There are several more themes about Jesus that Paul presents in his letter that we don’t have time to cover here. Paul presents Jesus as the mystery of the Father,[1] our proclamation,[2] the resurrection,[3] our mediator,[4] the fulfiller of Old Testament law,[5] and our sanctifier.[6] It is clear, though, that as you read the correspondence from Paul to the Colossians, you see that they were receiving a clear, concise, complete, and authoritative teaching on several themes that would help form their (and our) understanding of the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Paul writes the letter as an “apostle of Jesus Christ…to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae” (Col. 1:1). He gives thanks for their “faith in Christ Jesus” (Col. 1:4). Paul goes on to give them deep doctrinal truths about the person and work of Jesus.[7] He speaks of his own ministry for and in Jesus.[8] He helps the Colossians see the errors in the heresies about Jesus.[9] Lastly, he ends his letter by helping the Colossians see what a life lived in Christ looks like.[10] The letter to the Colossians was written by a minister of Jesus, to a people of Jesus, to give a better understanding of Jesus, so that the Colossians could learn to walk in Jesus. From start to finish, Paul’s letter to the Colossians is all about Jesus.

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[1] Col. 1:27; 2:2; 4:3

[2] Col. 1:28; 4:3

[3] Col. 2:12; 3:1

[4] Col. 3:17

[5] Col. 2:16-19

[6] Col. 1:28; 2:7; 3:16

[7] Col. 1:9-22

[8] Col. 1:23-19

[9] Col. 2:1-23

[10] Col. 3:1-4:18

In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, it is clear that he wants them see that Jesus is their propitiation. Wayne Grudem defines propitiation as “a sacrifice that bears God’s wrath to the end and in so doing changes God’s wrath toward us into favor.”[1] This is a concept that would have been familiar to Paul’s Jewish readers in Colossae. Every year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would offer a goat as a sacrifice for the sins of the people in order to deter the wrath of God.[2]

Paul clearly shows the Colossians that they were under the wrath of God because of their sin. Paul tells them to “put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming” (Col. 3:5-6). The earthly things that are in them, their sin, will lead to nothing more than the wrath of God. Wright clarifies:

Destruction, indeed, will be the result for those who disregard the warning: because of these, the wrath of God is coming. It is not the case that God happens to dislike this sort of behavior and so has decided as it were arbitrarily, to punish it. On the contrary. ‘The wrath of God’, it hardly needs saying, is not a malicious or capricious anger, but the necessary reaction of true holiness, justice and goodness to wickedness, exploitation and evil of every kind.[3]

Paul wants the Colossians to know that their sin will lead to the wrath of God. On the other hand, Paul doesn’t simply present the wrath of God. He also presents Jesus as their propitiation.

Paul tells them that God the Father is “making peace by the blood of [Jesus’] cross” (Col. 1:20). In the same way that a goat’s blood was offered on the Day of Atonement for the sins of Israel to hold back the wrath of God, it is that Jesus’ blood is offered on the Colossians part to bring peace with God. Unlike the goat’s blood though, Jesus’ sacrifice was done once and for all “by canceling the record of debt…nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:14). It is through the cross that Jesus becomes a propitiation for the Colossians taking the wrath of God upon himself.

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[1] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1995), 1252.

[2] Lev. 16:8-9, 15

[3] Wright, Colossians and Philemon, 135.

Paul also displays Jesus as creator in Colossians. He states that “by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities” (Col. 1:16). Paul wants to hammer home the point that everything was created by Jesus.  In fact, he goes on to restate his point. He says that Jesus was the agent and purpose of creation as “all things were created through him and for him” (Col. 1:16).   William Hendriksen explains:

All things – it makes no difference whether they be material or spiritual – were created in him, that is, with reference to the Son, the firstborn. As two walls and the bricks in these walls are arranged in relation to the cornerstone, from which they derive their angle of direction, so it was in relation to Christ that all things were originally created. He is their Point of Reference. Moreover, it is through him, as the Agent in creation, and with a view to him or for him as creation’s Goal that they owe their settled state.[1]

The Apostle Paul wanted to make sure there was no confusion about Jesus’ place in creation. He wanted to make it very clear to the Colossians that Jesus was creator and not creation.

Paul also goes on to emphasize Jesus’ intimate relationship with his creation. The next verse states that “in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17). Jesus didn’t simply create the heavens and the earth to only walk away. Instead, Jesus sustains creation. Wright comments on Col. 1:17 saying, “The world is now sustained and upheld by Christ…The verb, again, is in the perfect, indicating that ‘everything’ has held together in him and continues to do so. Through him the world is sustained, prevented from falling into chaos. No creature is autonomous. All are God’s servants (Ps. 119:91) and dependents (Ps. 104).”[2]

Jesus’ act of sustaining is also focused on the Christians in Colossae. Paul states that “when Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:4). It is only the life that is lived in Christ that ultimately leads to glory with him. Paul refers to Jesus’ sustaining power elsewhere in Colossians. Paul is “struggling with all his energy that [Jesus] powerfully works within me” (Col. 1:29). The Colossians are told that since they have received Jesus Christ, they are now to “walk in Him” (Col. 2:6). Jesus is their savior and sustainer.

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[1] Hendriksen, Phillippians / Colossians / Philemon, 73.

[2] Wright, Colossians and Philemon, 73.

What would it have been like to be one of the first recipients of a letter from the apostle Paul? To be a member of the small growing movement of Jesus followers? To receive some of the first teachings about Jesus and his church? Receiving from the apostles letters of encouragement as you struggled in your early faith? Would you know that what you were holding in your hands would later make up our modern-day Bible? Many of the churches that Paul wrote to were struggling and fighting with false teachers and false doctrine that was creeping into the body. The apostle would write to these churches to encourage and correct them in order to help them grow in Christ. This is the case with his letter to the Colossians.

The book of Colossians was written sometime around 62 A.D. by the Apostle Paul while he was imprisoned in Rome.[1] [2] It is interesting that Paul wrote a letter to the church in Colossae. Colossae was a small, rural town in the valley of the Lycus that was hidden in the shadow of the greater cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis.[3] Furthermore, there is no record that he ever visited Colossae. He even states that they had never seen him “face to face” (Col. 2:1).[4] To top it off, “[h]e was not the founder of their church. That honor fell to Epaphras, who was a native of the area and had labored for its evangelization.”[5]

So why would Paul have taken the opportunity to write to the church in Colossae? It is clear from the letter that Epaphras traveled to Rome to visit with Paul, to seek his wisdom, and to encourage him with the growth of the church in the area. There is common understanding among scholars that there was a growing heresy in the church at Colossae. Therefore, it is thought that Paul wrote Colossians as a letter of encouragement to the church. Where exactly the heresy came from or what it was, no one really knows. According to N.T. Wright,

Scholars have long held that Colossians was written to combat a particular danger within the young church. False teachers were inculcating spurious doctrines and practices, demoting Christ from his position of unique pre-eminence, and encouraging various dubious mystical and ascetic religious practices. But there is no agreement on the identity of these teachers or the nature of their teaching.[6]

In general, Paul’s defense and doctrine in Colossians went against both common Judaic and Pagan distortions about the person and work of Jesus. Therefore, Paul’s writing in Colossians focuses heavily on Jesus. This focus gives Colossians a very heavy Christology (the study of the person and works of Jesus Christ).

Donald Guthrie makes this point very vividly in his book New Testament Introduction when he says the following:

The epistle contains a high Christology. Christ is pre-eminent over all other creatures and over creation itself. In fact, all things were not only created by him but for him. He is seen at the centre of the universe, sovereign over all principalities and powers, over all agencies, that is to say, which might challenge his authority. Not only so, he is the image of God and possessor of the fullness of God, and these statements could not fail to exalt him to an equality with God. He is further described as the Head of the church, which is conceived of as his body. The Christological passage (Col. 1:15-19) in which all these ideas are expressed is followed immediately by a statement regarding Christ’s redemptive work (1:20 ff.) and this work is supported by the further statement in 2:14 that in the cross Christ triumphed over all his enemies. Clearly Paul’s purpose is to demonstrate the immeasurable superiority of Christ, as contrasted with the inadequate presentation of him being advocated by the Colossian false teachers.[7]

The book of Colossians was written, by a man who served Jesus, to a church that wanted to follow Jesus so that they might know who Jesus truly is. This epistle, in the simplest and clearest way, is all about Jesus. So being a church in the first century that had never met or heard from Paul in person, what would they have learned from the Apostle Paul’s letter about the person and work of Jesus? In the coming weeks we will answer just that question on this blog. As you read the correspondence from Paul to the Colossians, you see they were receiving a clear, concise, complete, and authoritative teaching on several themes that would help form their (and our) understanding of the person and work of Jesus Christ.

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[1] John MacArthur Jr., Colossians and Philemon: New Testament Commentary
(Moody Publishers, 1992), 3.

[2] David Lipscomb, A Commentary on the New Testament Epistles: Ephesians Philippians, and Colossians (Nashville, Tennessee: Gospel Advocate Company, 1939), 245.

[3] Donald Guthrie, New Testament Introduction, Rev Upd Su. (InterVarsity Press, 1990), 564.

[4] Unless otherwise noted, all biblical quotations come from the English Standard Version.

[5] Walter A. Elwell and Robert W. Yarbrough, Encountering the New Testament: A Historical and Theological Survey (Baker Academic, 1998), 318.

[6] N. T. Wright, The Epistles of Paul to the Colossians and to Philemon: An Introduction and Commentary (IVP Academic, 2008), 23.

[7] Guthrie, New Testament Introduction, 571-572.