Often we focus on our decisions and our role in baptism, but Paul emphasizes God’s actions in our baptism. God joins us with Christ in his death and resurrection through baptism and claims us as his own. In baptism, God gives us a new identity in Christ.

Three times in this section of Colossians Paul refers to a great mystery now revealed, namely Christ in us, the hope of glory. It seems so obvious to us now that Christ came to redeem people from every nation, but the inclusion of Gentiles into God’s people – the Jews – was highly controversial in the early church. Christ, and Christ alone, is our hope of glory (think supremacy and sufficiency). Do we still proclaim and live out the wideness of God’s mystery? May we, like Paul, contend for this grace to all (2:1).

These verses of Colossians may have been a hymn of the early church. With great beauty, they paint a cosmic picture of Jesus as both the source and purpose of creation, and he is the glue that holds it all together. All this is with a purpose: God reconciling all things to himself through Christ by his blood shed on the cross for us.

We all have times when we realize something is holding us back or holding us down – a relationship, a situation, a behavior, a sin. This week we’re digging into God’s gift of Redemption in Christ: God’s mighty act of delivering us from anyone or anything that holds us in bondage. Only the blood of Jesus truly delivers us from bondage to freedom.

We’re starting a six-week journey through the book of Colossians, a letter from the Apostle Paul to the church at Colossae. Amid competing claims, Paul focuses them on the real Jesus and living a life consistent with faith in that Jesus. His letter opens with a greeting that reads like an overview (or map) of how the gospel will shape a truly Christ-centered life. This week we begin the series “Following the Real Jesus” with the letter introduction Mapping Gospel Effectiveness.