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.”
Continuing though this short
Bible Study through the first chapter of the Apostle’s Epistle to the
Colossians, we learned that 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. This lesson states that the
apostle speaks of mysteries in several places in his epistles and having spoken
of his call to make clear “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now
revealed to his saints”, 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”.
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 at first.
The lesson’s point is 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.
John 10:14-16 “I am
the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My
own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay
down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of
this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there
will be one flock and one shepherd.”
This
lesson concludes that it is all too easy for us to think of other people as
lesser Christians than we are because of the way they dress, 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.
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