What has God already done for believers according to Colossians 1:13?
According to Colossians 1:13, God the Father has already delivered believers from the power of darkness and has translated them into the kingdom of His dear Son. This past-tense work places every child of God in the kingdom now, not merely in a future earthly reign.
Les explains that Paul writes to us Gentiles and prays for the Colossian believers in Colossians 1. In verse 12 Paul gives thanks to the Father who has made us meet, or prepared us, to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Then in verse 13, the Father has past tense delivered us—and Paul always speaks to or on behalf of believers, never an unbeliever—from the power of darkness and has already translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. Les stresses that if you are a child of God, you are in the kingdom now. When Christ comes at His second coming and sets up the kingdom on the earth, believers will be with Him.
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: