The Letter to the Colossian Church- 3

Subtitle: The Son of the Father's Love

Colossians 1:15-20.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, July 27, 2025.

After declaring that God the Father has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints, rescued us from the dominion of darkness, and transferred us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love, Paul then takes some time to describe all that the Son of His love is, has done, and is doing even now.

Of course, there is no confusion about who this Son of His love is.  It is Jesus.  He has been identified three times in the verses before this.

Let’s get into our passage.

Jesus in regard to the Father and the creation (v. 15-17)

This section is poetic and has a clear structure to it that is helpful to recognize.  Here is a representation of how the stanzas relate to one another.

“He is:

The Image of the Invisible God

The Firstborn of all Creation

For by Him all things were created

Both in the heavens and on the earth

Visible and Invisible

Whether thrones or dominions

Or rulers or authorities

All things have been created through Him and for Him

He is:

Before all things, and

In Him all things hold together”

These verses contemplate who Jesus is in relation to God the Father and the creation.  It involves several things that we could call Titles.  However, these titles are descriptive of some very important understandings about Jesus.

The Image of the Invisible God.  There are different reasons for Paul to emphasize this about Jesus, whether for Greeks or even Jews.  This connection between the man Jesus and God the Father is incredibly important for the Colossians to understand.  The Image of God language comes from Genesis chapter 1.  Adam and Eve were made in the Image of God.  Yet, they and we have not imaged God very well.  Not only did Adam fail, but the world failed to image God up to the flood when God rebooted the earth with Noah.  Noah failed to image God well as did Abraham, the patriarchs, Israel as a nation, David, the kings of Judah, and all the others. 

However, Jesus is not just another imager of God.  He is the perfect imager and is thus The Image of God.  The emphasis on God’s invisibility contrasted with the word image highlights the incarnation of Jesus, but this does not limit his imaging to the incarnation.  He didn’t have to take on the nature of a man in order to image God.  He was already imaging God to the creation before the incarnation.  No matter the state (pre-incarnate, incarnate, and glorified), He is the perfect image, imager, of God.  He is the one who allows us to see the Father for who He really is.  This is why Jesus told his disciples that to see him is to see the Father.

Yet, Hebrews 1:1-3 makes this even more explicit.  Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory, i.e., that which proceeds out from Him into the creation.  He is also the express image of the Father’s nature.  He is no shadow or lesser picture of the Father.

Now, Greeks don’t have a problem with God’s coming down and manifesting upon the earth.  However, it would be impossible for them to be killed by mortals, or to truly die at the hands of a mortal.  Paul is making sure that these Colossians understand the extraordinary claims being made about Jesus.  This very same man who died on a cross for our sins is the Image of God.

The Firstborn of all Creation.  We now see the connection between Jesus and the creation.  He is the firstborn of all creation.  But, what does this mean?  The firstborn is mentioned in several other places in the New Testament.  In Romans 8:29, Christians are conformed to his image so that he will be the firstborn of many sons.  In Hebrews 1:6, “When God brings the firstborn into the world, He says, ‘Let all the angels of God worship him.  This is quoting from Psalm 97:7.

The idea of firstborn has led some to speculate that it refers to Jesus being a created being.  They would not see him as eternal, but is this what Paul (and Scripture) is trying to get across?  I don’t believe so.

Psalm 89:27, a prophecy is written in which God states: “I shall make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.”  The prophecy is a long one and deals with the failure of the sons of David to live up to the prophecies that God has given about David and Messiah.  Notice above that God is going to make this one His firstborn.  This is not about birth order or even actual birth.  The firstborn was more a status than it ever was a statement of who came into being first.  This status term declares his right to have the first place among all others.  He is the heir to the Father’s business and the Father’s holdings are for him.  So, when it comes to all created things, Jesus has the primary place over it all.  It is his inheritance.  How and why becomes clearer as we go forward.

All things created by him.  He has this firstborn status because everything was created by him.  The word can also have the sense of in him.  The Son was pre-existent to all created things.  We then get a series of pairs that are intended to make clear that we are talking about every created thing, whether in the heavens or on the earth.  Things you can see and the things you can’t see.  No matter how powerful something is, it owes its place to him (excepting the Father, of course).  This is expressed in the thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

It was common for emperors to use son terminology of the kings who had pledged allegiance to them, even a firstborn as a status of preeminence above the others, not a description of which of them was born first.  This section makes it clear that all things which fit into the category of created things were created by him, i.e., he is not a created being.  If a person feels that it stretches the words in this passage to state that, John 1:3 makes this even more explicit.  “All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being.”  Jesus cannot have “come into being” by making himself.  It is clear that John is shutting down the idea that Jesus was a created being.  Yet, he is the firstborn of creation.

Paul then gives some prepositional phrases to help us contemplate this creator position of Jesus.  All things are created “through him.”  Jesus was the active agent or means of creation.  This essentially says the same thing as by him, but it has a sense of the Father’s involvement in the creative process. 

The next preposition is that all things were created for him, the firstborn.  They are for him in the sense that they belong to him, but also in the sense of their purpose being for him and his purposes.

By him, through him, and for him seem to contemplate the Son as the beginning of all things, the progress of all things and the end, or purpose of all things.

Paul then tells us that the Son is before all things.  This preposition involves time.  To be before all creation would place him before time itself.  Yet, he is also before all things in the sense of being in front of all things; he has first place, primacy, over all things.  Even before creation is brought into being, John chapter one interprets Genesis one as saying that Jesus is He who comes forth from the Father to create.  “Let there be light!”  The Son was the first light that came forth from the Father to create all things.

All things hold together in him.  The final statement in this section adds another concept to the first preposition, “in him.”  Things not only have their existence in him (by him), but their place in relation to one another are held together in him.  Without him nothing would hold together in every way that we can conceive.  He holds the molecules together, but also ask yourself this.  What keeps this world from falling completely apart and destroying everything?  What keeps this world going forward?  Do we have a guarantee that, even with what we see, it can survive?  Jesus is what holds all creation together, even with heavenly and earthly forces bent on rebellion against the Creator.

Jesus in regard to the Church and the New Creation (v. 18-20)

Though it is not stated above, there is a problem in the creation, both in the heavens and on the earth.  The rebellion of spirit beings have defiled the heavens and led humanity into that rebellion as well.  Though God made everything “very good,” it has been messed up by humans and fallen spirit beings.

This section moves to contemplating Jesus in regard to the Church and the New Creation, i.e., the fixing of the old creation.

Just as the Word, the Firstborn of Creation, came forth and created all things in the first place, so he has come forth in the man Jesus to make all things new.  The Son of God’s love began that work and is still in the process of making all things new.

The Head of the Body, the Church.  This first identity statement matches the style of the first identity statement in the last section (the image of the invisible God).  However, towards the Church, Jesus is the head, and we are the ones who are supposed to image him.  Calling Jesus the Head is a way of referencing his supremacy, but also his directive power.  The Church is designed to respond to the directives of the Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Of course, this brings up a problem between the commands of Christ and the execution by His Body.  Jesus has told us to “love one another,” and even “Love your enemies.”  Groups of Christians can find themselves doing things that are adverse to the commands of Christ.  There is generally some rationalization in which we give lip service to such obvious commands, and then, go on to neutralize them with our ideas.  In fact, this is the threat in Revelation 2:5.  There, Jesus warns the Ephesians that he will remove their candlestick if they don’t repent.  Christ is the judge of his Church.  He may allow things to go on for a while.  Churches may flaunt his commands while giving lip-service to them.  However, Jesus will eventually deal with them.

Just as Ezekiel saw the Glory of God leave the temple in Israel due to their lack of covenant faithfulness, so too, the Glory of God’s Spirit leaves churches to themselves.  They are no longer doing his will, and his Spirit is no longer working in them as a group.  Eventually, it will come to a head and the group will go out of existence in its present configuration.

Some people like to add the concept (or even replace) of the head being a source (similar to the headwaters of a river).  He definitely is that, whether this word is intended to give that sense or not.  Like a vine, Jesus is the source of spiritual life to all who have a living faith in him.

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.  Jesus is the beginning of the Church, or renewed (redeemed) humanity.  The word translated “beginning” here can refer to the beginning of something in an abstract way, but it often refers to a leader who is the beginning of a new Kingdom, dynasty.  Jesus is the powerful leader whose actions have given birth, place, to this new group of people called the Church.

This is connected to the phrase, “firstborn from the dead,” and it connects to the earlier firstborn of all creation.  The dead is used as a group and even has the sense of the place in which the dead are kept, Hades, She’ol, the grave.  It is his reappearance from out of the realm of the dead that gives him first place among the renewed humanity.

Of course, this is in relation to his humanity.  The eternal Son was not in need of being recreated, but he took on human flesh in order to blaze a trail through death, the grave, and into a glorified existence.  When a believer in Jesus dies, they follow the path of the firstborn.  They die and are enabled to avoid being stuck in the grave.  Instead, we are allowed to ascend to the right hand of the Father and wait with the Son at his side.  We follow him through this spiritually.  We are not physically resurrected at our deaths.  It is later that all the righteous will follow the firstborn physically into the completion of our renewed humanity.

The old creation was messed up by our rebellion and sin.  It led to humans being stuck in the grave, the dead, and no mechanism for ever getting out.  Yet, Jesus has paid the price for our sins so that we can follow him out of the grave and into the immortal, indestructible bodies that the Father has planned for us.

Thus, the firstborn in this situation is parallel to his firstborn status among creation.  In both cases, he has first place and inherits it all.

So that he himself would have first place over all things.  His unique resurrection establishes the path forward for the rest of us.  This gives him first place over humanity as a human, not just as God.  As the eternal Son who created all things, he always had first place.  Yet, now, he must act in such a way as to receive the first place among the new creation.

Think about it.  In Jesus, a human is now the supreme authority over all things in the heavens and the earth.

Because it pleased [God] to have all the fullness dwell in him.  This phrase is literally, “because he was pleased to have all the fullness dwell in him.”  Since we are talking about the Son, it seems most likely that the first pronoun “he” is referring to God the Father, whereas the second one refers to the Son of His love.  It is His plan.  The Father desired the eternal Son to take on human flesh in such a way that the fullness of His Spirit dwelt in him. 

Think of the Old Testament.  We often see the Spirit of God coming upon individuals with a certain measure and for a certain event.  It was always understood that a human being could only handle so much of the power of God, the Spirit of God, without dying.  Yet, in Jesus, the fullness of God’s Spirit dwelled in him.  He was somehow fully God, and yet also fully human.

It appears that humans were not just designed to be a dwelling place in which the Spirit of God could enter and empower.  Even more, we were designed in such a way to make the incarnation of the eternal Son possible.  It made it possible for Jesus to do a work that no fallen angel could have ever forseen.

Notice that it “pleased” Him to have it so.  The incarnation of Jesus is God’s good pleasure.  It is His artistic flair in fixing all things, and we would do well to pay attention to this. 

And through him to reconcile to Himself all things.  Paul speaks of God’s intention “to reconcile all things to Himself.”  This seems to be part of the pleasure of God the Father.  It was the fullness of God in Jesus that allows him to reconcile all things back to the Father.

Reconcile is a word that involves something that is out of harmony, not as it is supposed to be, an error, etc.  To reconcile can take on various ideas, depending upon what is wrong.  God’s main intention is to reconcile humanity by making it possible for us to be released from the dead and to follow Jesus into the New Humanity.  This is a humanity that perfectly images God the Father and is in harmony with His purposes.

However, “all things” is about more than humanity.  What does it mean to reconcile the heavens?  This is where some project the idea called universalism.  It posits that God must save all, even the devil himself.  However, this is not what we see in the New Testament.  Yes, in relationships, we generally think of reconciliation as the two parties coming together and being in harmony.  Of course, this is the reconciliation that God desires.  However, reconciliation is also about making all things right.  Thus, sometimes reconciliation requires the removal of that which refuses to conform to the “very good” that God intends all things to be.  Thus, Romans 8:22 has all of creation groaning.  It awaits the manifestation of the Sons of God, i.e., redeemed and glorified humans.  Yet, at the same time, there is a warning of a day of removal of the wicked into the Lake of Fire.

Making peace by the blood of his cross…whether things on earth or in the heavens.  It was the shedding of his life-blood at the cross that makes peace with God the Father possible.  This is another way of talking about the reconciliation.  In Jesus, we who have been enemies can be transformed into not just those who have a peace treaty, but are still hostile.  Rather, it is peace with God in every way.  We are no longer enemies, and the hostility between us has been resolved.  Romans 5:1 says it this way, “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Do you have peace with God?  You can only have peace with Him by putting your faith in Jesus and following him.  Peace with God also brings peace within us.  Our hearts and minds are susceptible to moments of turbulence because we live in this world.  However, the grace of Jesus enables us to see those storms settle down; “Peace, be still!” 

May God help  us to see the glorious nature of who Jesus is and what he has done for us.  And, may we firmly embrace the One who went to the cross for us, went into the grave for us, and has been resurrected to sit at the right hand of God the Father for us!

Son of the Father's Love audio

The Perfect Son

Hebrews 1:1-3.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Father's Day Sunday, June 15, 2025.

The relationship between father and son is a powerful one.  Every father was once a son, in the sense of being a child, but are generally still an “adult” son while raising their own son.  The child is destined to grow up and generally become a father too.  This cycle is not just powerful when a father is present and good.  It is powerful when a father is present, but uncaring for the child.  And, it is powerful when the father is absent.

It is not the kind of power that makes immediate and miraculous changes.  It is a powerful influence that builds up on itself over time.  That influence even carries a certain momentum to it when a kid becomes an adult and moves away.

An adult child goes through a transitional time.  They have been used to seeing their father through the immature eyes of a toddler, child, and then teenager.  As a adult, we gain an adult perspective of our father.

Let me say this to parents.  If you approach parenting with the goal of raising the perfect child, and  you are willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen, then may God help your child.  Nothing in our parenting and their child-life is going to be perfect.  However, God does His perfect work through our imperfection.  Of course, I am not saying it doesn’t matter what you do.  No, the biggest thing a child needs is God’s love expressed through their parents.

With that in mind, I would challenge us not to only think of this cycle as a process of physical and emotional maturation.  I believe that we are intended to see it as a shadow of God’s heart for humanity.

Let’s talk about one more thing before we look at our text.  In the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15), we can see different types that sons often fall into.  There is the Golden Son who takes on responsibility at a young age and works closely with their father.  We also see the Prodigal Son, or Black Sheep.  This is the troubled son who turns from responsibility and is lost no matter where he goes.  Yet, as the story progresses, we can recognize that neither of these sons were perfect sons.  In fact, they were both prodigals in different ways.  The elder son was close to his father, but his heart was not like his fathers.  For all of his appearance, he had so far wasted the opportunity to take on his father’s heart, to become like his father internally as well as externally.

Of course, no sons are perfect.  This is because only Jesus is the perfect son.  However, in Jesus, imperfect sons and imperfect fathers can become adult children of God who are perfected before Him.

Let’s look at our passage.

God is speaking to us through Jesus.  Who is He?

Many powerful things are packed into these three verses, but the overall point is the comparison of Jesus to all those prophets who came before him.  When it comes to knowing God, He must reveal Himself if it is going to happen.  Yet, the Bible is proof that God is a revealing God.  Francis Schaeffer made the great points that “God is here, and He is not silent.”  He may not be revealing new doctrines, but He is still helping us to understand what has been written down in Scripture.

Up until Jesus, God had spoken through prophets who were imperfect men, though they were loyal to God and sought to live righteously.  Still, they were all imperfect in imaging Father God to their people.  Before we turn to Jesus, we should recognize that God has always used imperfect people to impact the life of other imperfect people for His perfect purpose in their lives.  This is true whether we are talking about the prophets of the past, or about human fathers trying to raise a son.  We are given the job of imaging God’s love to our kids, to our world, and none of us do this perfectly.

This brings us to Jesus.  This passage has two aspects to it.  We will look first at just who Jesus was, is.  Essentially, he is the perfect revelation (imager) of God the Father.  There is no discrepancy between what we see in Jesus and the heart of God the Father.

In fact, by sending imperfect imagers and then a perfect one, God has hemmed us in.  We can’t complain that the prophets were not a good enough image, nor can we complain that Jesus was too perfect.  “I just can’t relate with his perfection.”  Thus, Jesus is the perfect image of the heart of the Father, both how He feels and what He desires (of us and for us).

This reiterates what I was saying earlier.  The prophets did not have to be perfect to affect God’s perfect work in the world, and neither do parents.  Still, we don’t use that as an excuse.  This is a serious task for God, and it has eternal consequences.

So, Jesus is God’s perfect word to humanity.  What else is he?  Jesus is the Son.  This is not a statement about how he came into being, but about his status among humanity.  It is a title that is found in the Old Testament, particularly in the prophecies to David about one of his descendants (2 Samuel 7), and in the prophecies of Isaiah.  It became equivalent to the Anointed One of God (Messiah or Christ).

Jesus is the perfect son of David who was a Son of God.  All the sons of David had failed and the monarchy had been broken for over 5 centuries.  When Jesus came forth, there was an expectation that he would restore the monarchy and deliver Israel from the Romans.  However, he came to save them from their sins (and us from ours).  Our moral failings had separated us from God, but through Jesus, we can be brought close to Him.

In fact, we are told in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Yet, we can be justified freely by His  grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Jesus is also the Heir of all things.  We see this in verse 2.  In Scripture, Jesus is the only One who perfectly stood against the lies of the devil and lived out loyal love towards God the Father.  The failure of Adam and Eve had brought the dominion of humans over the earth in jeopardy.  Through our sins, the devil was able to exercise his dominion over the earth.  The Garden of Eden was a test of loyalty more than it was a test of knowledge.  Humans were not created with omniscience- neither were the angels by the way.  Jesus came forth as the Worthy One who can take up the dominion over the earth.  He inherits it.  Of course, he could keep it all to himself, but in his mercy, he shares it with those who come into a loving loyal relationship with him.

Of course, our enemy tries to get in our heads and use our unworthiness to sidetrack us, or derail us.  Yet, Jesus didn’t come to take the prize away from us.  He came to save us from our lost and plundered state.  This world belongs to Jesus just as much as your life belongs to him. 

The writer goes on to mention that God made the world through Jesus.  He is the creative agent of creation.  In case this verse isn’t clear enough for you, the Apostle John makes is abundantly clear in his Gospel, chapter 1 verse 3.  “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”  This shuts down the idea that Jesus is also a created being.  Of course, the body he used in the first century was created within time.  However, he has existed from eternity past as the Word of God.  Thus, John is interpreting Genesis chapter 1 in John chapter 1.  He is showing us that God the Father spoke, “Let there be light,” and the Word of god (the eternal Son of God) went forth and brought it into being.  Everything that is in the class of created things was made through the Word of God (who would later be called Jesus in his incarnation).    Thus, it is illogical to say that he is also a part of the created class.

Some people are confused by the phrase in Colossians 1:15 that calls Jesus the “Firstborn over all creation.”  Just like the term “Son,” the term “Firstborn” was often used of kings to refer to a status.  It was common in the ancient near east for emperors to refer to kings that had sworn fealty to them (often after being defeated in battle) as “sons.”  Similarly, the emperors would refer to a particular king as their firstborn.  This wasn’t a reference of their biology and birth order.  It was a reference to their status within the Kingdom.  They were the one who would inherit it all, and had a double-portion over all the others.

Think of it.  Everything that we see on this planet and throughout the cosmos is the perfect work of a perfect Son doing the will of a perfect Father.  Any imperfections have come about by the activity of other agents, whether fallen angels or fallen humans.

This is who hung on the cross for us.  God’s wasn’t suffering only in Jesus, and only while he was on the cross.  First, we see Jesus suffering through many things leading up to the cross, both physical pain and the emotional pain of rejection and persecution.  Yet, Jesus is only revealing to us that the heart of the Father has been suffering all along.

Of course, we can pretend like it was easy for him because he was God.  We can think that it is no big deal for God to suffer because He can handle it.  Perhaps, you are thinking about it backwards.  It is most likely that God’s suffering is far more acute because of being God.  Nothing is hidden from Him.  Whereas, we humans are limited creatures, and therefore, our suffering is limited.  Just as we cannot handle the full glory of God without being undone, we cannot handle the full suffering of God.  It would destroy us.

Verse three gives us two phrases that point to Jesus as the perfect imager of God the Father.  This is another way to see the failure of Adam and Even in the Garden.  They failed to image God even though He had made them in His image and likeness.  As descendants of Adam and Eve, we all fail in our imaging of God.  However, in Christ, we are being redeemed back to a perfect image of God.

Of course, you are not perfect yet.  Only Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory.  A good picture of what this means is the sun.  It glory projects forth in an electromagnetic sea of wavelengths and particles.  Jesus isn’t just mimicking God.  He comes forth from God very nature.  Just as Jesus healed people, taught people, and loved people, so he is showing us that God is a healer, a teacher, and the One who loves us.

At the cross, Jesus isn’t just revealing what God would do.  No, the Father already had a crucified heart back at Creation.  He had counted the cost, and He had agreed to pay the price.   It is the very nature of God to suffer with our sin for long periods of time.  He is slow to anger and willing to take our pain upon Himself in order to redeem us.  When Jesus says, “Father, forgive them.  They don’t know what they are doing,” he is revealing the very desire and purpose of God.  It is exactly what He wanted to do, and the cross was the mechanism for rectifying, justifying, that very act!

The second way that this is pointed out is in the phrase “exact representation of God’s nature.”  To see Jesus is to see the very nature of God.

Next, we are told in verse three that Jesus upholds all things by the word of his power.  Everything would fall without him.  This is similar to the phrase in Colossians 1:17.  There it says that in Him all things hold together.  He holds it up and holds it together.  He is the very power that holds the universe in a unified system doing the will of God.

Think about that when he is hanging on the cross, being kissed by a betrayer, and having a high priest cry out, “Blasphemy!” while tearing his robe.  He held the world together that day just so we could spit in his face. 

Welcome to fatherhood.  You are called to be the adult.  But even better, you are called to be the reflection of our heavenly Father, to take on suffering for the good of those who will die if you don’t do it, to do it because you love them!

Jesus is also the one who made purification for sins. He was not just showing us God’s heart for us in the sense of only giving us an example.  He truly was making a way for our sins to be covered and the guilt of it to be removed from us (purified).  This is the foundation of the Father’s ability to allow those who have sinned to become Children of god, dwelling with Him forever, and inheriting that for which we are disqualified.  Jesus paid the price for our redemption.  He lays his perfect life down so that we can no longer be disqualified from our inheritance.

Finally, Jesus is the one who sits at the right hand of the Father.  This too speaks to status.  He is in a position to exercise the authority and power of the Father.  He is there in order to give humanity time to respond to the Gospel of peace.  Through us, God is offering terms of peace to His enemies.  Of course, this puts the ball in their (our) court.  What will we do?  How will we choose?

God is speaking to us through Jesus.  What is His message?

So far, we have focused on who Jesus is, but the whole point of these verses is that God has spoken to us through Jesus.  The message of Jesus is the message of the Father.  This is what Jesus was talking about in John 7:16-17 and 12:29.  He was not teaching his own things.  He was teaching what the Father had sent him to teach.  The same is true of the deeds and miracles that he did.

So, what was Jesus saying, and therefore, what was the Father saying?

First, He is telling us, “I haven’t abandoned you.”  Israel’s problem was never that God was taking too long.  It was always that they were tone deaf to the message He was giving them.  The problem wasn’t Gentile powers, Serpents in the Garden, or giants.  The problem was always their inability to trust God, and the sin that resulted from it.  Sin always leads to separation from God and the good that He intends for us.  The separation is not just God turning from us because it starts with us turning from Him.

Yet, God does not and has not abandoned us.  It can feel like it.  Adam and Even were kicked out of the Garden.  Yet, they were also given a promise.  God was saying to them, “Will you trust Me now?”  When the people at the Tower of Babel were disowned by God and handed over to the Spirit-beings that they were seeking, it could feel like God had abandoned them.  Yet, His call of Abraham was all about blessing the nations.  God gives a promise through Abraham that would impact the whole world.

In Christ, a remnant of Israel was raised up, filled with the Spirit of God, and sent out to the nations with a message of peace. 

In the midst of a world that is full of the pain of sin, both our own sin and that of others, it is easy to think that God has abandoned us.  We want God to keep the pain from ever touching us, but sin is pain.  Instead, God joins us in the pain and suffering and gives that suffering meaning and purpose.  Our suffering can be redeemed and become a trophy of God’s saving power.  But, it can also be a strengthening in a person’s life.  They can become a warrior to help and to fight for the souls of others who are suffering.

A second part of what God is saying is this.  “I have paid the price to redeem you.”  The love of God is not just about good feelings and warm thoughts toward us.  It is about dealing with the unsolvable predicament that we have created with our own sin.  No amount of good works can make up for past sin.  Yet, in Jesus, God has stepped in and paid the price for your spiritual and physical freedom. 

Lastly, God is saying, “If you trust Me, I will help you overcome all that stands in your way so that you can sit with Me on My throne!”

In Jesus, it doesn’t matter what has happened to us.  No matter how painful, or how much failure we have done, He will help us to overcome it!

There have always been horrible things in this world since the Fall.  Yet, instead of them destroying you, God will destroy its destroying effects through your faith in Jesus.  What the devil, the world, or any individual, intends for evil in our life, God will turn it to the good if we will only trust Him.

The cross speaks a powerful word about the faithfulness of God in the face of “losing it all.”  If we listen to Him, though it leads to a cross, He will raise us up to sit with Him and inherit all things.

This is what Paul means when he talks about us being seated with Jesus in the heavenly places.  We are not physically there now, but it becomes our status when we put our faith in him.  He will help us to overcome all that stands in our way. 

We may be frustrated today as imperfect dads pointing imperfect kids to a perfect Son who images a perfect Father.  Yet, this is God’s perfect work in us!  He is not removing us from the problem, but rather, He is spotting us through the heavy lifting and bringing us into a glorious future.

Perfect Son audio

Sermon on the Mount IX

Subtitle:  Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God VII

Matthew 5:43-48.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 4, 2024.

Today, we will finish the Master’s look at what it means to fulfill the Law.  In a sense, this is the sixth case-study, but it is also a summary for all of the others.  It challenges us to recognize all of the ways that we have been an enemy to people, choosing a path that is of the evil one.  It challenges us to see how we have not chosen to take the path of our Father in Heaven, and to change.

This law focuses not on how someone becomes an enemy to us, but on what do we do with those who are already our enemies, and for whatever reason.

Let’s look at our passage.

The Law of Enemies (v. 43-48)

Jesus lays out the teaching of the current day on how we treat our enemies.  “Love your neighbor, and hate your enemies.”  In a sense, you only love the people that God commands.

The idea of loving your neighbor can be inferred from the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20.  Jesus said that all of the Law and the prophets can be summed up in loving God and loving your neighbor. 

Of course, a legalist would ask the question.  “Just who is my neighbor?”  Jesus answers that later (Luke 10:25-37) with the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Here, however, Jesus jumps right by our neighbor and goes to the heart of the issue, our enemy.

Leviticus 19:18 says, “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD!”

This passage does focus on neighbors being of your own nation or people.  However, there are other passages that add to this.

Take, for instance, Exodus 23:4-5.  It talks about helping your enemy, if you come upon him while he is in a difficult situation (most likely assumed to be another Israelite).  Don’t take advantage of them.  Also, Deuteronomy 23:7 tell Israel not to hate the Edomites and the Egyptians.

On top of this, the Law and the prophets signal a desire of God to bless the nations, whether through Abraham (Genesis 12) or Messiah (Isaiah 42, 49, and 60).  God cared about the nations, and Israel was His tool to reach them with the Truth.

So, how did the religious leaders come to the conclusion that we should hate our enemies?  It is a natural inference from the idea that God is going to judge the nations who have hated Him.  It would make sense that we should not love those who hate God.  Yet, God’s long delay for judging His enemies begs a lot of questions.  Why wouldn’t He just judge them and get it over with?  Did God really want Israel to hate His enemies?

I mentioned several prophetic passages earlier.  It is clear that there is some tension between a judgment of the nations and the light of Messiah going out to the nations.  Jesus is now shining the light of day upon this murky area.

Jesus tells his followers to love their enemies, which is the exact opposite of what they would have been told by the religious leaders.  We are not given any commentary on the crowd, but I have to believe that their were some audible gasps at this point.  It had to be a shock.  Perhaps, we could ask the question (like the young man in Luke 10 regarding his neighbors), “What exactly do you mean by love?”   Is Jesus telling us that we have to have fuzzy warm feelings for our enemies?  No.  The word for love here has to do with an intellectual choice that is not dependent upon the person we give it to.  It is a love of decision.

Jesus goes on to point out three particular ways to love your enemy.  The first is, “Bless those who curse you.”  This deals with the area of speech.  How do we talk about those who talk evil of us?  The second is, “Do good to those who hate you.”  This deals with the area of our actions.  What kinds of things do we do to those who hate us?  The third is, “Pray for those who spitefully use you (treat abusively) and persecute you.”  This is the area of our spiritual life.

I don’t believe that Jesus intends us to pray for their destruction.  The previous two examples clearly show a good and righteous response to the actions that are not good and righteous towards us.  This needs to be a prayer that can be categorized as loving, a choice to work for their good.

This doesn’t mean that we approve of what people do when they curse, hate, abuse and persecute others.  It doesn’t even mean that we pray for them to be happy in life.  A person who chooses to be an enemy to you is not following the Lord Jesus Christ.  They are lost.  Perhaps, that is what we should pray for them.  “Lord, help me to respond in such a way that they may turn away from being an enemy and turn towards being a brother in you!”

We need to understand that love is a weapon.  People who are doing evil are generally not prepared for someone to love them.  I guarantee you that no evil person has spent a minute training on what to do when somebody loves them.  The enemy of our souls (the devil) intends their actions to destroy your faith.  However, what do you think God intends to do by your actions back towards them?  He intends to break them free from the devil’s hold on their life.  He intends to break them free from a life of anger, contempt, fear, rage, abuse, etc.

The natural question rises at this point, “Who in their right mind would love those who curse, hate, and persecute them?”  Jesus follows up quickly with the answer why in verse 45.

Every person ought to ask the question, “Who is my Father, and what is He like?”  Jesus points us to God who is firstly our Creator, and for those who have responded by faith, a spiritual Father.  This new birth is necessary to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  This picture of a child beginning to look like its father is important.  If you want to be a child of God, then you need to pay attention to what He is like. 

The image of God is more about spiritual things then it is about our physical appearance.  We automatically have the status of an imager of God by simply being human, natural birth.  However, status is not enough.  The activity of my life needs to be a portrayal of the Father.  This may sound extremely abstract, but look at the examples that Jesus gives following this.  “[He] makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”  God gives sunshine and rain to everyone.  Yes, God can affect the weather and send droughts.  However, don’t miss the fact that God generally gives these things to all peoples.  Even with these particular judgments, God gives far more grace to the wicked than they deserve. 

This can cause those who are trying to be righteous to have a crisis of faith.  We may begin to doubt the goodness of God.  “Why does He bless those who curse Him?”  And, it may even cause us to doubt His very existence.  “What good is it to serve God, if the wicked are blessed too?”  Of course, these are very short-sighted questions.  What good is it if a person never has drought, nor an empty belly, but they go into eternity and are found lacking by the Judge?  Why am I having a crisis of faith because God is being kind and showing goodness?

To love your enemy is not to say that what they do is good.  To love your enemy does not justify them in what they are doing.  It could be said that it increases their guilt, if they don’t cease their enemy-ways.  Yes, God will judge all people, and He will judge all the nations at once in what is called the Last Days.  If God is good, then why does He delay judgment?  It is because He is not willing that any should perish.  To love your enemy is to recognize that they will be judged and found guilty.  Yet, God doesn’t want them to perish.  God desires them to have a change of heart, repent, and enter His Kingdom like little children.

Romans 2:4 says, “…the goodness of God leads you to repentance.” They may never repent, but God’s goodness gives them a chance.  If we choose to go into eternity over the top of all of God’s goodness, then He will judge you.  But, always remember this.  He doesn’t want you to be His enemy.

This becomes a heart check in which we all fail.  We do not naturally want this for our enemies.  We are not this compassionate and selfless, but God is; Jesus is.  Yet, don’t be discouraged.  This is what it means to follow Jesus.  Our flesh fights it, but the Spirit of God helps us to overcome.  Lord, change our hearts with each trial and decision that we face.  Let us become more like you!

In verse 46 Jesus gives some if-statements that challenge the kind of love that we might have for others.  He uses the verb form of agape for love here.  It is the idea of choosing to love, as opposed to a love that is more based in the heart (i.e., familial love, brotherly love, or romantic love).  If you only choose to love those who chose to love you, then how are you different than the world?  Tax collectors and Gentiles tend do this with those who choose to love them.  Notice that God chooses to love His enemies (i.e., act for their benefit).  Their life is still limited.  They will face judgment.  But, He is good to them while they live.

In fact, one of the greatest good things that God has done is design the universe with a principle of cause-and-effect.  Even when people dismiss the word of God, and refuse to listen to His followers, cause and effect meets them at every poor choice that they make.  Their evil acts themselves draw them into evil consequences that naturally follow their actions, words, and inner life.  Through consequences, God is calling them back away from the ledge that they are intent on plunging off.  This reality, along with His goodness, is a powerful part of everyone’s life.  There is a goodness to consequences that we may not yet even understand fully.

Jesus asks his followers to leave judgment in the hands of the only One who can do so perfectly.  We can trust God to do the right thing.  In fact, our hunger for justice and setting things right often leads to all kinds of evil things that we do.  You risk losing your own soul when you rise up to be an enemy to your enemies, when you hate them.  Besides, we really stink at getting justice for ourselves.  We carry the bloody flag against everyone else, but do not recognize that this is a conflict of interest.  It would be like having you play in the Super Bowl, but also be the only one who is the referee in the game.  There is too much at stake to expect that you will always make a righteous call.  So, why not leave it to God?  Why not work to make your enemy your brother instead?  Why not save yourself from a lifetime of hate, contempt, rage, death, and then a fearful judgment from God?

Finally, Jesus lays down a statement that is very fearful on its face.  “You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  I’m sure there were some gasps on that one as well.

This phrase is interesting because it is in the future tense.  Therefore, Jesus is stating that you (plural) will be perfect in the future.  There is an encouragement of assurance in this.  He who has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. 

However, the Hebrews also used the second person future as a way of giving a command to someone about something ahead.  This nuance adds another dimension to the statement.  There is no question that God will do His part in this.  However, this sermon has had several places of warning throughout it.  We might hear these wonderful words, but not persevere in following the Messiah.  We might grow weary, lose faith, and walk away.  Thus, this is also a command to be perfect.

Of course, the flesh of every human who has ever lived protests such a statement.  How can God expect us to be perfect?  First, let me point out that the Greek word for “perfect” here does not mean to never mess up.  It is actually a term that is used in building, growing, planning, etc.  A building has many stages to it, but we call the last stage the finish work.  When the house is ready, it is perfect, finished, completed.  It is what we intended it to be.  You are a child spiritually, but children grow up and become adults.  You shall be perfect, complete, finished.  God essentially guarantees it.  Yet, you must have faith in Him, in Jesus, and persevere in this fight against our flesh by the Spirit.

When we say a baby is perfect, we mean that it is exactly what it should be for the stage it is in.  However, if the baby never grew, we would quickly become concerned and not think of it as perfect.  Quit thinking of this like a legalist, and begin thinking of it in terms of the love of God.  As you die to your righteousness, come alive to His righteousness, and rely upon His Spirit to help you learn to love your enemies, then you will be a perfect baby Christian learning to walk, then run, and finally fly.  It is our relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit that makes our life perfect, even when there are dumb choices, and sin that we need to repent of.

In this life, Christians are not instantly zapped and made into the image of God.  Ephesians 4 12-13 pictures us growing up into the measure and the stature and the fullness of Christ.  This may feel hopeless at times, but should not co-labor with the Holy Spirit in hopelessness.  God is on your side.  How can you lose?  And how can you lose even when you fall down from time to time?  Jesus is the author (it was his idea) and the finisher (he will complete you) of our faith.  Guess when you will be done becoming like Jesus?  At the resurrection, God will accomplish the coupe de grâce (I mean that in an artistic way and not a military way).  Can we just take a deep breath right now and rest in the truth that we shall be like Him?  Yes, there is plenty of hard things to go through down here, and there is plenty of things that we may suffer.  However, we do these things with our LORD!  There is a certain glory that we have to go to war against our flesh, and against the devil’s work on this planet.  We were made to destroy the works of the devil with the help of Jesus!  We start by destroying the works of the devil in our own heart and mind by the help of His Holy Spirit.  Let’s go to work with Jesus this week!

Law of Enemies audio

The Sermon on the Mount VII

Subtitle: Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God V

Matthew 5:33-37.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 21, 2024. 

We will continue our look at the first section of the teaching of Messiah Jesus regarding fulfilling the Law and the prophets of God.   In today’s passage, we see the fourth case study from the law that compares what the religious leaders of that day were emphasizing to what Jesus Messiah was teaching.  It is regarding swearing oaths before others.

The law of swearing oaths (v. 33-37)

Many teachers connect this to the third commandment, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain” from Exodus 20.  That commandment is about representation.  The word translated “take” has the concept of carrying God’s reputation, and is about far more than our speech.  It means that we should not carry God’s name around in an empty, unworthy manner.

We can probably all remember receiving “The Speech” from our parents or a coach.  “You represent the (insert family name, High School, etc.), so be on your best behavior because you represent our (family, school…LORD).

Yet, it is even more specific to connect Matthew 5:33-37 to Leviticus 19:12.  “And you shall not swear by My Name falsely nor shall you profane the Name of your God: I am the LORD.”  So, what is the connection between swearing oaths and truth?

Swearing oaths has to do with convincing others that you are telling the truth about something.  This can be in the context of kids, friends, court or business.  I remember the line as a kid, “Cross my heart, hope to die, poke a needle in my eye.”  Not sure of anyone ever following through with the needle when they didn’t prove out to be true.

Swearing here is not so much about cussing, as it is about invoking something serious to back up a truth claim.  Of course, profaning the name of the LORD is to use God’s name in such a way that far below His true greatness.  To profane something is to treat a holy thing, person, as if it, or they, were just a common thing.  God and Jesus are the most holy beings that we can refer to.  IF we use their name as a curse word, i.e., the same way we would use other vile words, then we are taking a holy God and treating Him without the holy respect He is due.  His true Name (reputation and power) are empty worthless things to me.

Swearing an oath to back up the veracity of something always requires an invocation clause.  We can invoke a horrible consequence, like hoping to die or a needle being poked in our eye.  Historically, it has been common to invoke God Himself as a witness.  This is powerful because God doesn’t suffer fools.  You will not get away with using Him as a manipulative measure to cause others to believe you.  Thus, the mention of swearing falsely in Leviticus 19:12.

People often gave oaths in the courtroom (a legal context), and also within business (a contractual context).  Today, we still have people swear, or affirm, to tell the truth in court (although there is no hand on the Bible).

So, why do people swear?  If I am a person of my word, swearing becomes redundant.  Thus, it is really a manipulative tool that supports people in flat out lying to others all the way to simply wanting something so badly that we are willing to swear to its truth.

As per the teachers of their day, a whole realm of traditions had been built up on what you could swear by and what you couldn’t.  Rather, what things made an oath valid and binding, versus one that is not binding.  Teachers in those days had generally ruled out swearing by God’s name because it put you in direct danger of abusing the Law.  Thus, they built a network of fences around this idea to keep people from being bound to swearing falsely.

In this passage, Jesus mentions four such things: swearing by heaven, by the earth, by Jerusalem, and by your own head.  Of course, there were far more things.  In Matthew 23:16-22, Jesus brings up this area of what makes an oath valid or not.

Imagine if you were an Israelite in those days and took a person to court because they swore to you on the temple (in Jerusalem) that they would fulfill a business obligation.  Yet, they welched on the deal and cost you money.  Now, imagine that in the courtroom the lawyer of the person who swindled you makes the case that the oath wasn’t binding because it was only on the temple and not on the “gold of the temple.”  This is the weasel-like practices, and legal precedents, that had been built up in Jerusalem at the time.  The religious leaders taught a whole realm of things that were not binding versus things that were.  To them, swearing by the temple was not binding, but to swear by the gold of the temple was binding.  To them, swearing by the altar was not binding, but to swear by the gift (sacrifice) on the altar was binding.

Jesus berated the religious leaders for being blind guides.  To swear by the temple is to swear by all that it represents, i.e., God!  The same is true for the altar.  This is not the kind of righteousness that the Law was pointing us them to do, but it was what they had twisted it into.

Their nit-picking over what you swear by demonstrated their lack of respect for Yahweh, and that they represented Him.  It is at this point that you know they are not interested in truth, just as you do when you find out that a person in court can get away with lying to you simply because they have a better lawyer who knows just what words to twist.  The court says it is legal, but the God of heaven condemns it as lawlessness (in the name of Law).

In all of this, God’s reputation was being lost in the shuffle.  Yahweh is the epitome of truth and love, but honesty and truth telling were the last things you would find (or will find today) in a court of “law.”

Verse 34 opens with, “But I say to you do not swear at all…”  Quit focusing on the thing you are invoking (heaven, earth, Jerusalem, or your own head), and start focusing on whether you are speaking truth or not.  Everything in this universe belongs to the God of Truth, and you have no power over those things.   So, just stop swearing oaths, period! 

Due to outright lying, half-truths, and manipulative wording that is deceptive, the habit of swearing to something had taken root in the ancient world and is still with us today.  Jesus tells us not to be a person who swears oaths in order to get people to believe them.

Instead of swearing oaths, “But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,” ‘No.’“  If you say ‘Yes,’ then the truth of the matter needs to be ‘Yes.’  The same is true for if you say ‘No.”  Yes=Yes and No=No, period!  Jesus is calling those who join His Kingdom to be truth-tellers, to be honest.  Sometimes it is better to say nothing at all.  You may not qualify as a witness, or get that contract, but you will at least have been truthful and honest with others.

We should also notice that Jesus does not say that we should only answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’  He says something far more radical.  Make sure that every word you speak matches up with the truth, matches up with reality.  We are challenged to keep our word, even when an oath wasn’t involved, because we represent the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of God’s Messiah, Jesus!

Paul references such things in Ephesians 4:14-15.  He tells them to “put away lying,” and “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbors (v. 25).  This does not mean that it is okay to lie to the lost. 

Now, we should not turn this into a legalistic law that misses the point.  It is not about what others say, or require you to do.  This is all about your intention.  Historically, people have made an issue of not “swearing” when they are in court because of this verse.  Because people are liars, courts take time to “swear in” witnesses.  It lets them know that they will be held accountable for lying.  In a sense, they are admitting they are forewarned.  This is not what Jesus is talking about.  In fact, we have a similar issue later when Jesus is in front of the High Priest in Matthew 26:62-64.

Jesus has kept his mouth shut throughout the whole trial (kangaroo trial), This exasperates the High Priest and causes him to invoke an oath formula.  “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!”  Now, Jesus didn’t have to say anything, but any answer following this would be equivalent to swearing upon the living God.  Jesus answers the High Priest.  He doesn’t make a big deal about not swearing, etc.  He simply speaks the truth before God, as he had always done.  The point of this is about the underlying issue of dishonesty and manipulation. 

Jesus then adds in verse 37, “whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”  Again, the point is not saying more than ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ (Jesus did that), but on anything more (or less) than Yes=Yes and No =No, i.e., truth, reality, honoring God in everything you say.

In fact, it is from the “evil one.”  This is the devil.  We can go into situations intent on saying the truth, but may find ourselves put in a situation where sensitive information may come out, and so we give half-truths.  I don’t think Jesus would ever have been manipulated into lying, but we could learn a lesson from him.  When his life was on the line, he was not desperately saying anything to get himself off the hook.  Instead, he rarely spoke or defended himself.  Of course, this didn’t get him off.  It is often dishonesty that gets a man off, and truth telling that gets him killed.  We fear man more than God, and thereby, we end up imaging the devil instead of our loving Father in heaven.

Other motivations that lead people to manipulation and swearing oaths are desperation to get a contract with others, or to impress others.  We may be desperate to get people to sign onto something that we are personally invested in.  In such cases, we are often tempted to use the arts of manipulation, even in the Church, which does not please God or honor Him.

Instead of respecting the other person, we reduce them to a means to an end.  They become like a mere slice of bread to us.  Desperation, in ourselves or in others, is always a red flag.

This brings us to the true motivation.  Respect for others is a facet of loving others.  When we operate out of love, as Jesus commands us, we will turn away from such methods, and put our trust in God.  If others do not believe me, then they will have to answer to God for it.  Romans 13:8-10 says, “8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

If you love people, you won’t image the devil in your speech to them.  Of course, we immediately feel the protest of our flesh, “No one can perfectly do that!”  Listen, the only way you will become perfect is by dying to yourself and putting your faith in Jesus.  If you make a mistake in this area, then be quick to admit it and ask forgiveness, from the people first and then from God.  None of us will become perfect without the help of Jesus and the Spirit of God.  Even then, the process will not be completed until the resurrection.  This is not an excuse, but the facts.  To follow Jesus is hard on our flesh, but he gives us life through the Holy Spirit.

Law of Swearing/Oaths audio