Colossians 1:9-12
9 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, 10 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; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Introduction
I’ve been asked how long we’re likely to be in Colossians quite a few times already. It’s a reasonable question on several levels; one I wonder about myself. The short answer is that I don’t know. And one of the main reasons for that, is that it hinges on the question of how much of the theology/doctrine of Colossians am I going to preach.
This morning’s sermon is an example of what I mean. In this passage, Paul let the Colossians know that he was praying for them, asking God (among other things) to cause them to be ever “increasing in the knowledge of God” (v.10). As I hope to have made clear last week, knowledge of God is the most significant and critical knowledge of all. It is impossible to live in this world as it is and as we ought apart from knowing who God really is.
Paul most certainly understood that and said as much in this passage. In that way, he introduced the doctrine of God. What he did not do, however, is unpack that doctrine in any significant way. He’ll say more about God throughout the letter, but most of the knowledge of God he has in mind is merely assumed and asserted.
He does that often in this letter (introduces a doctrine, but does not expand on it). The question I’m faced with, then, once again, is how much do I expand on the doctrines Paul introduces.
There’s a risk in doing so too much. By doing so, I’d not be preaching Colossians as much as I’d be using Colossians as a launching point for a class on doctrine. That might be OK for Berea, but it is not OK for preaching. That kind of preaching undercuts our understanding of the diversity of the books of the Bible and it essentially devolves into topical preaching.
At the same time, there’s risk in preaching too little of Paul’s doctrine as well. The risks there are in not making plain all the things that would have been plain to the first audience and in undercutting the unity of the collected books of the Bible.
Finding the healthy path between those ditches is what I’m after. Pray for me.
As I unpack Paul’s doctrine of God, then, you’ll see the big ideas of this sermon: (1) God is who He is, (2) Who God is, is woven through every line of this letter, and (3) The nature and purpose of everything is rooted in who God is. The main takeaways are to (1) Prayerfully and carefully learn who God really is and (2) Order everything according to that.
God Is Who He Is
God is who He is, who God is, is woven through every line of Colossians, and most significantly and staggeringly, the nature and purpose of everything is rooted in who God is. Given those truths, it ought to be self-evident that we really, really need to learn who God is.
Already in Colossians, Paul has assumed and asserted a handful of aspects of God’s nature. Consider what we find in that regard in just the first fourteen verses of the letter.
In 1:1 (and 25) we catch a glimpse of Paul’s belief in God’s sovereignty when he describes his apostleship/life’s mission as having come “by the will of God.” We see basically the same thing in the fact that Paul prays to God in 1:3 and 9 as the one who hears and can respond.
That Paul understood God to be gracious and peaceful are assumed in 1:2, 6.
Paul knew God to be generous and good. Those attributes are embedded in 1:3-5, 12 where Paul gives thanks to God for granting faith, hope, and love to the Colossians.
God is the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Paul notes in passing in 1:3.
Woven throughout 1:3-14 (5, 6, 9) is Paul’s conviction that God is Truth.
In 1:8 we see that Paul has an understanding of the Holy Spirit as the giver of mutual love within the church.
God is worthy of our full devotion for Paul (1:9).
Paul knew God to be omnipotent, having “all power” and “glorious might” (1:11, 29).
And God is the King who delivers sinners from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light (1:13-14).
I hope it’s easy to see what I said earlier: That although everything in Colossians is rooted in Paul’s beliefs about who God is, most of what Paul believed about God is merely assumed and asserted.
To help you get a better grasp on what Paul believed about God, then, we’re going to take a higher-level look at eight of the most fundamental aspects of God’s nature for Paul. This is critical both because (1) all his NT writing and his entire ministry were built upon these convictions and (2) because these are the things he was asking God to reveal to the Colossian church as the foundation of their faithfulness.
As I tried to show you in the brief overview of Colossians 1:1-14—which is equally true throughout all of the letter—these convictions leaked out of everything Paul said and did, even as they were at the heart of the ever-increasing knowledge of God that Paul prayed for God to grant the Colossians.
We need this now in order to be able to recognize it throughout the letter and throughout our own lives. Let’s spend a bit of time, then, considering that God is: Eternally Trinitarian, creator, sovereign, wise, good, holy, just, and gracious. And with each attribute, I want to give you a few biblical examples of where Paul found it/where we find it in Paul, I want to help you see what difference that knowledge would make for the Colossians, and I want to briefly give you an example of what difference it makes for us today.
The simple fact is, Grace Church, we will either learn from Paul that we ought to be able to trace every single aspect of our lives to some aspect of God’s nature or we will continue to live disordered lives.
For instance, we cannot be the kind of parents we’re made to be apart from understanding the Fatherhood of God. Likewise, we cannot be the kind of spouse we’re made to be apart from knowing what it means that Jesus is the bride groom of the Church. We cannot work as we’re made to apart from a mature grasp on God as orderer and sustainer. We cannot enjoy leisure apart from knowing that God is our Sabbath and satisfaction. We cannot properly look at the stars without knowing they declare the infinite glory of God. Even more fundamentally still, we cannot know who we are apart from knowing that God as our maker. And above all, we cannot glorify and enjoy God forever apart from true and increasing knowledge of Him.
Everything in us and around us has its meaning, place, and purpose in God. I really want that to make sense to all of you such that the most obvious prayer in the world will be, “God, grant me ever-increasing knowledge of you so that I might live the full life Jesus came to bring” (John 10:10). And in that same way, I want it to be obvious to you all why Paul’s prayer for God to grant the Colossians increasing knowledge of Him was the necessary foundation for their ability to persevere in faithfulness through trial and temptation.
Eternally Trinitarian (Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 40:28; 1 Timothy 1:17; Matthew 3:16–17; 2 Corinthians 13:14)
Let’s begin with the most fundamental aspect of the nature of God, that He is eternally trinitarian. Because it’s the most fundamental aspect of God’s nature, we’ll spend a bit more time on it than the rest.
God is eternal in that He has no beginning and no end. He (and He alone) has never not been and will never not be. This is hinted at in the first words of the Bible, “In the beginning God…”. The same idea is in Colossians 1:17, “[Jesus] is before all things…” The underlying reality of both is that before anything else was, God eternally is.
The idea is even more explicit in Psalm 90 and in a different letter that Paul wrote (1 Timothy).
Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
1 Timothy 1:17 Now to the King eternal… be honor and glory forever and ever.
What’s more, God has eternally existed as Trinity—one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit.
I think it’s fair to say that more wrong things have been said of the Trinity than right things. It is almost certainly, the most mysterious aspect of God’s nature.
At the same time, what can be truly said of the Trinity is fairly straightforward. Consider this definition.
“The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, (2) each Person is fully God, (3) there is only one God.” (Matt Perman)
There are specific and explicit passages to consider on the divine nature of each person of the godhead, as well as on the oneness of God. Perhaps you can spend some time looking them up in your DG. But for our purposes, I want to simply point to a passage in Matthew’s Gospel and then Paul’s echo of that in 2 Corinthians, that speak of all three persons together in a way that only makes sense if God is triune in nature.
Matthew 3:16–17 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Paul has already explicitly mentioned all three persons of the godhead in the first 14 verses of this letter. Father – 10x , Son – 6x, and Spirit – 1x.
All of Paul’s doctrine is built on the eternal trinitarian nature of God. And more to the point here, much of Paul’s help for the Colossians—Christ over all and in all—as well. Christ is over all and in all precisely because of His participation and place in the eternal godhead.
And so it is for you and I, Grace. Our hope in God’s promises is well-founded because He will never not be around to keep them. Our salvation is possible only because of the Triune nature of God. And most practically, we are able to have sweet, continual communion with each Person of the godhead because of the unique and remarkable ministry to us of Father, Son, and Spirit. You can (and should) spend the rest of your life working that out.
Creator (Genesis 1:1; Colossians 1:16)
Picking up the pace, after that (after eternally trinitarian), the next most fundamental aspect of God’s nature for Paul is the fact that God is Creator of all that has been made.
To finish the verse we read earlier, Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth;” light (v.3), sky (v.6), dry land and bodies of water (v.9), plants (v.11), the sun, moon, and stars (v.14), fish and birds (v.20), land animals (v.24), and Adam and Eve, in His very image (v.26).
The point, I think, is plain: God alone created everything outside of Himself.
For Paul, that was critical for two main reasons. First, because it means that everything belongs to God, is what God says it is, and is accountable to God. And second, because it points to one more aspect of Christ over all and in all.
In the passage we’ll come to next he says it this way, “For by Him [Jesus] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him” (1:16).
Why, Colossians, why, Grace Church, would you ever go after any “Jesus ands” when God created you and He did so by, through, and for Jesus?! Why would you try to find your identity and purpose in anything other than the one who made you? Why would you look for wisdom, understanding, and satisfaction anywhere besides the One who is those things? You already belong to Him, so why would you futilely try to run from that? He is more than enough. He is over all an in all in a way that nothing else can compare to.
Sovereign (Psalm 115:3; Daniel 4:35; Ephesians 1:11; Colossians 1:17)
Third, God is sovereign.
“When we say God is sovereign, we mean he is powerful and authoritative to the extent of being able to override all other powers and authorities… Nothing can successfully stop any act or any event or design or purpose that God intends to certainly bring about.” (John Piper)
Psalm 115:3 says it like this, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”
Daniel 4:35 …none can stay his hand…
In his letter to the Ephesian church, Paul explained that God “works all things according to the counsel of His will” (1:11). And in this letter, in 1:17, Paul declared that in Him “all things hold together.”
God is sovereign. But why does that matter? Again, for Paul, there are two key reasons.
First, as the late R.C. Sproul said, “If there is one maverick molecule in this universe running free from the sovereign control of God, we have no reason to believe any future promise that God has made, because that one maverick molecule may be the very thing that will destroy those plans. But thanks be to God, there are no maverick molecules running loose outside of the scope of God’s sovereign government.” In other words, it matters to Paul because God’s ability to accomplish His purposes and keep His promises hinges entirely upon it.
And second, familiarly, it matters because it is why Jesus is over all and in all and why any “Jesus and” is absurd. Grace, the Colossians need not follow any “and” because Jesus alone has all authority in heaven and earth.
It is critical that God is eternal in order that His ability to keep His promises might never run out. It is critical that He is creator because that means we are who He says we are and for what He says we are for. It is critical that He is sovereign because it means that He can hold together all that He made and do all that He promises. And, as we’re about to see, it is critical that He is wise because that is the basis for believing His plans are worth succeeding.
Wise (Romans 16:27; Colossians 1:16-17)
God is wise. I love this brief explanation and grounding of the wisdom of God.
When we say that God is wise, “We mean…that all knowledge, all understanding of the essence and interrelation of all His creatures and all their actions, resides in Him. More than that, we mean that God is the wisdom He possesses. He is ‘the only wise God’ (Rom. 16:27)…In this sense, God doesn’t “have wisdom,” He is wisdom. (David Strain)
My best attempt to get to the heart of God’s wisdom is this: God is wise in that He has perfect knowledge of how things are and how they relate to one another.
For the Colossians to endure the trials and temptations that were bombarding them, they needed wisdom. And Paul knew that since God is wisdom, the wisdom they needed would be found in God and received from God alone. Jesus Christ is that wisdom, since all things are from Him and for Him and to Him, and in Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17). All “ands” are, therefore, imitators or liars.
O, Grace, that we might learn this lesson too. If we were able to take away all folly and semi-sanctified common sense from this room, what would be left? Who among us is living consistently with the fact that all wisdom—wisdom for science and art and government and marriage and parenting and immigration and law enforcement and gender and medicine and churches and salvation—begins with the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10)? O that we might look to God alone for all wisdom and understanding and avoid the countless pitfalls and endless pain that comes from looking anywhere else. That’s what Paul prayed for the church in Colossae and that’s what I pray for the church in Wyoming.
Good (Nahum 1:7; Psalm 34:8; Psalm 31:19; Mark 10:18)
Next, God is good. One definition of God’s goodness states: “The goodness of God means that God is the final standard of good, and that all that God is and does is worthy of approval” (Grudem, Systematic Theology, 197).
That’s a fairly technical way of saying that in God and His world there are things that are rightly to be desired (morally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, etc.) and all of them are rooted in God. Everything God is, does, gives and commands is intrinsically right.
Nahum 1:7 The Lord is good…
Psalm 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Psalm 31:19 Oh, how abundant is your goodness
Mark 10:18 And Jesus said…”No one is good except God alone.”
Of all the attributes we will cover, God’s goodness is probably the most assumed and embedded in Colossians. It’s everywhere in this letter (and all of Paul’s letters). To read anything Paul wrote through the lens of the goodness of God is to see it in every crack and crevice. For him, there is simply no doubt about the fact that everything that is in and of God is worthy of praise. For him, it makes as much sense to question the goodness of God and His plans as it does to question the hotness of fire or the coldness of ice. God is good in the same way that fire is hot and ice is cold. It’s an intrinsic aspect of His nature.
Therefore, Paul was unhesitant to prescribe to the Colossians the good will of God in the midst of their challenges. He knew that it would make certain aspects of their lives harder, but in this life gooder is often harder.
And so it must be with all of us, Grace. Although God’s charges to us often go against the wisdom of the world and always against the desires of our flesh, they are always, always, always thoroughly good and infinitely better than every alternative. We can trust God and His commands because He is perfectly pure in His goodness; because He is good.
In His wisdom He always knows what’s best for us and in His goodness, He always desires it for us.
Holy (1 Samuel 2:2; Psalm 96:9; Isaiah 6:2-3; Colossians 1:21-22)
The sixth aspect of God’s nature that is hardwired into Paul’s mind and heart, and woven through this entire letter, and central to Jesus being over all, is probably the most emphasized in the Bible: His holiness. God is holy. And there’s no one I’d rather hear talk about that than R.C. Sproul.
… when we want to call attention to something that’s particularly important [we] give it emphasis…
Well, the Jews… [often used] a simple technique, a verbal repetition. … the Apostle Paul when he’s writing to the Galatians and warning them of the dangers of departing from the gospel … He said, “I say unto you that if anybody preaches unto you any other gospel than that which you’ve received, even if it’s an angel from heaven, let him be anathema…Let him be damned.” …But he doesn’t stop there. He immediately goes on to say, “Again, I say to you, if anyone preaches unto you any other gospel than that which you have received, let him be anathema.”
In other words, Paul emphasized the danger of preaching a false gospel by wishing damnation on any person who does, twice in a row. There are many other examples of that in the Bible (of double emphasis).
Sproul continues, “Ladies and gentlemen, there’s only one attribute of God that is ever raised to the third degree of repetition in Scripture. … the Bible doesn’t simply say that God is holy or even that He’s holy, holy but that He is holy, holy, holy. … This is a dimension of God that consumes His very essence…God alone is holy.
1 Samuel 2:2 There is none holy like the LORD
Psalm 96:9 Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!
Isaiah 6:2-3 Above him stood the seraphim… 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
“The holiness of God refers to the absolute moral purity of God and the absolute moral distance between God and his human creatures.” (Richard Lints)
In other words, God’s holiness is His set-apartness, His uniquely infinite value, His moral purity, His absolute perfection…and all of those things, threefold; holy, holy, holy.
We see this in two main ways in Paul’s writing. First, we it in the fact that the ruin of mankind—our enmity with God—results from the fact that we are measured, not against one another, but against the holiness of God, of which we all fall infinitely short (Romans 3:23).
And the second way we see it is in Paul’s charge to the Colossians to be holy; to put off the old man and on the new man in Christ (3:1-17).
Both of those senses are embedded in Colossians 1:21-22, “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.”
Again, the holiness of God is significant for the Colossian believers because “Jesus and” living is always contrary to God’s own holiness and the holiness He calls His people to, and therefore must be rejected entirely.
Acting according to the “philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (2:8), as the Colossians were being tempted to do, was diametrically opposed to God’s holy nature and the nature He was working in them.
For us, Grace, the holiness of God means that none of us can stand before God on our own, uncondemned. I vividly remember believing as a kid that I’d certainly go to heaven when I died because I measured up well against Hitler. But I will not be compared to Hitler and neither will you. We will be compared to the holy God. We must tremble at that so that we might look to Christ for the mercy and grace He alone can give. He is over all and in all because He alone is holy, holy, holy.
Just (Deuteronomy 32:4; Isaiah 30:18; Psalm 89:14; Colossians 3:25)
We’re almost done. The second to last characteristic of God that we’re going to consider is His justice. God is just. “Justice involves seeking lawful equality without favoritism to particular persons” (Trier, EDOT, 454). In other words, God’s justice means that He gives to everyone all and only what they deserve.
Deuteronomy 32:4 all his ways are justice…just and upright is he.
Isaiah 30:18 the Lord is a God of justice
Psalm 89:14Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne
In Colossians 3:25 Paul wrote, “For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.” That means everyone will face judgment, but it also means that our judgment will be regardless of age, race, wealth, tribe, tongue, gender, or religion. God’s judgment will be measured, as we saw, against one thing and one thing only: His perfect holiness.
God cannot be bribed, He does not consider the appearance of a person in His judgments, He is never confused or limited in His understanding, He is just.
For the Colossians, this meant that everyone who persecuted them for their faith in Jesus or attempted to lead them astray from it would come under God’s perfect, just judgment. There is a real sense of relief in that. But it also meant that the things Paul was commending to them were of no small consequence. Adopting any “Christ and” philosophy or tradition would come under the same perfect judgment of God.
For us, perhaps the most significant aspect of God’s justice is in the humility, sobriety, and gratitude it brings when we learn its implications. What I mean is, we often hear people (even among us) claiming that their circumstances aren’t fair (their sickness or abuse or mistreatment at the hand of a sibling). And there is, of course, usually a sense in which that is true on a horizontal level.
But on a more significant level, a vertical level, God’s justice, rightly understood means that every minute of every day that we have breath, no matter our circumstances on earth, is infinitely better than we deserve. As we consider the final attribute of God that Paul built his life, doctrine, and ministry upon, I think that will become even clearer.
Gracious (Psalm 145:8; Joel 2:13; Nehemiah 9:31; Colossians 1:6)
Finally, then, and in conclusion, if we combine the first seven attributes of God, we have a God who is awesome indeed. We have a God of unparalleled glory and majesty. We have a God who is above all other gods and in all things. But we also have no hope.
If God were only eternally Trinitarian, creator, sovereign, wise, good, holy, and just, He would be worthy of praise, but we’d be ruined. The attributes we’ve considered make it clear that God is God, but also that we have sinned and fallen short of His glory, deserve His wrath, and that any chance we have of being reconciled to God cannot come from our worthiness or our ability to perform or our power to redeem ourselves.
Any hope we have, therefore, is in God being more than just those things. Indeed, He is! God is eternally Trinitarian, creator, sovereign, wise, good, holy, just, and gracious!
Psalm 145:8 The Lord is gracious and merciful…
Joel 2:13 Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious
Nehemiah 9:31 You are a gracious and merciful God.
In Colossians 1:6 we read of Paul’s thankfulness to God for filling understanding of His grace in truth.
Paul knew that the Colossians only hope of receiving knowledge of God, believing knowledge of God, and living in light of the knowledge of God was the grace of God. Similarly, he knew the only hope of the Colossian Christians to reject “Jesus and” heresy was the grace of God. And their only hope of understanding, loving, and trusting in the fact that Jesus is over all and in all was the grace of God.
Colossians 1:21-22 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.
Colossians 2:13-15 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Indeed, Grace Church, may we be ever-increasing in the knowledge of God, that we might live lives worthy of God, through faith in the Son of God, in whom (2:3) “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
These are not merely interesting ideas to consider or true things to ponder. They are fuel for worship and obedience. This is our God and He is infinitely worthy of our praise and allegiance. Treat this knowledge less like facts to memorize and more like the treasures of limitless worth they are. As we learn to delight in God through this increasing knowledge, no pocket of our lives will remain unaffected. And all of that because Jesus Christ is over all and in all.