Four of Paul’s epistles were written while he was a prisoner in Rome. One of those epistles was sent to the church at Colossae. Colossae was a city in the Roman province of Asia, approximately 100 miles east of Ephesus and just below Laodicea. It seems the church at Colossae was doing okay from a moral standpoint, but it was having some problems concerning false teachers. The false teachings that were causing problems for the church related to three areas—human philosophies, Judaism, and Gnostic leanings, especially with regard to esoteric knowledge.
All of these problems in Colossae sprang forth from the idea that the gospel is imperfect and incomplete, especially as it related to redemption. In the first chapter of Colossians, Paul emphasizes that when it comes to redemption, Christ, our Redeemer, has preeminence over philosophies, Judaism, and any form of Gnosticism.
If you want to be redeemed, the only One that you need is Jesus. If the Judaizing teachers at Colossae realized this, the problem of binding the Law of Moses on others would go away. People do not need to be circumcised, observe special holy days, or keep the Sabbath. They need only to rely on the Son of God and His redeeming blood for redemption.
If you want to be redeemed, you do not need to obtain special knowledge or secret passwords as those with Gnostic leanings taught. All you need to do is accept Jesus as your Savior by obeying the gospel because, when it comes to redemption, He has the words of eternal life (John 6:68).
How do we know that Jesus is preeminent in redemption and that He is all we need to be saved and go to heaven? It is because He has already delivered us from the darkness of sin and transferred us into the kingdom of God (Colossians 1:13). The word transferred would resonate with the Jews especially because it means to carry away. In times past, when one empire won a victory over another, it was the custom to take the population of the defeated country to the conqueror’s land. Thus, the people of Israel were carried away into Assyrian captivity, and the people of Judah were carried away into Babylonian captivity.
To the Jews, this word would have a negative connotation; but, for us it is positive. We were in the kingdom of Satan and under the dominion of his darkness, but the devil has been defeated, and we have been carried away to a new country—to a new kingdom where the glorious light of God’s Son shines forth. We have been translated from darkness to light (we were blind, but now we see). We have been translated from the slavery of sin to the freedom of forgiveness (we were in bondage, but now we’re free). We have been carried from the land of the lost to the country of Christianity (we were lost, but now we are found). What made it all possible? Was it special knowledge or a law that was contrary to us (Judaism)? No! It was Jesus, for He is preeminent in our redemption.
How were we redeemed by Christ? Again, it was not by the philosophies of man, the Law of Moses, or some kind of esoteric knowledge. It was by the precious blood that He shed for us on the cross, resulting in the forgiveness of our sins when we obeyed the gospel (Colossians 1:14; Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 18-19).
Thank God for Christ, our Redeemer! Without Him, we would have no hope of redemption.
As you wind down for the night, think about these things