One author has summarized the book of Colossians with the following sentence: “When Christians know the supremacy of Christ in his person and work, they will be transformed and learn to live in his ways as the body of Christ, including forgiving and being reconciled with one another.” Assuming that’s an accurate representation of the letter—and we’ll see in this episode that it is!—this text is packed with significance for each and every follower of Jesus. The unsurprising greatness of Jesus’s identity and ministry? Check. The transformation of sinners into his likeness? Check. The need for forgiveness within the body of Christ? Um, check!
Thankfully, the theologian who wrote that summary sentence has offered to help us unpack it rightly today. Dr. Adam Copenhaver currently serves as the pastor of Grace Church of Mabton in Mabton, Washington, where his ministry focuses especially on the teaching and preaching of God’s word. He has also published a number of works including that which was quoted above, a commentary on Paul’s letter to the Colossians.
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Dr. Adam Copenhaver currently serves as the pastor of Grace Church of Mabton in Mabton, Washington, where his ministry focuses especially on the teaching and preaching of God’s word and God’s saving work in Christ. He has published a number of works including Reconstructing the Background of Paul's Rhetoric in the Letter to the Colossians (2018), What Is Christian Marriage (2016), Translating Colossians Clause-by-Clause (2016), and Colossians and Philemon: A Commentary for Biblical Preaching and Teaching (2022).
Josiah has served the Oakridge Bible Chapel family as one of its elders and one of its pastoral staff members since September 2018, before which he ministered as an associate pastor to a local congregation in the Canadian prairies. Josiah's desire is to be used by God to help equip the church for ministry, both while gathered (edification) and while scattered (evangelization). He is married to Patricia, and together they have five children—Jonah, Henry, Nathaniel, Josephine, and Benjamin.
