Salvation like an Exodus: Exiting the Kingdom of Darkness

Diego dy Carlos explores how the apostle Paul draws on exodus imagery in the Old Testament to explain to the Colossians the salvation they have in Jesus Christ.

From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible reveals the unfolding of the dramatic plot of God’s salvation. It shows how God graciously designed a beautiful plan to save human beings from the disaster of the Fall (Genesis 3). God’s definitive answer to the human plight comes in Jesus Christ, the plot’s climax.

The drama is as much about you and me as about every other person who has ever set foot on earth. So, what Christ achieved on the cross has a direct bearing on the lives of those who respond with faith to the message of the gospel. But what exactly did the cross accomplish for those who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ?

The New Testament applies a variety of imagery to conceptualise Christ’s work on the cross. This shows that the richness of what happened at Christ’s crucifixion cannot be easily described. And that is why we get such a range of imagery highlighting different aspects of Christ’s salvation. In Colossians, for instance, Paul describes the salvation which Christ accomplished on the cross as a large-scale cosmic operation through which God rescued individuals from the realm of darkness and transported them into the kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:13). Colossians stresses the cosmic aspects of Christ’s work of redemption as the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies for the end of the times.

What does all this mean and how does it relate to us today? In other words, what happened on the cross and where does it leave us in God’s grand drama of salvation?

1. Context

Paul wrote to the church in Colossae to counter false teachers whose teaching threatened to mar the Colossians’ view of Christ’s divine identity and position in the cosmos, as well as of his work of salvation (cf. esp. Colossians 2:8–23). In turn, these distortions of the false teaching seem to have distorted the believers’ understanding of their own position in Christ. So perhaps part of their anxiety had to do with how they perceived themselves in a world full of evil spirits. The Colossians could well have been asking, were they still defenceless against evil spiritual forces? Were they still at the mercy of fate? What does Christ’s salvation mean for them?

Paul explains that Christ’s work on the cross has brought about a new age (Colossians 1:12-14). The false teachers were apparently imposing Jewish dietary and ritual requirements on the community in Colossae (Colossians 2:16), but Paul responds by saying that such practices are only ‘shadows of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ’ (Colossians 2:17, NIV). He thus reassures the Colossians that these requirements belonged to the old age, and are no longer active in the new age inaugurated by Christ.

His language alludes to the events of the exodus, when God rescued his people from Egypt and led them into the promised land. When he uses this language to describe redemption, he is interpreting Christ’s work on the cross as a ‘new exodus.’ What does that mean? Let us take a closer look at the language Paul uses to determine whether he does really allude to the exodus.

2. Exodus Imagery in Colossians

The first thing to observe is the wording similarity between Paul’s language in Colossians 1:12-14 and God’s announcement to Moses of the exodus (Exodus 6:6-8).

Paul describes salvation using a series of metaphors that would certainly bring the event of the exodus to the Colossians’ minds. Three metaphors are particularly relevant here:

• inheritance (klērou, Colossians 1:12; cf. Exodus 6:8)
• deliverance (ryomai, Colossians 1:13; cf. Exodus 6:6)
• redemption (apolytrōsis, Colossians 1:14; Exodus 6:6)

Paul interprets salvation in terms of a new, and spiritual, exodus. The story these metaphors tell is that the Colossian Christians were at one time ‘exiled’ in the realm of darkness under the authority of Satan (cf. Acts 26:18). But God rescued them and transplanted them into the kingdom of Jesus Christ, his Son (Colossians 1:13). Through their being forgiven, God made them co-heirs of God’s promises with Israel, the original people of God.

Despite the wording similarities between the two passages, it is unlikely that Paul had one specific text in mind. The events of the exodus became such an important model of God’s deliverance in the Old Testament tradition that Israel imagined future acts of divine salvation in light of it. As a result, its language became widespread in the Old Testament, undergoing some developments as the theme was applied to diverse circumstances at different stages of Israel’s history. So, the question we might now ask is, when Paul used exodus language in Colossians, was he thinking primarily in terms of the original event or some later development of the theme?

In the context of Colossians, Paul filters the exodus imagery through the eschatological (concerning the last days of this world) lenses of Isaiah, especially chapters 40–55, in which the prophet reworks the exodus idea in order to apply it to the restoration of captive Israel from Babylon.

3. The Second Exodus of Isaiah

Isaiah uses the exodus framework to describe Israel’s deliverance from the Babylonian exile in 538 BCE. Biblical scholars refer to this as the new or second exodus. Isaiah 40–55 in particular display several allusions to the original events, including:

• the deliverance from Egypt (e.g. Isaiah 51:9; 52:12; cf. Exodus 13:21f; 14:19f; 43:16f)
• the promises of the land (e.g. Isaiah 49:9-12) and of fertility of Israel (e.g., Isaiah 49:19-21; 54:1-3, cf. Genesis 28)
• the journey through the desert (e.g. Isaiah 40:3-5; 43:19; 48:21, cf. Exodus 17:2-7; Numbers 20:8)
• the re-entry into the promised land (g. Isaiah 49:8; 52:1)

Scholars have not reached a consensus on the number of allusions to the exodus in Isaiah, but some clear examples include Isaiah 43:16-21, 48:20-21, 51:9-11, and 52:11-12.

Isaiah does not impose a rigid framework onto the new historical circumstance of the Babylonian exile. Rather, the prophet develops the exodus motif to represent a new stage of salvation history. He transforms the motif in at least three related ways. Firstly, he makes it eschatological in nature. This becomes evident in the way Isaiah contrasts the ‘former things’ with the ‘new things’ (e.g. Isaiah 43:18-19), by which he most likely means the first exodus and second exodus respectively (cf. Isa. 50:2; 51:9-11). Secondly, the new exodus also becomes universal in scope. Isaiah extends God’s deliverance to encompass the whole world, including the Gentiles (e.g., Isaiah 40:3-5; 42:4, 6-7; 49:6; 51:4-6; 52:10; 55:5). Lastly, this in turn brings about a redefinition of the ‘people of God,’ now made up of both Jews and Gentiles (e.g., Isaiah 49:6, 8; cf. 45:22-23).

4. Colossians and the Isaianic Second Exodus

When we take a closer look at Paul’s language in Colossians, we can see the similarities with the way Isaiah uses the exodus. For instance, the apostle joins the concept of ‘forgiveness of sins’ to the ideas of rescue, deliverance, and redemption, just like Isaiah’s message (e.g. Isaiah 43:25; cf. Colossians 1:14). This is even more telling given the fact that Paul rarely uses the language of forgiveness of sins in relation to the work of Christ in his letters (only six times, three of which are in Colossians: 1:4; 2:13; 3:13). Both Isaiah 40–55 and Colossians define salvation spatially, in terms of deliverance from a realm and, internally, in terms of forgiveness of sins (cf. Isaiah 44:22-24).

Paul’s version of the exodus also involves a transference of individuals from ‘darkness’ to ‘light’ (Colossians 1:12-13) in a way that resonates with Isaiah 42:7, 16. This is not the only place in Paul where we can detect an allusion to these verses in Isaiah. In Acts 26:18, he describes his apostolic ministry with language that Isaiah uses in relation to YWHW’s Servant. So, the way Paul alludes to Isaiah 42:7, 16 in both Colossians 1:12-14 and in Acts 26:18 (an important passage describing his own apostolic commission) is further evidence of the influence Isaiah (esp. Isaiah 40–55) had on his ministry and theology.

Additionally, Colossians 1:12-14 displays an eschatological perspective which is similar to Isaiah. This is arguably the main reason for seeing Paul as drawing on Isaiah’s exodus model.

So what does it mean to speak of the work of Christ through the language of the new exodus of Isaiah? It means that Paul views the new exodus brought about by the work of Christ as fulfilling Isaiah’s promise of final restoration. Christ’s work on the cross marks the beginning of the long-awaited new age announced by the Old Testament prophet (e.g., Isaiah 43; 44.24–45.7; cf. 65.17–25). In fact, the New Testament writers maintained as a fundamental belief that the work of Christ brought about the last phase of God’s work of salvation in history. That is why Paul urges the believers in Colossae not to be perturbed by requirements that belonged to the old age, which foreshadowed the Messiah and which God has now fulfilled in him (Colossians 2:17; cf. Romans 10:4).

5. What has Christ’s exodus brought about

Those whom Christ has saved and are now in Christ have experienced a radical change of both their heart (they died and were raised with Christ) and the sphere of existence in which they live (they have been rescued from the realm of darkness and transplanted into the Kingdom of Christ). They now live in the new and final eschatological age inaugurated by the Messiah. The old order, together with its habits and practices, is past as the new age bursts forth at Christ’s cross (Colossians 2:17).

So, where do Christians stand in God’s story?

I will highlight only a few implications of Paul’s interpretation of Christ’s work as the fulfilment of Isaiah’s new exodus prophecies.

First, in Christ, the concept of the people of God is redefined. This has to do with the universality of the new exodus. Isaiah prophesied that YHWH’s Servant would bring salvation to both Israel and the nations (Isaiah 53:10-13; cf. 49:5-6, 8). This was so that the promise of universal salvation made to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 would be fulfilled.  Elsewhere, Paul writes about the expansion of the people of God to include Gentiles as the fulfilment of Hosea’s prophesy: ‘Those who were not my people I will call “my people,” and her who was not beloved I will call “beloved”’ (Romans 9:25; cf. Hosea 2:23). God fulfilled this in Christ. He also talks about it as the ‘mystery’ (meaning basically ‘secret’) which God has now revealed to be Christ among the gentiles also (Colossians 1:26­-27). So, Paul defines the new people of God as all those rescued from the spiritual exile of darkness, Jews and Gentiles alike.

Second, the new people of God now constitute the messianic community. This is the community of those whom God reconciled through Christ on the cross (Colossians 1:20). God’s work of reconciliation not only reconciled humanity with himself, but also human beings with each other. Those whom God reconciled to himself constitute ‘one body,’ which is the Church of Christ (Colossians 1:18; 3:15), the one ‘new humanity’ created ‘after the image of its creator’ (Colossians 3:10). There is no more ethnic exclusivity, for ‘Christ is all, and in all’ (Colossians 3:11). The final consummation of the promises of the new heaven and new earth of Isaiah 61 is still a future hope. However, Paul urges the messianic community of the reconciled ones to live in a way that reflects the perspective of the new age in which they already are in Christ (Colossians 3:1-4).

Finally, the new era of the Messiah which Christ inaugurated on the cross is characterised by the re-establishment of peace (shalōm). Isaiah tells us that through the vicarious suffering and death of YHWH’s Servant, God re-established peace with human beings through the forgiveness of sins and blotting out of transgressions made possible by the Servant’s atoning death (Isaiah 53:5, 10). Paul now tells us that this was fulfilled in Christ, who brought peace as he reconciled people to God (Colossians 1:20). As with the suffering Servant of Isaiah, God has brought peace through the blood of Christ, that is, the restoration of a friendly relationship with God. That was also done through the forgiveness of sins (cf. Colossians 1:14; 2:13-14).

Therefore, what happened on the cross was not just a new exodus. It was the new and definitive exodus. It inaugurated the new creation (cf. 1 Corinthians 5.17) which awaits to be consummated at Christ’s second coming. God’s act of salvation in Christ was not just a rescuing operation which extracted believers from the kingdom of darkness. It was followed by a ‘relocation operation’ which consisted in transferring them into the kingdom of the Son he loves (Colossians 1:13). Under the new lordship of Jesus Christ, Christians are the messianic community, the new people of God, in which peace marks their relationship with God and with one another.