Colossians "Christ In You"
Each book in the Bible gently guides God's people into a more intimate relationship with their Creator, as He knows must occur, for His people to receive Him in the depth of the relationship that He purchased for them. Each day we are covering, in sequential order, one of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament and expecting people’s lives to change through the revelation of His leading in this way.
Today is the twelfth day of the series, and the book is, Colossians, the twelfth book in the New Testament as it appears in our Bible. Colossians is a letter written to a Christian community that Paul had never met, but had only heard of their faith; however, he was extremely moved by what he had heard about their belief in Christ Jesus, and tells us in depth of the reality of who Jesus is, where our focus should be, and how we should live in our relationship with God and others like we have not heard until this time in our journeys through his letter to them.
In the first chapter of this letter he tells us how he does not cease to pray for these people since he heard of their faith in Christ Jesus. His prayer is that they, and in turn we, would both understand who God is and that we would possess the attributes of who He has recreated us to be, and understand exactly the position we have come from and the current state of being we have received.
Paul continues by describing Jesus as, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:” Jesus is the firstborn and has the rightful position of who He is and what God the Father has accomplished through Him. This positional authority is described in this chapter of the Bible in more depth than any time in the previous books of the Bible. This not only informs us of who Jesus is, it describes who we are on a deeper level to us as well; which Paul clarifies a couple of sentences later by telling us, “... to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:” with the only requirement being “if you continue in the faith.” This continuing in the faith will be discussed in a subsequent blog, but I will tell you now: God’s way of keeping you “in the faith” might be different than you’ve ever heard about in the past.
Paul then tells us about his sufferings for the body of Christ and how we have received something that was hidden from everyone before this time in history by saying, “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.” This being hidden is still what is occurring to everyone who it has not been revealed to personally, and might seem to be the same thing as being filled with the Holy Spirit until a person looks at it more closely. Christ is defined as God’s anointing; which is God the Father coming into the person. God the Father and His Spirit are not the same. The difference in being Spirit filled and realizing that a person has Christ, God the Father in them, is immense. Jesus came to Earth as the Christ and received the Holy Spirit upon being baptized by John the Baptist just before He went and fasted in the wilderness and began His earthly ministry. The same state of being that Jesus came into the world with is the state of being that God has placed into His people, but in reverse order. After God's people are born-again, He places the Holy Spirit in them, then He comes to dwell in them because they must be cleansed and set apart from sin before the Father can be united in His people; however, Satan wants to keep God’s people distracted by the things of this world, including things that seem to be good; even God’s blessings, to take the focus off receiving the depth of the relationship that God has recreated His people to have.
Paul covers what our focus needs to be by writing, “and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” People who are not born-again, not Spirit filled, and do not have Christ in them will never be able to understand the depth of God’s riches that those who are living in these states of being will automatically live, but everyone who has received any of these levels of living have all been without this awareness at some time in their journeys themselves and should be able to have compassion and understanding toward those who don’t.
People who have not been set free into this life of liberty and are attempting to earn their righteousness will act like Paul tells us in the second chapter of this book, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come;” these people, who are doing these things, might have “good intentions” and not have the same enlightenment at this point in their journey. God has perfect timing and they could receive this state of revelational peace some time in their future as well, but for now we are still instructed to be a love filled part of the Body of Christ that is not divided by doctrinal issues.
In chapter three, Paul continues with, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.... When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” With the proper focus, Christ will appear at some point in time to God’s people and it does not say that the body must be in the grave to experience it. This is a huge step in the revelational relationship of the Body of Christ. Having Christ revealed to His people while they are still occupying their bodies on Earth is life altering, but it takes the proper focus which is beyond any human’s ability to achieve, and is realized by God’s giftings just like every other step of the journey back to Him is received.
Paul then tells us how to live in the Body of Christ and function as a cohesive unit of believers in a variety of settings and relationships which lead into a peace filled existence for everyone involved since the Body is functioning properly.
The examples in this blog are only a limited sample of the deepening relational revelational described through the letter to the Colossians which displays how God desires His people to know what their relationship should look like and what state of being this will bring.
The intent of the blog is to demonstrate the difference in the revelation that God gives to His people as they intently follow Him and focus on what He has told them through their individual lives and the revelation they’ve received through the Holy Spirit and His Holy Bible.
