Water, Spirit and the Kingdom of God

“How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:4). Nicodemus was confused. Why would Jesus say to him, a Pharisee, a member of the Jewish ruling council and a teacher of Israel, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

Nicodemus surely knew about the promise of God’s kingdom; it was his job to know. But being “born again”? Well, that was something for Gentiles who wished to become part of the Jewish faith. When they converted, they received baptism, a ritual bath, and were considered as children newly born to the faith. But Nicodemus was already a faithful Jew and heir to the promises God made to Israel. So why talk to him about being born again?

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5-8)

This new birth Jesus talked about was a birth of water and the Spirit, and necessary to enter into the kingdom of God. But what He said next was even more surprising to Nicodemus: “You must be born again.” It was similar to what He had already said, but it was also different. Before, Jesus spoke generically, “Unless one is born again …,” and Nicodemus could think He was referring merely to Gentile converts. But now Jesus made it direct and personal: “You must be born again,” with “you” in the plural form (in the Greek text), referring not just to Nicodemus, but to every Pharisee and, indeed, to every Jew. It was not just Gentiles who needed a conversion experience, the Jews needed it, too.

“How can these things be?” Nicodemus asked (John 3:9). Now he was really confused.

Jesus said, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? (John 3:10).

Nicodemus should have understood this, but he didn’t. There was another well-known promise about the time of Israel’s restoration, which was indeed the time of kingdom fulfillment. God spoke it though Ezekiel the prophet.

For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:24-28)

God used the figure of water as a metaphor of cleansing for all the sins of Israel. He promised them a new heart and a new spirit — His Spirit — not just to be with them but to be in them, so that they would now be able to live faithfully as His covenant people. This is the essence of new birth.

The kingdom of God, the rule and reign of God on earth as in heaven, is the fulfillment of Israel’s story, but Jesus’ message to Nicodemus was that even Jews needed to be converted to it, no less than all the other nations. He reiterated this great need even to His disciples.

Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)

Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” (Luke 18:17)

The idea of becoming as little children is that they are completely dependent. Likewise, we must be completely dependent upon God if we are going to be a part of His kingdom. This dependency is through faith in Jesus, as we will see in the next post.

The Promised Kingdom

Nicodemus came to Jesus and recognized Him as “a teacher come from God” (John 3:2). Jesus spoke to him about the gospel of the kingdom of God. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). The kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God, His will being done on earth as it is in heaven. God had long promised His people, Israel, that He would anoint a King would come and rule over Israel and the nations. Jesus recognized Nicodemus as a “teacher of Israel” (v. 11), and as such, Nicodemus would have been aware of the various prophesies of the kingdom, such as the following, from Psalm 2.

Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the LORD and against His Anointed.

(Psalm 1:1-2)

Yahweh’s Anointed is the Messiah (“Messiah” means Anointed One; in Greek, it is Christos). God says of Him, “Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion” (v. 6). This is the Son, to whom God says,

You are My Son, today I have begotten You.
Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession. (vv. 7-8)

The one God calls “My Son” is the Messiah, the one anointed to be King. Not just king over Israel, but over all the nations of the earth. The prophecies about Messiah are about the kingdom of God inhabiting all the earth. Isaiah spoke of a coming messianic king and a kingdom of ever increasing dominion and endless peace.

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

(Isaiah 9:6-7)

This is the gospel God promised would be announced. Isaiah tells of those who would bring the good news, and also what the content of that good news would be:

How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaims salvation*,
Who says to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”

(Isaiah 52:7)

The Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, uses the word for “evangelize,” to gospel or to preach the gospel, twice in this verse. It is a proclamation of peace and salvation, and the content is about the kingdom. It is the declaration, “Your God reigns!” (*The Hebrew word for “salvation” here is yeshuah, which as a name is Yeshua, the name of Jesus in Hebrew.)

Daniel also prophesies of the promised kingdom and the “Son of Man” (which is how Jesus often referred to Himself), to whom would be given everlasting dominion over all the nations of the world.

I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed.

(Daniel 7:13-14)

Jesus not only announced, from the beginning of His ministry and throughout, that the kingdom of God was at hand. At the end of His ministry, He declared, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). The promised kingdom, the rule and reign of God on earth, had begun.

Nicodemus would have known about the promised kingdom, though he did not recognize that he was in the presence of the King. The question he would ask, however, was not about the kingdom. What perplexed him was why Jesus would be talking to him about being “born again.” There is another important prophesy about the kingdom that he apparently had not understood. We will look at that in the next post.

Nicodemus and the Gospel of the Kingdom

Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee and a member of the Great Sanhedrin (the supreme court of Israel), came to Jesus late one night. “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him,” he said.

Jesus answered him, moving past the question, directly to the heart of what Nicodemus needed to hear. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). A moment later, he reiterated, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:6).

What was Jesus talking about? The immediate answer most evangelicals would likely give is that He was speaking of being “born again,” a birth of “water and the Spirit.” And that is quite true, as far as it goes. But what was He speaking in regard to? Why is it important that one have this new birth? The answer is found in both statements: The kingdom of God — the rule and reign of God, the will of God being done on earth as it is in heaven. One must be born of water and the Spirit, in order “see” it (to recognize and know and understand it), to enter in and experience it.

Jesus’ ministry was all about the kingdom of God, from the time He began to the time He ascended to heaven. After His baptism, and the Temptation in the wilderness, Jesus came preaching “the gospel of the kingdom of God,” declaring that it was now “at hand” (Mark 1:14-15). Throughout His ministry, He constantly spoke about the kingdom: “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people” (Matthew 9:35; see also Matthew 4:23 and Luke 8:1). The healings and exorcisms He performed were a demonstration of the presence and power of the kingdom: “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:28). He sent the disciples out to do the same: “As you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons” (Matthew 10:7-8). The message and miracles of Jesus and the disciples were all about the kingdom.

The forty days after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead were a time of revelation about the kingdom. Jesus presented Himself to the disciples, “being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Then, before He ascended to heaven, to His throne at the right hand of the Father, He came to the disciples and said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). This was a declaration about the kingdom, no longer just a future hope but a present reality. What had been promised so often in the Old Testament was not just “at hand,” but had now begun, with Jesus as King.

Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, would have known (or should have) what those promises were (we’ll look at some of those in my next post). His next questions were not about the kingdom of God, but about the startling statement Jesus made, that one must be “born again” to enter into it (we’ll look at that in the post after next).

Psalm 5 ~ My King

A personal confession adapted from the Psalms.

My King ~ from Psalm 5

Yahweh is my King and my God.
To Him I will pray.
In the morning, He hears my voice.
In the morning, I lay my requests before Him
I wait and I watch
And I look to Him in expectation.

By His great mercy, I come before Him.
I bow down and worship Him,
As His holy temple, in whom He dwells.*

He leads me in all that is right
And He straightens out my path before me.

My heart is light because I trust in Him.
I shout wildly because He defends me.
I jump for joy because I love His name.
For Yahweh blesses those who are right with Him,
He surrounds them with His favor.
He surrounds me with His favor,
All around me, as with a shield.

* In the New Testament, we learn that those who believe in King Jesus the Messiah have become, both individually and all together, the temple — the dwelling place — of God. “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). “Coming to Him [Jesus] as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5).

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Personal Confessions from the Psalms
Prayers and Affirmations for a Life of Faith, Happiness and Awe in God
by Jeff Doles

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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Psalms 3-4 ~ A Shield Around Me

A personal confession adapted from the Psalms.

A Shield Around Me ~ from Psalms 3-4

Yahweh is a shield all around me.
He is the One in whom I glory,
The One who lifts up my head.
I cry out to Him ~ and He hears me.

I lie down and sleep;
I awake, for He sustains me.
I will not fear, even if 10,000 foes come against me
And surround me on every side.
For Yahweh will rise up to deliver me.

My help, my rescue, my victory, my prosperity,
My salvation comes from Yahweh.
His blessing is upon His people.

There are many who say, “Who will show us any good?”
Yahweh makes the light of His face shine upon us.

He fills my heart with greater joy,
Than when the harvest of grain and new wine abound.
I lie down in peace and sleep in His shalom ~
In the wholeness that comes from Him alone.
For only Yahweh makes me dwell in safety.

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Personal Confessions from the Psalms
Prayers and Affirmations for a Life of Faith, Happiness and Awe in God
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Psalm 1 ~ O the Happiness!

I have started working on a little project, adapting some of the psalms as personal confessions. To confess something is to speak in agreement with it. It is one of the ways I have learned to meditate on the Word, repeating it to myself and personalizing it, instructing my soul with it. David learned how to “encourage himself in the LORD” (1 Samuel 30:6). Confessing the psalms has helped me learn that, too.

O the Happiness! ~ from Psalm 1

O the happiness!

I do not walk in the counsel of those who are ungodly;
I do not seek out or follow their advice.
I do not stand in the path with those who purpose to do what is wrong.
I do not sit with those who mock what is good.

But my delight is in the instruction of Yahweh,
I think about it all the time.

So I am like a tree planted by rivers of water,
Established, well-rooted, well-fed,
That bears its fruit abundantly in its season;
And its leaf does not wither.
Whatever I do prospers.

The judgment of Yahweh is for me, not against me.
I stand with the people who stand in awe of Him,
And Yahweh watches over my path.

O the happiness!

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Personal Confessions from the Psalms
Prayers and Affirmations for a Life of Faith, Happiness and Awe in God
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

The Gospel Paul Preached

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached [literally, “gospeled”] to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you — unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received. (1 Corinthians 15:1-3)

First Corinthians 15 gives us a good solid outline of the gospel, the “good news.” It is the message Paul received. The Greek word is paralambano and speaks of what has been handed down to, and taken hold of, by another. It was not an invention of Paul’s but something that was given to him. And Paul faithfully handed it down to others. This is the same gospel that had been handed down to the Jesus believers at Corinth, the same message that was announced by Paul and all the other apostles, the message that saves — rescues and restores — all who believe it.

That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

Here is the crucifixion, the burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. “According to the scriptures” alludes to the Hebrew back story. These things did not happen in a historical vacuum but continue the big story, the history of Israel recounted in the Old Testament. It fulfills the prophesies and promises God gave to Abraham and his descendants for the sake of the whole world.

Even the name Jesus and the terms Lord and Christ show that the gospel is a fulfillment, not an innovation, of what was begun in the story of Abraham. Though the phrase “Lord Jesus Christ” does not actually appear in 1 Corinthians 15 until the end, it is inherent throughout.

• He is called Jesus, the English version of Yeshua, His name in Hebrew. “You shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Yeshua literally means “Yahweh Saves.”
• He is called Messiah (from the Hebrew for “Anointed One,” and in Greek is Christos) because He is the “anointed one” God had long promised to Israel, the one anointed to be King.
• He is called Lord, which speaks of His divinity as well as His authority. Jesus began His ministry announcing the “gospel of the kingdom,” that the kingdom of God was now at hand (Mark 1:14-15). By the end of His ministry, we discover that He Himself is the King.

When the Philippian jailer, who was not of Israel, fell on his knees before Paul and begged, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, and your house.” I see in this a super-condensed proclamation of the gospel: Jesus is the one who saves us from our sins, He is God’s promised and Anointed King over Israel and the world, and He is divine. If that is not how Paul actually condensed it in that sudden moment, it is at least how Luke condensed it in the telling, and all of it can be unpacked by the Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Paul spends much time on the resurrection of Jesus and shows how it was not just about Him but also about all who believe in Him, for He is the firstfruits from the dead. His bodily resurrection guarantees ours as well.

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. (1 Corinthians 15:20-23)

Here also, we see the coming again of King Jesus. For those who have entered into the “good news” by faith in Him, the announcement that He is King and that He is coming again is not a judgment to be feared but a joy to be embraced.

But Paul does not stop there, leaving a gap between the resurrection of Jesus and the return of the King. There is something that is happening in between that is a very important part of the gospel. King Jesus is reigning now and all things are currently being placed under His feet. The kingdom of God is now as well as later, already begun though not yet completely come.

When I was in Bible college, we stopped at the Cross, then we progressed to the Resurrection, and then we shot ahead to the Second Coming. It was not until a number of years later that I began to understand the significance of the Ascension, the King rising to His throne. In Matthew 28, we jumped to the Great Commission, in verses 19 and 20, and all but ignored verse 18, where Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” That is a stunning declaration and tremendously good news. It means that the reign of King Jesus has already begun, not just in heaven but on earth as well! We participate in that kingdom now, but we will also experience it forever in resurrected, incorruptible bodies.

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed — in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:50-54)

In view of all this, Paul concludes, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:57-58). It is all going somewhere; it all has tremendous significance. And it is all centered in King Jesus the Messiah.

Like the old gospel song says, “Ain’t that good news?”

Freed from the Powers

Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. (Colossians 2:15)

At the cross, Jesus took on everything that stood against us: our sin, the Law, the principalities and powers — everything — and defeated them all. He released us from our sins. He wiped out our indebtedness. He took the law that condemned us and nailed it to the cross. Now Paul adds that Jesus disarmed the “principalities and powers” and triumphed over them.

The “principalities and powers” (or “rulers” and “authorities,” as the ESV and LEB have it) were thought by the ancient Hebrews to be the spiritual entities or supernatural powers behind earthly kings and kingdoms (see, for example, Daniel 10:12-13 regarding the “prince” of Persia). It was such entities as these that false teachers were presenting as keys to divine understanding, but they lead only to oppression. However, Jesus has disarmed them, stripped them of their power, by the power of God. The apostle John said, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

It is through the cross and the resurrection that these entities have been defeated. See how Paul prayed for believers, that they might know “the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:19-21).

King Jesus has made a “public spectacle of them, triumphing over them.” This is a victory parade, a triumphal procession, such as kings or generals would make after a great conquest. They would lead the defeated foe, plundered and powerless, along with the spoils of war, for all the people to see.

The powers have been broken and we have been set free. “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place” (2 Corinthians 2:14).

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The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

The Great Wipe Out

Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Colossians 2:14)

Paul tells the Jesus believers at Colosse that God made them alive together with King Jesus the Messiah, “having forgiven you all trespasses,” or as the UNT (The Unvarnished New Testament) puts it, “freely letting us off for all our transgressions.” The Greek words for “trespass” and “forgiven” are both interesting.

But there is more to it. Having forgiven all trespasses, yes, but also, “having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us.” The use of the word “handwriting” in this context has a technical meaning, commonly referring to a legal document, a bond, a certificate of indebtedness. The debt we owed was great and the document against us was against us, “hostile to us” (LEB).

Paul is being metaphorical here, of course, but he does have something in mind with the writ of “requirements.” The Greek word is dogma and, in the New Testament, was used of decrees and ordinances. The ESV translates it as “legal demands.” The Good News Bible calls it “binding rules.” What Paul is talking about is the Law of Moses. The Law itself is holy and right and good (Romans 7:12). But for those who violated it — which is everyone — it held condemnation.

But look at what God has done in Jesus the Messiah. He not only wiped out the debt note, He wiped out the ordinance along with it! He cancelled it, erased it, washed it all out. “He obliterated the arrest warrant with our names on it that had been in force against us, with all its dogmas” (UNT).

How did He wipe it all out? He nailed it. To the cross. In the body of Jesus. Jesus took it all off of us and put it on Himself. “Hauled it right out of the way and nailed it to the cross” (UNT).

Now it no longer stands against us. It no longer has a voice to condemn us. We are dead to it (Romans 7:4) and it is dead to us. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:1-2).

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The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Side Slips Forgiven

And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. (Colossians 2:13)

The Greek word for “trespasses,” paraptoma is an interesting one. Strong’s Greek Dictionary calls it a “side slip,” which puts me in mind of Paul Simon’s old song, “Slip Sliding Away.” Vine’s Expository Dictionary calls it “a false step, a blunder.” The Bauer-Ardnt-Gingrich Greek Lexicon calls it a “false step.” Our English word “trespass” comes from a compound Latin word that literally means to “pass across.”

In the Bible, “trespass” refers to stepping outside the boundaries of God’s law, whether by unintentional error or by willful transgression. The result is death, and it affected us all, just as we were also all affected by what Paul calls “the uncircumcision of your flesh” — human nature in rebellion against God and devoid of the life that comes from Him (see Circumcision of the Heart). The good news is that though we were once dead in these things, we have been made alive together with King Jesus the Messiah. This is possible because, in Jesus, God has forgiven us all our trespasses.

The Greek word for “forgiven” here, charizomai, is not the one we usually find in the New Testament, though Paul does favor it in his letters. The root word is charis, “grace” or “favor.” Charizomai speaks of what is given or granted or released because of grace. Our English word “forgive” derives from the Latin word, perdonare (“pardon”), which means to give thoroughly or wholeheartedly. So it is a good translation here. In Jesus, God has graciously pardoned us, released us from all the ways we have violated His commandments.

There is more to it, as we will see in the next verse. But I will talk about in the next post. I am trying to keep my posts shorter, although that can be difficult because Paul’s letter to the Jesus believers at Colosse is so rich.

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The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Buried with Jesus, Raised with Jesus

Buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. (Colossians 2:12)

Paul quickly moves from one sign to another, from circumcision to baptism. In verse 11, he contrasted physical circumcision with a non-physical one, a circumcision of the heart. This circumcision is one Jesus does for us and is “made without hands.” It is the “putting off the body of the sins of the flesh.” That is, it frees us from the sinfulness of human nature, which is put off, stripped from us like old clothes, because it is dead and does not have the life that comes from God.

All that is left for a body that is dead is to be buried. Which brings us to verse 12, where Paul explains to the believers at Colosse that they were buried together with Him in baptism. Baptism was practiced in the Old Testament as “various washings” (Hebrews 9:10), rituals of purification. But in the New Testament it is given new meaning for the community of Jesus believers. It signifies the spiritual circumcision that Jesus has performed for us. It says that we are dead to sin and that we have been buried together with Jesus, as if in the tomb. But that is not all, for we have also been raised with Him.

Pay close attention to tense, voice and mood in this verse: “Buried with Him” and “raised with Him” are in the Greek aorist tense, indicating completed action. Both are in the passive voice, indicating what was done to and for us, not something we did for ourselves. However, the moods are different. “Buried” is a participle — “having been buried,” as the Lexham English Bible has it — and “raised” is in the indicative mood. The two go together: having been buried with Him, we have also been raised with Him. Baptism signifies both!

Just as Jesus was buried but did not remain in the grave, because God raised Him up, so baptism shows that that we, too, have been “buried together with Him” and also “raised together with Him.” Baptism is a physical sign indicating a spiritual reality, but there is also a physical resurrection coming, of which the resurrection of Jesus’ physical body from the dead is the beginning (Paul details this in 1 Corinthians 15). So baptism also prophesies our future bodily resurrection even as it portrays Jesus’ own bodily resurrection.

However, we have already been raised spiritually with Jesus. How was this done? The NKJV says it was “through faith in the working of God,” as do many other versions. So it is usually taken to mean that God raised us up through our faith in the working of God, or that we appropriate this truth through our faith. Indeed, we do come to God by faith. “By grace you have been saved through faith,” Paul says (Ephesians 2:8). However, although the Greek text can be translated as “through faith in the working of God” it can also be “through the faith of the working of God.”

So there is another way of approaching this. Actually, there are a few different ways. One is to take it as Weymouth translates it in his New Testament in Modern Speech: “through faith produced within you by God.” Adam Clarke’s commentary also treats it this way, as faith produced by the working, or energy (the Greek word for “working” is energeo) of God. This would go along with what Paul teaches us elsewhere, faith is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8) and comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17).

Yet there is still another way to translate this phrase, and the one I am most inclined to. The Greek word for “faith,” pistis, can also mean “faithfulness,” and I think this is one place where that fits better. The emphasis here is not on us but on Jesus, in whom all the fullness of God dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9), and what He is doing in us. It seems to me, then, that what Paul has in mind here is not so much about our faith, even though that faith comes to us from God, as it is about God’s faithfulness.

Having been buried together with Jesus, we have also been raised up together with Him through the faithfulness of God’s work. Baptism is an outward, visible sign of this inward, invisible condition.

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The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Circumcision of the Heart

In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ. (Colossians 2:11)

Here we see one of the issues of the Judaizing influence that was trying to make its way into the Church at Colosse: the matter of circumcision (removal of the foreskin). In the Old Testament, circumcision was a token of the covenant God made with Abraham (Genesis 17:11-14) and was passed down to his descendants as a sign. Every male Israelite was to be circumcised. It marked them out as belonging to the chosen people.

Now there were Jewish teachers coming into the churches, saying that Gentiles who believed in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, needed to be circumcised, and this would make them full and complete members of the people of God. That is contrary to the heart of the gospel, which is that we are made complete in Jesus the Messiah, who is ruler over every principality and power, and in whom all the fullness of God dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:10).

And yet there is still a circumcision for all those who are in Jesus. As important a sign as physical circumcision was in the Old Testament, and one commanded by God, God was much more concerned with what was going in the heart, the inward reality of which circumcision was meant to be the outward sign:

Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. (Deuteronomy 10:16)

And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (Deuteronomy 30:6)

Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your hearts. (Jeremiah 4:4)

The physical rite was the cutting away of the flesh and symbolized faithfulness to the covenant God made with Israel. Removing that little fold of skin, however, could not produce what it signified. But Jesus has accomplished for us what physical circumcision never could. Paul says, “In Him you were circumcised.” The Greek text has it in the aorist tense and passive voice. The aorist tense means that it has been completed; the passive voice means that it was something done for us, not something we did for ourselves.

This circumcision is one “made without hands.” Not a physical one performed by a man with a knife, but a circumcision of the heart. “Putting off the body of the flesh,” is how Paul has it here (in the oldest Greek manuscripts). The NIV says, “the putting off of the sinful nature.” Paul frequently used the word “flesh” (Greek, sarx) to refer to human sinfulness, the state of those without the life and power of God at work in them. The circumcision Jesus performs, the circumcision of the heart, frees us from the deadness of our fallen human nature and breathes new life, divine life, the life of the Spirit of God, into us.

In the Old Testament, circumcision was a sign of who God’s chosen people were, through whom He would bring the redemption of the whole world. Now what matters is not circumcision or uncircumcision, but “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). What Paul means is faith in Jesus, God’s Messiah, Redeemer of the whole world, His love working in and through us.

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The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

His Fullness and Ours

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (Colossians 2:9-10)

There are two mysteries Paul is speaking of here and the second is dependent upon the first: In Jesus the Messiah all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form. And in Him, Jesus, we have ourselves been made full. Paul’s concern is that we be not robbed — plundered! — of these twin truths. For it is in these, not in Jewish ethnos and ritual or pagan mysticism, that we discover all fullness. And it is “fullness” (Greek, pleroma) that the false teachers were offering, through ascetic practices and the worship of angels, but were not able to deliver.

All the fullness of God dwells in bodily form. This goes back to Colossians 1:19, where Paul identifies it as a matter of God’s sovereign pleasure that all the divine fullness should dwell in Jesus. Now he tweaks that to emphasize that this fullness dwells bodily, in human form. John says the same thing, though in a different way: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14). The nature of this fullness is such that Jesus declared, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father … Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me” (John 14:9, 11).

Everything God is can be found in Jesus. Indeed, everything God is, Jesus is. All the fullness of humanity and all the fullness of divinity are in Him. He is not half and half, half human and half divine; He is fully both, fully human and fully divine. He is not the demigod the false teachers might have supposed Him to be; He is the God-man!

Jesus is filled with all the fullness of God, and those who belong to Jesus are filled with Him. Earlier, Paul revealed the mystery, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:29). Jesus is in the Father, and we are in Jesus, and being in Jesus, we are “complete.” The Greek word (pleroo, from which comes pleroma) means to be full or fulfilled and is set in the perfect tense and the passive voice. The perfect tense refers to something that has done; the passive voice means that it has been done to or for us, not something we have done to or for ourselves. So, in Jesus we have been made full, with the result that we are now — already! — full and complete in Him.

What the false teachers offered, through the tradition of men and the elemental spirits, but could not deliver, has been done for us in Jesus the Messiah. And now Paul adds a stinger: This same Jesus is the head over all principality and power. This goes back to Colossians 1:16, where Paul teaches that Jesus is the creator of all things “visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.” All of them, including whatever angels and spirits there may be, have been created through Him and for Him. He is Lord over them all, and He is in us and we are in Him.

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The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Don’t Be Plundered

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (Colossians 2:8-10)

“Beware.” The Greek word behind it literally means “to see,” but Paul uses it here to warn the Jesus believers at Colosse: “Be careful that nobody spoils your faith through intellectualism or high-sounding nonsense” (J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English). “Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything” (The Message). There are people who would “cheat” you — literally, to take you captive and carry you away as spoil — to plunder you!

Paul does not mean that all philosophy is “vain deceit,” he has a particular one in mind. The Greek word philosophia literally means “love of wisdom” (philo, love and sophia, wisdom). The false teachers Paul warns about presented themselves as possessing a special, secret wisdom not available to everyone. They learned to speak persuasively but their philosophy was hollow and deceptive, a toxic mixture of Jewish and pagan folk religion, mystical tradition and occultic teaching that was very strong in the region.

“Tradition of men” and “basic principles of the world” (stoicheion) is how Paul calls it. The “basic principles” are elemental spirits of nature, the worship of which is what these false teachers were promoting (as we will see later). The Message puts it this way: “They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings.”

Paul chided the believers at Galatia over the same sort of issue: “But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements [stoicheion], to which you desire again to be in bondage?” (Galatians 4:9). These were pagan ways of thinking, dressed in Jewish garb and presented as Christian faith. But they were seriously out of alignment with who Jesus is and what He came to do.

That is how such false teachers would plunder us, by pulling us away from Jesus. They cannot pull Him away from us, because He will never deny His own. But they can waste our lives away — our life with Him — by “high-sounding nonsense” and “endless arguments that never amount to anything.” That would be a great tragedy, because it is in Jesus, not in human traditions or elemental spirits, that all the fullness of God dwells. And it is in Him alone that we are “complete,” literally, have been made full. In other words, we share in His fullness!

Be very watchful, then, and don’t let yourself be plundered and pulled away from Jesus as the center of your faith and life.

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The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Rooted and Built Up in Jesus

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6-7)

Paul wants the Jesus believers as Colosse to continue living according to who Jesus is: both Messiah and Lord. They have begun in that faith and now he wants them to “walk it out.”

Verse 7 elaborates. Paul speaks of being “rooted and built up.” Mixing these metaphors is not new for Paul, and that should probably tell us something about how important they are for our understanding. In Ephesians 3:17, he speaks of believers being “rooted and grounded in love.” In 1 Corinthians 3:9, he says, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.”

“Rooted” is an agricultural metaphor; “built up” is an architectural one. Craig Keener, in The IVP Bible Background Commentary says of this verse, “The Old Testament prophets used this language for Israel (if they obeyed God, they would take root, be planted, built up, etc.), and early Christians probably took this language from their preaching of the Old Testament.” Use of this kind of language identifies the New Testament Church along with obedient Old Testament Israel as the people of God.

We should pay attention to the tenses of these words, though they are not readily apparent in most English translations. Wuest’s New Testament: An Expanded Translation, however, captures them well: “having been rooted with the result that your are firmly established, and constantly being built up in Him and constantly being established with reference to the Faith.”

In the Greek text, the word for “rooted” is a perfect, passive participle. The perfect tense means that it is something that has already been done, with results that continue. The passive voice means that is some that has happened to us. God is the one who roots us in Jesus.

The Old Testament often spoke of the people of the Lord as being “planted.” For example, those who delight in His instruction are like trees “planted by rivers of water, that brings forth fruit in its season” (Psalm 1:3). In another psalm, the writer sings about God’s relationship with Israel, “You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it” (Psalm 80:8-9). The prophet Isaiah speaks of Messiah, who will come to comfort all those who mourn in Zion, “that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified” (Isaiah 61:3). This is the work of God in our lives.

In Colossians 2:7, the word for “built up” is a present, passive participles. The present tense, in Greek, speaks of a continuing process. Paul shifts metaphors with “built up,” which gives us a picture of construction. We are God’s building, “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20) But we are a particular kind of building: “in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:21-22). We are God’s temple, being built together (not just as individuals but as God’s people) to be a dwelling place for Himself. Peter picks up the same theme in his letter, teaching us that we, “as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house,” with Jesus as the chief cornerstone (1 Peter 2:-6). Again, this is the work of God in our lives.

The word for “established,” bebaioo, is also a present, passive participle, indicating a continuing process. It is a word about firmness and stability, and it is used here of being stabilized in the faith. Not just “in faith” but “in the faith.” The content of faith is as important as the act of believing it, and the content Paul has in mind is the Messiah, Jesus, the Lord. The NIV translates bebaioo as “strengthened.” In stability there is strength. As we continue to “walk” in Jesus, we will become stronger in the faith, being strengthened by God. We will not be confused or wavering in faith, nor susceptible to those who would try to charm us away from Jesus.

“As you have been taught.” The believers at Colosse had received the good news about the Lord Jesus from Epaphras (Colossians 1:7). This is the same faith Paul taught, and it stands in sharp contrast to the message being brought by the Gnostic teachers and Jewish mystics who worshipped angels instead of Messiah.

Paul adds a thought about thanksgiving: “abounding in it [the faith] with thanksgiving.” Thanksgiving is about being appreciative for what one has received: in this case, the good news of Jesus the Messiah. Thanksgiving is important to the stability and strength of our faith, for what we do not appreciate we will eventually become discontent with and let go.

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The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Walking It Out

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. (Colossians 2:6)

The Jesus believers at Colosse were holding steady together. Paul encourages them now to continue in the path on which they have begun. They had “received” Jesus the Messiah. The Greek word, paralambano, indicates that Jesus, that is, the message about Him, had been presented to them and that they had taken hold of Him by faith. They had learned the gospel, the “good news” about the Messiah from Epaphras, who most likely learned it from Paul.

Now they were to “walk” in it, or more accurately, in Him, Jesus. “Walk” is a metaphor for how one lives. It is a continuous process, one step after another in a consistent manner. It is progressive, not regressive. That is, it is moving forward, not turning back or straying from the path. It is active, not passive. That is, it is something we do, not something that happens to us. When we receive Jesus, we are in Him. That part is passive, part of who we are. But then, being in Him, we proceed in accordance with who He is and who we are in Him. We walk it out.

This particular construction, “Christ Jesus the Lord,” notes A. T. Robertson, in Word Pictures in the New Testament, is not used anywhere else by Paul. “Hence it is plain that Paul here meets the two forms of Gnostic heresy about the Person of Christ (the recognition of the historical Jesus in his actual humanity against the Docetic Gnostics, the identity of the Christ or Messiah with this historical Jesus against the Cerinthian Gnostics, and the acknowledgment of him as Lord).”

Docetism (from the Greek word dokeo, “to seem”) taught that Jesus was purely spirit and that his physical body merely “seemed” to be real. Cerinthianism made a distinction between Jesus and Christ, teaching that Jesus was merely human but that the Christ descended upon him at his baptism. Paul however, in calling Him “Christ Jesus the Lord,” identifies Him all in one — in His humanity, His divinity and His messianic identity.

It is in the fullness of this Jesus, who is man, messiah and Lord, that we now live. Having received Him by faith, we continue in the truth of who the Messiah, Jesus, the Lord, really it. Hold steady to that and do not allow yourself to be charmed away from Him.

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The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Holding Steady Together

Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. (Colossians 2:4-5)

The Greek word for “deceive” here is paralogizomai, which means to miscalculate, reason falsely or mislead. “Beguile” is how the King James Version puts it. The word for “persuasive words” is pithanologia, which appears only once in the New Testament. According to A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, by Bauer, Arndt and Gingrich, it speaks of the “art of persuasion” and is used here of “plausible (but false) arguments.”

False teachers can be very charming, feeding you and deceiving you with arguments that sound good on first hearing but fall apart on closer inspection. That is why Paul wanted the Jesus believers at Colosse to be woven together in love and have the confidence that comes from knowing and experiencing God in an intimate way through Jesus the Messiah.

Most of these believers Paul had probably never seen in person but he knew about them through Epaphras, who related to him their faith in Jesus and their love for all the believers everywhere. So, though he was not with them “in the flesh,” he was able to identify with them “in the spirit” and perceive their spiritual condition. And what he saw in them filled him with joy. He rejoiced to see their “good order” and the “steadfastness” of their faith in the Messiah.

The Greek word for “good order” is a military term, which Paul uses metaphorically. It means that they held the line without any breaches. The word for “steadfastness” is similar. They were holding steady in their faith against the attacks of the enemy, maintaining a solid formation like a Roman phalanx.

It is important to remember that a line is not a line of one nor can one man form a phalanx all by himself. Paul is not writing to a collection of individuals but to a community of faith. They were not each one left to fend for themselves but were all in this together. They were a tight band of believers with a common love for one another and a common faith in and love for the Lord Jesus. And there was great strength in that.

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The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Woven Together in Love

I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s Great mystery. (Colossians 2:2 The Message)

Paul had an intense desire — and concern — that the Jesus believers at Colosse be “woven together into a tapestry of love.” Because he wanted them to know and experience, in a very intimate way, the revelation of God in Jesus the Messiah. The one does not come without the other. Until we are bound to each other in love, we will not really know or understand God — because love is of God and God is love (1 John 4:7-8).

God Himself is “woven together” in love. The early Church Fathers have a special word to describe the relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit: perichoresis. It is a Greek word made up of two parts: peri, which means “around,” and choresis, from which we get the word “choreography.” It was used to describe the interaction, the interrelationship, the divine dance of the three persons of the Godhead. Love in love with love.

They mystery of God, which is not hidden away for a select few but is made available to all, is revealed to us in Jesus the Messiah by the Holy Spirit. Divine love throughout. God so loved the world that He gave His Son (John 3:16). “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” Jesus said, and then He did. And “the fruit of the Spirit is love” (Galatians 5:22).

If we would know and experience and enjoy and dwell in this mystery, we must enter into a life of love for each other. Understand, though, that this love is not something we must work up on our own. We cannot. But it comes to us as a gift from God, who is love, and who is the giver of all good gifts. Our part is to yield to it and let it work in us and through us. As we submit to divine love, God will weave us into a rich tapestry and we will experience that love which has existed from eternity.

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The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Hidden Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge

For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and* of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:1-3)

Paul had an intense concern for the Jesus believers at Colosse and Laodicea and the entire region. They had been targeted by Gnostic teachers who promoted a “secret” wisdom and knowledge to which only a few attained. Paul was determined to protect them from this error. Not that he did not want them to have wisdom and knowledge — he very much desired that they should experience the “mystery” of God it in all its fullness. But the Gnostics taught that God was a distant deity whose fullness was too pure for the material realm and was separated from us by a hierarchy of angelic beings.

“As many as have not seen my face in the flesh.” It almost seems like Paul says this as a dig against this false teaching. For the Gnostics, only the spiritual realm was good; the material world was not merely corrupt but was inherently evil. So Paul gets in their face, so to speak, with reference to material things: his face and his flesh. Ha!

Paul wanted the believers at Colosse to “know” (Greek, eido, to “see” or “perceive”) what “conflict” (Greek, agon, from which we get “agony”) he was going through on their behalf. This was a serious matter and he was engaged in a magnificent purpose. Let me share with you how various translations have put it:

In order that their hearts may be cheered, they themselves being welded together in love and enjoying all the advantages of a reasonable certainty, till at last they attain the full knowledge of God’s truth, which is Christ Himself. (Weymouth New Testament)

How I long that you may be encouraged, and find out more and more how strong are the bonds of Christian love. How I long for you to grow more certain in your knowledge and more sure in your grasp of God himself. May your spiritual experience become richer as you see more and more fully God’s great secret, Christ himself! (The New Testament in Modern English, J. B. Phillips)

Know that I’m on your side, right alongside you. You’re not in this alone. I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s Great mystery. (The Message)

There is one purpose here but with three facets:

• That they may be encouraged, comforted, cheered.
• That they may be knit together, woven together, bonded together, even welded together in love.
• That they may have a full, rich “knowledge” (Greek, epignosis) of God, that is, to know Him not just in theory but in experience.

This full, rich, experiential knowledge of the Father comes to us in Jesus the Messiah. He is the “mystery” of God. For the Gnostics, divine mystery was a secret knowledge revealed only to a few, but for Paul, the mystery of God was something that was once hidden but is now revealed to everyone — it is the “good news” of the gospel.

Paul’s emphasis is ever and always on Jesus. It is in Him — not in the esoteric teachings and angelic hierarchies of the Gnostics, but in Jesus alone — that we find all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and come to experience, with confident assurance, the fullness of knowing God.

* The NKJV adds “both of the Father and,” but there is no basis for this in the earliest Greek manuscripts of the New Testament.

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The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

The Last Things

Eschatology is a theological term that refers to the doctrine of “last things.” Some people think it is about the “end of the world.” And in one sense, it is. Not “end” as in destruction, but as in fulfillment; that is, the end or purpose for which the world was created.

New Life has come. Jesus, the Word who from the beginning was with God and is God, has come into the world (John 1:1). “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). In Him is life and the life is the light of humanity (John 1:4). This life is related to the kingdom of God. Jesus said that unless one is “born again” he cannot see or enter the kingdom (John 3:3, 6). The Greek words for “born again” literally mean “born from above.” It is not only new life, it is life that is higher in quality because it is higher in origin. It is life born of the Spirit of God, the life of heaven, the life of the kingdom of God breaking into the world. Jesus came to give us that life. “I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). This is eternal life and it has already begun for all who receive Jesus by faith.

The True Light has come. In Jesus is life and the life is the light of humanity. He is the “true light” who gives light to everyone who comes into the world (John 1:9). “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8). “Therefore He says: ‘Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light’” (Ephesians 5:14). “You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.” (1 Thessalonians 5:5). “The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8). There is no other light to come, the true light is already here.

The Kingdom of God has come. Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15). By “at hand,” Jesus was saying that the kingdom was now here, that it was being inaugurated. “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” (Matthew 11:12 NIV). Though it has not yet arrived in all its fullness, it has already begun and all who receive new life in Jesus can see and enter in and experience its power and glory.

The New Covenant has come. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God foretold the days of the new covenant, for the old one had been broken because of unfaithfulness.

Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah — not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,” for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

Jesus instituted this new covenant between God and man, as He was perfectly suited to do, seeing that He is fully divine as well as fully human. This covenant is based on better promises and cut in His own blood (Hebrews 8:6; Luke 22:20). There is not another covenant to come; this one is eternal.

The Spirit of God has come. God spoke of the same end time event through the prophet Ezekiel as He did through Jeremiah. It would be a time when He would give His people a new heart and put His Spirit within them.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

Through the prophet Joel, He said, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:28-29).

This was fulfilled at Pentecost, when God poured out His Spirit on the Church. Filled with the Holy Spirit, all the disciples began speaking and praising God with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Peter stood and declared, “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel,” then began quoting the passage from Joel 2, “And it shall come to pass in the last days …”

Paul spoke of being led by the Spirit and said that those who are, are not under the Law (Galatians 5:18). “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). The Spirit leads us in the ways of God and produces in us things that the Law of Moses could never do.

New Creation has begun. Jesus is the “the Second Man” and “the Last Adam,” Lord over the new creation. Everyone who is in the Messiah (who receives Him by faith and is counted as His) is part of this new creation. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation” (Galatians 6:15). Jesus said, “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).

Resurrection has begun. The resurrection of the righteous has already begun with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep … For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.” (1 Corinthians 15:20, 22-23). “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:18). Just as the firstfruits assures the harvest, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the assurance that all those who belong to Him will also be raised bodily from the dead when He comes again.

The reign of King Jesus has begun. After the resurrection, Jesus came to the disciples and said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). Then He ascended to His throne at the right hand of the Father. God “raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:20-23). God has also “made us alive together with Christ … and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:5-6). Not only has King Jesus begun His reign, but we also have been seated in the place of ruling and reigning with Him.

Biblically speaking, we are now in the “last days,” and have been ever since the coming of Jesus the Messiah into the world. The “last things” have begun. We are living in the days of the King, between the times of inauguration and final fulfillment, when He shall come again.