There are many people in the world today who are more interested in accumulating worldly knowledge and wisdom rather than spiritual guidance from God. The apostle Paul, speaking of the urgent need for men and women everywhere to receive guidance from God, announced, “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). It was God’s eternal plan for the gentiles to be included in His plan for the salvation of mankind. Moved by faith in the promises of God, Paul sought to enlighten men with no other knowledge than the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. By preaching the good news, Paul revealed to the world that God wants all men to be saved. Now all those who hear and obey His Word will have the hope of glory (Romans 1:16).
Furthermore, emphasizing God’s desire for all to have an opportunity to be born again, (John 3:1-9), Paul asserted, it is “Him (Jesus Christ) we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Colossians 1:28).
By his preaching of the crucified, buried and resurrected Jesus, men would come to know the saving power of the Word of God. Sharing his main goal in life, Paul declared “To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily” (Colossians 1:29). Laboring to present faithful men to God was Paul’s constant motivation.
Desiring to stir up the minds of the brethren at Colossae, Paul proclaimed, that they had been “buried with Him (Jesus) in baptism, in which they also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead, and you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses” (Colossians 2:12-13).
Again, Paul, in his letter to Titus, penned “…not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Those who heard and obeyed the word of God recognized the necessity being washed in the blood of the lamb (Revelation 1:5b). Having been washed they have been raised to walk in newness of life.
Have you been washed in His blood? Are you now journeying on in faith as a true disciple of Jesus Christ?