Sharing in Christ's Afflictions

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

28 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. 29 To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. (Colossians 1:24-29, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
In the Sunday morning Life Group, we are currently discussing Paul's letter to the Colossians. (BTW, we would love for you to join us on Sunday mornings! We meet in Room 203 between 9:00-10:15am. We enjoy a sweet time of fellowship and prayer together before diving into the Scriptures, discussing and learning from one another's experience. We'd love for you to come share in our fellowship!) Anyways… While I was attempting to prepare for Sunday's discussion, I happened upon today's passage—a passage that carries a very similar message to what we've been discussing the last couple of days.

In today's Scripture, Paul is explaining the nature of his personal ministry to the young church in Colossae. Paul didn't found the church in Colossae. He didn't know them personally, apart from a handful of people whom he may have met on his journeys. He is writing to encourage them in their new-found faith, and particularly to stir up in them the spirit of gratitude and thankfulness that Paul regards as such a central, key marker of Christian living.

In Colossians 1:15-20, Paul sets out the very basis and foundation of the Christian faith. He describes, in a beautifully poetic manner, the supremacy of Jesus and his finished work. Then, in verses 21-23, like someone who has drawn a map, Paul puts a marker on it saying: "You are here." The Colossian Christians have been brought into a whole new reality—they've been given a new identity in Christ—and Paul wants them to hold fast to this new reality. Now, in verses 24-29, he turns to describe the markers of his ministry. Remarkably, he begins with the extraordinary claim that he is rejoicing in his sufferings, which are on behalf of the church. Then, he goes on to say something that gave me pause: "I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church" (verse 24).

When I first read that I had to do a double-take. I rubbed my eyes, stared with disbelief, and scratched my head with bewilderment. I wondered: What is "still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions"? and How can Paul "fill up in [his] flesh" what is lacking? and Didn't Jesus pay it all? and What can Paul do to add to the finished work which Christ accomplished on the cross? Well… after much questioning, contemplation, and study, I've come to understand that the answer is that Paul isn't adding to Christ's work, but sharing in Christ's work.

As an apostle and minister of Christ, Paul isn't somebody who simply talks about the sufferings of Christ. No, in his own life and struggle, he engages with the world in such a way that the life and struggle of Christ are re-embodied in him. And if he had been asked for further explanation, he would've quickly said that it came about through the work of the Holy Spirit, making Christ present in Paul himself.

So, Paul understands his sufferings, both by analogy with the sufferings of Christ, which are themselves on behalf of the church on the world, and also as participating in those messianic sufferings. It's as if he, as the leader of the church in that part of the world, is drawing the enemy fire onto himself, so that the young church may have a breathing space, a respite, a space and time to grow. He is probably in prison when he is writing this letter, and he sees the powers of the world doing their worst to him. His response is: "Well, as long as they are concentrating on me, then Christ's body, the church, can grow until it is strong enough to stand on its own feet."

For this reason, he is rejoicing. He sees the outworking of the pattern of Christ—the pattern of suffering, and glory, and resurrection. This is what he means in verse 25, when he says that he became the servant of the church according to God's commission, in order to make the word of God fully known to the church. For Paul, presenting "the word of God in its fullness" is never simply transferring intellectual ideas or theological concepts from one brain to another brain, from his mouth to people's ears. Rather, it is a matter of embodying the living and active word of God, the word which is a person, Jesus Christ.

Then Paul says that this word of God is a "mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord's people"(verse 26). This idea of a "mystery" is something that may have been familiar to the Colossians in another context. According to New Testament scholar NT Wright, there were many religions in ancient Turkey that we would loosely call "mystery religions," in which some hidden secret was revealed to the initiates, supposedly giving them a new depth of spirituality. But God's ministry was not like that. It was not a private religion, but a secret plan that the creator of the universe had conceived, way, way, way back, and had begun to implement long ago by calling Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He continued this plan through Moses, David and the prophets, and disclosed it, fully and gloriously, when he sent his Son to live and die and rise again for the world.

This, Paul says, is the real secret of the universe, now revealed to you, the believers in Colossae, and to all God's people: God has chosen "to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (verse 27). "Among the Gentiles": the Colossians—who were formerly pagans, not Jews—had received the great blessing from the God of Israel! Yes, Paul says, this was part of the glory of it. Part of the mystery, the delicious secret, was that God had planned as the creator of the world, to bless the whole world through Israel. And he would do so through the Jewish Messiah, the one who was called the Christ.

The heart of this mystery, this glorious, rich secret is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." What is that glory? Just this: that the Colossian Christians, a small group of people in a tiny little town a hundred miles from the sea in western Turkey, would become truly human beings. They would begin to reflect the image and glory of God. They would become the people God made them to be.

And how are they had become all this? Paul's answer is that the life of the Messiah himself is implanted in them by the Holy Spirit. Through him they are assured that his life will ultimately transform them, so that they become, as it were, younger brothers and sisters of the Messiah, little "Christs" in their turn.

This Messiah, this Christ, is the person Paul proclaims (verses 28-29). He warns them, teaches them, "with all wisdom," in order to present them, "fully mature"—complete, perfect, whole in Christ. The word "mature" says it all. It is God's design that each one of his children should become fully what God intends them to be: fully mature human beings, perfect Christians, complete within his purpose.

This is Paul's aim. This is why he is toiling and struggling with every last ounce of his energy. That might sound like the statement of a "driven person," a hopeless workaholic, but Paul has discovered that his energy does not come from his own resources. Just as the glory for the Colossians is "Christ in [them]," so, the glory for Paul is Christ in him—the one who inspires him, who gives him energy, and who works through him by his Spirit so that he can teach and live and suffer and rejoice with the Colossians. His longing is that they, in turn—through learning who they are in Christ, and through learning to thank and praise God for their new identity—can now impart their precious knowledge to the world around them.

By God's grace, may we, too, be granted a full understanding of who we are in Christ. May we be granted the grace to understand the incredible reality of "Christ in us, the hope of glory." And may we be empowered to grow to complete maturity in Christ, so that even in our sufferings and struggles and pains we might live out the life of Christ in our world today.


PRAYER:
Loving Father, open our eyes that we may see and understand your secret, mysterious plan, in Christ, to save the world. And give us the energy and the strength and the fortitude and the wisdom and the grace to play our part in your plan.


WHO AM I?
I am Tres Sansom, and this passage brought to mind a John Ortberg book I read a few years ago entitled The Me I Want to Be. As with all Ortberg books, this one was super easy to read yet filled with great insight and practical suggestions for learning to live "in the flow of the Spirit," as the author puts it. I highly recommend!