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COLOSSIANS - Christ in you, the hope of glory!
Studies in the Letter of Paul to the Colossians

Part 1 - The Foundations of Christian Faith (Colossians 1:1-29)

Background 1 - The apostolic blessing


From God our Father

Paul, the former expert of Torah Law, spoke an apostolic greeting that broke through the wall of human ignorance toward God. In truth, no man and no religion truly know God. In the best case they know or suspect that there is a God, but who He is no one knows! John testified in this regard: “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). Jesus further revealed: “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:27-28).

Paul accepted the self-testimony of Jesus and recognized, in spite of the persecution of the Jews, who the unknown, great and fearfully dreaded God is: “Our Father!The Eternal One quickens mortal man; the Holy One receives sinners; the Patient One bears with unruly children, and the Righteous One justifies the unjust! None of this is logical, but spiritual. The love of God our Father is greater and more comprehensive than our understanding can grasp. When will we once-and-for-all joyously submit ourselves to His omnipotence and goodness? When will we praise Him for His new names, revealed to us by Jesus? Why do we often pray to an undefined “Lord” and not to “our Father”?

Whoever wants to contemplate the mystery of the Father name of God in the written words of Jesus will discover that He spoke of His Father some 200 times in the New Testament. With great reverence He called Him “the Father” (80 times), with heartfelt gratitude “My Father” (59 times), and with confident prayer “Father” (10 times). Only once did He address the exalted God in the form of “Our Father”, in the Lord´s Prayer (Matt. 6:9; Luke 11:2). In these formulations, fully loaded with grace, He shared His own personal right with His followers. They become legally adopted and spiritually born-again. Through Jesus´ sacrifice of atonement and conveying of the Holy Spirit they become children of God, accepted into His family. Whoever grasps these truths in all of their great depth worships the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit. A lifelong service of joy and celebration follows. Therefore, Jesus calls His Father also “your Father” (21 times in the plural and five times in addressing individuals).

In humiliation we need to recognize that Jesus spoke six times more often of “the Father” and “His Father” than He did of “the Father of His disciples”. It is not our relationship to Him as children that is the mystery of God the Father, but instead, the Sonship of Jesus. Because the almighty God revealed Himself as the Father of Jesus Christ and openly witnessed to His beloved Son (Matt. 3:17; 17:5), we receive, through our faith connection to His Son, the privilege to share in His Sonship. We also have the duty to submit ourselves underneath the authority of our Father. God is not our Father directly, but the Father of Jesus Christ. It is only through Him and in Him that we become children of God. All of our prayers to our Father in heaven, as well as all our activities, should ensue in the name of Jesus. It is not we who are important, but rather it is to Him that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given (Matt. 28:18).

Jesus laid no unbearable burden upon us with His command to faithful obedience; rather, He poured out His own Holy Spirit, as the “power from above”, on His followers. Paul thus wrote: “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Rom. 8:15-17). The reformer Calvin is reported to have said that this primeval cry of the Holy Spirit in the followers of Christ is their proof of authenticity. Through this cry of the Holy Spirit in our hearts we receive a direct revelation from God, so that we have no doubt about His Fatherhood.

Who is it that thanks our Father in heaven for His care and love, for the salvation He provided through the atoning death of His only begotten Son, for our training and shaping in righteousness, for His inheritance in us through the indwelling of His Spirit in our hearts, and for the promise of glory to follow? All of this we have been able to claim as our own in the name of Christ. Where is our thankfulness for all He has done? The Spirit teaches us to pray and to sing: “Thank You, my Father, for all that You do!” (translator´s note: The last sentence issues from a well-known hymn of thanksgiving in German)

The Lord´s Prayer, which Jesus recited to His disciples, is the primary prayer of Christendom. Through it He teaches us that the name of the Father is to be hallowed in and around us, that His kingdom as Father comes with and through us, and that His will as Father is to be accomplished in and by us, just as it is in heaven. The Father gives us sufficient bread for each day and not for us alone, but for all members of the church of His Son. Do we thank Him for it? Furthermore, we pray that our Father would daily and richly forgive us all of our sins, errors and neglect, just as we are to freely and totally forgive our enemies, forget their wrong and love them. We pray that the Father would keep us from every temptation to fall away from His Fatherhood and to redeem us from the cunning and power of the evil one, which happens as He establishes, preserves and protects us in Jesus Christ for all eternity (Matt. 6:9-13). What a great privilege it is that we possess, that Jesus revealed to us His Father, and that Paul assures us of grace, forgiveness, life and peace from Him! Are we still so sluggish when it comes to worshipping and thanking Him?

Yet God is not only a Father for all the followers of Christ, but also the Father of the lost sons and daughters, especially of the children of Abraham! He waits for them to turn back from sin and longingly watches for them. As soon as He sees one of them returning in ragged clothes He rushes out to meet him, so that His prodigal son or daughter need not take the last steps alone. The Father, however, is not the first to speak, but waits for the penitent´s confession of sin and his request for work and compassion (Luke 15:20-21). Only then the Father lays the mantle of His righteousness around him, adorns him with the signet-ring of His Spirit, and summons him to eat the flesh of the “best sacrifice”, which He has had prepared for him. The Father calls all the residents of His house together so that they also can rejoice over the return of the lost son, who once was dead, but has now come alive again through grace. The pious son, who remained home and still struggling with self-righteousness, is left with the need to prevail over his own self, so that he, too, can welcome home his brother who was perishing.

Luke recorded in this “golden chapter” of the Bible the revelation of Jesus Christ regarding the character and actions of His and our Father in heaven (Luke 15:11-32). If only faithful brethren would want to comprehend that Paul, too, was calling out to godless sinners: “Grace and peace also to you from God Your Father!” The holy love of the Father is greater than our understandings and our traditions. In His love for the lost, we can come to understand the boundless mercy of our Father.

Prayer: Father, we worship You, for you do not cast us off because of our lies, uncleanness and arrogance. Rather, You have adopted us for the sake of the atoning death of Jesus. You have poured out Your Holy Spirit in us so that we might cry out “Abba, dear Father!” and be able to shout “Hallelujah”! Let all of our petitions in the “Lord´s Prayer” be realized in our lives. Amen.

Question 10: Why are we authorized to confess: “The almighty God is our Father”?

(The apostolic greeting of Paul in his letter to the church at Colosse ends here, for they still stood in the infancy of their faith. But in his other letters the blessing and greeting continue.)

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