giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light,
Paul's prayer for the Colossians turns into praise. He thanks the Father for something the believer already has. So what makes anyone fit for God's presence? And is that fitness something we build, or something we receive? (Older translations read "made us meet to be partakers" where the ESV has "qualified you to share".)
Verses 12–14 shift from what Paul asks God for to what God has already done:
Here the Apostle is no longer giving thanks for qualities found in the Colossian saints, as in verses 4 and 5. He now thanks the Father for the blessings that belong to every believer alike. These blessings are not a matter for prayer but a theme for praise… The position and relationships are the result of Christ's work, so they must be as perfect as that work. We may grow in our grasp of them, but in the blessings themselves there can be no growth.
Everything in the verse hangs on a completed action. Commentators press the grammar hard:
Made "fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light." Not, to be made, nor, in process of being made, but, MADE. We who have believed are fit for heavenly glory. We are fit for that portion in the light of God's presence, the portion all the saints of this present age will share together. We may be barely able to grasp what this inheritance means. Yet how full is the assurance that the Father has made us fit for it! The fitness is ours already though the inheritance is future.
Being qualified means more than a legal right of entry:
Through redemption He has given us title to the inheritance. He has also fitted us for it, by giving us a new life that fully suits the holy character of the inheritance. That inheritance lies in pure light, and light shows everything as it really is. The believer is completely at home there. An unbeliever could not bear it, since light would expose his guilt.
Paul did not write only "the inheritance of the saints." The two extra words are deliberate:
Sharing the portion of the saints in light is a most wonderful favour. Yet the Apostle says it freely of these Colossians, whom he was about to rebuke very solemnly in the next chapter… He puts it "in light" on purpose, to show how complete the effect of God's work in Christ is. He does not say only "the inheritance", because that word by itself would not carry the thought of unsparing holiness, as light does. And this portion is not on earth, or even merely in the heavens, but in the light where God Himself dwells… Law always puts God at a distance. So here the Father is brought forward.
Because the fitness is finished, spiritual progress belongs to a different category altogether:
It is not that there is no progress; there ought to be… But you never find progress mixed up with being made fit. Progress belongs to experience and God's government. Being made fit belongs to Christ's work and to our being with Him… There is no progress in the value of Christ's blood-shedding. There is no progress in the life I have received; that is not its nature, though the way it shows itself ought to grow. There must be daily progress in our walk. But our fitness is the work of God… The poor thief on the cross goes straight to paradise, made in one moment a fit companion for Jesus throughout eternity.
There is also a fitness that is conditional. The two must not be mixed:
The first — being made fit for the inheritance — is absolute and unconditional. The second — fitness for the kingdom — is strictly conditional. To look back from the plough shows unfitness. The first is the fruit of God's pure and boundless grace, and we thank the Father for this immense blessing. The second lies wholly in the line of responsibility — holding the plough of service — and depends on faithfulness on our part.
Commentators differ on how far the phrase reaches. Hole limits it to the saints of this present age; another reading is wider:
Made fit "to share in the inheritance of the saints in light" — absolutely, and now. The "saints in light" take in all the saints, not only those who make up the church. The inheritance here is close in thought to 1 Peter 1:4, and different from Ephesians 1.
- Father — Law always puts God at a distance, so here the Father is brought forward. Thanks go to Him as Father.
- Made — Not being made, not going to be made: made. The fitness is already ours, though the inheritance is still ahead.
- Light — "In light" shows how complete God's work in Christ is. The portion is in the light where God Himself dwells.
- Fit — Redemption gives the title, and a new life gives the suitability; the thief on the cross received both in one moment.
- Then serve — Fitness for the inheritance is unconditional. Fitness for the kingdom's service depends on faithfulness. Never confuse the two.
who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated [us] into the kingdom of the Son of his love
The verse describes a move that has already happened: a rescue out of one realm and a placement into another. Three questions follow: who did it, when it happened, and what this kingdom is like.
The verbs look back on something already settled. One writer points to when it took effect.
And more than that: "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love." This is not a gradual deliverance, but a deliverance accomplished. Both the deliverance and the move into His kingdom happen when we believe on Christ. There is a power of darkness. Satan is the ruler of darkness, and the unsaved sinner belongs to this power of darkness.
The darkness is not simply gloom. It is a rule with a ruler, and its grip works by keeping people in the dark about God.
We are not only made fit for the share of the saints in light. The Father has also delivered us from the authority of darkness. Satan and his agents are "the rulers of the darkness of this world". Blinded by Satan, the world is in "darkness" — ignorance of God — despite all its civilization, discoveries, and inventions.
Older translations read "the authority of darkness" and "the Son of His love" where the ESV has "the domain of darkness" and "his beloved Son." That authority works through very ordinary things.
The power of darkness is the rule of Satan over this world. By vanity, money, even knowledge — by everything going on around them — he blinds the eyes of men and keeps his power over them. He uses all these different things to keep man without God.
Forgiveness and new birth are real, but this verse claims something further — a change of position, not only a change of record.
It is a total taking us out of the place we were in. The blood has put away my sins, and I truly am born of God. But there is more. I have been moved out of the kingdom of Satan, who rules the darkness of this world, and into the kingdom of the Son of God's love. This is the only place where the kingdom is given this name, set in contrast with the kingdom of Satan. I was a slave of Satan, and I have been taken right out of it all.
The verse could have said God moved us into the light. That would be true. It says something warmer.
"And has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love." So we have not only light but love, the two essential names of God. I have both according to Christ. I have been delivered from the power of darkness, and I am brought not simply into the light, but also into the kingdom where all God's love displays itself in the Son of His love. That is where I live.
Being moved into a kingdom is not being set loose. The word "kingdom" carries authority — and who the King is to His Father shapes that authority.
The very thought of "kingdom" brings in the idea of rule. We are not saved to be lawless, of course, but to come under the rule of the Son. The full height of the Sonship glory of Jesus governs everything in this realm, including the lives of those brought into it. But behind all His authority and dignity is His Father's love. He is the Son of the Father's love.
The change is settled even where a believer's experience lags behind it.
The believer is no longer in darkness. He does not walk in darkness, but in the light. How much room he gives the light in his heart and life is another matter altogether. Even so, he is completely delivered from the authority of darkness. Satanic power no longer has authority over him. Satan remains his cunning enemy, but not his master. His Master now is the Son of the Father's love. This part of the kingdom of God includes only true believers.
Escape by our own power was never an option. So how was the move made?
The point is, how has this been reached? The answer is, by redemption… we were under "the authority of darkness." So we belonged to the kingdom of Satan. Escape by any power or cleverness of our own was impossible. Our sins shut us out from God and at the same time made us the hopeless captives of Satan.
- Captive — Sin left us shut out from God and held by an enemy we had no power to escape.
- Rescued — The Father acted. The deliverance was finished, not begun, the moment we believed.
- Transferred — God did not just cleanse us and leave us where we were. He took us out of one kingdom and placed us in another.
- Loved — The verse does not name the new realm light. It names it the kingdom of the Son the Father loves — light and love together.
- Ruled — A kingdom means a King. Satan may remain an enemy, but he is no longer master; the Son now holds the authority over our lives.
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins;
In verses 12 and 13 Paul thanks the Father for three gifts: fitness for the inheritance, rescue from darkness, and a place in the Son's kingdom. Verse 14 gives the reason all of it can stand, and names two things the believer already holds — held in a Person, not in himself.
Verses 12 and 13 describe where God has put us. This verse explains how He could righteously do it.
Third, this verse reminds us of the righteous ground on which God made us fit for light and moved us into the kingdom of love. Christ's work on the cross cleared away everything that stood between us and the blessing. So we can say, "In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
So Paul is not praying for these blessings. He is thanking God for them.
These blessings are not a matter for prayer but a theme for praise. They set out the position and relationships the Father's grace gives the believer through the work of Christ. That position and those relationships come from Christ's work, so they must be as perfect as that work. We may grow in our grasp of them, but in the blessings themselves there can be no growth.
Older translations add "through His blood" here. Commentators say those words belong to Ephesians, and that Colossians is doing something different: summing up the blessing.
The common text added "Through His blood" here, and our version followed it, but the phrase really belongs to Ephesians. There is greater fullness in Ephesians than in Colossians. So Ephesians shows us how we can be blessed in this way despite our sins, since they enter into the account there. But here Paul is just summing up the blessing.
Each of the two words has its own precise meaning.
Every believer has this redemption and forgiveness now. Redemption is the total release of a person from bondage by a price paid — the price of the blood of Christ. Forgiveness of sins is a complete discharge of the things by which we had offended our Creator. Nothing is held against us, for the blood of Christ has answered for it all.
Redemption is more than a purchase.
A slave may be bought and still be a slave. But to be redeemed is to be not only bought, but actually brought out of slavery into freedom.
The word also marks out who is included.
It is not just a price paid, which might as yet have no answer in those purchased. Redemption is a state you enter, not merely a title Christ claims. No one is redeemed unless there is an effect produced — present deliverance from the enemy and the forgiveness of sins, though it goes further than that.
Ephesians uses the same words in a different setting. Here they come right after the rescue out of darkness.
In Ephesians it is put in a more general way. In Colossians it seems connected above all with cleansing us from evil — the evil of the kingdom of Satan. Here the forgiveness mentioned first has more to do with bringing us out of the dark kingdom of Satan, under the power of the kingdom of God's dear Son.
Darby reads this verse as a starting point, not a goal. That settles a question many people carry for years: what happens to sins not yet committed?
I take verse 14 as the very starting-point — the forgiveness of sins. We get the blessed truth here, the first truth, if you like: grace, joy, and peace, with complete forgiveness through Christ. He has come down to us and redeemed us out of the condition we were in.
The more we go on from day to day, the more we see how important it is to get hold of this, elementary truth though it is. There is so much seeking after an unfinished forgiveness now. When people think of the sins they have not yet committed, the question comes up: "What about the future?" Then various ways of getting rid of them come into their minds.
From verse 15 onward Paul piles up the greatness of Christ. Verse 14 is where a reader must stand to see any of it.
The first chapter of Colossians sets out a rich array of the glories of the Son of the Father's love. These glories are introduced with "In whom we have redemption — the forgiveness of sins." We must first enjoy the forgiveness of sins before we can know the glories of the Son, and the grace, power and glory of God.
- Ground. The cross cleared away everything that stood between us and the blessing. That is the righteous basis for verses 12–13.
- Price. Redemption is release from bondage by a price paid. A slave may be bought and still be a slave; to be redeemed is to be brought out into freedom.
- Possession. We have these blessings now. They are not requests to pray over but facts to praise for, and they are as perfect as Christ's work, so they cannot grow.
- Completeness. Forgiveness fully discharges the things by which we offended our Creator. Taken as the starting point, it ends the hunt for some further remedy for future sins.
- Doorway. The glories of the Son, spread out from verse 15 on, come into view only from inside this forgiveness.
who is image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
because by him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or authorities all things have been created by him and for him.
The verse opens with "for" — it is the reason behind the title just given to Christ, the firstborn of all creation. Everything that exists, from the dust of earth to the unseen ranks of heaven, comes from Him and exists for Him.
The title "firstborn" is not a claim that Christ was the earliest thing made. It states rank, and this verse supplies the reason for that rank.
But Colossians 1 calls Him not only the "Image of God" but the "Firstborn of all creation." Even if He had been the last to be born, He would still hold the Firstborn's place. Here is the reason: He created all! And when the Creator-Son comes into His creation, He must have the first place.
The sweeping language of this verse is deliberate. It fences off any suggestion that Christ Himself belongs among the things made.
In this detailed description of the Son's creative work, the Spirit leaves no loophole for unbelieving man to suggest an exception that might seem to disprove His claim: the Son of the Father's love is the Creator of the whole creation. He created all things Himself, in His own right, and as the instrument of God's purpose and glory. So, according to the Spirit's teaching, nothing can cross the fixed barrier between the Son, the Creator, on one side, and the created things He produced on the other.
Three small words carry the weight of the verse. Older English translations blur the first one.
Verse 16 states this great fact in a threefold way, using three different prepositions: in, by and for. In our Authorized Version the first preposition is "by," just like the second. Word for word, though, it is "in." Look this passage up in Darby's New Translation and you will find footnotes. They tell us that "in" means "characteristic power": "He was the One whose intrinsic power characterized the creation. It exists as His creature." They also tell us that "by" means He was "the active Instrument," and that "for" means He is "the End" for which creation exists.
That first preposition means the universe carries His stamp.
He created the whole creation, the "all things," including thrones and so on, to bear some mark of His glory — each detail in its own measure. Suppose we knew the language of the heavens above our heads, or of the earth beneath our feet, as He created them. Then every form of life, every atom, every colour, every shape, every sound and every authority would tell us something of the wisdom and glory of Christ.
The four terms name positions of office, seen and unseen. Older versions call the last two "principalities" and "powers."
Whether they are thrones, the highest officials; or dominions, rulers over parts of God's vast universe; or principalities, lesser authorities; or powers, every angelic being glorying in its strength, fallen and unfallen — though all were unfallen when He created them.
Writers admit the exact difference between the four is beyond us — and that this does not weaken the argument.
What may be the real distinction between thrones, dominions, principalities and powers we do not know, but we do know that they all owe their very existence to our Lord Jesus. Twice over in this one verse is it stated that He is the Creator of "all things."
The closing words rule out the idea of Christ as a workman serving someone greater.
He is not a lesser workman creating for the glory of a higher Master, for a God above Himself, as Arianism later pretended. He is the End of created things as well as their immediate Source. When a creature lives for Him, it finds there both the explanation and the rule of its own being.
Some later taught that Christ was Himself a creature. That claim cannot survive this phrase.
He is Creator, not created, and all created things are not only by but for Him. Did He, a creature, create all things for Himself? What is left then for God?
Teachers at Colossae offered a religion of ranked spirit-beings that pushed Christ down the ladder.
The Colossian heresy turned on a subtle error, a false mysticism that only a privileged few could enter. It set out to explain evil and creation. God is good and matter is evil, so a descending series of angelic orders (principalities and powers) must connect God with the universe. The result was that the Son of God lost His throne and angels received worship.
One day every seat of power He made will stand for Him.
In the end, someone who represents Christ will fill every throne in the universe. All will be conformed to His image and represent Him. And every place of lordship will be held for the glory of Christ.
- Reason — "For" explains the title before it. Christ ranks first over creation because He made it, not because He was made first.
- In Him — creation bears His stamp. He formed every atom and every authority to show something of His wisdom and glory.
- By Him — He is the active hand behind everything in heaven and earth, seen and unseen, from the dust to the highest thrones.
- For Him — He is the goal, not a workman building for someone greater. Each creature finds the point of its existence in Him.
- Therefore — no spirit-being, philosophy or angelic order stands alongside Him. One day every throne in the universe will represent Him.