Taking Hold in Prayer

For everyone who asks takes hold. (Matthew 7:8 JVD)

Asking and receiving are connected. We think of asking as active, that is, something we do. And so it is. But we often think of receiving as passive, that is, something that happens to us or is done for us. For example, someone might say, “I received a blow to the head.” He did not seek it, did not want it, did not cause it; it was simply something that happened to him. He was passive, sitting quietly, minding his own business when, suddenly — wham! — he was hit on the head.

Jesus has something very important to teach is about prayer: “Everyone who asks receives.” He is not speaking of something active followed by something passive. No, both the asking and the receiving here are in the active voice. That is, they are both about something we do.

The Greek word for “receive” is lambano. It means to take or get hold of something, as if with the hand. Now, it does not mean to take something by force, as if to wrench it away from someone else. There is a different word for that. Rather, it is about things that belong to you or have been offered to you. And that is the case here. In Matthew 7:7, Jesus says, “Ask and it shall be given to you.” When we ask (active voice), something is given (passive voice). In other words, when we ask, something is offered to us, and that means we have a right to take hold of it.

A young man is working his way through college and needs a car. He goes to his father for help. Dad agrees (he’s a nice guy) and arranges to get him a sturdy little sedan. The son believes his father and now his expectation is that the car his father promised is his. He has received his father’s answer; that is, he has taken hold of it and the issue is now settled. There may be a brief time of waiting before the car arrives while the father works out the particulars, but the son has asked and has already received what he asked — he has taken hold of his father’s answer.

“Ask and it shall be given to you,” Jesus said, “for everyone who asks receives.” Asking and receiving work together. But when do we receive what we have asked? Jesus answered that on another occasion: “Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:24). Notice He does not say, “Believe that you will receive them” (future tense), but “Believe that you receive them” (present tense). The NASB translates it as “Believe that you have received them” (past tense, completed action). In other words, the receiving comes at the time of asking, when you ask in faith.

Faith is very important when we pray. It is how we receive, or take hold of, what we are asking for. The author of Hebrews says that “Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” (Hebrews 11:1). The Greek word for “substance” is hypomone and refers to the underlying reality of a thing. In some ancient Greek documents, this word was used to refer to the title-deed of a piece of land. The word for “hope” speaks of expectation or anticipation. So faith is the underlying reality, the title-deed of what we are fully expecting to see.

Jesus says that when we ask, it will be given to us. “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11). Jesus does not lie; when He says the Father will give it to us, then the Father will give it to us. We can fully expect that we will have it. Indeed, by faith we possess the substance of it, the underlying reality, the title-deed for it.

Now let’s put this all together, with the understanding of what it means to receive and how we actually do it.

Ask and it shall be given to you, for everyone who asks takes hold. So whatever you ask when you pray, believe you take hold of it, and you will have it.

Don’t Be Hasty

For I said in my haste,
“I am cut off from before Your eyes”;
Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications
When I cried out to You.

(Psalm 31:22)

Nobody likes turbulence. When things get rough, it is natural to quickly engage all of our senses to assess the situation. Often we panic, because we believe our senses are giving us the truth instead of just facts. There is a difference: facts change; truth does not. It may be a fact that today there is a storm on your horizon, but the truth is that it may be gone by morning. What we do in those difficult moments is very important. It is the difference between being driven by the facts and led by the truth.

David begins Psalm 31 with a declaration of trust, “In You, O LORD, I put my trust.” And a request, “Let me never be ashamed; deliver me in Your righteousness” (v. 1). He affirms that God is his rock, his fortress, his strength (vv. 3-4) and entrusts himself completely to Him, “Into Your hand I commit my spirit,” and follows with this a confident assertion, treating his request as already answered: “You have redeemed me, O LORD God of Truth” (v. 5).

The troubles he has been experiencing are not new but have been going on for a while, ebbing and flowing. But he has always come out on top. “You have known my soul in adversities, and have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a wide place” (v. 7-8).

Now trouble has arisen again, and stronger than ever, it seems. Or maybe it just feels stronger because David is worn out: “My eye wastes away with grief, yes, my soul and my body! For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing” (vv. 9-10). The voice of guilt takes a toll on him: “My strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away” (v. 10). Not that there is some specific transgression in his life from which he has not yet repented, but the memory of sins past and the tendency of human nature haunt him. He feels the reproach of enemies and friends alike, and that he has become repulsive to all who know him, or just know about him (v. 11). He is forgotten and broken, slandered and surrounded (vv. 12-13).

Had he stopped there, the picture would have been relentlessly bleak. He has described the place for us, but he does not dwell there. He returns, instead, to declarations of trust in Yahweh: “But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in Your hand” (vv. 14-15). He calls again for Yahweh to deliver him, to make His face shine upon him (vv. 15-16). Let it be the wicked who are ashamed, not David. Let it be them whose lips and lies are silenced, who speak arrogantly and contemptuously against the righteous (vv. 17-18). He follows this with a declaration of God’s goodness and assurances of deliverance for the righteous (vv. 19-20). And then — there it is! — the outcome for which he has been believing:

Blessed be the LORD,
For He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong city!
For I said in my haste,
“I am cut off from before Your eyes”;
Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications
When I cried out to You.

(Psalm 31:22)

Yes, he had been in a panic, and had spoken out of anxiety, saying something that on better days he knew was not true. He had not been cut off from before the eyes of Yahweh — not by his circumstances, not by his enemies, not even by Yahweh Himself. Fear held him for a brief time and might have swallowed him up, except that he returned once again to words of faith, speaking light in the dark. “I trust in You; You are my God. My times are in Your hand.” God heard his prayer and his cry, which is to say that God answered and delivered him, just as He had intended all along.

You see, there is very often a period of waiting between the time we first pray and entrust a matter to God and the time the answer shows up. And sometimes, between “Amen” and “There it is!” we are tempted to become impatient and lose heart. But that time differential (I hesitate to call it “delay” because that assumes we always know what the correct timing should be) does not mean that God has not heard or has not already arranged what is needed.

Don’t be hasty and speak out in the panic of the moment. Keep your mouth shut and meditate on the faithfulness of God, who has never forgotten your or cut you off from before His face. “Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the LORD,” is the advice David gives at the end (v. 24). Then let the words of faith return once again to your lips. All will be well.

Tabernacle for the Nations

My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. The nations also will know that I, the LORD, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore. (Ezekiel 37:27-28)

This is a promise God made to Israel in one of her darkest hours, when she was divided and taken into captivity because of her idolatry. There would be a return, a restoration, a rebirth. The past would be past and God would create a new relationship with her.

David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Ezekiel 37:24-27)

“David” would be king over them. David was long dead by this time, but the reference here is to the Son of David, that is, the “Anointed One” God promised would reign on the throne over Israel. As David was literally a shepherd, so his descendent would also be a Shepherd over them. There would be a return to the land where they would dwell forever. God would make a new covenant with them, a covenant of peace — shalom, the wholeness that comes from God — and it would be eternal. God would establish His sanctuary, His holiness, among them. His tabernacle, His divine dwelling place, would be with them and they would be His holy people, set apart for His pleasure and purpose. They would enjoy special relationship with God, fellowship with the Divine.

This promise is fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, who is called the Good Shepherd. He is the mediator of a new and better covenant, which is established on better promises (Hebrew 8:6). He is not only the High Priest of that covenant; He is the sacrifice upon which it was based. On the night before He was crucified, He blessed the bread of the Passover table and gave it to the disciples: “This is My body which is given for you.” Then He took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:19-20).

Jesus is the tabernacle of God. He is the Word who “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The Greek word for “dwelt” (skenoo) relates linguistically to the Hebrew word for “tabernacle” (mishkan). Literally, the Word became flesh and “tabernacled” among us (see The Shekinah Dwelling).

“The nations also will know that I, the LORD, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.” The promise was for Israel and the land God gave to Jacob, but this would be a witness to all the nations of the world that God has created a people on earth and dwells among them. Indeed, the promise was for the sake of the nations, for God created Israel to be not only a holy nation but also a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6). That is, they were to bring the blessing and promise of God to all the nations.

We find this fulfilled in the New Testament. Before He ascended to His throne at the right hand of the Father, Jesus came to the disciples and said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). It was not just for the land God gave to Jacob, for Abraham was heir to the whole world (Romans 4:13; the Greek word for “world” here is kosmos). And it was not just for ethnic Israel but all the nations were to be discipled and baptized and instructed.

However, this does not mean that the nations would receive the promise in addition to or apart from Israel — and certainly not instead of Israel. But, in Paul’s metaphor, they are grafted into the root stock of Israel, to be partakers of the blessing and promise of God as part of Israel (Romans 11:16-24).

So the tabernacle of God, Jesus the Messiah, comes to abide all over the world, in every nation. All who believe Him receive the promise and become part of the sanctuary, the holy people with whom God dwells. And all the nations will know.

The Promise of the Father

After the resurrection and before He ascended to His throne at the right hand of the Father, Jesus was with the disciples, “being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). His whole ministry had been about the kingdom of God. Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). He promised the disciples, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). But now, He spoke about the promise and the kingdom in a different way.

And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1:4-5)

The same words are also recorded in the Gospel of Luke (the book of Acts was also written by Luke). “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The “promise of the Father” was the promise God made through the prophets:

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 36:26-28)

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.
And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

(Joel 2:28-31)

These prophetic promises spoke of the messianic age, the day of God’s new covenant (see Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 37). He preached about the kingdom of God and demonstrated the power of it throughout His ministry in signs and miracles. He established the new covenant, based on better promises than the old one had been (Hebrews 8:6), and He cut it in His own blood. “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you,” He said on the night He established the Table of the Lord (Luke 22:20). On that same night, He also spoke of the coming of the Holy Spirit:

I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:16-18)

The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. (John 14:26)

When the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. (John 15:26-27)

It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. (John 16:7-15)

Now, on the fortieth day after the resurrection, the disciples asked, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Jesus answered:

It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:7-8)

Jesus did not ignore their question; He answered it in a way they were not expecting. They wanted to know about the timing of the kingdom. The Greek word for “time” here is chronos, that is, chronological time, the sequence of time measured by calendars and clocks. He did not answer with regard to the chronos of the kingdom. There is another Greek word for time, kairos, which refers to the fullness or ripeness of time, the acute moment of significant fulfillment. But Jesus did not speak to them of kairos, which is translated here as “seasons.” He answered, instead, with regard to the nature and the power of the kingdom. They wanted to know when the kingdom would come; Jesus told them how the kingdom would come.

It would come in the power of the Holy Spirit, the same power by which He had performed all His kingdom miracles. When they understood the how of the kingdom, they would know the when. They would be the witnesses, bringing the evidence of it to all the world and testifying about Jesus. Jesus’ ministry was about the kingdom; the ministry of the Holy Spirit would be about the ministry of Jesus. The promise of the Father was about the Spirit — and the kingdom of God.

The Church season of Pentecost celebrates the fulfillment of that promise.

Ascension: For He Must Reign

For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. (1 Corinthians 15:25)

First Corinthians 15 is known as the resurrection chapter, because Paul preaches how important the bodily resurrection of Jesus the Messiah from the dead is to the Christian faith and the salvation of the world. But it is also a chapter about the Ascension, the Second Coming and the ultimate fulfillment of all things. They all flow together.

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. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:20-28)

Adam, the first man of the old creation, died because of his rebellion against God, and all who are in him are subject to his death. But Jesus is the firstfruits, the first Man of the new creation, by whom has come the undoing of death!

Forty days after His resurrection, Jesus ascended to heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father, where “He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.” The ascension was not merely the return of Jesus to heaven; it was an enthronement. The Father is now bringing all things under submission to Him.

This is what God had promised in the Old Testament. “The LORD said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool’” (Psalm 110). The Jews of Jesus’ day understood this to be a reference to Messiah, but Jesus used this Scripture to demonstrate that Messiah, the Son of David, must also be the Lord of David (Matthew 24:41-46).

However, there is another Old Testament scripture that is very interesting in regard to our Corinthians passage, particularly because the language is more closely aligned: “You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet” (Psalm 8:6). What is interesting is that it refers to man as God originally created him, calling to mind the first chapter of Genesis:

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

God intended man to have dominion over creation. Adam failed because of his disobedience to God. But what was lost to us in Adam has been restored to us in Jesus the Messiah, who is fully human as well as Son of God. When He ascended to the throne of heaven it was in His humanity as well as His divinity.

King Jesus is now putting an end to “all rule and all authority and power,” that is, to everything that opposes God in the world. This work will find its completion when He comes again. Death, “the last enemy,” will be destroyed and all those who belong to Jesus will be raised from the dead—the full harvest, of which Jesus is the firstfruits. The kingdom of God will be here in all its glory and power, and the will of God will be done on earth exactly as it is in heaven. Then Jesus will deliver it to the Father, that God may be glorified in everything.

The Community of the Blessed

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

(Psalm 1:5-6)

The first of the month finds me once again at Psalm 1. Usually it is something in the first half of the psalm that captures my attention. Today it is the last half that has grabbed me.

Verse 1 begins with “Blessed is the man,” not “Blessed are the men.” The psalm writer is talking about an individual, not a group. Indeed, there is one group he is definitely not a part of: the ungodly, sinners, mockers. Rather, he delights in the instruction of the LORD and meditates on it continually (v. 2). So he is like a tree bearing fruit in season. He prospers in everything he does and becomes a blessing to others (v. 3).

The ungodly are not like that at all but are blown away with the wind, in emptiness and vanity, and are not missed (v. 4). When the time of divine judgment comes they cannot stand up under it. There is no place for them in the “congregation of the righteous,” for they have not kept faith or bothered to become one with them. Indeed, everything they have do demonstrates that they are detrimental to the life of the community.

Here is part of what causes the righteous one to prosper: He has become like a tree. A tree has roots. The righteous one is rooted, established by rivers of life-giving water. We can liken the rivers of water to the instruction of the Lord, certainly, and also to the Spirit of God. Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38; verse 39 tells us that He was speaking about the Holy Spirit). But we should also think of the rivers of water as the community of the faithful, the people of God. He is part of them and established together with them in God. When the circumstances of life come and test him, he holds up well — he stands in the “congregation of the righteous.”

“Righteousness” is a term of covenant. A righteous man is one who has kept covenant. God made a covenant with Israel. They became His people, He became their God. It is in regard to this covenant that He revealed His name, Yahweh, because as His people, they bore His name. Those who believed Him and kept the covenant were considered fit for fellowship with Him in the community. That is, they were considered righteous.

Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, that is, He has regard for their manner of life — it is a life of faith. The Hebrew word for “righteous” is in the plural form. They are bound together in community, with each other and with God, so they remain and are blessed. But the way of the ungodly perishes, vanishes in destruction. The Hebrew word for “ungodly” is also in the plural. It does not portray a community bound together in covenant but a collection of individuals who have nothing more in common than their wickedness.

In the New Testament, King Jesus the Messiah established a new covenant, a better one based on better promises (Hebrews 8:6). Better because it is not just for ethnic Jews but has been broadened out to include all the nations of the world, whoever will believe in Him. Better because Jesus Himself has faithfully kept it on our behalf, enduring the cross for our sake. Better because it is a covenant cut in His own blood. That is why on the night He was betrayed, He took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” He established a new table of fellowship for the covenant people of God.

Jesus is the one Psalm 1 speaks about. It is in Him that we have become the people of God. It is as Him that we now have access to every blessing of heaven and the prosperity God has promised His people. Blessed is the Man and the community that has fellowship with Him.

Jesus Versus the Volcano

There are a few movies that have served as “touchstones” for me. They put me in touch with things I had forgotten or revealed aspects I had never before considered. It’s a Wonderful Life reminded me that each of our lives touch so many others. Field of Dreams showed me that whenever we hear “the call” and follow it, many are blessed and find healing — including us. Then there is Joe Versus the Volcano.

Joe Versus the Volcano is about a guy named Joe (played by Tom Hanks) who had once approached life with pluck and vitality but then somehow became afraid. In a play on words early in the movie, he assesses his situation. He is in his office holding up one of his shoes, the bottom of which is flapping open. The office secretary (played by Meg Ryan) comes in and says, “What’s with the shoe?” Joe answers somberly, “I’m losing my sole” (read “soul”).

Joe had become a hypochondriac, or as he tells his doctor, he “began to not feel well all the time.” The doctor informs him that he has a “brain cloud” and gives him only six months to live. This is devastating news, but it also serves to give Joe a new sense of freedom. He quits his job and ponders how he will live the remainder of his life.

Enter Mr. Graynemore (Lloyd Bridges), a wealthy businessman who wants to trade with the people of Waponi Wu (“Little Island with the Big Volcano”). To do this, however, he must first provide a hero for the Waponies, someone who will jump into the Great Wu and appease the god of the volcano. He seeks to enlist Joe for this task, offering unlimited resources until the jump — the chance to “live like a king, die like a man!”

Joe agrees and the adventure begins. After a day of buying clothes and supplies for the journey, including four deluxe steamer trunks, he flies to L.A. where he connects with the yacht which will sail him to the island of the volcano.

The boat is skippered by Graynemore’s daughter Patricia (Meg Ryan, again). Patricia describes herself as “soul-sick,” and we discover that she, too, had once ventured out into the world but then became afraid. But she is challenged by the fact that Joe has been rediscovering his sense of wonder about the world. “My father says that almost the whole world is asleep,” she tells him, “Everybody you know, everybody you see, everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake, and they live in a state of constant, total amazement.”

The next morning, the yacht is engulfed by a typhoon and sent to the bottom of the ocean. All that survive are Joe, Patricia, and the four steamer trunks, which Joe lashes together to form a lifeboat. They are castaway on the ocean for days, Patricia unconscious all the while.

Joe is bedraggled, wasted by sun, salt and sea. This is not what he had bargained for. Nevertheless, he has no complaint. One night, in a delirious state, he sees moon appear full and huge in the night sky. He falls to his knees in gratitude. “Dear God, whose name I do not know, thank you for my life. I forgot how big ... Thank you, thank you for my ...,” he prays, his voice trailing off as he collapses into unconsciousness.

The steamer-trunk-lifeboat finally arrives at the island of the Waponies and Joe prepares to face the volcano. Patricia, who has now rediscovered her own sense of wonder wants to marry Joe and join him in the jump. He argues at first but then relents. As they stare into the fiery mouth he asks, “So, what are we hoping for here?” “A miracle,” she answers. And together they leap.

But of course, that is not the end. A miracle does occur: the volcano spits them out into the ocean where they are reunited with the steamer trunks. Joe and Patricia resolve to face together whatever life sends and, as the final caption reads, they live happily ever after (it turns out that the “brain cloud” diagnosis was merely part of a false set-up by Mr. Graynemore).

Joe Versus the Volcano reminds me of another story, an old Hasidic tale about a man and a volcano. The Baal Shem Tov (Master of the Good Name), a venerable old Jewish rebbe was dying and his son, Rebbe Hersh, was chosen to take over the movement. But Rebbe Hersh was reticent, feeling himself unworthy of the mantle of such leadership. One night in a dream, he spoke to the figure of his deceased father. “How can I serve God?” he begged. “Like this,” came the answer as the Baal Shem climbed a high mountain and threw himself into the abyss. In another dream on another night, the Baal Shem came again, but this time he appeared as a mountain afire, a million blazing fragments showering forth. “And like this, also,” he said.

These stories ring true to me, for living truly and serving God (to serve God is to live truly) has always been about jumping into the gaping abyss of the volcano and taking the leap of abandonment into the will and love of God. It is a trial by fire. “Our God is a consuming fire,” says Moses (Deuteronomy 4:24), a fire which burns away the dross of our lives so that God might bring us forth as gold (Job 23:10).

Jesus showed us that the way to life is not by holding on to it but by letting it go. He taught us that “whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39) and “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:25).

His whole life, even to the end, was an abandonment to the will of God. On the eve of His crucifixion, Jesus asked the Father that he might be delivered from that death, but submitted with these words, “Yet not as I will but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). And so, on Good Friday he climbed the mountain and leaped into the volcano. But he came bursting forth on Easter Sunday like a mountain afire, finding life for us all.

The Apostle Paul understood this very well. Philippians 2 records an early hymn of the church which celebrates the leap of Christ, “who being in very nature God ... humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!” And because of this, God exalted Jesus “and gave him the name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:6-11).

In Philippians 3, Paul spoke of his own leap. All the things that he might have held on to for himself — pride, position, power — he gave up, declaring, “whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ” (v. 7). He had one burning desire, “to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings” (v. 10). He wanted to share in the abandonment of himself with Christ in the blaze of suffering persecution for his sake and shoot out of the mountain with Christ in the radiance of resurrection power. For one must always accompany the other; leaping in and bursting forth, abandonment and resurrection.

The volcano stands before us now and we must face it, for it is the only way to fullness of life. We must scale the mountain and stand upon the rim as the sparks and cinders fly upward, to stare into the abyss and abandon ourselves into the fiery love of God. Jesus stands beside us and takes our hand. So, what are we hoping for here? A miracle: the power of Jesus’ resurrection.

Go ahead. Jump!

Salvation is a Person

The angel of the Lord came to Joseph and told him that Mary was with child. “She will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Except the angel did not call Him “Jesus.” That is the English rendering of the name. In Greek, the language the New Testament was written in, it is Iesous. But the angel probably didn’t call Him that either.

Joseph and Mary were both Hebrew, and though they possibly knew Greek, the angel most likely spoke to them in Hebrew, or its cousin, Aramaic. In Hebrew, Mary’s son would be called Yeshua, which is a form of the word yeshuah, one of the forms of yasha, the Hebrew word for “salvation.” Those forms, along with another, yesha, appear over 300 times in the Old Testament. Almost every instance refers to the saving acts of Yahweh, the salvation that comes from the LORD.

The primitive root means to be open, wide or free. The range of meaning of its various forms includes: v. to save, help, deliver, defend, rescue, preserve, get victory; n. liberty, deliverance, prosperity, health, welfare (from Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Definitions). Often, it is associated with and is an expression of the righteousness, justice or mercy of God.

So now the angel’s explanation makes sense: “You will call Him Salvation, for He will save His people from their sins.”

All of that is to say this: Salvation is a person. Not just anybody, but a specific person. The Old Testament revealed God as the salvation of His people and of all who call upon His name. The New Testament reveals what that name is and whose it is. He is the source of every kind of salvation we could ever need, of deliverance from and victory over any and every oppressor. He is our help in every situation, our welfare, our healing, our prosperity and our defense. He reveals divine righteousness and justice, the mercy, grace and love of God to us. He is our shalom, our peace, our wholeness.

Salvation is a person. He is called Jesus.

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Let Earth Receive Her King
Advent, Christmas and the Kingdom of God
by Jeff Doles

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

Taken By Surprise

Although I have been working through Paul's letter to the Colossians pretty much in a linear fashion, I would like to bounce back to something that impressed me recently as I read through it once again.

Paul, an apostle of the Messiah, Jesus, by the will of God. (Colossians 1:1 JVD)

Nobody was more surprised than Paul that he should be an apostle of Jesus the Messiah, and that this was the will of God. He had once been very violently opposed to Jesus and those who followed Him as Messiah. This was back when Paul was known as Saul.

As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. (Acts 8:3)

Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. (Acts 9:1-2)

But then, of course, he had his “Damascus road experience” — which was the original Damascus road experience. He had a dramatic encounter with Jesus. The story is told in Acts 9. As Saul came near the city, a bright light shone around him and he fell to the ground. He heard a voice speaking to him.

“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”

“Who are You, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

“Lord, what do You want me to do?”

“Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Saul, his eyes blinded by that moment, continued on to Damascus, not knowing what would happen next. There was a man there named Ananias, whom the Lord Jesus directed to go to Saul, lay hands on him and restore his sight. Ananias did not understand why, because he had heard of how Saul persecuted Jesus’ followers at Jerusalem. The Lord answered, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

Ananias went and Saul was healed. Immediately Saul went to the synagogues of Damascus and began to preach that Jesus is the Son of God. He became part of the very movement he had originally intended to rub out there. Now he himself became a target and the Jewish leaders there plotted to kill him. But the believers there help him get away safely.

Saul went back to Jerusalem to join with the believers there, the ones he had once persecuted. But his former reputation was still with him, and the disciples at Jerusalem feared him. They did not believe he was now one of them. But Barnabas took him before the apostles and told them what had happened, how Saul had seen the Lord on the road to Damascus, how he had preached the name of Jesus boldly about Jesus there and was himself persecuted for it. Then the believers at Jerusalem received him as a disciple.

So now, in his letter to the believers at Colosse, Paul identifies himself, as he does in many of his other letters, as an apostle of Jesus the Messiah. He who had once rejected Jesus and persecuted His followers was now sent by Jesus to represent him before the nations.

It was the will of God, and no one was more surprised by it than Paul.

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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 Energy Energizing Me

To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. (Colossians 1:29)

Paul’s purpose in preaching the good news about Jesus was to present everyone perfect in Him. Everything in him was focused on that goal. This little verse is loaded with the power by which he went about that work. “To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. “To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.”

• The Greek word for “labor” means to toil to the point of fatigue.
• The word for “striving” is agonizomai, which is where we get our English word “agony.” We often think of it as intense pain, but Paul is actually talking about intense effort.
• The word for “working” is energeia, from which we get the English word “energy.” It is the ability or strength to operate efficiently and get things done.
• The word for “work” is the verb form, energeo.
• The word “mightily” actually translates two words that are more literally rendered as “in power.” The Greek word for power is dynamis. When Paul uses it, it is almost always about supernatural power and usually about the miraculous power of God.

Paul labored hard and put forth great effort for the sake of Jesus and the Church. Yet, it was not his energy that did the work. His whole life now was about Jesus the Messiah and the life of Messiah living in him. He was energized with the energy of Jesus! “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). This energy was the supernatural power of God at work in and through him to accomplish mighty things, which he could never have hoped to do on his own. His whole ministry was a display of God’s mighty power through Jesus the Messiah.

And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)

For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power. (1 Corinthians 4:19-20)

The energy that worked in Paul so powerfully was not just for him but is available to every believer in Jesus. For it is the His power, the power by which He did so many miraculous things. Indeed, it is the power that raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of the Father. It is the power of the Holy Spirit, which He promised to the Church at Pentecost (Acts 1:8). Paul prayed for the believers at Colosse that they would be “strengthened with all might,” according to this glorious power” (Colossians 1:11). It is power of Jesus living in them — and us! — as well as in Paul.

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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.

Presenting Everyone Perfect

Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. (Colossians 1:28)

The first thing to note here is that “Him” is in the emphatic position. It emphasizes Jesus as the content of Paul’s preaching, in distinction from angels, principalities, powers and dominions. The Greek word for “preach” means to declare or proclaim. Paul proclaims Jesus above all else, for only in Him does all the fullness of God dwell, only through Him were all things created, only in Him do all things hold together, only by Him are all things in heaven and earth reconciled.

Paul’s preaching is all about Jesus the Messiah, and by it he constantly “warns” (admonishes or exhorts) and teaches every man. Exhortation calls for action or response, which in this case is repentance, turning to God through faith in Jesus the Messiah. Teaching has to do with instruction concerning the content of that faith, the truth about who Jesus is and what that means in God’s plan for the world.

Notice that Paul says “every man” three times (the Greek refers to every human being, whether male or female). He exhorts every person and teaches every person so that he might present every person perfect in Jesus. Gnostic teaching was not intended for everyone, only for those who attained a certain level of understanding. But Paul’s gospel, the truth about Jesus the Messiah, is for all.

Paul exhorts and teaches everyone “in all wisdom.” This is not the wisdom of the world, nor the wisdom of the Gnostics, whose secret teachings were limited only to some, but the wisdom of God.

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:20-24)

The wisdom of God is available to everyone in Jesus the Messiah. “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Nothing is held back, for in Him “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).

In Colossians 1:22, Paul spoke of how Jesus came to present us holy, blameless and above reproach in the eyes of the Father. In verse 28, Paul desires to present everyone perfect in Jesus, through faith in the gospel. The Greek verb for “present” in both verses is in the aorist tense, which speaks of completed action, as distinct from ongoing or progressive action. Jesus does not have to present us over and over again as holy and blameless before God. Once He has presented us, it is a done deal. Likewise, Paul does to seek to present everyone over and over in Jesus, but to present everyone in such a way that has enduring effect, and that is by faith.

The Greek word for “perfect” is teleios and refers to something that is mature and complete, fulfilling the purpose for which it was made. Here again, Paul counters error without even mentioning it by name, simply by teaching the truth. Teleios was another word used by the Gnostics, but only of those who attained complete understanding of their doctrine; it was a perfection only a few would attain. But Paul preaches the gospel to everyone, exhorting and teaching everyone about Jesus so that everyone might be found perfect and complete 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

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

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

The Revelation of Divine Glory in You

To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

Paul is caught up in the richness of the glorious mystery that has been given him by God to make known to everyone who believes in Jesus, who are the “saints,” the ones set apart as His own, the Church. This was not just for believing Jews, who had an expectation that Messiah would come to deliver them and fulfill God’s purpose for Israel, but also — and this was a surprise — believing Gentiles. Paul speaks of that in his letter to the believers at Ephesus.

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh — who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands — that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:11-13)

This is the mystery “which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:5-6). Peter speaks similarly in one of his letters of those who “once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy” (1 Peter 2:10).

The mystery of which Paul now speaks is not merely that we are all named together as the people of Jesus the Messiah. It is not even that He dwells among us. The rich glory in which Paul revels is that Jesus, God’s Messiah, dwells in us! “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Jesus now lives His life in us by the Holy Spirit. Paul says,

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. (Romans 8:9)

This is the mystery that has been revealed: All the fullness of God dwells in Jesus, and Jesus dwells in us. In this, we find the “hope of glory,” the joyful expectation of every good thing in God being revealed throughout our entire spiritual, physical beings. The apostle Peter speaks of the same thing in this way:

His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature. (1 Peter 1:3-4)

The apostle John said it like this: “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).

It is in Jesus, not in any angelic order, that we have this joyful expectation and partake of the divine nature. As we begin to live in anticipation of His divine life being made fully known in us, we find that we are changed here and now.

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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.

Stewards of Divine Mysteries

… of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. (Colossians 1:25-26)

The words,“of which,” refer to the Church, the body of Jesus the Messiah. Paul identifies himself as a minister of the Church. The sufferings he spoke of in verse 24 were for the sake of the Church.

“Mystery” is one of Paul’s favorite words. He uses it seventeen times in his letters, including four times in this one. The stewardship he received from God concerns divine mysteries. “Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1). A mystery is a secret. Gnostic religion had mysteries, secret teachings not given to all but were revealed only as one progressed to a certain level of knowledge. For Paul, however, the mysteries of which he was given stewardship were secrets that, though they were once hidden, were now revealed to every believer. His stewardship was to “fulfill the word of God,” that is, to preach the mysteries that God has to us revealed in Jesus the Messiah.

• We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Corinthians 2:7-8)
• Having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth — in Him. (Ephesians 1:9-10)
• By revelation He made known to me the mystery … which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel. (Ephesians 3:3-6)
• To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 3:8-9)
• We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones ... This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:30-32)
• [Pray] for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. (Ephesians 6:19)
• And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. (1 Timothy 3:16)
• Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51)

These divine mysteries reveal to every believer how God is redeeming the world through Jesus the Messiah.

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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.

Filling Up the Afflictions of Messiah

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church. (Colossians 1:24)

Paul endured many afflictions for the sake of the gospel. “In my flesh,” he says, again affirming (against the Gnostic idea that matter is evil) the physical, this world nature of the gospel. Jesus the Messiah has a body, a physical presence in the world. The Church is that body and Paul is part of the Church, so when he is persecuted, the Church suffer affliction, and when the Church suffers affliction, Jesus suffers affliction in His body. In one of his letters to the believers at Corinth, Paul details some of the persecutions he experienced.

In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness — besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:23-28)

This came as no surprise. When Paul (then known as Saul) was converted on the road to Damascus, and was literally blinded by the experience, God spoke to another man, Ananias, to go and lay hands on him to restore his sight. Ananias was reluctant; it was still only very recently that Saul had been persecuting believers. But the Lord Jesus said, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:15-16).

When Paul speaks of “filling up” what was lacking in the “afflictions of Christ,” he is not referring to the passion of the cross and the work of atonement Jesus did for us there — that work was full and complete! Rather, he is talking about being persecuted for the sake of Jesus and the gospel. Paul suffered many afflictions, as did the other apostles, because of the message they preached. In Acts 5, for instance, we read about Peter and the apostles, when they were arrested and put in jail. The authorities were so enraged they wanted to kill them but released them instead, warning them not to preach about Jesus anymore. “So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:41-42). Indeed, Jesus promised that this sort of thing would happen.

Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time — houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions — and in the age to come, eternal life. (Mark 10:29-30)

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Paul and the other apostles did not just put up with these afflictions — they rejoiced in them! He explains why in his letter to the Jesus believers at Philippi, written from a prison cell (as indeed is this letter to the believers at Colosse).

But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.

For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith. (Philippians 1:12-25)

Persecution for the sake of the gospel has persisted throughout the history of the Church. Even today, there are many Christians around the world who are being cruelly treated and martyred for their faith in Jesus (for example, see The Voice of the Martyrs). They are “filling up” the “afflictions of Christ,” and yet, surprisingly — and supernaturally — they rejoice! Jesus is glorified in their physical bodies, whether by life or by death, and they are with 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.

Continue in the Faith

… if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. (Colossians 1:23)

It is the Father’s good will to reconcile all things in heaven and earth through the Son, by the shedding of His blood on the cross. This is the good news of the gospel. We participate in this reconciliation by believing the gospel of Jesus the Messiah. This was the good news the believers at Colosse first heard from Epaphras, who learned it from Paul. This gospel, then, was the one Paul himself ministered and which had gone out into all the world.

“If indeed you continue in the faith.” They had already begun in the faith and were “grounded and steadfast” in it (Paul gave thanks for that earlier). The Greek words picture a building properly settled on a good foundation. Paul does not want them to be “moved away” or shifted off the foundation that has been laid for them, the “hope of the gospel.” Hope is not about uncertainty but expectation. Their expectation was seated on a good foundation, the gospel, which Paul was always zealous to protect.

According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. (1 Corinthians 3:10-13)

Now Paul wants them to continue in the faith in which they began, and indeed, he is confident that they will. That is exactly why he writes. He sees false teaching coming in on them and he wants to preempt it and prevent it from gaining any foothold, so that they remain firm in their faith in Jesus and the wonderful expectation that comes from the gospel.

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 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 2:19-22)

The good news of Jesus the Messiah is the reconciliation of heaven and earth, and the foundation of every good expectation for those who continue in their faith 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

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

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

Once Alienated, Now Unaccusable

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight. (Colossians 1:21-23)

In Jesus the Messiah heaven and earth are reconciled and peace has been made between God and humankind through the blood of His cross. Paul now shows how this works.

We once were alienated from God. This estrangement resulted in broken relationships — with creation, each other, even within our own selves. We were out of joint with earth as well as heaven. We were “enemies” (the Greek word means “hateful”) towards God. Our thoughts and imaginations about God were hostile and this revealed itself through bitter, hostile deeds.

“Yet now,” Paul says. What wonderful words those are! What Paul just described about alienation and enemies was before. But now everything has changed because Jesus has reconciled us, brought us back into proper relationship with God. That makes all the difference in the world because now we have full access into the presence of God. Jesus has done this through His own flesh-and-blood body. Paul emphasizes this once more because false teachers would have denied that the Son of God even had a physical body, much less that any reconciliation could have been accomplished through it.

God was pleased to reconcile us through the cross of Jesus the Messiah so that He could “present” us holy, blameless and above reproach in His sight. The Greek verb for “present” is in the aorist tense, signifying completed action, a “done deal.” To be holy means to be consecrated, set apart for God and God alone. “Without blame” picks up the idea of a spotless offering, without blemish. “Above reproach” (not just without reproach but above reproach) means that no charge can now be laid against us.

But how can this be, for who among us has lived blamelessly and above reproach? Yet, Jesus presents us this way before the Father. He alone was without sin and spotless, and He offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sake, making peace through His body and blood and death on the cross. He Himself is the sacrifice presented before the Father, and it is as we are in Him, through faith in Him, that we are presented before God as holy and blameless and above reproach. That is how God sees us now as well as how He will see on us on the final day when we stand before Him.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. (Ephesians 1:3-4)

Just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27)

The devil is an accuser. In fact, that is what diabolos, the Greek word for “devil,” actually means, accuser or slanderer. In Revelation 12:10, he is called, “the accuser of our brethren.” However, there is now no accusation he can make that can stand against us. Ever.

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? … For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:33-35, 38-39)

Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. (Revelation 12:10)

Focus Questions

1. Where do you locate yourself in God’s plan for reconciliation, with regard to your relationship with God, creation, others and your own self?
2. Jesus has presented us holy and blameless before the Father. What confidence does that give you concerning your relationship with God?
3. We often do not experience ourselves as being holy and blameless. What will you answer when the voice of the accuser whispers in your ear?

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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.

Reconciling Heaven and Earth

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (Colossians 1:19-20)

It pleased the Father that all the divine essence, power and attributes reside in the Son. But it also pleased God that all things in heaven and earth be reconciled by the Son. These are not two unrelated statements but belong together in a very important way. It was necessary that the fullness of God abide in the Son in order for all things in heaven and earth to be reconciled by Him. Because all things in heaven and earth were created by Him and for Him, and in Him all things hold together. This is, indeed, what makes it even possible for all things in heaven and earth to be reconciled.

Paul speaks about this reconciliation in his other letters, although a bit differently. God’s plan, he says, is that “in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth — in Him” (Ephesians 1:10).

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11)

Let’s go back to the beginning for a moment, when God made the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1. At the end of that chapter we read, “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). The physical creation was not evil, as the Gnostics supposed, but was very good. However, it fell away from the blessing of God because Adam, who was made from the dust of the earth (as well as the breath of God) and given dominion over it, rebelled against God.

This is why Jesus came — to set things right in the world. For the Gnostics, this simply was not possible because of their belief that the material world is not merely fallen but inherently evil. The amazing thing, though, is that Jesus has not only reconciled heaven and earth, but He did it in a very physical way: through the blood of His cross. The wood of the cross and the nails that pierced Him were real and tangible. So was the flesh of His body and the blood that He shed there. By these material realities, He has reconciled heaven and earth and made peace between God and humankind.

The emphasis here is on the Son. It is in Him, not through angelic intermediaries, that God has done this. It was through the shedding of His blood. Angels could not bring about reconciliation because they are not of earth. But the Son of God is of both heaven and earth, being fully divine and fully human. He is of heaven because He is the creator of all; He is of earth because He “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Jesus is the only one in the universe able to bring heaven and earth together — and He has done it through His own body and blood, and the crudeness of the cross.

The work necessary for reconciliation has already been accomplished. We live now in the time when the benefits of that work are being increasingly revealed in the world, especially in humankind.

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. (Romans 8:19-22)

In the end, heaven and earth will be joined together, with the kingdom of God fully come and the will of God done on earth exactly as it is in heaven. We read about this in Revelation 21. In the meantime, “the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).

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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.

Where All Divine Fullness Dwells

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. (Colossians 1:19)

The word “for” introduces a reason or purpose. Here, Paul explains why God has done what He has in regard to the Son:

• Why Jesus has come as the express image of the invisible God
• Why He has been give supremacy over all creation
• Why all things have been made by Him, through Him and for Him
• Why all things hold together in Him
• Why He is the head of the (the church), the beginning, and the firstborn from the dead
• Why He has the preeminence in all things

It was because it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell!

Now, the words “the Father” are not in the Greek text, but the idea of God is certainly implied by the context. Different translations handle this in various ways. For example:

• For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. (English Standard Version)
• Because in him it did please all the fullness to tabernacle. (Young’s Literal Translation)
• For God in full measure was pleased to be in him. (Bible in Basic English)
• Because in Him [God] was well pleased that all the fullness be permanently at home. (Wuest’s Expanded Translation)
• Because all the fullness of God was pleased to live in Him. (Common English Bible)

The point is that all the fullness of the divine nature dwells in the Son. The “fullness” Paul is talking about is every power and attribute that belongs to God. The Greek word is pleroma. Paul appears to be using this word in particular in order to counter the false teachers who were trying to get into the church at Colosse. The false teaching they brought was probably an early form of Gnosticism.

Pleroma was the central term of the Gnostics, who used it to refer to God, but they believed that creation was separated from God by numerous demigods, angelic hierarchies or other intermediaries. Some intermediaries might possess this or that power while others might have various other divine attributes, but only God, who was very distant, possessed every divine power and attribute.

Paul, however, delivers a stunning blow to this doctrine. The Pleroma, the fullness of all the divine attributes and powers, is not far, far away, separated from us by layers and levels of entities and emanations. It has come very close to us — as close as human skin — in the person of Jesus the Messiah.

Paul will deliver this knockout punch again in Colossians 2:9: “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (we will talk about this in its own context as we continue through Paul’s letter). The material creation is not evil, nor is the physical body, as the Gnostics supposed. But God considered it quite appropriate that the divine essence, with all the attributes and powers of God, should reside in the human flesh of the Son and dwell among us in the world.

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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.