Wenstrom Bible Ministries Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom Sunday May 8, 2016 www.wenstrom.org Colossians: Colossians 3:4-When Christ is Revealed, the Colossians Will Be Revealed with Him in Glory Lesson # 71 Colossians 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. (NASB95) When Christ, who is our life, is revealed is a temporal clause presenting the assertion that Christ will be revealed visibly to the Colossians but the exact time of that occurrence cannot be established since it is known only to the Father. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed is composed of the following: (1) temporal adverb hotan (ὅταν), when (2) proper name Christos (Χριστός), Christ (3) verb phaneroō (φανερόω), is revealed (4) noun zōē (ζωή), life (5) personal pronoun su (σύ) (see), our. Christos signifies that Jesus of Nazareth served God the Father exclusively and this was manifested by His execution of the Father s salvation plan which was accomplished by His voluntary substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the Cross. The word also signifies that Jesus of Nazareth has been given authority by God the Father to forgive sins, give eternal life, and authority over all creation and every creature as a result of His execution of the Father s salvation plan. Furthermore, it signifies that Jesus of Nazareth was perpetually guided and empowered by God the Holy Spirit during His First Advent. Lastly, Christos signifies that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised deliverer of the human race from the bondage of Satan, his cosmic system and the old Adamic sin nature. The noun zōē means life and is used in relation to the Jesus Christ and Paul asserts that He is the Colossians life. 2016 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 1
The articular construction of this noun is employed with the genitive second person plural form of the personal pronoun su, your to express possession indicating that this life belongs to the Colossians or is their possession. The personal pronoun is in the plural and means all of you and is used in a distributive sense expressing no exceptions. The verb phaneroō is used of the revelation of Christ at the rapture or resurrection of the church and is used this way in First Peter 5:4, First John 2:28 and 3:2. This word speaks of the Father causing His Son Jesus Christ to be revealed to the Colossians by the power of the Spirit and this revelation coincides with the church age believer receiving their resurrection body. The aorist tense of the verb phaneroō is an ingressive aorist which is expressing the idea of Jesus Christ entering into the state of being revealed to the Colossians whereas previously He was concealed from their view because He sits at the right hand of the Father which resides in the third heaven. The passive voice of the verb phaneroō is indicating that Jesus Christ will receive the action of being revealed by means of the Father s omnipotence. Then is the temporal adverb tote (τότε), which pertains to a point of time simultaneous with another point of time. The two points of time are Christ being revealed to the Colossians and the other is the Colossians being revealed with Him in glory. Also is the conjunction kai (καί), is introducing a group of individuals who will be revealed in glory in addition to Christ Himself and here it is used of the Colossians indicating that in addition to Christ, the Colossians will be revealed in glory. You is the second person plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ), which means all of you referring to these faithful Colossian believers as a corporate unit and is used in a distributive sense meaning each and every one of you emphasizing no exceptions. 2016 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 2
Will be revealed is the phaneroō (φανερόω), which is used of the revelation of Colossians at the rapture or resurrection of the church. This word speaks of the Father causing the Colossians to be revealed in glory with His Son Jesus Christ and this revelation coincides with the church age believer receiving their resurrection body. The future tense of the verb phaneroō is a predictive future is asserting that the Colossians will as a certainty in the future be revealed in glory with Christ. The passive voice of the verb phaneroō is indicating that the Colossians will receive the action of being revealed with Christ in glory by means of the Father s omnipotence. With Him expresses the Colossians joint-participation with Christ in being revealed in glory by the Father. In glory is indicating that the Colossians will be revealed with Jesus Christ in a state or condition of being in a glorified condition in that they will be existing in a resurrection body. Colossians 3:4 When Christ, the life of each and every one of you, enters into the state of being revealed, then, at that time, each and every one of you will, as a certainty be revealed with Him in a state of glory. (My translation) Colossians 3:4 is a temporal clause which teaches that the revelation of Jesus Christ to the Colossians will take simultaneously with the Colossians being revealed with Christ in a state or glory. This temporal clause is used to present the assertion that Christ will be revealed visibly to the Colossians but the exact time of that occurrence cannot be established since it is known only to the Father. However, Paul s emphasis is not the particular time when this takes place but rather that this will take place. So the emphasis with this temporal clause is to encourage the Colossians that they will be revealed in glory with Christ when He does appear to them. 2016 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 3
Again, the emphasis is not if Christ will appear to them but that He will appear to them and this will result in their being glorified with Him in a resurrection body. The emphasis is that when Christ enters in the state of being revealed, they will enter into the state of being glorified in a resurrection body. If you recall, the command in Colossians 3:2 required that each and every one of the Colossians continuing making it their habit of concentrating upon the things above. This verse also contained a prohibition which required that they continue making it their habit of not concentrating upon the things on the earth. The causal clause in verse 3 asserts that the Colossians had died with Christ. Consequently, he asserts that their life is concealed with Christ by means of the Father s power. Now, here in verse 4, Paul asserts that when Christ is revealed, then the Colossians will also be revealed with Him in a state of glory. Consequently, the Colossians, and this is true for all church age believers, must continue to remain faithful to the gospel by appropriating by faith their union and identification with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father. If the church age believer is guaranteed a resurrection body at the rapture or resurrection of the church when Christ appears to the church, then they must continue to live their lives in the meantime in a manner which is consistent with this future event which will take place in all of their lives. Jesus Christ is described as being the life of the Colossians. He is the Colossians life for at least two reasons: (1) He is eternal life and He indwells the Colossians (cf. Colossians 1:27). (2) They are identified with Christ in His resurrection which provides them the guarantee of receiving a resurrection body like His (cf. Colossians 2:12-13; 3:1, 3). 2016 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 4
When Paul speaks of the Colossians being revealed with Christ in a state of glory, he is speaking of the Colossians living in a glorified condition and in particular, living in a resurrection body. The Colossians identification with Christ in His resurrection (cf. Colossians 2:12-13; 3:1, 3) and the fact that Christ indwells the Colossians (cf. Colossians 1:27) guarantees that they will receive a resurrection body and this guarantee is what Paul is asserting with the Colossians here in Colossians 3:4. This guarantee of a resurrection body is designed to motivate the Colossians to continue to remain faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ so as to live in a manner which is consistent with this guarantee. This guarantee is designed to motivate them to continue making it their habit of appropriating by faith their union and identification with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father. By doing this, they will guarantee that they will live in a manner which is consistent with this guarantee of receiving a resurrection body and it will also simultaneously protect them from the false doctrine of the Judaizers. So in Colossians 3:4, the apostle Paul is speaking of the Colossians sanctification in a perfective sense. Every church age believer will receive a resurrection body regardless if they were faithful or not after their conversion. This is called the resurrection or rapture of the church. The rapture is a technical theological term for the resurrection of the church, which is imminent, and will be invisible to the world, and will terminate the church age dispensation. It will take place in the earth s atmosphere when the Lord Jesus Christ will suddenly and forcefully remove the church from planet earth in order to deliver her from the Tribulation period. The rapture is taught in John 14:1-3, 1 Corinthians 1:7, 15:50-57, Philippians 3:20-21, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 and Titus 2:13. 2016 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 5