Tomorrow I'll be preaching from Paul's letter to the Colossians,
chapter
1, verses 9-14. After I had written
my sermon I found myself continuing to linger over one particular verse, 13,
where Paul says this:
"He
has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom
of his beloved Son,"[1]
In just a few words Paul is talking about what is an
accomplished fact for all people with faith in Jesus. They have been taken, rescued even, from the kingdom
of darkness, where they essentially lived as prisoners, and placed into the
kingdom of Christ. They have been taken to
a place that is so utterly different from the place of darkness that we could
say that the difference is blinding.
Paul calls the first place the "domain of darkness," which suggests to me a place that
is unbelievably dark. It is hard to find
a place that dark in real life. Think
perhaps of a cave, a mine, or the interior of a ship when the power is off. A place that is so dark your eyes never
adjust, and never will.
And the other place, "the
kingdom of his beloved Son." A
place that is dazzling in its brilliance when we first come into it. So bright that we put on our sunglasses and
find that we are still squinting. Like the
sun shining on new fallen snow.
But the difference of the kingdom of the Son is that our eyes
do begin to adjust. We begin to see with
clarity the beauty of our Lord and the place he has prepared for those he
loves.
And that is what I find myself coming back to in this verse,
that by faith in the work of Christ Jesus, the images of the cross and the
empty tomb, deliverance has been accomplished, for me, and for all who believe.
It's a fact. I no
longer am a prisoner of the domain of darkness but have been transferred to the
kingdom of the Son. May this fact also
be true of you. Amen.
Scripture quotations
are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by
Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All
rights reserved.
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