(Colossians 1:4-10) “Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:”
The gospel, if it is believed, will bring forth hope and fruit. The Colossians heard the gospel and believed it; this gave them faith in Christ Jesus.
Believing the gospel, believing in Christ Jesus, will give hope of heaven and it gives fruit here in this world. This is what happened to the Colossians that believed the gospel and this is what will happen to anyone that will believe it today.
The first thing that must happen if you are to have any hope of heaven is that you must hear the gospel. Here is the gospel; (1 Corinthians 15:3-5) “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve.”
We cannot believe anything unless we hear it. We cannot believe anything that we do not know. We will not do anything that we do not know to do. We know that there is no way that one can call on the Lord if he has not heard of the Lord. This is why hearing the gospel comes first, then believing.
God wants us to know the gospel so that we can know His promises. For in the gospel, there is a promise of being forgiven of our sins and being reconciled to God. You see (Romans 10:9) “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
And if we know the gospel we can trust it, for it is a promise of God who cannot lie. The promise is that can we have eternal life by believing in Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is why believing the gospel will bring hope. This word “hope” does not mean that we “wish,” but it means that we have a promise and we have an expectation it will happen.
The hope of the gospel is that we will have eternal life. And the gospel will give to the believer fruit of good works in this life. The fruit started when the Colossians believe the truth of the gospel. The first fruit of the Spirit they had was love for all the saints. Paul prayed for them that they would know God’s will.
In knowing God’s will they would have wisdom. Wisdom is knowing how to live. When we know the will of God, then He will give us spiritual understanding.
The reason that they needed the knowledge of God’s will and the wisdom and the spiritual understanding was so that they could “ walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God”(v10).
The fruit of the gospel is here and now. It is the life that is worthy to be called a child of God. The life that God will be pleased with is full of good works. Another fruit of the gospel is a growing knowledge of God.
When the Colossians heard the gospel they believed it and believing it gave them hope of eternal life and made it possible for them to live a life that was pleasing to God.
The truth is that believing the gospel will make it possible for you or anyone else to do the same.
Leave a Comment