Hope of Glory

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS

HOPE OF GLORY

Col 1:24-27

24 Now I rejoice in what was suffered 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 saints. 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.

NIV

We have to remember that the reason Paul is in Rome in the first place is that certain Jews had planned to kill him because he was considered a trouble maker. Paul was insisting that Jesus was for the gentiles as well as the Jews. Because of the charges against him, his only hope of escaping judgment by the Jews, and thus being murdered by them was to proclaim his Roman citizenship and thus had the right to want his charges brought before Caesar. So he is in chains in Rome as he makes this statement about rejoicing in what he suffered for them. All this is recorded for us in the Acts of the Apostles. It is doubtful that we would have to experience that type of suffering for the sake of the gospel. Although perhaps we are not stirring up enough trouble in the unbelieving world to be persecuted as Paul was. There are many Christians in parts of the world who are being killed for their faith, however, not by Jews, but by Muslims. We do have some Christians in this county who have been killed right in their churches. Perhaps the day is coming when we believers will not be so welcome in sharing the gospel message openly. will we be able to stand our ground even under those types of difficult circumstances? The question that arises from considering this is that, as we already suggested, are we conforming too much to be like the world so as to not stir up too much trouble? Oh, we go to church, being in church is not the issue. As long as we confine our faith to the confines of the church building the world does not care about us. It is when we start declaring the gospel outside our building, basically saying that if someone does not accept Jesus, they are going to hell. We might have been cornered, so to speak, into simple saying, “Jesus loves you” as a way of sharing the gospel, instead of He is the only way to heaven, all other ways lead to hell. This is the mystery that Paul says was kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. Although all throughout the Old Testament Jesus is present, he was not openly exposed as when he came to earth in the form of a man. Now all the fullness of the gospel is available to all mankind, both Jew and Gentile. The greatest mystery is Christ in us, the hope of glory. Even though we say we have faith, that we are believers, there is still this mystery as to how Christ is in us. Although we have previously made the point there is no mystery, which is about Christ, there is a certain amount of mystery as to how he is in us. We consider the Holy Spirit as the person who now dwells within us, and that Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father. So then how can Christ be in us? The fact is, Jesus, as we consider him as a person, God in the flesh who ascended into glory, is not actually in us, however, the spirit of Christ, the hope of glory is within us. It is only through this faith we have, this inner conscience of Christ that we have any hope of attaining glory. In that sense, Christ, the hope of glory is within us, in our inner being, our awareness, our thoughts, and heart. We live with that hope, the hope of Christ coming for us to take us home to the place he has prepared for us. So, in fact, there is no mystery after all. It is crystal clear. We live in Christ and he in us and he and he alone is our hope of glory.