Rescue from the dominion of darkness
Colossians 1:13-20 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and
brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all
things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by
him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things
hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is
the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he
might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his
fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself
all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross.
Years ago, one of the large circuses featured a Bengal
tiger act. One night, the trainer went into the cage for his performance. All
went well, until the middle of the act. With tigers moving everywhere, the
power within the entire big top went out. For two minutes, that trainer was
locked in darkness with a cage full of ferocious, man-eating tigers.
Being cats, they could see him, but he couldn’t see
them. Even so, the trainer managed to survive. Afterwards, in an interview,
when he was asked how he had managed to make it through unscathed, he
responded: “I just kept cracking my whip and talking to them, until the lights
came on. I gambled on them not realizing I couldn’t see them.”
Over the years, I have seen a lot of people facing the
same situation as that trainer. No, they weren’t working with tigers, but they
were in the dark, and they were surrounded by any number of forces that could
bring them down and destroy them. They pretended they were O.K. and kept
yelling into the darkness, but they realized that they couldn’t maintain the
charade forever.
2015 definitely seemed like darkness had descended upon
our world. We were fearful of the beginning of World War III because of
Vladimir Putin invading Ukraine and Iran being allowed to have nuclear weapons.
We experienced terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. There were riots
in our streets. Black Lives Matter were holding protests in shopping malls. Our
university campuses erupted with shouts of “safe spaces.” We watched the
sickening videos of the horrors that go on in Planned Parenthood clinics. Our
president and congress didn’t seem to care and gave millions to this murderous
institution. The Supreme Court declared legal what God calls immoral and an
abomination.
You overlook the darkness hoping that it will get
better.
That worldly darkness pales in comparison to the darkness
you’ve felt within your own home. Mom is constantly stressed and easily
irritated. Dad comes home angry and ready to verbally unload on the first
victim he sees. The teens sulk in their rooms, connected to social media, but
distant from living human beings. The children act out so that they get some
attention with their naughty behavior. You can’t invite your brother to the
house because of his unchristian lifestyle choice. Grandpa’s cancer came back
with a vengeance. Grandma’s dementia is getting worse all the time.
You ignore the darkness pretending it isn’t that bad.
The church should be a haven of peace from all this
turmoil, but it isn’t. Confirmands lie directly to God’s face when they make
their confirmation vows, never once intending to step foot within the church
again. Members flaunt their sin in God’s face with their drunkenness, their
language, and their living together in sin. Other Christians fail to receive
God’s mercy in their pietistic leanings and so won’t forgive or share God’s
forgiveness with other sinners.
We avoid the darkness believing that it will improve.
We are living within the dominion of darkness. It feels
like an empire of evil. A territory of terror.
What we need is to have the lights turned on. … And
someone to get us out of our cage.
That is where our Lord comes in. After the sin of Adam
and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the Lord looked down the corridors of the
centuries and saw humanity wandering off into the darkness of damnation. But
the idea of those countless souls moving into the hallways of hell touched our
heavenly Father.
This is how the apostle Paul proclaims what God then did
to save us: “For he
has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of
the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of
sins.” Paul pictures humanity held captive by unbelief. We could not free
ourselves. God rescued us.
But God did not free us so that
we could go off on our own or be in a neutral condition in our relationship
with God. The Christian faith is truly counter-cultural. For the genius of God
is that what He declares to be is what He makes happen. That means we are not
sinners defined by our sin and condemned to live in the darkness we have
created for ourselves. God rescued us from the dominion of darkness. He brought
us into the kingdom of light. We now have a new identity and a new life. We
don’t have to live within the darkness anymore. We are children of the light.
God did this for sinful human
beings by one mighty act of love in human history. In the fullness of time, God
sent His Son into our world of sin and shame. God had called light out of
darkness at the beginning of creation. But a greater darkness overcame the world.
This was a spiritual darkness that covered all of creation. This darkness swept
over God’s creation like a raging flood, swallowing up everything in its path.
It distorted our hearts and minds, corrupted our desire and will, and made us
God’s enemies – captives of death and hell.
But just as God did not leave the
earth wrapped in darkness, so He did not abandon His creatures to sin’s
darkness, either. He sent His Son into the world to overpower it. And who is
this Son? “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all
creation.” The word “image” means more than mere likeness. Jesus is more than
like God. Jesus is God. He is the perfect expression, the very personification,
of God. Adam lost the image of God, but in Christ, the Second Adam, God’s image
is restored.
Jesus is not only the image of
God who existed before creation. He Himself is the Creator of all things. “For
by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were
created by him and for him.” All things in heaven were created by His power. So
were all things on earth, both living and non-living things, with mankind as
their glory and crown.
By Him all was created. Then He
became like the created in order to save His fallen creation.
Because Christ is the Creator,
all things in the physical and spiritual realms are subject to Him. The good
angels are dedicated to His service. The fallen angels live in terror of Him.
Their power cannot even begin to match the power of Christ, their Creator.
Whether angels of light or the demons of darkness, Christ has rank and
preeminence over everything that was created.
“He is before all things, and in
him all things hold together.” Christ created all things and He continues to
preserve them. There is a continuing interaction between Christ and the entire
universe. In Him all things hold together. The unity and order of the universe
and the laws of nature are the expressions of Christ’s will and power. If it
were not for that power, everything in the universe would fly apart and be
thrown into chaos. But in Christ they all wonderfully cohere.
The supremacy of Christ that
extends over the whole created universe also extends over His Church. “He is the
head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among
the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” As a body cannot
live without a head, so the Church cannot exist without Christ. He governs all
things in the universe in the Church’s interest.
Christ is the firstborn from
among the dead. Firstborn promises that many more people will be born from the
womb of the grave. He is the first. All the rest will follow Jesus’ footsteps
to a glorious resurrection from the dead.
Everything that Paul said about
Christ’s supremacy leads to this powerful statement: “For God was pleased to
have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all
things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through
his blood, shed on the cross.”
The Son of God, in whom all the
fullness of the divinity resides, came into this world of sin not to flaunt His
glory but to humble Himself and to shed His blood on Calvary’s cross. He came
to take the curse of mankind’s sin on Himself and to pay for its guilt. He did
this so that the broken relationship between sinners and God might be repaired
and reconciled. The relationship would go from one of hostility and enmity to
one of peace and family.
What we needed was for someone to
turn the lights on … and someone to get us out of the cage.
Jesus Christ is that someone!
The truths Paul has discussed
are primarily doctrinal. They express wonderful objective truths about Christ
and His Gospel. They are deep and can be difficult to understand. But they are
also practical, perhaps more than we at first realize. Think again about what
the great truths Paul has so forcefully emphasized here mean for our lives of
living within the dominion of darkness.
Jesus is supreme in the world
of creation. He created all things, and He governs all things and holds them
together with His almighty power. This assures us that, contrary to what we may
sometimes think, our world is not ruled by chaos. It is continually under the
command of our all-sufficient Lord and Savior. There is an eternal plan for our
lives. There is a divine purpose in all that happens in our world. A plan and a
purpose determined and brought to pass by our Savior who loves us enough to
rescue us from this present evil age.
Sin, evil humanity, and the
devil are not in control of this world. Jesus is. He sets limits on their
wicked activities. Nothing in this world – no terrorist menace, no military
conflict, no economic downturn, no troubles within the home – nothing in our
lives, including the worst imaginable tragedies, can separate us from our
Savior.
Even so, sometimes we still feel like we are swimming
through dark times. The more we focus on that darkness, the more we drown in
our doubts and fears. But when we focus on Jesus, the Light of the world, and trust
His saving power, He gives us new life. He turns the lights on. The darkness
scatters. The demons shriek. The devil scurries.
Day after day, Jesus is moving this world forward to
the end of the age. Then, by His almighty power, He will rescue us completely
and forever from the effects of sin and the consequences of our evil.
There is a blessed assurance in the fact that Jesus is
supreme in the world of salvation. Our rescue is complete. Our redemption is
paid for. Our salvation is absolute. The dominion of darkness is broken and the
lights are turned on.
Praise the one who breaks the darkness! Amen.
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