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COLOSSIANS - Christ in you, the hope of glory!
Studies in the Letter of Paul to the Colossians
Part 1 - The Foundations of Christian Faith (Colossians 1:1-29)
6. Christ the Head and Reconciler of the Church with God (Colossians 1:18-23)
Colossians 1:18
18 He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
From time to time in the Orient, the word “head” also means “governing lord”, the one who possesses the power and authority to carry his plans through. No one is in a position to take his place, for the ruler alone decides what will take place.
The word “head of the body, the church”, however, possesses a still deeper meaning. Before the gates of Damascus Paul received a question from his glorious Lord: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). He did not immediately grasp what this accusation meant, nor did he know who was speaking to him. When Jesus told him His name and repeated His accusation: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting!”, the one cast to the ground suddenly recognized the fantastic mystery: “Jesus lives! He and His church are an indissoluble unity”. Paul had imagined the crucified one to be long dead and decayed away in the grave, yet now he was seeing Him gloriously standing before him.
Saul, the young Paul, had tried to exterminate the followers of the crucified One, in order to prevent a split in the Jewish community. But in this encounter the Risen One told him that he was not only persecuting His followers, but that he was also plaguing and tormenting Him. Paul recognized, as quick as lightning, that the Lord Jesus and His church are one, indivisible unit, similar to the body of a person and its head! All that the church of Christ suffers is first felt by its spiritual Head.
This unity is built upon the divine love in the Holy Spirit. After those who believed on Jesus Christ received the Spirit of God, they were no longer mere mortal sinners, but cleansed children of God. Jesus, born of the Holy Spirit, and His born-again followers, are in accord through the same Spirit, in one spiritual unity. He is their Head, they His body members, supplementing each other reciprocally. They only do that which is given to them and commanded them from their Head.
Paul referred to this fundamental mystery and goal, the salvation plan of God which had been specially revealed to him, several times in his letters (Rom. 12:4-8; 1 Cor. 12:4-31; Eph. 1:22; 4:15-16). Whoever reads these testimonies of Paul should ask himself the question: Am I an active, considerate and merciful member of the spiritual body of Christ? Who thanks God the Father for the privilege of living and suffering with Jesus in this holy unity?
Jesus has risen from the dead! He was not only first with God, before all other innumerable creatures, but is also the beginning of all who live eternally. Jesus overcame sin, Satan and death. The wicked one was not able to seduce Him to evil. His resurrection signalized that the Son of Mary was holy and sinless, that God the Father had accepted His sacrifice of atonement, and that the eternal life dwelling in Him would never die. The victory of Christ over the forces of evil and His judicial stilling of the wrath of God heralded the birth of a new age. The Firstborn of God the Father was also the first to be truly resurrected from the dead, following mankind´s fall into sin. Accordingly, the Eastern Church calls Him the Firstborn from the dead.
In the Eastern Churches, Easter is the greatest and most significant Christian celebration. With it, the victory of Christ and the evidence of eternal life visibly present in His person are celebrated. The author of life has broken into our mortal world and transformed spiritually dead sinners into living saints. Do you rejoice with all other Christians over the victory of Jesus? Do you live in His Spirit? Or are you still dead in sin, pride and arrogance?
Prayer: Father, we thank You for the immeasurably great grace that made us to be members of the body of Christ, for such we are. Make us to be active servants in this body of mercy, so that we will joyfully and always obey our spiritual Head, doing what He wills. Quicken many that are still in death that they, too, might be made a part of the body of Your Son. Amen.
Question 24: Do you still live in accordance with the will of your heart, or have you joyously submitted yourself to your spiritual Head?