Focus Verse:

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Colossians 3:16)

God created all things the way they ought to be – alive, righteous, good, glorifying to Him – all through Christ. In sin, humanity brought things to God’s creation (and into their own lives) that ought not to have been – unrighteousness, evil, self-centeredness, and ultimately death. Again, through Christ, God has made anew in His gift of life through the redemption that came with Christ’s cross. As that redemption now unites believers in Christ with His gift of eternal life, that same redemption is already break-ing into this sinful world, giving us the joy of salvation! Grace in Christ is also molding and empowering us, in the places to which God has called us, to already begin living again the way God intended through a life of good, Christ-glorifying works. While this may bring us into suffering in this fallen world, Paul is leading his Colossian readers to understand the true knowledge of salvation that leads to true life in Christ.