…to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:2-3
Leading into our passage today, the apostle Paul was sharing with the Colossians how he agonized and struggled for those who had not met him in person, and that he desired for their hearts to be encouraged and knit together in love (see Col. 2:1-2). We pick up with the outcome of living in such a way: full assurance.
We all long for the assurance of good things to come, yet practically nothing in this life really provides it. However, scripture tells us that we can be sure of our salvation and the hope Christ gives to those who put their faith in Him.
This assurance may look a little different than we might expect. Paul tells us of the riches of full assurance of understanding. The Greek word used here for understanding is synesis and is defined as a “mental putting together, i.e. intelligence or of the intellect.” This is not emotional; it is a logical understanding. So it’s important we don’t rely too heavily on how we feel about the assurances we have in our walk with Christ. Emotions are volatile and depend on the situation. For example, when we stumble in sin, we often feel like we are on the brink of losing our salvation or that God won’t love us anymore. But Paul says this logical, intellectual assurance of salvation is irrevocably intertwined with the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ.
Here, Paul used the Greek word epignōsis which is translated as knowledge. This can be understood as “acknowledgement, and precise, correct knowledge.” Our assurance in salvation and our confidence in God is tied to understanding and knowledge of Christ, not good works or our performance as Christians. Only through understanding and believing the basics of the gospel (that we are sinners, hopelessly lost and separated from God, and the only means to salvation is through faith in Christ who completed a perfect and lasting sacrifice on the cross) and acknowledging Christ as our Savior by grace through faith alone, can we find true assurance of our salvation. All other forms of assurance outside of Christ’s gospel are fraudulent.
Paul wrote of assurance in his letter to the Romans: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Rom. 10:9)
Similarly, Jesus spoke of the pathway to full assurance many times, such as in John 5:24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
The Apostle John discussed the means to assurance in 1 John 5:13: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”
You see, the gospel is not complicated, and all it starts with a simple belief and acknowledgment of Christ as Savior.
Paul closes today’s passage with, “which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” I love this because it shows how our faith builds and grows on His foundation. When we acknowledge Christ and surrender to His will, we are given heavenly understanding of the great mystery of God’s salvation plan. This understanding and knowledge grows deeper and deeper as we faithfully walk with the Lord, as though we found a buried treasure chest that infinitely deep. The more we dig, the more we find, and the treasures only get better the deeper we go.
As the treasure of wisdom and knowledge from above fills our minds and our hearts, scripture becomes clearer, our love for the Lord and for others becomes more profound, and our faith becomes stronger. And all of this leads to the full assurance we have in our salvation, knowing that nothing and no one can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (see Rom 8:38-39).