Verbs of God in the Colossians

God is a God who acts! Paul affirms the Colossians for their faith in the energizing of God – en ta energeias tou Theou. The decisive act of God was the raising of Him (Jesus) from the dead. God acted in history when He raised up the crucified man Jesus from death.

The first verbal actions of God in the lives of the Colossians are these: He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom (kingship) of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (1:13-14). Thereby, Paul says to the saints in Colossae, you have been qualified to share in the inheritance of the saints in light (1:12). To be delivered from … and to be transferred to the reign of He who is the very image of the invisible God (1:15-20) is beyond human ability. God must act.

Let us return to that energizing God described earlier (2:9-15). There Paul affirms again the One in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell bodily and then cites more verbs of God experienced by the Colossians: 1) You have been filled in Him who is the head of all rule and authority; 2) You were circumcised without human hands with the circumcision of Christ; 3) you were buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised up with him; 4) you who were dead … have been made alive together with him and forgiven of all trespasses.

As we look at all these acts of God through faith at baptism it calls us back to those first verbs of being delivered from … transferred to … and qualified for … (1:12-14). Could it be that these poetic hymn-like words were sung at baptisms of believers? And perhaps repeated when they gathered for meals of remembrance and thanksgiving?

A final question: Are those us and you back then applicable to you and us today? If so, can we afford to diminish the essentiality of baptism? Should not the assembly for worshipping this energizing God, for hearing his word, and for encouraging one another to live lives worthy of our Lord be a high priority in our busy lives?

—Tom Yoakum