Colossians 1:27 “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles
are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory.”
I read lately that the Apostle
Paul uses the term “mystery” to refer to a truth that was partially and dimly
revealed under the old covenant but is now displayed in all its fullness to the
new covenant people of God. The apostle speaks of mysteries in several places in
his epistles, including Colossians 1:25–27, and having spoken of his call to
make clear “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his
saints” (v. 26), Paul now identifies the mystery of which he is speaking. This
mystery, made known among the Gentiles, is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”
(v. 27).
We take it largely for
granted today that the gospel is for all people and that those who believe it become full
citizens of the kingdom of God, heirs of all the promises that the Lord has
made to His people throughout history. In the first century, however, this was
a radical idea. Strict interpretations of the purity laws in the Torah —
Genesis through Deuteronomy — made it difficult indeed for the earliest Jewish
Christians to believe Gentiles could remain Gentiles and become faithful
servants of Yahweh, the covenant Lord of Israel. It took both the intervention
of God Himself and constant admonition from the apostles to convince the
earliest Jewish believers that Jews and Gentiles could be full members of the
same Abrahamic family in Christ. To be fair to the ancient Jewish Christians,
it is hard to find this idea of full citizenship for the Gentiles revealed in
the old covenant. It is not entirely absent, as seen in the story of the
Gentile woman Ruth, who became the great-grandmother of David, the greatest
king of the old covenant. Still, Ruth was the exception rather than the rule,
so it is not surprising that the Jewish Christians had trouble accepting
Gentile believers as full-fledged brothers and sisters in Christ at first.
One commentary explains that
Jesus, by His Spirit, dwelling in all believers, no matter their background,
makes Jews and Gentiles full citizens in the kingdom of God. We are all so
identified with Christ that it is impossible for any Christian to be a
second-class citizen. And we can add to this grace the fact that our hope of
glory in Jesus has present and future aspects. In the present, we are assured
that we belong to Him and will persevere so that in the future we will enjoy
the full benefits of redemption — life in a resurrected body before the
presence of God in the new heaven and earth.
It
is all too easy for us to think of other people as lesser Christians than we are
because of the way they dress and act, what they eat and drink, how
knowledgeable they are about the finer points of theological arguments, and a
host of other factors. We should always strive against this temptation to look
down upon others, for Christ dwells in all who truly love Him, and He has given
us all the same rights in His kingdom. Christ
in you, the hope of glory.
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