GlobalChristians

Eternity 83 - The Saints In The Light

Colossians 1:12-14 ASV giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; (13) who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love; (14) in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins:

Christians have been made to be: in the light, out of the darkness, into the Kingdom and in Christ's redemption. Let's look at each of these four in turn:

Partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light
The light is the place of visibility and purity and goodness, a place without shadows and darkness and pain. 1 John says: And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5 ASV ). The Good News message is about the nature of God, the message Jesus told the apostles and which John announces is this "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all". In God there is not a trace of the slightest form of darkness not even grumbling, there is no meanness, no hateful vindictiveness, no pettiness, no corruption, unreliability, no folly. There is just pure love, pure justice, pure grace. Now Paul says that our inheritance is "in light". It partakes of the purity and goodness of God and of Heaven. It is utterly unsullied, pure, undefiled, unfading and immortal, kept in heaven for us ( 1Peter 1:4).

Delivered us out of the power of darkness
The darkness - Satan and his cohorts, does not have power over Christians. We have been delivered from his power. We have been released from prison. Our spirits first, then our souls and finally our bodies will be delivered from the power of the Accuser and the power sin and death. We will be filled with life and immortality and cry "Death where is thy power..". While Satan may steal, kill and destroy and may wreck the health and marriages and finances of Christians, his power is limited and his power is not permanent. Because we are in Christ there will be a day when his power will not touch us at all. There will be a day when the sin in my members will be dealt with and the battle with sin will be over and glory will reign in my mortal body. In another sense we sometimes are in the power of darkness - held by an addiction or enslaved by a sin. in such cases we need to "reckon ourselves dead to sin" and claim the fact that we are delivered from the power of darkness - no occult force, no demon, no bondage, no sin, no fear has any right to have power over us. We have been delivered, we are in the light, and we need to claim that by faith.

Translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love
Translated means to transfer. We have been transferred from a dictatorial enslaving kingdom of darkness to a kingdom of light and love and belovedness. The ruler of our new Kingdom is "His Son" - Jesus and He rules with love and mercy and grace and healing is in his wings. We are now in a safe place. Furthermore we are in a Kingdom that has God's love poured out on it for its Sovereign is His beloved Son and God blesses the Kingdom of His beloved Son. We are in a place that radiates health and well-being and security and which casts out all fear. We are in a new Kingdom under a new way of living that is joyous and free and grand and wonderful. We are not half-there, we are not going there, we are already there. We "have been transferred", or as Hebrews says "you have come to the Heavenly Zion" or as Paul says to the Ephesians " you have been raised with Christ and seated with Him the heavenly realms". We are already in this Kingdom - and what privileges go with it. Matthew 11:11 GNB "I assure you that John the Baptist is greater than anyone who has ever lived. But the one who is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than John.". [For more on this see my article on the Ascension of Jesus Christ http://www.aibi.ph/articles/ascension.htm]

In whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.
The passage in Exodus about the slaughter of "all the first-born of Egypt" has particular meaning for me, because I am a first-born son . The first-born of Israel were protected by the blood of the Lamb, they were redeemed, they were purchased back from destruction (Exodus 13:1-15). By trusting in Jesus we are protected from the destruction of the judgment of God on all sin. This comes at a high price, the blood of Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God. Again let's notice the past tense here - "we have our redemption". We have got it. We do not earn it in Purgatory, we don't attain it through a thousand good works, we have our redemption and our sins are forgiven when we believe and this washing away of sin, which has occurred previously, is acknowledged in baptism. Baptism would be meaningless if our sins were not already dealt with. We have our redemption and we have our forgiveness because we are in Christ.

On a final note the combination of all four of the above means we are spiritually safe from Satan's attacks. He cannot attack us with accusation because our sins are forgiven, he cannot rule over us because we are in another Kingdom, his dark power over us is broken and we are delivered from it, and we now dwell in the light where he cannot come and our inheritance is there and cannot be touched by evil. Our redemption is a marvelous work of God, wrought in Christ Jesus, praise His name!

Blessings and Praises!

John Edmiston