Colossians 1:21-23 - Alienation to Reconciliation

Alright well good morning everyone, it’s great to see you all again. I’m so glad you were able to join us this morning. As you know, we will be having our Annual General Meeting after the service and so please join us if you are able. Well if you have your bible, please open up to Colossians 1:21-23. We are slowly making our way through the book of Colossians and what an amazing book this is; last week, or two weeks ago rather, we looked at Paul’s Christ-centered hymn in verses 15-20, where Paul describes Jesus as the image of the invisible, the firstborn over all creation, the creator of all things, and then in verses 19-20 Paul says, “For it pleased the Father than in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in Heaven, having made peace through the blood of the cross.” And so we see in that passage that in Jesus, all the fulness of God dwells, He is fully human and yet fully God, and not only that but Jesus is God’s instrument in bringing about reconciliation. And this seques nicely into our passage today as Paul is still addressing the theme of reconciliation. In the previous passage the emphasis was on God reconciling all things in Christ Jesus; not only those created in His image, but all of creation. But now in our passage today Paul shifts his focus to what this means for the church in Colossae. And what does this mean for the church in Colossae? What does being reconciled to God through Christ Jesus mean for us today? Well today we will try and answer these questions by what we find in God’s word, and so if you haven’t already, please open up God’s word to Colossians chapter 1:21-23. Just a short passage, only three verses, but just packed with so many amazing truths. And so lets read this passage, beginning in verse 21:

Let’s pray: Oh God, you are the creator of all things, our Lord, our Saviour and Redeemer. And it is to you we draw near this morning, asking that you would draw near to us, that you would move among us by your Spirit, and that you would teach us marvelous things from your Word this morning. Lord would you open our eyes and hearts and ears this morning and give us a greater understanding of your word, and would you do a sanctifying work in us so that we will reflect the image of your Son in our lives and bring glory to your name, we ask this in Jesus name, amen.

Alright well what does it mean to be reconciled to God in Christ Jesus? Well for one, obviously, it must mean that at one point we were estranged in our relationship with God. And that’s what Paul says, “And you, who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works..” in verse 21. And that is a reality for all who don’t know Christ as Saviour; this state of alienation from God; estrangement. But most people think that they have a solid relationship with God, because they are a good person. The other day I checked out facebook; I have a facebook account but I’m not on there all that much. But a friend of mine that I went to high school with, she posted a video titled “Sunday prayer”. Now she’s not a believer, but rather she’s into the new age movement. Anyways, she posted this video and she was singing a song about how much we are loved; How “deeply we are loved.” And I thought to myself, yeah there is a lot of truth to that statement, we are deeply loved. But yet at the same time, we can be/ we are estranged in our relationship with God if we don’t know Christ as Saviour. We can claim to know God, and know this “higher power” or energy source, but the only way to know God is through Jesus Christ. And if we don’t know Christ as Saviour then we don’t know the true and Living God, and on top of that we are estranged from God because of our sin. Isaiah 59:1-2 says, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that He will not hear.” And so our sin separates us from God but not only that, our sins lead to death, physical and spiritual death. Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter one that before we were in Christ, we were dead in our sins. And here in our passage today; We are alienated from God because of our sin, in our thoughts in our actions, which Paul describes as wicked works. And to make matters worse our sin if not dealt with, will lead to an eternity of separation from God. We are separated from God because of our sin, now, in this life if we don’t know Christ as Saviour, and if not dealt with, it will lead to an eternity of separation from God, in hell, and eventually the lake of fire.

Today, pop culture smooths over hell like it’s going to be one big party. You hear rock stars sing about it on the radio; Celebrating death and hell. Billy Joel once sang, “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, cuz sinners are much more fun… only the good die young.” And a band I grew up listening to, who I don’t listen to for obvious reasons, but ACDC, has a number of songs talking about hell. They had a whole album talking about hell almost, with songs like, highway to hell, shot down in flames, hells bells, hell aint a bad place to be. But the reality is, hell is a bad place to be. Jesus described hell as a place of outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in Matthew 8:12. He described hell as a fiery furnace in Matthew 13:41-42 and a place where “their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” in Mark 9:48. In Luke chapter 16:19-31 we read about the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man had it all, and Lazarus, a poor man used to lay at the entrance of his gate and he “desired to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table”. Anyways Lazarus died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man died, and while in torment in hades he cried out to Abraham to “send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and cool his tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.” Can you imagine spending four hours in such a place, now imagine spending eternity there. Sadly, the rich man to this day is still longing for that bit of water to cool his tongue. Hell is not a place you want to go! It’s not a place where God wants you to go! That’s probably why Jesus talked about hell more than anyone else in the bible. It’s not a place where God wants you to spend eternity. He loves you, He doesn’t want us, who He created in His image to be alienated and separated from Him for eternity; He doesn’t want us to be enemies. And that’s why God sent His Son, He loves even His enemies and wants to be reconciled with them, and so He sent His Son to bear the sins of the world and die on the cross, and in doing so, Jesus has taken away the root cause, the reason for our alienation from, and our emnity with God; our sin! Usually when we are offended, we expect the person who offended us to do something to make things right again, they must show contrition and be sincere, and then maybe there’s a chance that the relationship can be restored. However, with God, even though He was the offended party, He sought out us, this world who is in rebellion against God, and made reconciliation even while we were still his enemies. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” Romans verses 8-10. Amen! That’s the Gospel! That even while we were sinners and enemies of God, Christ died for us!

And that’s what Paul tells us in our passage today: “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.” The means by which we have reconciliation with God is through Christ’s precious sacrifice on the cross: Jesus, being the fulness of God, came down from the highest heaven, and took on human flesh, he identifies with us who are in the flesh, and he took upon Himself the worst of our sins, those sins that you’re so ashamed of, those sins that you hope nobody ever finds out, those sins that even you might think, “oh the Lord is never going to forgive me for that.” Yes even that sin; but the blood of Jesus is sufficient to atone for the worst of our sins; for the sins of the whole world even. And by taking on our sins in the body of His flesh on the cross, Christ has defeated sin; He has put away our sins, and we have peace with God; and this peace and reconciliation with God is through the blood of His cross as it says in verse 20. Amen this is great news! Instead of being alienated from God, and dying in our sins, and being lost for eternity, instead God wants to reconcile His creation to Himself through Jesus Christ. He wants to have a relationship with us. And we see in verse 22 that there is a purpose for our reconciliation. Not only do we get to have peace with God and a relationship with Him, forgiveness of sins and eternal life; But God’s purpose in reconciliation was also to “present you holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight.”

And so does that mean that by putting my faith and trust in Christ Jesus, that I’m automatically presented holy, blameless and above reproach in his sight? Well for myself I know that is not quite a reality in my life, and I’m sure my wife would agree, and probably most of you would agree, with my wife, and also agree that’s the case in your life as well; that we are still going through the process of sanctification. But positionally, that is what we are; holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight. Sort of like how Paul, when writing to the church in Corinth, probably the most messed up church that Paul ministered to, caught up in all sorts of sin, in 1 Corinthians 1:2 he said, “To the church in Corinth who are sanctified in Christ Jesus.” They obviously were not fully sanctified, but positionally they were. Paul then goes on to say “called to be saints.” For us who are in Christ Jesus by faith, we are called to live out this new identity we have in Christ as God’s people who are sanctified, Holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight. And we won’t do that perfectly, but progressively as my old pastor used to say.

But wow, those two verses are so beautiful, how we “who were once alienated and enemies in our mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight. Amen! Praise God! Think of the things that you have done in your life, things that you are ashamed of; maybe the weight of those sins is holding you down and you’re discouraged, or you doubt God’s love for you. But be encouraged, in God’s sight you are holy and blameless and above reproach, and might I add, loved! And although that doesn’t really seem like a reality in your life, one day when you stand before God in His presence it will be! You know, I wish I was holy, I just don’t seem to measure up to the standard of holiness that I have for myself, but in Christ Jesus I do, you do. You are blameless. That word blameless can mean upright or perfect, or without blemish. We are above reproach in Christ Jesus, or we could say “free from accusation”; Just like the woman who was caught in adultery inJohn chapter 8, like we talked about two weeks ago, Jesus said to her “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? She said, “no one Lord.” Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” And again, although this may not seem like a reality in your life, if you are in Christ Jesus one day it will be; your current status positionally will be fully realized and Jesus will present you holy and blameless and above reproach in the presence of God, all because of what Jesus did on the cross. Amen, that is so awesome!

But notice in verse 23 Paul says “if”. Yes, for those in Christ Jesus they have been reconciled to God in Christ Jesus and have the hope of one day being perfected; presented holy and and blameless and above reproach in His sight- “if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard.” Now I’m sure Paul was confident that they would continue in the faith. Paul says in Philippians 1:6: “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ.” But I’m sure this condition applies to that verse as well; “if you continue in the faith”. Now when we think of the word continue, we might think of continuing on- moving forward in our walk with Christ. And that certainly makes sense, and I’m sure you could argue for that here, but that word continue in the greek language often means to remain, stay, or abide. Continuing in the faith therefore means to remain or abide in Christ; and not departing from the faith; not leaving Christ. Because the Bible warns against departing from the faith, just read the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 3:12-15 says “Beware brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God( Paul certainly beleived that one could depart from the faith, depart from God); but exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ IF we hold the beginning of our confidence to the end.” And if we are in Christ, you can be sure that the devil will come after you; tempting you to sin, tempting you to depart from the faith; “just go and live it up, forget about Jesus it’s all a lie” he will say. The devil will tempt us to depart from the faith in the face of persecution. Jesus said in Matthew 24:9-13,, “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another and will hate one another.” The devil will try and get us to depart from the faith by decieving us through false teaching. Jesus continues in that same passage in Matt. 24: “Then many false prophets will rise up and decieve many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

And so it’s a battle, it’s a fight, the christian life. But notice what Paul says in that Hebrews passage chapter 3:15, if we hold the beginning of our confidence to the end.” Jesus is our confidence, He is our hope, our security. And so although Paul says, “if you continue in the faith,” he’s likely exhorting them to do just that; “stay in Christ Jesus.” And that needs to be our attitude as well, in the hardships and long drawn out battles of the christian life, we need to be like, “you know what? no matter how hard life gets, no matter what the devil throws at me, whether that’s persecution, suffering, reproach, I’m not moving! I’m going to stay right where I am, in Christ Jesus, He is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God in whom I trust, my confidence, my hope, my Saviour; I’m going to stay right here on the Rock, and build my life on Him, grounded and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel. And as I do, I have the assurance that because of His sacrifice my sins are washed away, I have peace with God, one day He will present me holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight. Amen! In Christ we have a lot to look forward to! We have hope!

Amen, let’s pray: Father thank you for your word this morning. And Lord it is my prayer that all of us here today would abide in Your Son, and know Him through the word and prayer, and be strengthened in their relationship with Him. In Him we find the grace and strength to endure to the end. And Lord we’re thankful that you sent your Son to take upon Himself our sins that we may have peace with you and forgiveness of sins. Lord would you give us the courage and boldness to be faithful witnesses for you, telling others that they too can have peace with you through your Son, and that You send out your invitation to Your Son’s wedding banquet, telling people to come, come and be clothed in white and have your sins washed away, and be holy and blameless and above reproach through your Son. And so Lord go before us this week, empower us by your Spirit, and bless us so that we can be a blessing to others in Jesus name, amen.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Go in peace.