Christ our Savior

Colossians 1:12-23
This section of verses talks about who Christ is in relation to us and our salvation. God has qualified us to share in Christ's inheritance. He transferred us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Christ. How is this possible? Christ has redeemed us and forgiven our sins. The word redeemed in the Greek means "the act of freeing or releasing from." Before Christ we were slaves to sin, Satan was our Master. But when Christ died on the cross and took our sins upon him, he paid the debt that we owed. Then he conquered death by His resurrection. Jesus is the visible representation of God. The word for image in the Greek means a prototype, not merely a resemblance of something, but actually being drawn from God. In other words, it is confirming the deity of Christ. Paul goes on in verses 16-18 to explain what it means that Christ is the first-born of all creation. He was the author of all creation, it flowed from him. Everything that is seen is because of God, and everything was created for His good pleasure. I am reminded of the parable of the evil tenants in Matt 21:33-46. The story represents how God created the nation of Israel, but then they tried to run things on their own, and would not give to God what was rightfully His. This too describes all of creation. God has the right to tell us what to do and demand our submission, we are His creation. As such, we should be willing to give ourselves and the fruit of our labor to the Lord who has made it possible for us to live and produce fruit.
Verse 19 describes Christ's humanity and deity. He was fully God, and fully man. Through Him all things have been reconciled. Christ's blood was sufficient to save every man, but is only applied to those who accept it, whom God predestined. We were formerly enemies of God, but now we have been redeemed and are able to stand before God holy and blameless because of Christ's imputed righteousness. Verse 23 puts a condition on our presentation as holy and blameless before God. Paul is saying is that continuing in the faith, being steadfast, and not straying from the hope of the gospel are evidences of your salvation. Theses things are accomplished only through the strength and grace of God. We could not do this on our own.

In applying this scripture to our lives, we must remember that we are God's. He has the right to do what ever He thinks is best in our lives. This means that when we experience trials, we must remember that God has put it in our life for our good and His glory. It also means that every thing we do should be dedicated to His glory. So often we forget who we are and seek to gain glory for ourselves. The only glory we should be concerned about is the glory of God. This should be our supreme desire, to please Him and bring Him glory.