Full Flowering of the Gospel

Colossians 1:14

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing--as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (ESV)

Gospel is heaped upon us in Paul's epistles, if we are listening to what he says. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, one of the greatest preachers of the early church, listened with ears opened by the Spirit of God and preached marvelous interpretive sermons in which he unfolded the fullness of the gospel for his hearers. Every choice of words under the direction of the Holy Spirit brings the hearer more deeply into the rich expressions of grace. Our hearts are wooed by the exceptionally tender revelations of God's plan to save us by the work of His beloved Son.

Often we preachers fail to see what John Chrysostom saw in Paul's epistles. All we can manage is something like "Jesus died for our sins. Amen." As correct as that is, it fails to express the passionate fullness of the Word of God. While my wife would appreciate a single rose if I brought one to her, she would be even more impressed if I brought her a full two dozen roses. Our heavenly Father does not stint upon the expressions of His love toward us, expressing Himself with a full bouquet of gospel. The gospel carries more than the single flower of expression, "Jesus died for our sins." Perhaps if that is all of the gospel we can speak, perhaps our hearers might be deeply relieved if we simply shortened our sermons to that bare expression. If we did so, we might be met with the stinging criticism I faced following an intentionally short sermon, "Pastor, I came for a full course meal. All you preached was an appetizer." Wow. I took heed.

Often we have difficulty seeing the gospel in its effusive flowering because the opinion of the law is so firmly ensconced in our hearts. We hear with ears encrusted by the wax of the law. We see with eyes sealed shut by the conjunctivitis of legalism. The gospel comes cleaning the wax out and opening our eyes. We are brought not just into the church, but into the kingdom of the Son whom our Father loves. Here Paul (Col 1:13-14) carefully speaks of our Father's work in the Son baptized for us and of whom He says, "This is my beloved Son," that we might see ourselves in the kingdom of that beloved One. Now by our translation to that kingdom so graciously named, we ourselves also become beloved sons. Every single Word that proceeds from our Father's lips onto the pen of the apostle has our salvation in focus.

While preaching a sermon series on the letter to the Colossians John Chrysostom gave an exposition of these words: "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Col 1:13-14).

St. John Chrysostom

"The whole is His, the giving both of these things and those [in Col 1:11-12]; for nowhere is it any achievement of ours. 'From the power of darkness,' St. Paul says, that is, of error, the dominion of the devil. He said not 'darkness,' but 'power.' For it had great power over us, and held us fast. For it is grievous indeed even to be under the devil at all, but to be so 'with power,' this is far more grievous. 'And translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.' Not then to deliver man from darkness only, did He show His love toward him. A great thing indeed it is to have delivered from darkness even; but to have brought into a kingdom too, that is a far greater. See then how manifold the gift, that he has delivered us who lay in the pit. In the second place, that He has not only delivered us, but also translated us into a kingdom. 'Who delivered us.' He did not say, 'hath sent us forth,' but 'delivered,' showing our great misery, and its capture of us. Then to show also the ease with which the power of God works, he says, 'And translated us,' just as if one were to lead over a soldier from one position to another. However, he did not say, 'has led over'; nor yet 'hath transposed.' For the whole would be of him who transposed, nothing of him who went over; but he said, 'translated,' so that it is both of us and of Him.

"'Into the kingdom of the Son of His love.' St. Paul said not merely, 'the kingdom of heaven,' but gave a grandeur to his discourse by saying, 'The kingdom of the Son.' For no praise can be greater than this, as he said elsewhere also: 'If we endure, we shall also reign with Him' (2Ti 2:12). God has counted us worthy of the same things with the Son; and not only so, but what gives it greater force, with His beloved Son. Those that were enemies, those that were in darkness, as it were he had suddenly translated to where the Son is, to the same honor with Him.

"Nor was he content with only this, in order to show the greatness of the gift; he was not content with saying, 'kingdom,' but he also added, 'of the Son.' Nor yet with this, but he added also 'beloved.' Nor yet with this, but he added yet, the dignity of His nature. For what did he say? 'Who is the Image of the invisible God.' But he proceeded not to say this immediately, but meanwhile inserted the benefit which He bestowed upon us. For lest, when you hear that the whole is of the Father, you would suppose the Son excluded, he ascribes the whole to the Son, and the whole to the Father. For the Father indeed translated us, but the Son furnished the cause. For what said he? 'Who delivered us out of the power of darkness.' He is the One, 'In whom we have the full redemption, even the forgiveness of sins.' For if we had not been forgiven our sins, we would not have been 'translated.' So here again the words, 'In whom.' And he said not 'redemption,' but 'full redemption,' so that we shall not fall anymore, nor become liable to death."

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Colossians II,