The Apostle Paul wraps up the start of Colossians by focusing on what is finished:
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son (1:13).
We have been delivered. We have been transferred. The transaction is complete, the work here is done.
We were signed, sealed and dropped off on God’s doorstep before we were born.
Parts of us still feel like we’re very much en route. We are jostled and bumped and taped and torn. We long, we ache, we grieve and we falter.
We feel very Fragile, Handle with Care.
But the most real, the most true, the most forever part of us is finished, a masterwork carved out by Christ’s blood — arrived, unwrapped and on display for the glory of the Father.
Delivered is everything.
It is our shield against our sorrows and our sins. It is how we, like the Psalmist, can be under attack or in agony or can fail in the worst possible ways and still cry out in worship:
God has
delivered me from my fears (Psalm 34:4)
delivered me from my enemies (Psalm 69:14)
delivered me from my own destruction (Psalm 107:20)
delivered me from every trouble (Psalm 54:7)
delivered me from death (Psalm 116:8)
His work is final and finished. Whatever is happening right now, delivered is done.
This is the mercy that is new every morning.
This is where and how and why we stand.
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