We will be looking at this beautiful passage in Colossians 1:13-23. It is filled with many points of truth that we can turn and stand firmly. This group of verses will be broken into in four sections as we look at the deep truths written here. In this passage, Paul begins setting a foundation for the reader then concludes this section in verses 22 and 23. In the four sections, he points our four areas of truth. The beginning with our position in the kingdom, then Jesus is God, The agency of The Messiah, and ending with our salvation through The Messiah by faith. Throughout these verses, Paul makes it clear that God is The One actively doing and we are the ones that are the recipients of what He does. Let us begin in verse 13 and 14 dealing with our position in the kingdom.
NAU Colossians 1:13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
Verse 13 begins by showing us the heart of God The Father. The verb “rhoumai” meaning to rescue or deliver one from severe danger with the idea of bringing to oneself. The verb is in the Indicative Aorist Middle Deponent 3rd person singular form. This tells us that it was a factual event in the past with the time of the event is unimportant and the subject did the action. Just the fact that the event occurred is sufficient to know. God knew that we were in severe danger because of being in the dominion of darkness. Stated another way, we were in a sphere of power that was evil. Instead of leaving us there, He took us from that place and put us in another place. We see this in the verb “methistano” meaning to transfer or remove from one place to another. It is in the Indicative Aorist Active 3rd person singular form. This explains to us that it was a factual event in the past with the time of the event is unimportant and the subject did the action. It was God Who moved us to a place of safety. This place of safety was in the kingdom of His Son. He desires for us to live with Him in His Son’s kingdom. Paul is setting the foundation that it was God Who saved us not something that we could have done. We were helplessly trapped in the dominion of darkness and only God could lift us out of that place and put us in another place and that place was with Him. This demonstrates to us the love God has for us.
NAU Colossians 1:14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
In verse 14, He explains by what means we were saved and transferred into the kingdom of His Son. Verse 14 begins with the preposition “en” which in this context means the cause denoting the means or instrument by which something is done. Paul wants the reader to understand that what he is about to say is because of Jesus. He is the agency or the means by which it is done. He then continues to tell the reader that we (the believers) are redeemed from sin. The verb “echo,” meaning “to have or hold,” is in the Indicative Present Active 1st plural. Paul is stating that we, right now, have this redemption from sin. It was presently in effect at the time he was writing to them. The word “apolutrisis” is a noun that means as an action, a buying back of a slave or captive through payment of a ransom. Figuratively it means redemption or deliverance. Paul clarifies what the deliverance is. It is the forgiveness of sins or cancellation of the guilt of sins. It is understood from the beginning of the verse that the forgiveness is only through the agency of Jesus. Later in verse 20, it clarifies that it was through Jesus’ death that we are forgiven. Our sins are cancelled. We were purchased out of the dominion of darkness by the death of Jesus Christ.
In these two verses we are told that The Father transferred us to the kingdom of His Son by the death of His Son. The fact that we are in the kingdom of His Son comments on the fact that He died but is now alive to be The King in that kingdom. Praise God for His love for us that He would send His only Son to die that we might live with Him forever.
Lord deepen our understanding of the reality of Your love for us in these truths. Help us to understand the magnitude that we are apart of Your kingdom now while living here on earth. Help us to live in this truth to Your glory and praise, Amen.
Love Daniel
