Hope of Glory Colossians 1:27

To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.



The things of God are a mystery. Salvation itself is a mystery. We want to think that we are good people and since God is a God of love, then somehow God will accept us and we will be able to live with Him in heaven. A lot of people will fail to get into heaven because they have adopted this philosophy. God, Paul tells us, has "made known the riches of His glory of this great mystery." The answer to it all is Christ in us.

Jesus left the throne of Glory and came to be born of a virgin in obscurity so that He could go to the cross and through the empty tomb get ready to come back to earth in victory and power to claim His bride, which is the church, the people of faith. Jesus indwells the heart of the individual who repents of his sin and opens his or her heart to the Lord by faith in His saving work on the cross. This is our hope of glory; this is our only hope.

Paul tells us that this is the message that he preaches. He warns every man and teaches every man in all wisdom, so that anyone may be presented perfect in Christ Jesus. Paul does not say that we are to be presented perfect in our own selves because that is impossible. There is nothing that we can do in and of our own selves that will make us perfect or even acceptable before the Lord. It is only what Christ did on the cross that can make any difference in our hearts and in our lives.

As we as God's children look to His Word and rely on the power of prayer, we will find His indwelling presence to be all that we need to allow Him to make our lives everything that He wants them to be. More than presented perfect in heaven, He will make our lives "perfect" in this world as well. We have to remember that His definition of "perfect" may well be a lot different than our definition and His timing may well be so different from ours but God promises to bless us in this life. Then when we will stand before Him in eternity, we will be perfect in His eyes because we have placed our lives in His hand and our hearts in His precious Son, who gave His life a ransom for each of us.

God is indeed a great and wonderful God and He loves each of us more than we could begin to imagine. His love for us ought to be enough to cause us to live for Him without exception and without excuse and when we do, God will delight Himself in us because Christ lives in us, which is the hope of glory and the key to understanding the mystery of His plan and purpose for our lives.