Colossians mystery; walk in Christ; Word became flesh; door of the word

“…Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we proclaim.” How is the mystery hidden, or how is it God’s word at all, and what riches of glory are in it, if Christ is merely a common human as we are? The mystery is neither great nor worth naming unless we approach Christ as God and understand that the Word, being God and in the equality and form of the Father, lowered himself into emptying — becoming human and remaining what he was. Only so is the mystery thought rich and full of glory.

“As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in faith.” How did we receive Christ? Wise John will teach it: “And the Word became flesh.” Yet he has not ceased to be Word even though he became flesh; even so he sits with his own Father, and the crucified one is named Lord of glory.

“Continue steadfastly in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving, praying also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of God for which I am also in bonds, that I may make it clear as I ought to speak.” If Christ is not God but only a human honored by divine grace, there is nothing deep in the mystery about him. What door would he need for making it plain and speaking as one ought? There is nothing great or hard in saying about a human that he is human by nature. But if the Word from God is proclaimed as having become human, then we need God himself — the one who opens the door and grants us to speak the mystery in the fitting way.