Rescued from Darkness – Transferred to Light

By Roderick Breem

At the very end of Paul’s beautiful prayer for the church at Colosse He makes this bold and liberating statement. “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” (1:13)

The Passion Translation: “He has rescued us completely from the tyrannical rule of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom realm of his beloved Son.”

The Greek word for “delivered” is rhyomai and means “to draw to one’s self, to rescue, to deliver.” Rescue is a very good translation. Out of His great love for us He has drawn us to Himself, rescuing us from the power of darkness. That brings us to our next word: power.

In the Greek there are many words translated as power. Some like dunamis mean explosive power. But the word used here “… delivered us from the power of darkness” is the word exousia. It means authority. We get our word executive from that word. We have been rescued from the authority of the enemy. He no longer has a say in what we can and can’t do. We are no longer under his jurisdiction!

Lastly, we have been “translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” Think of the person who has been transferred from one job to another or from one post (think military) to another. We have been transferred from the authority of darkness to God’s loving kingdom. Notice how it says “the kingdom of the Son of His love.” This is not just a mere transfer of a person done by politicians with no emotion or fanfare. No, it is rather like the reuniting of two people when one had been kidnapped. The reuniting is full of joy and relief.

Father, we thank you for rescuing us! Thank you for delivering us from the authority of darkness and transferring us into the kingdom of Your Son’s love. Now, we ask you to rescue those in our circles who need rescuing. In Jesus’ name.

–image credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/822751425654745635/…