This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Philippians” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 19, 1992.

We begin our scripture reading this morning in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. This is Paul’s letter to the Colossians, chapter one. Beginning with verse 19. For it pleased the Father that in Christ should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.

And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight, if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church, whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to his saints, 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, whereunto I also labor Thriving according to his working which worketh in me mightily Then turning back to Philippians chapter 2 Verse 25 to the end of the chapter Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you a paphroditus my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier but your messenger is and he that ministered to my wants.

For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that he had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick, nigh unto death, that God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I sent him therefore the more carefully, that when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in reputation, because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.”

Our father, time and again, you have taught us. About the sufficiency. And the blessing of your word. And sadly, father, we confess that. Too often, we must be dragged back To you and your word. Through the circumstances that overtake us. We having forgotten your word. We having wandered from you. But Lord bring us back.

To your word that we might be filled with it. And no Lord that you have given this word as a comfort to us. And also, as our faith lays hold of it, this word proves to be a source of certainty for us that we indeed belong to you. Oh, God, we are ready to receive from you what you say to us. For Jesus’ sake, amen. There is a text here in Colossians 1 that has proved to be a Gordian knot since the church’s earliest days. The verse I have in mind is verse 24.

You will note in this verse the strange, the very strange language that the Apostle Paul uses. He writes, and I’m rendering this now from the New American Standard, I do my share on behalf of the church in filling up that which is lacking in Christ’s affliction. Do you catch the language? Do you grasp the strangeness of it? I do my share on behalf of the church in filling up that which is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.

Now there have been many suggestions made over the course of the church’s history, as to what exactly the apostle is getting at here. In fact, in 1956, a very, very large book was published in Bonn, Germany, dedicated to the history of this verse’s interpretation. The major problem is this, how can Paul speak as if there is a deficiency, a deficiency in Christ’s sufferings? How is it possible for Paul to speak as if there’s anything lacking in Christ’s affliction?

Has not Christ died? Is not His death a finished fact? Has He not been raised from the dead? And in light of this marvelous work of His, are not His sufferings complete? These sufferings by which we, His people, are rescued and set right with God again? Is there, can there be anything lacking in Christ’s sacrificial atoning offering on the cross by which our sins have been, past tense, have been pardoned?

Of course, we confess There is not, nor can there be, any deficiency in Christ’s affliction. For we know that there are too many passages in the New Testament, and from Paul himself, which bear contrary witness. In fact, we need look no further than Colossians itself for testimony. I want you to look at the first chapter, a little earlier than the section that we read from, verses 13 and 14. For he, that is, God, delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Here, a clear, unambiguous testimony to the sufficiency of Christ’s sufferings. What clearer presentation do we need than this statement? But in case you need further evidence, look at verse 20.

And through him, that is through Christ who reconciled all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him I say whether things on earth or things in heaven. And moving further into the letter to the Colossians, the second chapter, verses thirteen and fourteen there, and when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. statements in which we find the clear testimony to the sufficiency of Christ’s suffering and his affliction. So here is the problem. If Paul doesn’t mean, in fact cannot mean, a deficiency in Christ’s sacrificial saving work on the cross, what does he mean when he speaks? about filling up that which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions in Colossians 1 verse 24.

As if this text wasn’t strange enough in itself. Even more strange is the general obtuseness of many interpreters for failing to appreciate A related construction in the immediate context of that 24th verse. A construction, the unraveling of which goes a long way in helping us to understand Paul’s meaning.

I want you to look closely at verse 25. If you have the New International Version, it won’t help you much. as is the case too often with the New International Version. But at any rate, I want you to look at verse 25. For this verse seems to suggest to us a lack somewhere else. In addition to the lack that is spoken of in verse twenty four with respect to the afflictions of Christ there is a lack that is in view here in verse twenty five. That lack is with regard to the word of God. Now, if we weren’t caught off guard by the suggestion of a deficiency in Christ’s sufferings in verse 24, we most certainly will be shocked and startled by any suggestion of a lack, a deficiency in the Word of God in verse 25.

The literal rendering of that verse states that Paul intends by his ministry to make full or complete the Word of God. Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, that I might make full The Word of God, the last part of that verse there being literally rendered from the Greek. That I might make full the Word of God. But in what sense is the Word of God dependent upon Paul for its completion? What is it that the Word of God lacks which now Paul, in his ministry, supplies.

Well, hardly. The epistles he is presently writing, by which the table of contents of the New Testament would be completed in itself. No, rather, Paul has in mind the place his ministry has in bringing to completion the message of the Word of God, namely, as he plainly states in the following verses, verses 26 and 27, the making known to the Gentiles the riches of the glory of God’s mystery. That mystery kept hidden until now in God’s plan of things. What the Word of God lacks is the fulfillment of God’s full purpose for the Gentiles. And Paul is the servant of God to bring that design of God to completion, seeing that he is specifically designated as the apostle to the Gentiles.

But now returning to verse 24, what do we find? We find that the lack or the deficiency spoken of there with respect to the sufferings of Christ parallels the lack or the deficiency spoken of in verse 25 with respect to the word of God. Christ’s sufferings fall short of fulfillment.

How is this possible? How is this possible? Christ’s sufferings fall short of fulfillment in the sense that those sufferings yet need to be realized That is, come to expression in the life of Christ’s people. Paul, therefore, assures the Colossians that he is doing his part.

In other words, the sufferings of Christ are particularly being realized, are particularly coming to expression in him. We can even say the sufferings of Christ have this as their mission and their objective, that they would be realized in the likes of Paul. The sufferings of Christ are therefore incomplete in a deep and very perplexing way if they fall short of this goal, this goal of their being realized in coming to expression in the people of Christ. But what exactly does it mean that Christ’s sufferings yet need to be realized to come to expression in Christ’s people?

As we have already said, let me underscore it once more. This cannot mean that we somehow contribute to the efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice for our sins. We know this. Our sufferings do not atone for anyone’s sins, least of all our own. Christ’s sufferings in that respect are utterly unique. But our sufferings are the expression of our union with Christ. In that, after Him, and by Him, and through Him, we are found to be willing to suffer for His sake.

Peter speaks of it. He speaks of it in his first letter, the fourth chapter, the thirteenth verse, as he tells his audience that they are partakers of Christ’s suffering. And Paul himself speaks of it elsewhere in Philippians, the third chapter, the tenth verse, where he makes mention of the fact that we are called to a fellowship in his suffering. Now admittedly, both of these references, the one in Peter and the one in Philippians, both of these references have in you the anguish and extremity that comes to us because we are numbered with Christ, whom the world hates. The Scriptures singularly, that is, with one voice, call us to rejoice in such afflictions, since in them we understand, we know, that we are actually being conformed to the image of Christ.

As our Lord suffered and was oppressed, so we who are his servants likewise suffer and are oppressed. As he was hated, so too we are hated. The situation hasn’t changed since the first century. The world does not anymore like us than it liked Christ.

But even more now, as we get to the bottom of Paul’s interest as he speaks about the afflictions of Christ which are being filled up by him. The afflictions of Christ that yet need to be realized in our lives are not only those that come to us involuntarily because of the world’s hostility. Rather, at the deepest level, here are afflictions that must be consciously taken up, voluntarily chosen, as we, for Christ’s sake, give ourselves in the service of others, just as Christ gave himself for us.

It is not then merely the involuntary sufferings that come to us, but those afflictions which we must voluntarily choose that are in view when Paul speaks as he does in Colossians 1.24. Paul says in that first chapter, the 24th verse, that his own sufferings are for you, the Colossians. He says that he is willing to undergo afflictions on behalf of the body of Christ. In this, then, These words from Paul in that 24th verse, we have a further extension of Jesus’ own words, when in the 16th chapter of Matthew, 24th verse and following, he said, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life for myself, my sake, shall find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” I know how those words have been ordinarily interpreted, those words from Christ. The interpretation usually moves along the lines of personal private holiness. But that’s all that Jesus has in view, personal private sanctification.

But their meaning, the meaning of these words from Jesus, is found explained, explicated in Paul’s statement in Colossians 1.24. And in the life of this man who has so surrendered himself to Christ that he, like Christ, willingly and consciously takes up suffering for the sake of others.

But what kind of a message is this? Have you turned on a media evangelist lately and heard such a message as this? Is this the message that is certain to sell amongst the religious American empires of our day. It won’t wash. It won’t bring in a dime. How can Paul really seriously think. That this message of his this message of suffering. will go over in colossi, or anywhere else. And how can Jesus, at the right hand of God, seriously think that this message is going to go over in 20th century America?

Yet the Apostle knows that in the cross and the afflictions of Christ, ironic as it may sound, he has found the source of deepest joy. Not just that the cross of Christ is God’s means of forgiving his sin, as glorious as that is, as incomparable as that is, but this as well, that the cross of Christ is the divinely appointed sign of maturity and fullness in which the believer finds his deepest joy.

Paul is able to say at the beginning of that 24th verse, I rejoice in my suffering for your sake. I’m moving back to the Philippians. He tells the Philippians at the opening of that second chapter, his joy is made complete when he sees the same Christlikeness in them that is coming to expression in him. This is the background of his commendation later on in that second chapter of Philippians, his commendation both of Timothy and Epaphroditus. Because such joy is found in both of them, that is a willingness to give themselves over to afflictions and sufferings. For the sake of others, they knowing that in this their affinity to Christ is discovered.

Is that affinity with Christ known by you? or will you whistle through life, content to sing yourself a song of self-importance as the world around you goes to hell and you declare you couldn’t care less? Move us Lord by your spirit. By the sufferings of our Savior. is incomparable sufferings for our sake, that our sins might be forgiven. But also, Lord, move us by the pattern of those sufferings, that we might discern within them the pattern for our own life. And may we consciously and willingly, voluntarily, take up those sufferings and those afflictions so that others may be served, so that they may be helped. Oh God, may the very light of Christ come to us, and may we not be denied the deepest joy. that is found in the cross of our Savior. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.