When you step back and consider all that Christ has done for you it is quite astounding. Join Dr. Marty Baker as we continue in our Colossians series and continue to unpack the difference that a relationship with Jesus makes.
An old gospel tune puts Christ’s redemptive work in focus for maturing disciples:
Thank you Lord, for saving my soul
Thank you Lord, for making me whole;
Thank you Lord, for giving to me
Thy great salvation so rich and free.
The song is short, sweet, and accurate. Have you ever sung this to the Lord in private worship? You might not have a voice like Chris Tomlin, but that doesn’t matter to the Lord. He’ll accept your thanks even if you don’t hit all the right notes. So, go ahead. Give it a try the next time you’re alone and have some intimate worship with your Savior.
If anything, Paul exuded thanks because he, of anybody, knew what the living Lord had saved him from on that dusty road heading to Damascus. It is no wonder, then, that he waxes eloquent in the opening verses of Colossians chapter one about the magnitude of Christ’s salvific mission to earth. He had much to thank the Lord for, plus he knew that the more thankful a believer is for Christ’s leadership in saving them, the more likely they are to steer clear of so-called theological views that teach otherwise.
While verses 13 through 14 of chapter one continue Paul’s thanks to God in his opening prayer to the saints in Colossae, they drive home this one central truth:
Believers Should Give Thanks To God Because Of What He Alone Provides Us (Col. 1:13-14)
Two areas of thanks are detailed in these two verses. Although Paul uttered them 2,000 years ago, they remain applicable and worthy of your focus as a saint in our modern age.
Be Thankful For Christ’s Rescuing Work (Col. 1:13)
Years ago, on a beach trip to La Jolla, north of San Diego, I almost met Jesus. In a bay with no beach, massive, wet rocks descended at a steep angle into the pounding, relentless, and powerful surf. I, along with some others in our adventuresome group, decided this area was prime for a hike. It wasn’t.
Within a few minutes, I lost my footing on the slippery stones. I remember sliding helplessly downhill into the churning, unforgiving waters below. My deadly descent abruptly stopped when some of my fingers found a small crack in the mossy, slimy boulders. Because the group didn’t have any rope, they formed a human chain to get to me. One by one, the guys lay down on their bellies, while someone held the first man’s ankles. He held the next man’s ankles until they finally reached me. I don’t think I’ve ever gripped someone’s hand as hard as I did for the buddy who reached me. As quickly as I slid down the slope, the men pulled me back up to safety.
What do you think was the first thing I said to these saviors? That’s right. “Thank you for saving me.” Had it not been for them, I would not be here today.
What happened on that rock face pales in comparison to what happened on another rocky formation in Israel, the Hill of the Skull. There, Jesus, the Lord of Glory, bore our sin and died as our sin substitute so we, sinners, would have the opportunity to be rescued from God’s holy wrath in eternity against our sin. Knowing this moved Paul to utter these words of thanks:
13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son . . . (Col. 1)
Who is the “he” mentioned here? Jesus. What did He accomplish for saints who used to be sinners? Two things.
First, Jesus rescued believers from the domain of darkness. The verb “rescue” is a passive, as opposed to an active. This means the subjects, who are unbelievers, are, by God’s power, not theirs, moved from the domain of darkness to the domain of light. Additionally, “rescue” is from the Greek verb ruomai (ῥύομαι). In ancient times, it denoted rescuing someone from a dangerous situation. For instance, in First Peter 2:7, Peter uses the word to speak of how God rescued Lot from His impending wrath against Sodom and Gomorrah.
You can see, therefore, how a writer like Paul easily took this literal meaning and applied it to a spiritual setting. We are born, as sinners, in need of rescue from God’s judgment against our sin inherited from Adam (Rom. 5:12-21). As sinners, by nature, we willfully choose those activities and attitudes that run contrary to a holy God.
- We are given to corruption (Isa. 1:4)
- We are, like James Dean, prone to be rebellious (Isa. 57:4)
- We are the children of the Devil (John 8:44)
- We are morally corrupt by nature (Phil. 2:15)
- We are enemies of all that is right (Acts 13:10)
- We claim to be wise but are foolish (Rom. 1:22)
- We are spiritually obstinate (Isa. 65:2-5)
I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point. We are what theologians call totally depraved. Concerning this biblical doctrine, the late Dr. Charles Ryrie writes in his systematic theology titled Basic Theology:
The scriptural evidence provides the basis for what has been commonly called total depravity. The English word “depravity” means perverted or crooked. It is not used in the translation of the King James Version, but some modern translations do use it to translate adokimos in Romans 1:28. This word means “not standing the test” and gives us a clue as to how to define the concept of depravity. Depravity means that man fails the test of pleasing God. He denotes his unmeritoriousness in God’s sight. This failure is total in that (a) it affects all aspects of man’s being and (b) it affects all people.
Negatively, the concept of total depravity does not mean (a) that every person has exhibited his depravity as thoroughly as he or she could; (b) that sinners do not have a conscience or a “native induction” concerning God; (c) that sinners will indulge in every form of sin; or (d) that depraved people do not perform actions that are good in the sight of others and even in the sight of God.
Positively, total depravity means (a) that corruption extends to every facet of man’s nature and faculties; and (b) that there is nothing in anyone that can commend him to a righteous God.
Total depravity must always be measured against God’s holiness. Relative goodness exists in people. They can do good works, which are appreciated by others. But nothing that anyone can do will gain salvational merit or favor in the sight of a holy God.[1]
What a sad spiritual state.
In Colossians 1:13, Paul looks at our sinful standing and propensities from another angle. He calls it “the domain of darkness.” The article, “the,” here can be grammatically classified as the monadic use of the article. This stresses that this particular domain is a one and only kind of thing. The word for “domain” in Greek is exousias (ἐξουσία), and it denotes a “state of control over something” (BAG, Greek Lexicon, p. 352). Here, that binding, powerful control is identified with darkness, or skotos (σκότος). According to BAG’s lexicon, the third lexical meaning of this word speaks of “the state of spiritual or moral darkness” (BAG, Greek Lexicon, p. 932). Johannes Louw and Eugene Nida give us an astute observation about this particular construction in their Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains:
σκότος: ὃς ἐρρύσατο ἡμᾶς ἐκ τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ σκότους ‘he rescued us from the power of darkness’ or ‘… the power of sin’ Col 1:13. It is possible that in Col 1:13 σκότοςb is a figurative reference to the Devil or Satan, since ἐκ τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ σκότους is in a parallel relationship with τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ υἱοῦ τῆς ἀγάπης αὐτοῦ.
σκοτίαb: ὁ δὲ μισῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ ἐστίν ‘he who hates his brother is in darkness’ or ‘… in the realm of evil’ 1 Jn 2:11.[2]
Hence, as sinners, we are born into the dark moral and spiritual domain of Satan. Our nature is to act sinfully, and Satan, our Master, works overtime to make sure our minds are darkened so they cannot appreciate and understand the gospel, and anything related to or taught by God. Paul validates this point in 2 Corinthians 4:4:
4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Cor. 4)
In Ephesians 4:18, Paul teaches that when we were not believers, our understanding of spiritual things was darkened, making it difficult to sort out the meaning of spiritual truths.
Living, therefore, as sinners under the Devil’s dark domain, our thinking, as unbelievers, was tainted and twisted:
- Perversion is purity
- Lawlessness is lawful
- Violent dissent is warranted when it is for a “just” cause
- Freedom in sexuality leads to freedom
- Fraud isn’t fraud if it’s for a “just” cause
- Illegal drugs should be legal if the majority desires them
- Lying and deception are warranted when the cause is just
- There are many ways to God, not just one
- Judaism and Christianity hold people back from achieving absolute freedom
- Utopianism leads to freedom and peace
- Intolerance from the tolerant is acceptable when the cause is “just.”
- Laws are fluid, not fixed: hence, they should be changed when society at large feels they should be
- Good works can garner God’s favor
- The Bible is a dangerous book
- Sex is fixed, but gender is fluid and malleable
- Science is more trustworthy than the Bible
Once more, I could go on, but you, as saints, understand how your thinking was tainted when you lived and existed in the Devil’s dark domain, whether you realized it or not.
Once, however, you placed your faith in the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross and understood that He rose victorious from the grave, you were immediately delivered from the Devil’s domain. As Jesus said:
36 While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them. (John 12)
46 I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. (John 12)
The point is clear: The Lord alone was qualified to powerfully place you in His wondrous family and kingdom of light. After listing several sins that used to describe us in Ephesians 5:1-7, Paul turns and states the obvious:
8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. (Eph. 5)
From this, we learn that there are two types of people in the world: those who walk in spiritual/moral darkness and those who walk in spiritual/moral light. Which group are you in? If you are in the latter group, then you have much to be thankful for. Why? Because you are heaven-bound, and the Lord’s Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), gives you the inner ability to live like a child of the light. You can, of course, as we see from Paul’s words here in Ephesians (and elsewhere, 1 John 1:6-9), use your enlightened will to return to performing dark deeds, but that should not be our course of action as children of light. On the contrary, we should strive each day, with the Spirit’s help (Eph. 5:18ff), to live like spiritually rescued people.
All of this undercut the false teaching of the Judaizers in Colossae, who placed a premium value on man’s religious works. Only Christ’s work rescues sinners. Man cannot rescue himself from God’s wrath against sin any better than I could have rescued myself from that slippery rock near the churning Pacific Ocean. Further, it undercut and silenced those who espoused Gnostic philosophy. Their emphasis upon the struggle between light and darkness found its supposed solution in each person gaining new knowledge that they were, in fact, divine. Man, therefore, didn’t need a Savior. He just needed esoteric knowledge that brought him enlightenment about the power of his inner self. Paul definitely drove a proverbial nail in this coffin by offering thanks to the only God who can rescue a sinner from sin’s dark domain. Peter stated this long before Paul during his initial teaching after Christ’s resurrection: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Second, Jesus transfers sinners, as saints, into the Lord’s kingdom.
13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son . . . (Col. 1)
“Transfer” methistemi (μεθίστημι) literally means to move something or someone from one place to another. What does Jesus do for repentant sinners? He, by His divine power and right, takes sinners and makes them instantly, at the moment of faith, into saints, and then he transfers them from Satan’s kingdom to His.
Christ’s kingdom is first spiritual, and then physical. The spiritual kingdom exists in heaven. Speaking to Pilate during His trumped-up trial, Jesus emphatically declared:
36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” (John 18).
His kingdom was not, first and foremost, of this world. It is heavenly and eternal, and it is known for its spectacular heavenly city, the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21). In this kingdom, there is peace; joy; perfection; amazing sights, sounds, and colors; holiness; rich fellowship, wonderful worship (Rev. 4); drinkable water like you’ve never had (Rev. 22), food that’s off the charts, spectacular homes for the saints to mention a few jaw-dropping items. At the moment of conversion, sinners become saints who are instantly made citizens of the Lord’s heavenly spiritual kingdom.
The Lord’s kingdom is also not yet insofar as it waits for its implementation on earth. The Lord’s prayer has this future focus when we are told to pray, “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9-10).
The OT promised a Davidic empire with an eternal Davidic king who would one day be present on planet earth (2 Sam. 7; Psalms 2 and 89). Isaiah spoke much about its coming. Chapter two is a case in point:
2 Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.” (Isa. 2)
This is a direct prophecy concerning the Messiah ruling and reigning from Jerusalem over His Davidic empire. Of course, this is still future. And when it comes, it will merely reflect all the wonder and holy attributes of the heavenly sphere.
When the Jews rejected Jesus and His offer of the kingdom, this did not abrogate its coming; it just delayed it. Speaking about this delay, the Lord taught us how to think and live:
42 Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. 43 But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44 For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. 45 Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. (Matt. 24).
Because the Messiah/King will return to establish His kingdom on earth, we must always be ready for His glorious arrival. What a day that will be! Are you ready? Have you placed your faith in Jesus so that He has transferred you to His wonderful kingdom? Now this is something to give thanks for, right?
In addition to giving thanks for Christ’s work of rescuing us spiritually and transferring us into His kingdom, Paul adds one more area of thanks:
Be Thankful For Christ’s Redeeming Work (Col. 1:14)
How can a sinner make peace with God? The false teachers in Colossae said you have to place your faith in a watered-down Jesus, who wasn’t fully God, and you had to maintain a perpetual life of legalistic works they deemed necessary. What did Paul say? Here is his answer:
14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1)
“Redemption” is from the Greek word apolutrosis (ἀπολύτρωσις). According to BAG’s Greek Lexicon, it points to a large payment made to purchase back, say, a slave or a captive. Paul took this familiar word and applied it directly to sinners. Who can pay the proper costly amount to purchase sinners who are slaves to sin so that they can become free people and servants of Christ? Only Christ can pay the price. As Pastor Erwin Lutzer has so wisely written in his book Ten Lies About God,
A sacrifice must be equal to the offense committed. Because our sin is against an infinite God, we need a sacrifice of infinite value. It follows that only God can supply the sacrifice that He Himself demands. That is the meaning of the gospel: God met His own requirements for us.[3]
Only through Christ’s sacrifice and payment for man’s sin can a sinner secure release from his spiritual slavery followed by new life in Christ. You might need to read that one more time. I know the Judaizers and Gnostics in Colossae had to because it destroyed their entire twisted theological/philosophical teaching. All of this, of course, leads to a personal question: Have you accepted Christ’s payment for your sin as true for yourself? When you do, by faith, your spiritual chains immediately fall off, and you are free as God’s new child.
With redemption also follows a secondary truth:
14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1)
The second clause opens up the meaning of the first. Once we are redeemed, once the purchase for our sins by Jesus is accepted, we instantaneously receive “the forgiveness of sins.” “Forgiveness,” aphesin (ἄφεσις) has two primary lexical meanings in Greek according to BAG:
① the act of freeing and liberating from someth. that confines, release fr. captivity (Polyb. 1, 79, 12; SIG 374, 21; PGrenf I, 64, 5; 1 Esdr 4, 62; Philo, Mut. Nom. 228 [after Lev 25:10]; Jos., Ant. 12, 40; 17, 185) Lk 4:18ab (Is 61:1; 58:6); B 3:3 (Is 58:6); 14:9 (Is 61:1).
② the act of freeing from an obligation, guilt, or punishment, pardon, cancellation.[4]
Think about it. At the moment of faith, Jesus forgives you of all your sins. He wipes it all away so you can be clean and holy before Him (1 Cor. 1:30). Paul knew firsthand what this felt like. All those Jewish saints he had hunted down, persecuted, and killed stained his soul. Yet, in a flash of faith, the Lord said, “Saul, I forgive you.” Unbelievable. No wonder Paul paused at the beginning of this letter to give thanks for the Lord’s forgiveness. There is nothing like it in the whole wide world. False systems of belief don’t redeem the sinner, nor can they offer lasting forgiveness for a sinful status before a holy God. Only Jesus can forgive you and make you His child. Now, that’s something to give thanks for. Better yet, that’s something to sing about.
Thank you Lord, for saving my soul
Thank you Lord, for making me whole;
Thank you Lord, for giving to me
Thy great salvation so rich and free.
And if you are not a believer in Jesus right now, then right now is the best time for you to place your faith in Him. What will happen to you when you do this? Everything that Paul just mentioned (promised) in these two moving, exciting verses.
[1] Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1999), 252–253.
[2] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 755.
[3] Erwin Lutzer, Ten Lies About God (Nashville: Word Publishing, 2000), 35.
[4] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 155.
