3’s
mortifying / putting off your carnal deeds or works and putting on the
characteristics of the Lord and Master). Some redeemed were put out of ‘a’ Church /Body (this practice of removal being
primarily exercised in the days under the Apostles’ guiding instructions) for
certain heinous un-repented works of the flesh. This was
representative of a number of the ‘Body’
being under discipline for sinful behaviour that was typically disqualifying
them from the first resurrection reward of inheritance in the heavenly kingdom. Its purpose was that they / we might be
moved to repentance and exercise our
will again in loving faith’s obedience unto a certain required worthiness for
the reward (see examples of Christ’s Kingdom promises of reward and
threats of loss and punishment to 7 of His ‘Churches’ in Revelation
Chapters 1-3). But it is a given that
this apostolic guidance in disciplining its members in the early Church is lost
today. Nevertheless, every member of the Body of Christ today has access
to the recorded instructions / commands of Christ for their personal spiritual
development in faithfulness unto the attaining of the prize and are thereby held accountable for failure in service and loss
of kingdom inheritance.
That
there is personal chastisement of the Father on His [redeemed] children for not
“Looking unto Jesus the author
and finisher of faith”. That they, without developing holiness will not see the Lord is documented
in Hebrews 12 and 1st Corinthians 11:
32. Although sadly it is often misdiagnosed or misunderstood, but if our
sudden and unnatural infirmities which prick of conscious are correctly
perceived as the chastening hand of God in the judging of known persistence in
sin and accompanied by repentance, we may get back in the race for the reward
although we may limp to the finish line. But too often, either with or without
recognition of the Father’s hand of discipline, the race is forsaken,
the prize is lost. Even if the child of God recovers from multiple disciplines,
if he fails to repent because of stubbornness or religious beguilement... he
will die in his disqualifying sin and not only be disqualified from the kingdom
inheritance, but required to answer as a redeemed but poor servant. Millions of mankind have been redeemed members of the Body of Christ, including all those Colossians, and
have passed on to the intermediate place of the dead, joining those who passed
on from this Earth who were the redeemed members of the ‘Body’ of the Old Testament, who long
since have joined King David in Hades / Sheol, according to Acts
2: 34. “For David
is not ascended into the heavens (neither Heaven or the unseen heaven
of this Earth) but he (David by inspiration) saith
himself, The Lord (the Father) said unto
my Lord (the Son of the promise
of an eternal King from my flesh), Sit thou on my right
hand (having resurrected Him out from among the dead alone,
and clothing Him in glory brought Him up into the 3rd. Heaven of
heavens... this was not David’s
resurrection. The
Holy Spirit through Peter, makes
clear that David remained in Hades with all the dead since Adam, now at Pentecost, 40 days since His Resurrection and 10 days since Christ’s Ascension
into Heaven)...until I make thy foes thy footstool.”
All these redeemed in Hades [/ Sheol] remain
members of His Body / the Church. They are now beyond faith’s test and trial (believing without
seeing); they are awaiting - [in the Underworld of the DEAD for] - the final judgment results of their
life, to be known no later than when Christ appears again into this Realm’s
heaven to receive His investiture as King and take this Realm, His Kingdom, by
force, when those judged worthy out of the Body of Christ, are
swiftly caught up out of Hades in
the First Resurrection along with the faithful living in that day.
All changed in the twinkling of an eye into that glorious
spiritual [and immortal] body, assembled together in the first heaven and there will then be wed to the King never to [die
again* or]
be separated, shortly after His foes will be finally made His footstool, and
the Millennial Kingdom of the King of kings and His royal Bride
in realised glory commences.
[* NOTE: There are some eminent and knowledgeable Bible Students, who mistakenly
believe we are translated alive (or resurrected from the dead in ‘Sheol’ / ‘Hades’/ into
Heaven) to be judged; and afterwards, if not found worthy to be with Christ during His
Millennial Reign, we will return again into the Underworld of the Dead
until “...death and Hades gave up the dead which were in
them...” (REVELATION
20: 13b,
R.V.).
But, in
that immediate context, we find the following words... “... and if
any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.” (verse 15).
These words would be both meaningless and unnecessary, if no regenerate believers would be left (see 1 Thess. 4: 15. Cf. John 3: 13,
R.V.) in ‘Sheol’ / ‘Hades’ - in the Underworld of the Dead - (see Acts 2:
34.
Cf.
John 14:
2-4a,
R.V.) - until the time of the “Great
White Throne Judgment” (verse 11)! Those not found worthy by
Christ’s judgment before ‘the First Resurrection’ when He will return to this Earth, to
establish His Millennial Reign in righteousness and peace, will be ‘left’ in
‘Sheol’ / ‘Hades’.
Hebrews 9: 27, R.V. - “...and inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die,
and after
this (time of death) commeth
Judgment.” See also Psalm 16: 10. Cf.
Acts 2:
27ff.; Luke 16: 22-23; 2 Timothy 2: 18,
R.V. Divine judgment takes place for all before Resurrection from
‘Sheol’ / ‘Hades’.
(see John 3: 13; 14: 3, R.V. Cf. Luke 16: 29-31 and Acts 7: 2-5; 2 Timothy 2: 16-18,
R.V.)
Furthermore, if Elijah was rapt into Heaven with an immortal
body at that time (which is a prerequisite
for one’s entrance into God’s Presence where Christ is now seated at His
Father’s right hand, it would not later be possible for ‘the Beast’
(the Antichrist) to put God’s two prophetic witnesses
(shown in Scripture to be Elijah,
and believed by many to be accompanied by Moses! (Revelation 11: 3-4. Cf. Matthew 17: 3, 4, 10; Mark 9:
4, 5;
Luke 9: 30-32,
R.V.) to Death! (See also Zechariah 4: 3, 11, 14, R.V. and compare with 1 Samuel 28:
14,
16,
18-19,
R.V.). There is nothing definite or shown in Scripture to indicate what region
in Heaven Elijah had entered - the lower or higher heavens - or what place where God
allowed him to later enter, and wait for his return Divine mission and
witness upon this Earth! (see Revelation 11:
3-6,
R.V.
These
words of Moses, - the
Prophet of God - have understanding and truth for
us today: “If these men die the
common death of all men, or if
they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the LORD hath not sent me. But if the LORD make a new thing, and the
ground opens her mouth, and swallow them
up, with all that
appertain unto them, and they go down alive into Sheol; then ye shall understand that these men have despised
the LORD: Numbers 16: 29-30, R.V. Therefore, we must conclude that ALL
who were Resurrected from DEATH, by the Lord Himself and His Prophets, must have died at the end of their
allotted God-given Lifespan upon this Earth; and all whom our LORD resurrected after DEATH
(see Luke 8: 51-55; Cf.
John 11: 17-44),
when aline upon this Earth, (before His
Resurrection), were not changed from
mortality into immortality!
And furthermore, prior to that yet future Divine event at the time of “the First Resurrection”
(Revelation
20: 5);
there is also mention in Scriptures of
a previous select rapture of
living saints! (Luke 21: 34-36; Cf. Revelation 3: 10ff.,
R.V.!)
It
is therefore of great importance for us
also to note the fact that the High
Priests of the people in Israel would not enter the Most Holy Place in God’s Temple on Earth, without first putting on the
special clothing provided by God! Therefore, we conclude
from this, that no one today can ascend into our Father’s
presence in the highest Heaven, (where our Lord Jesus, after
His
resurrection out from amongst the Dead (Matt. 12:
40; cf. Luke
23: 43), is now seated at His Father’s right hand. (see
Acts 2:
30-33,
R.V.)
All who
doggedly teach His redeemed people today,
that they
can now take an entirely different ROUTE than that taken by our Lord Jesus,
- our Forerunner, to enter Heaven at the time of Death: - Either before, or at any time
after He Ascended into Heaven (Acts 1: 9.Cf. Acts 2: 33-34,
R.V.) - are in grave danger and Divine
Judgment for teaching error! Their teachings are an open and direct denial and”false witnesses (see 1
Corinthians 15: 15, 20, 22-23, 42-44) of our
Lord’s teaching and that of His Apostles, as recorded in Luke 16: 22-31, Cf. John 3: 13; 2 Timothy 2: 18,
R.V.! Holy
Scripture teaches us of the need for
a CHANGE in our mortal bodies at the
time of ‘the First Resurrection’ (Revelation 20: 5): and also of a select
Rapture (1 Corinthians 15: 51-52, R.V.) before
(Revelation
3: 10;
cf.
Luke 21:
34-36);
and also after (1 Thessalonians
4: 14-17,
R.V.) that time arrives: and both of these miraculous and divine events will occur in the near FUTURE]
A
final thought as we leave the Book of Colossians...
“Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins,
which are many, are
forgiven; for she loved much:
but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” (Luke 7: 47) This was not to say the woman who had washed Jesus’ feet with her tears was a
greater sinner as compared to others, but what is
being compared is her great realisation of Jesus Christ’s
willingness in loving merciful forgiveness to forgive her for sins that she was
actually aware of. The increasing of our love is relative to our seeing the sin
nature to which we yield our members in the light of its exceeding sinfulness. By
which we exercise ourselves in loving works. This we may call a deeper
conversion within our souls. Our conversion is as deep as we see our sinfulness
in the light of His Words and calling us to holiness.
Despite
converted / saved sinners being saved are sinners who saw and see their
sinfulness in a greater degree of New Testament doctrinal light, which
capacitated them into a deeper sense of gratefulness. Saved members of the Body
of Christ with a shallow conversion and little further knowledge of the
heavenly calling, being then without a deep sense of loving gratitude, are slow
to loving obedient service. They are in need of more doctrinal light shed upon
their sinful mature to which they oft yield their members without
hardly a prick of conscience. They are not less eternally saved, but
without receiving doctrinal light on the necessity of a deeper work with
repentance with increasing loving gratitude spurring them to resist the flesh
and exercise themselves in loving obedience to grow in Christlikeness, unto the
reward of the salvation of their souls, they will likely not attain it.
In
closing on this study of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, we should realise
that Paul is just as much a teacher to us today as he was to those in
But
Satan, through religious reasonings and false doctrine misinforms believers of their need to conform into Christ’s image that they may be transformed into a glory-filled
body, as one worthy to rule with Christ in His coming [millennial] Kingdom. The
enemy not only wants to destroy our testimonies, but he wants to steal our
inheritance. He wants us to put God on the back burner and live our lives for
ourselves. At the very least, he wants God to be just an additive to our daily
lives. We must not be beguiled, but renew our minds to God to come into the
fulness of our calling. Paul instructed us to put on the full armour of God on
a daily basis to fight against principalities and powers in high places. Peter
spoke of how our adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seek
whom he may devour. We most take the fight seriously. The way
to overcome s to be found ‘in Him’
(in close communion / intimacy with Him). In Acts 19: 15-16 the
seven sons of Sceva were overcome because they were
trying to cast out a demon in the name of “Jesus whom Paul
preacheth”. They had no intimacy with Him... “...the evil spirit
answered and said, Jesus I know,
and Paul I know; but who
are ye? And the man in whom
the evil spirit was leaped on them, and
overcame them, and prevailed
against them, so that they fled
out of that house naked and wounded.” The enemy knows which of God’s people are a threat to him and his kingdom. It is not enough to
know of Jesus, we must KNOW Him in order to overcome, Satan, the flesh, and the
World. Praise God that our High Priest ever lives to make intercession for us,
His Body of believers who are engaged in this spiritual fight.
THE END