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.