Colossians 1:9-12 –

⁹And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; ¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. ¹³He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Introduction

I’ve been asked how long we’re likely to be in Colossians quite a few times already. It’s a reasonable question on several levels; one I wonder about myself. The short answer is that I don’t know. And one of the main reasons for that, is that it hinges on the question of how much of the theology/doctrine of Colossians am I going to preach.

This morning’s sermon is an example of what I mean. In this passage, Paul let the Colossians know that he was praying for them, asking God (among other things) to cause them to be ever “increasing in the knowledge of God” (v.10). As I hope to have made clear last week, knowledge of God is the most significant and critical knowledge of all. It is impossible to live in this world as it is and as we ought apart from knowing who God really is.

Paul most certainly understood that and said as much in this passage. In that way, he introduced the doctrine of God. What he did not do, however, is unpack that doctrine in any significant way. He’ll say more about God throughout the letter, but most of the knowledge of God he has in mind is merely assumed and asserted.

He does that often in this letter (introduces a doctrine, but does not expand on it). The question I’m faced with, then, once again, is how much do I expand on the doctrines Paul introduces.

There’s a risk in doing so too much. By doing so, I’d not be preaching Colossians as much as I’d be using Colossians as a launching point for a class on doctrine. That might be OK for Berea, but it is not OK for preaching. That kind of preaching undercuts our understanding of the diversity of the books of the Bible and it essentially devolves into topical preaching.

At the same time, there’s risk in preaching too little of Paul’s doctrine as well. The risks there are in not making plain all the things that would have been plain to the first audience and in undercutting the unity of the collected books of the Bible.

Finding the healthy path between those ditches is what I’m after. Pray for me.

As I unpack Paul’s doctrine of God, then, you’ll see the big ideas of this sermon: (1) God is who He is, (2) Who God is, is woven through every line of this letter, and (3) The nature and purpose of everything is rooted in who God is. The main takeaways are to (1) Prayerfully and carefully learn who God really is and (2) Order everything according to that.

God Is Who He Is

God is who He is, who God is, is woven through every line of Colossians, and most significantly and staggeringly, the nature and purpose of everything is rooted in who God is. Given those truths, it ought to be self-evident that we really, really need to learn who God is.

Already in Colossians, Paul has assumed and asserted a handful of aspects of God’s nature. Consider what we find in that regard in just the first fourteen verses of the letter.

In 1:1 (and 25) we catch a glimpse of Paul’s belief in God’s sovereignty when he describes his apostleship/life’s mission as having come “by the will of God.” We see basically the same thing in the fact that Paul prays to God in 1:3 and 9 as the one who hears and can respond.

That Paul understood God to be gracious and peaceful are assumed in 1:2, 6.

Paul knew God to be generous and good. Those attributes are embedded in 1:3-5, 12 where Paul gives thanks to God for granting faith, hope, and love to the Colossians.

God is the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Paul notes in passing in 1:3.

Woven throughout 1:3-14 (5, 6, 9) is Paul’s conviction that God is Truth.

In 1:8 we see that Paul has an understanding of the Holy Spirit as the giver of mutual love within the church.

God is worthy of our full devotion for Paul (1:9).

Paul knew God to be omnipotent, having “all power” and “glorious might” (1:11, 29).

And God is the King who delivers sinners from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light (1:13-14).

I hope it’s easy to see what I said earlier: That although everything in Colossians is rooted in Paul’s beliefs about who God is, most of what Paul believed about God is merely assumed and asserted.

To help you get a better grasp on what Paul believed about God, then, we’re going to take a higher-level look at eight of the most fundamental aspects of God’s nature for Paul. This is critical both because (1) all his NT writing and his entire ministry were built upon these convictions and (2) because these are the things he was asking God to reveal to the Colossian church as the foundation of their faithfulness.

As I tried to show you in the brief overview of Colossians 1:1-14—which is equally true throughout all of the letter—these convictions leaked out of everything Paul said and did, even as they were at the heart of the ever-increasing knowledge of God that Paul prayed for God to grant the Colossians.

We need this now in order to be able to recognize it throughout the letter and throughout our own lives. Let’s spend a bit of time, then, considering that God is: Eternally Trinitarian, creator, sovereign, wise, good, holy, just, and gracious. And with each attribute, I want to give you a few biblical examples of where Paul found it/where we find it in Paul, I want to help you see what difference that knowledge would make for the Colossians, and I want to briefly give you an example of what difference it makes for us today.

The simple fact is, Grace Church, we will either learn from Paul that we ought to be able to trace every single aspect of our lives to some aspect of God’s nature or we will continue to live disordered lives.

For instance, we cannot be the kind of parents we’re made to be apart from understanding the Fatherhood of God. Likewise, we cannot be the kind of spouse we’re made to be apart from knowing what it means that Jesus is the bride groom of the Church. We cannot work as we’re made to apart from a mature grasp on God as orderer and sustainer. We cannot enjoy leisure apart from knowing that God is our Sabbath and satisfaction. We cannot properly look at the stars without knowing they declare the infinite glory of God. Even more fundamentally still, we cannot know who we are apart from knowing that God as our maker. And above all, we cannot glorify and enjoy God forever apart from true and increasing knowledge of Him.

Everything in us and around us has its meaning, place, and purpose in God. I really want that to make sense to all of you such that the most obvious prayer in the world will be, “God, grant me ever-increasing knowledge of you so that I might live the full life Jesus came to bring” (John 10:10). And in that same way, I want it to be obvious to you all why Paul’s prayer for God to grant the Colossians increasing knowledge of Him was the necessary foundation for their ability to persevere in faithfulness through trial and temptation.

Eternally Trinitarian (Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 40:28; 1 Timothy 1:17; Matthew 3:16–17; 2 Corinthians 13:14)

Let’s begin with the most fundamental aspect of the nature of God, that He is eternally trinitarian. Because it’s the most fundamental aspect of God’s nature, we’ll spend a bit more time on it than the rest.

God is eternal in that He has no beginning and no end. He (and He alone) has never not been and will never not be. This is hinted at in the first words of the Bible, “In the beginning God…”. The same idea is in Colossians 1:17, “[Jesus] is before all things…” The underlying reality of both is that before anything else was, God eternally is.

The idea is even more explicit in Psalm 90 and in a different letter that Paul wrote (1 Timothy).

Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

1 Timothy 1:17 Now to the King eternal… be honor and glory forever and ever.

What’s more, God has eternally existed as Trinity—one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit.

I think it’s fair to say that more wrong things have been said of the Trinity than right things. It is almost certainly, the most mysterious aspect of God’s nature.

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