In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij examines and explains the apostle Paul’s teaching in Colossians 1:24-29. Having clearly established the supremacy of Christ and Christ’s gospel, Paul next teaches how Christians should respond by laboring for Christ. Paul gives four requirements in order to labor for Christ’s supremacy:
1. Laboring for Christ’s Supremacy Requires Suffering (v. 24)
2. Laboring for Christ’s Supremacy Requires God as the Source (v. 25a)
3. Laboring for Christ’s Supremacy Requires Speaking for the One in Power (vv. 25b-28)
4. Laboring for Christ’s Supremacy Requires Striving (vv. 28b-29)
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Summary
We are called to labor for Christ’s supremacy — not as passive pew-warmers, but as active participants in God’s unfinished work. This passage from Colossians 1:24–29 teaches us that ministry involves suffering, dependence on God, speaking His revealed word, and striving in His power.
Key Lessons:
- Suffering is not incidental to the Christian life but essential to it — and the proper response is rejoicing, not grumbling, because God is near us in it.
- Every believer has been given a God-ordained stewardship — a spiritual gift — and we are called to faithfully use it to build up the church, not sit idle.
- The great mystery now revealed is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” — the indwelling Spirit transforms us from the inside out, making us genuinely different people.
- A true believer is the same in private as in public, because the Holy Spirit dwells within and continually works to conform us to the will of God.
Application: We are called to stop treating salvation as a destination and start treating it as a commission — to use our spiritual gifts, embrace suffering with rejoicing, and actively proclaim the gospel to all people regardless of background.
Discussion Questions:
- In what areas of your life are you currently experiencing suffering for Christ’s sake, and are you responding with rejoicing or grumbling?
- Have you identified your spiritual gift? How are you currently using it to build up the church and serve others?
- Is your private life consistent with your public profession of faith? What might the Holy Spirit be prompting you to change?
Scripture Focus: Colossians 1:24–29 — the foundation for understanding Christian ministry as suffering, stewardship, and proclamation. Also 1 Peter 4:10–13 on rejoicing in suffering and stewarding spiritual gifts, and 2 Corinthians 11:23–28 on Paul’s sufferings as a model of faithful labor.
Outline
- Introduction
- Laboring for Christ’s Supremacy
- Requirement 1: Suffering
- Requirement 2: God as the Source
- Requirement 3: Speaking for the One in Power
- The Mystery Revealed
- Christ in You, the Hope of Glory
- The Transforming Work of the Holy Spirit
- True Belief Produces Real Change
- Conclusion: Striving in God’s Power
Introduction
Okay, let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to Colossians 1:24-29.
Let me pray. Lord, this morning as we come before you as your people, give us listening ears, give us minds that think through your word, that your word may transform us in the mind, so Lord that all of us may come to know your good and your acceptable and your perfect will.
I pray this for us today and every day as we are living in this age with its many difficulties, with the dump of information that we receive constantly that causes levels of anxiety and confusion. Lord, let us come to your word and let us see the exalted Christ and what he has done on behalf of his people.
That we can see clearly through all the confusion what is true and what is right, that we may give you the praise and the glory and the honor that is constantly due your name. And I ask this in Christ, amen.
Laboring for Christ’s Supremacy
Colossians 1, looking at this morning, laboring for Christ’s supremacy. Now, from last time, once you have become a Christian and have purposed in your heart that you are going to hold fast to this hope that has been given to you in Christ Jesus, and that you are determined to continue in it, and that you have been convinced by scripture that you should not move away from the hope of the gospel, no matter what.
That’s where we all should be, thinking like that. No matter what, no matter what, I’m not going anywhere, I’m going to stay right here with the truth.
But now what? Now you’re there, now what? Well, I tell you that you are not called to be saved merely to become a church attender and pew warmer. Every Christian is called by God to use his and her god-given gifts and opportunities to serve God in his unfinished work.
For what reason? We labor for Christ’s supremacy, to advance the gospel in the world, so that we as God’s children, the church, will fulfill our part of the unfinished work of God.
And what is our part to include? Well, in verse 28 of chapter 1, it says, “We proclaim him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.”
Now the “we” there in verse 28 is probably including everybody that Paul mentions in this epistle to the Colossians: Paul, Timothy, Papyrus, Tychicus, Erastus, Mark, Onesimus, Luke, Demas, Nympha, Archippus, and then the church at Laodicea and Hierapolis.
So there’s a lot of people that are included in the “we,” but we are also included in the “we.” See, we are to labor for the Lord. That means work. There’s always work involved in the Christian faith, not work to add something to help God save you—you’re already saved. It’s after you get saved, now God gives you something to do.
“Every Christian is called by God to use his and her god-given gifts and opportunities to serve God in his unfinished work.”
We’re not there just to twiddle our thumbs or just sit down and do nothing. We are there to do something.
There was a missionary in Africa who was teaching his congregation and telling his native students how Christians, as an expression of their joy, gave each other presents on Christ’s birthday. On Christmas morning, one of the natives brought the missionary a seashell of lustrous beauty.
When asked where he had discovered such an extraordinary shell, the native said he had walked many, many, many miles to a certain bay, the only spot where such shells could be found. And he said, “I think it is wonderful of you to travel so far to get this lovely gift for me.”
The teacher explained to his student. His eyes brightened and the native replied, “Long walk part of the gift.” Labor is often part of serving each other in Christ.
“Long walk part of the gift. Labor is often part of serving each other in Christ.”
So Colossians 1:24-29 gives us a general view of the nature and objective of ministry, and then Colossians 2:1-5 gives a more specific view of the nature and objective of ministry.
So today, contemplate with me four requirements necessary in order to labor for Christ’s supremacy.
Requirement 1: Suffering
And the first one is this: laboring for Christ’s supremacy requires suffering, requires suffering. Verse 24 says this: “Now I rejoice in my suffering for your sake.” This suffering is not a misuse or a mistreatment of the body like the false teachers were advocating.
If you look at chapter 2, verse 23, the false teachers were teaching that you are to commit severe treatment of the body and self-abasement. That’s what they were teaching. These false teachers mistreated the body to show that they were at a higher level of spiritual maturity than others.
Satan wants suffering to harm the believer, but instead it usually frustrates them, because God uses suffering for our good and his glory. Suffering means in scripture progress. It means moving events along to the return of Christ.
Why? So the gospel can be advanced, so the kingdom of God can spread, and so the church can grow.
Suffering in God’s program is necessary. In fact, Paul said to the Philippians, “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake.”
“God uses suffering for our good and his glory. Suffering means in scripture progress.”
So we must be reminded that it is never easy to be a Christian. It was William Barclay who said the Christian life brings its own loneliness, its own unpopularity, its own problems, its own sacrifices, its own persecutions.
Why? Because the Christian brings this exclusive message of the gospel that has come into their life, that is bearing before the world a transformed life, because the Holy Spirit is making them holy. The Christian brings to the world the standard of Jesus Christ, which is clearly different from the persons of the world.
So then the Christian is a kind of conscience to any society in which it exists. The world and its system does not like when the conscience is pricked by truth, especially when it goes against their worldview and their agenda. The Christian faith always goes against the worldview of its day and the agenda of its day, always.
We’re always swimming upstream. So the Christian life is not an easy thing to do. A matter of fact, you cannot do it on your own power, your own will. It cannot be done like that.
There must be supernatural help through the Christian life, just as it is to get saved, so it is to live every day. If not, we go back to the flesh, we revert right back to where we were, if we’re not being helped by God every single second of every day.
Rejoicing in Suffering
To carry out this labor, a particular attitude is to be displayed in our lives. Paul is saying he learned this attitude. What is that? In verse 24, he says this: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings.”
Brethren, I don’t know about you. When I read suffering and rejoicing together, it doesn’t seem to go. It’s like water and oil; it just doesn’t seem to go. Remember, God calls us in suffering not to be moaning or grumbling or complaining, but the text says we are to rejoice.
Paul says I rejoice in my suffering, and later on in scripture it says we are to rejoice in our sufferings. For the Christian to prevail in persecution is to respond correctly to suffering with the proper attitude and the proper conduct.
Why is that? Well, the epistle of First Peter gives us two important reasons to maintain an attitude of rejoicing. The Apostle Peter said there in his text in chapter 4, verse 13: “But to the degree that you share in the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exaltation.”
This suffering we’re going through is present. If we rejoice in it presently, we will really rejoice in being in God’s presence as we drop off these earthly bodies and as we drop off the suffering, and now we’re in the presence of God. But it took that to get us there.
The response to suffering is to rejoice. Present rejoicing will give us all what we need for future rejoicing. Peter also mentions to rejoice because of your connection to the Holy Spirit, as the Holy Spirit now indwells you.
The believer is to hedge against discouragement, and yes, even depression, by Holy Spirit rejoicing. Whether you are involved in a lesser or greater degree of suffering, be rejoicing. The result of this suffering is that God is near you for present blessing.
This is what Peter says in First Peter 4: “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed.” Here’s the reason why believers are blessed when reviled for the name of Christ: “You are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you.”
Here is the great encouragement in suffering: you are not on your own, with only dark hopelessness and despair before you. God is with you, with his help and with his comfort and with his support and with his presence and with his church, in the middle of life’s problems and trials. God is with you. “I will never leave or forsake you.” That is an emphatic statement given to us by God before he left to go back to heaven.
“You are not on your own, with only dark hopelessness and despair before you. God is with you.”
There is such a thing as emotional and psychological suffering, but there is also physical suffering. When you read through scripture, you’ll find that the Apostle Paul was quite familiar with all kinds of suffering, but he highlighted his physical suffering.
In the book of Acts, he says the chief magistrates tore their robes and they proceeded to beat us with rods. When they struck us with many blows, they stuck us in prison.
What did Paul and Silas do in prison? The Bible says they were praying and singing hymns of praise to God. How do you get beaten with rods, put in the deepest prison, have stocks put on you so you couldn’t do anything, and still be praying and singing hymns and praises to God?
The prisoners were listening. What happens? The prisoners probably sat there and said, “We just beat these guys to almost death and they’re singing. This is not right; there’s something strange about this.”
Yet they ended up hearing the gospel. The text says they then started praising God for what has happened. The Bible tells us that these particular individuals rejoiced greatly, having believed in God. These are the soldiers, and their household believed in God.
Why? These two guys that were suffering for Christ had rejoiced, and the rejoicing caught their attention, and they ended up getting saved.
Paul’s Example of Suffering
And then another passage, I’d like you to turn to this one: Second Corinthians 11:23-28.
The Apostle Paul has had many more bad days and experiences than you and I will ever encounter. In Second Corinthians 11:23, it says this: “Are they servants of Christ? I speak as if insane, I more so, in far more labors and far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death.”
Verse 24: “Five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren.”
“I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.”
So he had the external suffering, but the daily pressure of concern for the church is the internal suffering, both things going on. Jesus suffered more than Paul, Paul suffered more than us, but he surely suffered for our sake.
In fact, later in the beginning of the book of Acts, the Bible tells us that the apostles were flogged, and then the council released them, and they rejoiced that they had been considered worthy to suffer for his name.
“The apostles rejoiced that they had been considered worthy to suffer for his name.”
So for us, suffering may not take the form of losing our life or being beaten with rods, at least not yet. The form of suffering for us may be just a loss of prestige, or ridicule, or snarky comments, or being made fun of because we’re a Christian, or being the butt of jokes, or slander, or not being included in a group, or feeling tolerated at family functions, or being left out of the family will.
It could be a loss of a job, being overlooked for a promotion, or being treated like a second-rate person. Or when a loved one is pulled away from death, there’s a certain amount of suffering that goes with that; we feel the enemy taking someone from us.
Seldom might a believer in our day, in our country, be burned at the stake or suffer some kind of martyrdom, as do others in other countries or have in the past. We may suffer over and over again through self-denial, self-sacrifice, and heartbreak. But we must be ready, all of us must be ready to carry our load in this regard.
Yet whatever level of suffering that will be our lot, given to us by God, rejoicing must be included in our suffering, or it’s not the suffering that God called us to. And like I said, that is not an easy thing whatsoever.
But again, in Philippians, the Apostle says, “But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you.” And then he says to us, “And you too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.”
So this joy is back and forth with each other, as one person may be suffering at one point and the other person not, and then you rejoice together, and that may flip back and forth.
The Focus and Purpose of Suffering
Suffering that precedes the final consummation of God’s salvation amongst God’s people means that this suffering that Paul was part of was not yet filled up. Paul’s suffering fulfills the quota for us, thus hastening the fulfillment of God’s work in history, benefiting those Paul never met, including us.
That leads to the focus of his suffering. If you look back at Colossians 1:24, he says there that suffering is for the sake of the church. He says, “I rejoice in my suffering for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church.”
Paul did not rejoice in suffering for suffering’s sake. This was no self-inflicted penance or pain to gain acceptance with God. But this is the suffering that came because of his stand for Christ, because of his care for the church, that others may be saved.
“This is the suffering that came because of his stand for Christ, because of his care for the church, that others may be saved.”
In this particular phrase at the end of verse 24, he says, “in fulfilling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” Paul is filling up in his suffering what was lacking in Christ’s afflictions.
That could mean to fill up for someone else, or it could mean making up for a lack in the community of believers, something that was lacking. It could also mean describing a deficiency in something.
But for sure, it does not refer to any lack of completion regarding the atonement for our sins. That work was finished and completed by Jesus Christ. But it refers to the unfinished work of Christ’s earthly life and ministry.
What is lacking is the unfinished advancement of the gospel. This was left to Christ’s disciples, left to the church. When Jesus left and went back to heaven, he gave the Great Commission to the church.
He said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I command to you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Laboring to finish the work of evangelizing the lost and building up the church, this task will meet with much resistance and many dangers. As Paul said, dangers from the Jews, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers among false brethren, dangers from spiritual wickedness in high places, dangers from the world system in which we live.
The Apostle Paul was the tip of the spear. He will be the one that will fulfill what is lacking in the full unveiling of the mystery—that the gospel will go to all people groups, not just the Jews but to the Gentiles.
“What is lacking is the unfinished advancement of the gospel. This was left to Christ’s disciples, left to the church.”
Requirement 2: God as the Source
And so, laboring first of all for Christ’s supremacy requires that we suffer. Secondly, laboring for Christ’s supremacy requires God is the source of it all.
In verse 25, he says this in scripture: “Of this church I was made a minister, according to the stewardship from God bestowed upon me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God.”
At one time the Apostle Paul could have been considered a self-made man. But after he met Christ, remember his name back then was Saul. Saul’s plans for wiping out the church off the face of the earth was essentially done.
God put a stop to his plan, and Paul himself, or Saul at that point, was undone also. His whole life was turned upside down because he met Christ.
The very church that Saul was determined to destroy became now Paul’s responsibility to serve, to protect, and to love. God was the one who called Paul.
Notice what it says in verse 25: “Of this church I was made a minister.” Being made a minister means his ministry was ordained of God and was not something whimsically chosen. In reality, you don’t choose your own ministry, you don’t choose the gifts that God gives you. God chooses it, and then you either obey what he chose for you or you disobey. There’s no other place to go with that.
In fact, later on in scripture we see it in Second Corinthians, where the Apostle says, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant.”
“Our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant.”
God is the one who makes us adequate to do the work. The work is impossible, the Christian life is impossible. That’s why we need the whole church.
God is the one who calls and God is the one who bestows. In verse 25, what was bestowed upon Paul? It says the stewardship was given to him from God for our benefit.
Paul is a servant of the gospel, and he was given the stewardship as an apostle to further the plan of God’s administration of salvation. The term stewardship literally means a task of a household administrator. The apostolic office that God gave Paul was for his redemptive work, which indicated a responsibility, which gave an authority, and which laid upon him an obligation.
He was, in other words, a household slave in God’s economy, charged with carrying out the management of the house. That’s who Paul was. Paul was called to be a committed servant of another person’s property, and the property is the souls of men and women in the church of God. Tell me that’s not a heavy responsibility—it is.
God conferred it upon the Apostle, and that is a stewardship for the benefit of the church, to fully carry out the Christian message, the gospel, to finish something that had already started to grow and to bear fruit in the world. In other words, he was given a stewardship of God’s plan of salvation.
Stewardship of Spiritual Gifts
And all Christians are given a ministry by God in which they are to be good stewards, faithful in the stewardship of God-given gifts. Now, just quickly turn over to 1 Peter 4:10, because I just want you to see that not only did God give Paul a stewardship, but he gives us a stewardship.
All Christians have a stewardship given by God. Not only are they called by God to salvation, but they are called by God to do something, to labor and do something in the church of God.
In 1 Peter 4:10, he says this: “As each one has received a special gift, employed in serving one another as good stewards, there’s that word, of the manifold grace of God.”
Not just the elders and deacons, but church ministries depend on God’s distribution of spiritual gifts rather than natural abilities. God bestows these gifts and the measure and the manner in which they are to be used in the church.
God gives us a stewardship and we are to manage that stewardship as slaves within his household economy. For what? For building up the church. Because you notice every time you see this word, it says “for one another,” that we’re building the church up, we’re using our gifts for the other person, and the other person is using their gift for me.
We are all building each other up by the particular gift and the measure of that gift that God has given you in the list of spiritual gifts in the places of scripture. So you have to find out what is your spiritual gift and then use that gift.
You labor for Christ’s supremacy by using that gift. So we might define spiritual gifts as an ability given to an individual believer by God, in order that the believer might serve God in some particular way. Christians are given spiritual gifts and they are to be good stewards in the use of those gifts to advance the grand plan of God to save sinners.
Discovery of your gift is important, so you can use it to labor for Christ and to build his church. That’s how God designed it, and God has given it to you.
“Spiritual gifts are an ability given by God so that the believer might serve God in some particular way.”
Requirement 3: Speaking for the One in Power
And then thirdly, laboring for Christ’s supremacy requires speaking for the one in power. And who’s the one in power? Well, at this point, because of what is read and referred to in Colossians 1, we see that the description of God here, of Jesus Christ, is such an incredible description that the supremacy, laboring for the supremacy of Christ, requires us to speak for him, for the one in power, and not for us.
And how do we do that? In verse 25, it says we speak the word of God. It says, “so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God.”
Now Paul is saying this and saying that this is his responsibility, but that word “fully” is that he’s giving this task to fill up what is undone yet, the work of God. Throughout the past ages, people did not have full revelation from God.
It was hidden in the complex rituals of the tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple worship, which were types of the coming Lamb of God. All the Old Testament shadows and types were pointing to the coming Lamb of God.
And now there emerges from the clear revelation of God the Lamb of God, who did come and whose message is now given to all the saints. This hidden truth was not given to earthly kings, presidents, prime ministers, prominent political figures, philosophers, or people in important religious positions.
No, they were given to the saints of God’s church. That’s who they were given to. Because if you look in verse 26, it says, “that is the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but now has been manifest to his saints.”
So God held certain revelation back, but there was a day that he called the Apostle Paul, and the Apostle Paul’s responsibility was to unveil what God kept hidden. And so that’s why when you’re reading through Colossians, you’ll find words like “fully carry out,” and “every man,” and “all wisdom,” and “all wealth,” and “full assurance,” and “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” He is carrying out something that has been kept secret.
Colossians 1:26: “The mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations has now been manifest to his saints.”
The Mystery Revealed
A second thing we speak is the mystery of God. In verse 26, that is the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but now has been manifest to his saints.
What was the revelation that was hidden, the mystery that was hidden from other generations but given to the Apostle Paul? Remember, the meaning of a mystery was an unveiling or a disclosing of something that had been previously hidden by God himself.
The revealing of the great secret of God was that the love and the mercy and the grace of God were meant not for the Jews alone but for all mankind. Before the cross, Gentiles would have to become Jews if they wanted to be part of God’s people.
Even Ephesians 3:6 says, to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Whereas now, the Gentiles, as that passage says, do not become Jews, nor Jews become Gentiles, but both become one new person when they come to Christ in repentance and faith.
This information today doesn’t seem to be a secret for us anymore, right? Because we read it in scripture. But believe me, when you’re reading a passage like John 3:16, the most familiar passage probably in all the Bible, right?
For God so loved the world. Who is he talking to? He was talking to Nicodemus, a teacher and a religious leader of Israel. But Nicodemus wasn’t getting it, and God was using words that he wasn’t used to.
Nicodemus would think, well, the world to me is the Jews, not the Gentiles. The Gentiles were dogs, they were the outcasts. But Jesus was meaning in the term world both Jews and Gentiles. That’s what threw him off.
That’s what makes that passage of scripture so different when you look at the whole context. Nicodemus had to be explained by the Lord himself what it meant for God’s message of salvation to go out, that it was not just for the Jews anymore, it was for every person. Everyone can hear the message of the gospel and be saved.
Nothing was discovered by human ingenuity and study. That means Paul was not the originator of the knowledge of the mystery; he was only the recipient of it. He was the conduit by which the mystery was unveiled.
This mystery points to the powerful work of God in the death of Christ that brings down ethnic barriers, in the creation of one people. The Greek term Gentile is the word ethnos, which we get the word nation and people groups. It’s used to designate non-Jews.
Why should the Lord give such an administration of revealing God’s plan to someone like Saul, who hated the name of Jesus Christ and his followers, who hated the Gentiles? Even Paul called himself the chief of sinners for that very reason.
When he was giving a testimony of his life, this is what he said in Acts 22: “And I said, Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in you. And when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him.”
After Paul communicated this, Jesus said to him, “Go, and I will send you far away to the Gentiles.”
It’s always ironic when you see God do this, giving something to someone that they completely hate. These people, and now he is ministering to them, rejoicing, ministering to them with a heart of love for them, wanting them to be saved and be part of understanding the revelation of God so they can rejoice with him.
That’s somebody who’s changed, that’s somebody who’s different. From even a passage of scripture like this, the Lord wipes out any kind of ethnic differences between people, any kind of race differences between people. He wipes it completely out.
We actually can have genuine love for people, and maybe love for people we once hated because of the color of their skin, or because of their culture, or because of a particular group they were part of. God wipes that out, that’s what he does.
“The Lord wipes out any kind of ethnic differences between people. We can have genuine love for people we once hated.”
Christ in You, the Hope of Glory
This message is manifest in the people that God saves. How is it manifest? Well, if you turn back to Colossians 1:27, you’ll notice it says, “To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, and what is that? It is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Up to now the emphasis of the book of Colossians has been that saints are in Christ, but now you have the counterpart here: Christ is now in them. Christ is in us. And here it is, this is the message: Christ in you, the hope of glory.
The gospel changes from a Jewish sect to a worldwide opportunity, and all the barriers are down, so that Jew and Gentile saints alike are fellow heirs with Christ, because he is in them. A Gentile is anyone who is not a Jew. That’s the amazing plan of God.
God willed it to include Jews and Gentiles. Christ is given freely to the Gentiles in this mystery. The mystery is not simply Christ himself, but Christ in you, in whom all creation dwells, so that all creation is held together and takes up his dwelling in us.
The exalted Christ now resides in you. That is a staggering thought. It is a breathtaking point of theology: the personal experience and presence of Christ in the individual life of the believer.
The indwelling of Christ in the heart, the indwelling of the exalted Christ in individual believers, is their assurance of coming glory. He says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” That means it signifies the certainty that we will experience final glory, because it is God’s plan.
Colossians 1:27: “Christ in you, the hope of glory — the certainty that we will experience final glory, because it is God’s plan.”
If the spirit of God is in you, you are a believer. If the spirit of God is in you and you are a believer, you will be different.
You will not be the same person you used to be. You will not want to go back to your old life, in your old ways and your old friends. You are different. Why? The spirit of Christ is in you.
It’s all over scripture. First Corinthians 6:19 says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”
Remember this: the spirit of Christ, the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is the spirit of holiness. First Corinthians 3 says, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you?”
The Transforming Work of the Holy Spirit
Once the Holy Spirit indwells you, he must start cleaning house. He gets in your heart and he starts cleaning you up, that’s what he does. He’s a Holy Spirit, right? He’s going to separate you from what is wrong and direct your heart unto God. That’s a big process.
The Holy Spirit is cleaning us up, he’s making changes in our lives, bringing us in conformity to the will of God. This conformity happens from the inside out, not the outside in. We are changed from the inside out.
God wants us to see the fruit of what the spirit of God is doing on the inside. The goal of the Christian life is righteousness. We are being sanctified so that we will do what is right, we will do what honors God. Righteousness, holiness, and fruit bearing are most evident in our behavior.
As First Peter communicates to us: “But the holy one who called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior, because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.”
The Holy Spirit is making this change in us through the truth, through the word of God, and he’s doing it in your mind. He’s transforming your mind, he’s driving out what is wrong, he’s driving out those sinful thoughts, he’s driving out those lustful thoughts and behaviors, and he’s putting in new things, things that honor Christ.
The word and the spirit go together and should not be separated. The word of God transforms us so that we develop deep biblical convictions, and then our conscience will not allow us to live against those convictions.
Our conscience will scream when we think we want to go back to the old way and do the old things. When our conscience screams, we’ll understand that our mind is being transformed, so we desire to do what is right and live in a manner pleasing before the Lord Jesus Christ in all our behavior.
“The word of God transforms us so that we develop deep biblical convictions, and our conscience will not allow us to live against those convictions.”
True Belief Produces Real Change
See, behavior is at the center of concern in sanctification. Behavior shows what is and is not going on on the inside. Now, can somebody fake behavior? Yes. But the Bible calls them hypocrites.
No internal transformation may mean a professor, or somebody who understands some things, can masquerade around with righteous behavior, but with no internal change. They’re not the same in private as they are in public.
A real Christian is the same in private, alone with themselves in the shower, as they are in public around other people. They are very aware of what they say, they are very aware of what they think, they are very aware of their relationships with people. They are very sensitive to those things.
Why? The spirit of God is in them.
The spirit of God is changing you every day, if you’re a real believer. But I tell you what, if you are here today and you have no change, you are not a believer. If you profess Christ and that’s as far as it goes, you are not a believer.
A real believer is someone who professes Christ, but who lives the Christian life, not perfectly, but the direction of their life is always to honor the Lord. And why is that? Because the spirit of God dwells in you.
“A real believer professes Christ and lives the Christian life — not perfectly, but the direction of their life is always to honor the Lord.”
See, this is the great mystery, that the spirit of God dwells in both Jews who come to Christ and Gentiles who come to Christ, and God’s plan is going to be consummated at the end. So that was the great mystery, and now it’s revealed to us.
Conclusion: Striving in God’s Power
This morning I’m going to end right there. We have the Lord’s table this morning. I do want to say this, and just come back to it next week: in verse 29, you might say, “I’m not that strong to be able to do these things. The Christian life seems too daunting for me.”
But rest assured, I want you to notice that’s why we have to depend on God. Look at verse 29. It says this: “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to his power, which mightily works within me.”
God gives us a power that comes from heaven, a power to live the Christian life and do his work. That power comes from him and has been given to us by him. The promise of God’s presence in suffering is that God will be with you and make you ready for his eternal glory.
God works in you. That’s another way you’re a believer—the things that are taking place in you are beyond you. You’re cooperating with them, but they’re beyond you. God is doing things in your life that you could never do, and he gives you the power to do it.
You and I are called to labor for Christ’s supremacy. That requires suffering with rejoicing. It requires knowing that God is the source, he gives the ministries, he gives the giftedness, he gives the measure of those gifts. We are to be faithful stewards like Paul of those things.
It also requires speaking for the one in power. That’s speaking for the Lord. We use his word, not our own words. We speak his word, the mystery revealed, which is the word of God going to everyone, no matter who they are.
The ultimate thing is that Christ in you is the hope of glory. That is really the greatest truth of all. It requires striving in God’s power that works within us. We strive for that and we work with God for that.
“God works in you — the things taking place in you are beyond you. God is doing things in your life that you could never do.”
We are always laboring as Christians. We’re never really at rest until God takes us to our eternal rest. Let’s pray.
Lord, thank you this morning for this somewhat difficult passage. I pray that you would weld it upon our minds, that this wonderful, glorious plan of salvation that you have given to us—and the work that is still unfinished—has been given to us so that we may continue to proclaim and share the gospel of Jesus Christ, use our gifts to build your church, so that we’re part of laboring for your supremacy.
Because we know, Lord, you are the only way, the only truth, the only life. No one can go to the Father but by you. Let us be a church who understands that.
I thank you, Lord, this morning. I ask you, Lord, to make us people who not only profess Christ but live Christ. I pray in Christ’s name.