Our View of God

In preparation for my fall sermons out of Colossians (Christ in Us, The Hope of Glory), I have been carefully reading through this letter of Paul. Paul’s view of God just from this letter is powerful and insightful for our Christian living today.

·         The Will of God

·         Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

·         Receives prayers and asking

·         He loves the Son

·         He cares enough to rescue us from the dominion of darkness

·         God is invisible

·         God is relational and wants us to be reconciled to him

·         God commissioned Paul to present the word of God in its fullness

·         God has chosen to make known

·         God has power to raise Jesus from the dead, and us from spiritual death.

·         God forgives

·         God makes us alive in Christ

·         God causes the body of believers to grow

·         God has a right hand of power where Jesus sits

·         Our Christian life is hidden with Christ in God

·         The wrath and anger of God is coming upon those who allow their “members that are upon the earth” not to be put to death; in other words, people who have allowed themselves to be guided by their unbridled passions, fulfilling any and every desire without any compunction of conscience.

·         God is the recipient of all expressions of human gratitude

·         God provides open doors for the gospel message

·         God has a will that unfolds and comprises his kingdom on earth

The above major ideas come from the Colossian letter revealing some of the major concepts relative to God’s nature and will and ways on the earth.  It is amazing to me that in such a short letter Paul can address and incorporate all these powerful ideas about God. It seems that for Paul, his practical theology for his readers was always built around the framework of a correct and adequate view of the nature of God.

Perhaps our greatest challenge today as Christians is starting with a view of God that comes from the basis of biblical revelation. If our knowledge, relationship and destiny related to God’s nature are pursued in the right direction, think of how many other things fall naturally into place!

In Christian love, Curtis