“I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church…” Colossians 1:24.
“And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and irreproachable in His sight…” Colossians 1:21-22.
“And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him [Jesus] to reconcile all things to Himself [God the Father], by Him [Jesus], whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” Colossians 1:18-20.
When God confronted Adam and Eve after their sin in the Garden of Eden, see Genesis 3:1-24, He pronounced a series of curses and punishments; within this God made reference to the coming Christ who was to take away the sin of the world.
