Colossians 1:13-14 Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:… The word is a metaphor, and the comparison is taken from plants in nature, and there are divers things signified unto us in the similitude. As trees are translated in winter, not in the spring, so commonly our redemption is applied in the days of special affliction and sorrow: and as the plant is not first fruitful and then translated, but therefore translated that it may bear fruit, so we are not therefore redeemed because God was in love with our fruits; but therefore translated out of the kingdom of darkness, that we might bring forth fruit unto God. And as a tree may be truly removed, and new planted, and yet not presently bear fruit, so may a Christian be truly translated, and yet in the first instant of his conversion he may not show forth all the fruit he doth desire. In particular, translating hath two things in it. I. PULLING UP. The pulling up of a tree shadows out three things in the conversion of a sinner. 1. Separation from the world: he cannot be in Christ tahat hath his heart rooted in the earth, and keeps his old standing amongst these trees, the wicked of the world. 2. Deliverance both from original sin in the reign of it (which is the moisture of the old earth), and also from hardness of heart (for translating hath removing of the mould and stones that were about the root). 3. Godly sorrow raised by the sense of the strokes of the axe of God's threatenings, and by the loss of many sprouts and branches that were hidden in the earth. A Christian cannot escape without sorrow; for he hath many an unprofitable sprout of vanity, and sinful profit and pleasure he must part with. II. THE SETTING OF THE TREE NOTES — 1. Our engrafting into Christ by the Spirit of God through faith. 2. Our communion with the saints (the fruitful trees in God's orchard), as also it notes our preservation by the infusion of the sap of holy graces. Conclusion: And it is worthy to be noted that He saith "translated us," to teach us that there remains in man the same nature after calling that was before; for our natures are not destroyed in conversion, but translated: there remains the same faculties in the soul, and the same powers in the body; yea, the constitution and complexion of man is not destroyed, as the melancholy man doth not cease to be so after conversion, only the humour is sanctified unto a fitness for godly sorrow, and holy meditation, and the easy renouncing of the world, etc., and the like may be said of other humours in man's nature. (N. Byfield.) Parallel Verses KJV: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: |
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