Colossians 1:24-2:5, Part 3

The main method by which we achieve our mission of the perfection of the saints is intellectual communication (1:28). This can be carried out in speech, in writing, or even in sign language. As to content and style, it may come as a bold declaration, a detailed lesson, a wise counsel, a gentle plea, a scathing rebuke, and in many other ways. Regardless of the exact manner in which it is conveyed, the method is the communication of intelligible propositions. And these are propositions that explain and apply divine revelation to the audience.

This task entails a conscious labor and struggle for the minister (1:29). It requires much labor to study out and think through, and then to preach on and write about the things that God has revealed to us through Scripture. Then, there are many peripheral items that support this main task and make it possible, and that demand effort as well, such as the physical acts of traveling, visiting the sick, and so on. In addition, the minister's work is often a struggle because of the oppositions that come against him, from his own shortcomings, from circumstances, from unbelievers, and from false brothers. He is often criticized and misunderstood, in many cases, by those who call themselves Christians. He could live to please men and to be their mouthpiece, but that would make him a worthless person. But if he would please God and speak his word, he will encounter resistance from all sides. Therefore, his work demands much inner strength and courage.

Where present at all, this otherworldly power does not come from the minister himself, but as Paul says, it is "his energy, which so powerfully works in me." The vast majority of ministers lack this divine energy. Because of persistent unbelief, and a fear that this unbelief be exposed, because of a false theology about spiritual gifts and manifestations, and the work of the Holy Spirit, because of a love of tradition rather than the command of God, and because of a lust for acceptance and credentials bestowed by mere men, most ministers of the gospel do not exhibit any degree of divine power or unction in their work. It is doubtful that many of them even believe in it. They labor by pure human effort and ingenuity, and the result is a failure and a stench. Paul is conscious of this divine power and considers it indispensable, for it is this energy that enables his own human effort.

This is another text where theologians and commentators sometimes use to assert the compatibility of divine sovereignty and human freedom or human responsibility. We have pointed out that human freedom and human responsibility bear no necessary relationship with each other, and that man is responsible because God has decided to judge him in relation to the moral law. Freedom does not enter into the discussion at all. Then, we point out that divine sovereignty is not compatible with human freedom, if the freedom we refer to is freedom from God. Clearly, if God is sovereign over man, then man is not free from God, and so man has no freedom. But if the freedom we refer to is freedom from something or someone else other than God, then it is irrelevant when the topic is God's sovereignty. It is misleading to even mention it.

If the assertion is that divine sovereignty is compatible with human choice, then it is again irrelevant and misleading. First, if we say that God's sovereignty comes short of controlling human choice, then this sovereignty is not absolute, so of course a powerful but not truly sovereign God is compatible with human choice, since man turns out to be free from God after all. But if we say that God's sovereignty is absolute, then it also determines human choice. Then, to say that divine sovereignty is compatible with a person making a choice is like saying that my act of snapping a pencil in half is compatible with the pencil snapping in half. Of course it is – I am the one who did it! The difference is that God has more control over a man's will than I have over a pencil.

So of course absolute divine sovereignty is "compatible" with human choice, since it is God who actively causes each human choice. And we are back to the realization that there is no point is stirring up so much trouble over "compatibility," since it is an irrelevant and misleading point. Man is still not free, and he is still responsible. And he is responsible because he is not free. Therefore, the divine energy comes from God, the human labor comes from God (Philippians 2:12-13), and just to complete the teaching, the outcome also comes from God – it "grows as God causes it to grow" (2:19; also 1 Corinthians 3:7).

Paul confesses that this energy "so powerfully works in me." Someone who says that today might be criticized by Christians as arrogant and self-important, but when Paul says it, they stand in wonderment, and congratulate their respect for the apostle. Those whose mindset are tuned to the current culture rather than the heavenly mindset tend to have a different standard for biblical characters and those that they idolize. And some have ceased to believe that God will work in this way – there has not been a cessation in spiritual powers, but a cessation in faith and piety.