I am so glad to be with you for part two of “The Mystery of Christ in You.” Take some time to put yourself back to when Colossians was written. How would you share this unusual message of Jesus who died, was resurrected, and ascended into heaven? Would the people of Colosse think you were crazy for talking about God who will live in you? This teaching was new and unusual, and as Paul mentions, it was hidden for a long time. This was a significant change from the Old Testament way of living; this was a considerable shift in thinking, and Paul is doing his best to explain it clearly.
Please turn to Colossians 1 if you can, and J Mark will help us understand the processes by which we can understand the mystery of Christ in us.
Last week, we began exploring Paul’s teaching in Colossians 1:15 to 20, “The Mystery of Christ In You.” As we resume our study, here is the Scripture text.
21And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creationunder heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
24Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,
25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,
26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.
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.
28 Him, we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
29 For this, I toil, struggling with all his energy, which he powerfully works within me.
The Second PROCESS (in understanding the mystery of Christ in us) is,
Sanctification
As I said earlier, reconciliation (through the blood of Jesus) makes us holy and unblameable in God’s sight. That is positional holiness. It gives us standing before the Father. In His eyes, we are sinless.
At the same time, our practical holiness and daily choices are a journey. Our desires and choices hinder our attempts to let Christ live His life through us. Christ is on the throne of my heart and life, but I still allow myself to become irritated with my children. I still get frustrated by people who are habitually late for meetings or appointments. But those incidents will enable me to grow in sanctification and practical holiness.
We are indeed new creatures in Christ (II Corinthians 5:17), and our lives’ trajectory is different than before reconciliation. But the sinful nature with which we were born is not automatically eradicated at conversion. Later, in chapter 3 of this same letter, Paul tells us as followers of Christ to put those evil desires to death.
Let’s look more closely at verses 23 to 25 in exploring this process of sanctification. In several translations of the Scriptu...
