Grace Changes Everything

one year in ColossiansI spent a lot of time, and several notebook pages, on verse six last week. Lots of little insights here:

which (the hope they have in the gospel, per v. 5) has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;

Paul uses the clause “as it has also” twice, and I think he does it to draw a parallel between two ideas.

In the first instance, he tells the believers in Colosse that the hope of the message of the gospel has come to them, “as it has also in all the world.” The truth of Jesus was spreading throughout the world, and the Colossians were not left out. The same message that was spreading across empires was the one they had heard.

The second time, Paul says that hope is producing good things in them, just like in the rest of the world. The evidence of their faith was the same as the evidence of faith all over the world.

Both seem unexciting to modern readers, but in a turbulent spiritual time — in a world without cell phones and social media — both statements may have been tremendous assurances. “The gospel that you put your faith in is the same one that is spreading all over the world. And the evidence of your faith is the same evidence that is being produced everywhere. You have not been led astray. You are on the right path.”

Because no matter how strong your convictions are about a matter, it’s always nice to know that you’re not alone in them. That it’s working.

Next, Paul singles out the start of their fruitful lives as, “the day (they) heard and knew …” Heard and knew. 

Hearing is not enough, but in practical terms it’s hard to imagine hearing about something and not, then, knowing it. Because Paul does not use the word believe. That’s the word I would have used. “… since the day you heard and believed …” That sounds more like the gospel I know, but Paul didn’t use believe.

It’s hard to imagine hearing without knowing, because when I think about knowing something I think about understanding and facts. But as I sat and scribbled through the word I suddenly remembered that Adam knew his wife and she conceived and bore a son. That’s a different kind of knowing. Is that what Paul is talking about?

We can’t strictly compare, since Genesis 4 and Colossians 1 were written in two different languages, but I think it likely. You can hear and understand a thing without engaging with it. Maybe Paul isn’t talking about an intellectual assent as much as he is talking about an intimate experience.

Before we carry that line of thinking further, what is the object of the knowing? Grace. Specifically, “the grace of God in truth,” but when I realized that Paul was leading to grace — not Christ, not the gospel message, or sound doctrine — everything changed.

Paul is talking about hearing and intimately experiencing the grace of God, and marking that experience as the moment that reset their lives, because that’s who God is. I scrawled in my notebook –

It was the experience of God’s grace that brought them hope, taught them the gospel, and produced fruit in their lives — not knowledge of His laws, His holiness, etc. It wasn’t religious living or right doctrine: the grace of God.

“… in truth.” Because His grace never sweeps His truth under the rug. His grace exists within, inside of, in the realm of, and as a condition of His truth. The two are not opposing.

But neither did Paul write about their intimate experience with the truth of God in grace, but the grace of God in truth. Truth delivers the mind. Grace revives a heart.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *