The New Cosmos Inaugurated

I've been spending some time lately in the beginning of Colossians, where Paul is sharing what he has been praying for this church. I decided to write it out as a personal prayer to God for my family, church, and for some groups of women that I will be speaking to in the upcoming season and have found it very helpful. So it was even more enlightening for me to read some highlights that G.K. Beale points out about this section of Scripture in his book, The Temple and the Church's Mission. In this particular chapter, Beale is demonstrating how the church is described as a new temple in the epistles of Paul. He makes a very important point that the "Spirit himself is the beginning evidence of the new creation, wherein is resurrection existence and the abode of the cosmic temple...The Spirit is not merely an anticipation or promise of these realities but is the beginning form of them...the Spirit is the beginning evidence that the latter-day promises have begun to be realized in Christ and his people" (258). After giving ample evidences of this from 2 Corinthians and Ephesians, Beale moves on to Paul's letter to the Colossians. Here he further reveals the fulfillment of the Gen. 1:28Cultural Mandate in Christ, the "eschatological Adam," and all those in Christ, the church. Check out this parallel: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Genesis 1:28 "increase [auxanō] and multiply and fill the earth...and rule over all the earth'.   Colossians 1:6, 10 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Read the rest of this article over at Reformation21.