jonswales77

Jon Swales · @jonswales77

21st Apr 2014 from TwitLonger

Commenting on Col 1:15-20 "There is no shirking away from the obvious christological assertions made here. The devotion of Christians is not offered to a cultic figure, but to the Lord through whom and for whom the world was made. It is stupendous that the Nazarene who had been executed only thirty years earlier was now heralded and identified with the God of creation and reconciliation. There is no room for idolatry or pluralism. Jesus does not accept rivals and his supremacy has no limits. To quote Abraham Kuyper, there is nothing in the universe of which Jesus cannot say, “mine!” For members of the new covenant community, that means ordering their lives according to the teachings, symbols, story, mission, and purpose of their sovereign Lord. It means summoning an unbelieving world to faith and repentance in the one who commands their obedience and achieves their salvation. It means declaring to agents of evil and structures of injustice that people and their love for power will always succumb to the power of God’s love in Messiah. Thus, the body of Christ can engage those structures and institutions that create war, poverty, and injustice. For instance, Christian organizations like the International Justice Mission attempt to secure justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation, and other forms of violent oppression. The Jesus who is proclaimed by the global church as Lord and Redeemer brings good news to the poor and oppressed. The Messiah will bring justice to the world at the end of ages. Until then his people warn of this coming cataclysmic judgment and work concurrently against the inhumanities of humanity as a foretaste of that day."

Commenting on Col 1:15-20 Michael F. Bird, Colossians and Philemon (New Covenant Commentary Series; Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2009), 58–60.

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