Bob Allen

Look at What God has Done

Look at What God has Done

 

Colossians One: 13-14

13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

 

Usually when you talk about someone, the Bible begins with who that person is.  It seems to me to be more important to ask who a person is before you answer what He has done.  But in the case of Colossians One, before Pual writes about Christ, He writes about the Father.  Paul begins with what the Father has done for us.  These are just two short verses, but it is worth the time to look at them on a deeper level and ask ourselves some important questions about what is listed in this verse.  I think it is also important to see who did what.  In order words, to have a deeper understanding of what part of the Trinity was acting out our behalf and why is this important to comprehend?

  1. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and
    1. There doesn’t seem to be a quick way to know who did the rescuing unless you read a little further on in the passage. At first glance and because the title of this section that is provided by most Bibles, you might think that Paul is beginning with what Christ did, but reading a little deeper into the context you see that the He mentioned here has a Beloved Son.  The one that did the rescuing is the Father.   Rescue is a great word but other versions use delivered us. But I prefer rescued because of the drama of that word.  It makes us look like we were helpless and we were.  We could not save ourselves and in fact, we are told that God prompts us to call for His deliverance.  If you are a normal person, you would like to think that you were at least smart enough to realize you were lost but again the Bible tells us that we were blinded by the God of this world. (2 Corinthians 4:4).  Do you think that a blind person is bothered by darkness?   We get so frustrated trying to explain to people what it is like to live in the light when they have become overly familiar and even comfortable with the darkness.  The point of this passage is about the fact that we were rescued.  We were delivered.  And notice that the verb tense of this passage is past tense – meaning that we have been rescued, we are not being rescued.  What difference does that make?  And what does that do to help us understand what this “domain of darkness” is that Paul mentions here?
    2. What did it take to rescue us? Think about all the actions that God took to move us from the domain of darkness to the Kingdom of His beloved Son.  There is redemption, forgiveness, mercy, grace and many other things.  And it was not a rescue that was free, even though we often talk about free grace, but it was grace that purchased at the cost of the sacrifice of His Son.  One of the great ways to remember those things we have grown too familiar with is through music.  There are songs that stir up in us the reminder that we were saved at a great cost.  What are some of your favorite hymns that cause you to be reminded of God’s great work through Christ and in you?
    3. Now, what were we rescued from: the domain of darkness.  I hope we all realize that Satan has his own domain and it is a place of ruin.  There might be some who live there who are perfectly content to stay there for the time being.  Satan can be very patient.  He knows that if he can keep you from God’s Kingdom, the victory will be his as far as you are concerned.  I used to wonder what Satan has to gain by creating more and more trouble for people.  Anyone ever wondered what a little child has to gain by refusing to eat?  I mean, you know they are probably hungry but for some reason they refuse to come to the table and eat.  I think they believe they can hurt you most by not eating.  Satan believes he can hurt God most by destroying what and who He loves.  That is people and the earth.  It is obvious that God loves mankind – look at all that He did to rescue us from the domain of darkness.  He drew us to Himself.  God and God alone had the power, the desire, the means and the ability to rescue us.  Ever notice that it takes someone stronger than one being rescued to rescue that person?  Imagine a little child jumping in the water to save a full grown person.  If the adult was drowning, the child would be taken with them.  Behind the idea of being a rescuer, is the idea that the rescuer is stronger than the person being rescued and that they are able to overcome whatever holds the person hostage.  Only God meets that requirement.  Only God is strong enough to rescue anyone from the darkness.
  2. transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
    1. He transferred us – He moved us, relocated us, and again notice the time tense of this action. What this says to me is that we are now in that kingdom of His beloved Son.  You might say, well if this is heaven, you can have it.  Well, God didn’t say this was heaven, He says that we have been transferred to the Kingdom of His Son.  We live under the rule of Jesus Christ, who will someday return and take us to live with Him but we are living under a different set of rules than those who are not a part of this same kingdom.  This is why other passages tell us that we are citizens of the King, citizens of heaven living abroad if you will.  This earth is not our home.  This is one thing that I believe living or going to another country begins to help us grasp, that even if they might look and sound like us, they are different.  Other countries think differently than we do, and react differently than we do.  The same can be said of believers and non-believers.  Of course we think differently from non-believers because we are not from around here.  This earth is not our home.  This all means that we should accept and acknowledge that we are under the rule of Christ and not just for the future, but for now as well.   One big difference is that we were not raised into our present citizenship, we were adopted into it.  That is why we spend so much time getting to know how things work in God’s Kingdom.
    2. To the Kingdom of His beloved Son – things are different now, and even if you haven’t noticed, the enemy has. Does it seem fair that each believer is born with a target on their back?  Don’t be too overwhelmed.  I am fairly sure that Satan’s hate for the believer is because of our relationship with the Heavenly Father.  Not to mention, we were stolen from his domain of darkness and brought into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.  Probably the last thing he wants is us telling others what life is like in the light.  Also look at the fact that previously we were in rebellion to God, now we are living in the truth and that is not anything that the Father of lies is going to welcome.  Satan doesn’t have more power than God, we know that.  But we should face the fact that this planet is Satan’s home turf and this is the only time that he has any opportunity of victory.  When this age is over, he is aware that he will be locked up.
  3. 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Now he steps out on the thought that Paul will continue to develop in the rest of the Chapter about all that Christ means to believers and that is to try and put into words just how remarkable is our Savior.
    1. In whom we have redemption. – after Paul makes the point that our salvation is two sided, in that we have both been removed from the darkness and transferred to the light, he reminds us of what that means. It means that we have been redeemed.  Redemption is the forgiveness of sin and the drawing us to Himself. When God put Christ on the cross, and He bore your sin and He bore my sin, the penalty was paid and God had paid the price to redeem us back from being Satan’s property.  Now that might sound little dramatic, but consider the point that Romans tells us prior to coming to God, we were slaves to sin.  The number one thing about the word “slave” is that it denotes ownership.  For one human to own another is something that we all find disagreeable.  But the Bible tells us that we were slaves, or we were under the rule of sin.  We were owned by sin.  Many people are not comfortable with that because they believe they had the ability to choose not to sin, but not if they were in the domain of darkness.  Don’t think of darkness as always sinning, although it might be, think of it being under the dominion or power of Satan. A person can live in deception that they have the ability to work their way to heaven and that person is in the darkness as much or more than the person who is heavily involved in very bad activities, such as murder and robbery and drugs.
    2. The forgiveness of Sin – not an easy task. When we fall on our face and tell the Lord we don’t really have any capability of paying, in His compassion He forgives us. That is the most important element of God’s nature to us as sinners because we need forgiveness more than we need anything else. This then is the heart of the Christian message. This is the heart of the gospel.
      1. Why is it that God could not just overlook sin? Why can’t God be as gracious to us as we are told to be to others?  The reason we are told to be forgiving is because we have been forgiven.  Has God ever been less than perfect that He would require forgiveness?  Of course not.  So God because He cannot deny who He is, made a way to satisfy both sides of His nature.  He is both just – so He won’t overlook anything – and He is love, so in His love He sent Christ to die for the sins of the world.  Non-believers will often ask the question: How can a loving God send people to hell?  The answer is that God doesn’t wish anyone to perish, so in His great mercy He sent a deliverer.
      2. What’s wrong with grading on a Curve? The top 20% of humanity gets into heaven. That is pretty simple, you can see right away that would create all kinds of insecurity about our eternal destiny.  And you can also see that there could be no chance for a change in our life if we believed we had already been excluded by previous choices.
  • How was our forgiveness purchased? It was the separation of the Son from the Father on the cross.  The work of redemption was accomplished when Jesus declared on the cross, “It is finished.”  His death and resurrection was a confirmation that He had conquered the grave.