Colossians: Christ's Supremacy

What the Gospel Creates

Paul's letter to the Colossians provides a powerful picture of what happens when the gospel takes root in a community. Unlike the individual transformation focus of Romans, Colossians reveals how the gospel creates and transforms an entire people. As the church at Colossae was a young church plant in hostile Roman culture, their transformation demonstrates the radical power of the gospel to create something beautiful and lasting.

A Secure Community That Loves

The first mark of gospel transformation is the creation of a secure community characterized by love. Paul expresses his thanksgiving for the Colossians in Colossians 1:3-5: "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven."

(What the Gospel Creates, 48:54) The gospel creates a people who, when they receive the gospel, have a newfound love for one another and for anyone who names the name of Jesus Christ. The gospel has created a secure people—they have a hope given to them, an eternal hope of heaven.

This transformation is remarkable when we consider the context. (What the Gospel Creates, 50:40) The Colossian church was set in a Roman culture that had everything stacked against the possibility of this happening. The Roman culture wanted nothing to do with King Jesus being called lord while Caesar was ruling and reigning over this area. To call Jesus Lord was to reject Caesar as such, and to reject all the other gods and ideologies of the day.

The security that believers have in their eternal inheritance frees them to love sacrificially. (What the Gospel Creates, 53:24) Paul describes this as "the hope laid up for you in heaven"—something stored in a secure place where it can't be taken, touched, or robbed. This security provides the foundation for genuine love to flourish in the community.

The Connection Between Security and Love

(What the Gospel Creates, 49:47) Because they have eternal life, they have love for one another—they're free to love others because God has loved them. Their concern has moved away from themselves because God has been concerned about them, and therefore they are now free to be concerned about other people.

This wasn't merely theoretical theology for the early church. (What the Gospel Creates, 52:12) Christians often welcomed one another into their own homes in order to protect one another against an aggressive Roman or Jewish society that was making attempts to imprison, intimidate, or even put certain Christians to death.

The Test of Authentic Faith

The presence of active love for God's people serves as a crucial indicator of genuine faith. (What the Gospel Creates, 54:13) If our faith in Jesus does not contain an active love for God's people, we have to ask ourselves: is it real faith, or are there some significant signs of unhealth to our faith? This aligns with Jesus' own words that the world would know his disciples by their love for one another.

A Beautiful Alternative

In a culture increasingly marked by isolation and loneliness, the gospel creates something that even secular observers find attractive. (What the Gospel Creates, 47:43) What the gospel creates has to be far more beautiful than the fictional community dynamics that people find appealing in entertainment. The church should embody a consistent community that works together and does ordinary beautiful things together.

(What the Gospel Creates, 48:23) What happens when the gospel renews a community? It creates something so compelling that it stands as a testimony to the transforming power of Christ—a secure people who are free to love sacrificially because their ultimate security rests not in circumstances or relationships, but in the eternal inheritance that awaits them in heaven.

This transformation begins with individuals but creates a community that reflects the character of Christ himself—marked by love, secured by hope, and sustained by faith in the One who has made all things new.