Reconciled to God in Christ: The Hope of the Gospel

Introduction

It was 1947, just two years after world war 2 had ended. Corrie Ten Boom, a faithful Christian who had hidden Jews from the Nazis, and was herself a concentration camp survivor, stood in a church in Munich sharing how God had delivered and been faithful to sustain her during the war.

After the service, a man came up with a smile on his face that she recognized. When she realized who he was, her heart became cold, and her face turned pale. The man standing in front of her was one of the SS guards at Ravensbruk, the camp where her and her sister Betsy were confined. This man was one of the guards who hurt and mistreated her and her sister.

Since the war, the man had become a Christian and reached out his hand and pleaded for Corrie to forgive him. . . her enemy wanted to become her friend.

Initially Corrie frowned and denied him forgiveness. . . after all, he had intentionally harmed her in every way, and he didn’t deserve it.

However, Corrie was reminded by the Holy Spirit of how God has forgiven her in Christ. . . how she was once God’s enemy, but God had forgiven her and made her his friend in Christ. . . therefore, she could forgive this man.

Corrie realized that forgiveness was not a feeling, but an act of the will, and she prayed and asked God to give her strength to forgive this man, even though she did not “feel” love for him.

As she extended her hand to meet his and offer him forgiveness, immediately Corrie felt a surge of warmth and love fill her body for this man. . . and through this experience, she had never known or felt God’s love and forgiveness more and had less difficulty with forgiveness ever since.

Can you imagine? Forgiving the person who was responsible for killing your sibling and physically harmed you? Forgiving someone who was your enemy?

The truth is, to a much greater extent, we are like the SS soldier in God’s eyes. . . because the Bible teaches that our sin and rebellion have made us enemies of God.

But tonight, Colossians 1:20-23 will remind us of how God, in his mercy, has taken us, who were his enemies, and made us his friends through the death of Christ.

In the first chapter of his letter, Paul has been laying out the power and affects of the gospel in the lives of the Colossians. . . and how Jesus is the “real thing,” in that he is first in everything as Lord of Creation and the Head of the Church.

Now, in verses 20-23, he will show us that Jesus is the Savior of the Cross and make the work of reconciliation personal for us.

So, the Key Point he wants us to see tonight is: Because Jesus has reconciled us to God through his death, by faith, we must be reconciled with one another and continue in the faith.

Colossians 1:20–23 ESV

20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

1. Enemies of God, Our Hopeless Situation (v. 21).

“And you, who were once alienated and hostile in mind”

The Bible teaches that we are enemies with God because of our sin.

Yet. . . this is not the way God made us. For, in the beginning, when he created the world, he made humanity good and in his image, and Adam and Eve and all of creation were in perfect harmony with God.

This is shalom. . . perfect peace.

However, Adam and Eve chose to reject God’s goodness and thought they could find goodness apart from their loving and gracious Father in themselves.

Instead of serving God as his vice regents and representatives on earth, they wanted to be gods themselves.

Their disobedience brought a curse upon all of creation and all the human race.

So, now, every person is born into sin and is corrupted and infected with this disease of sin.

We are not sinners because we sin, rather we sin because we are sinners. It is not how God originally made us to be, but it is now part of who we are since the Fall of Adam and Eve.

So, in verse 21, Paul uses two words to describe our sinful condition before God.

“Alienated” comes from the word alien and means we are a stranger and foreigner to God.

Because of our sin, we are not part of God’s family, but rather are outsiders and outcasts.

Our sin separates us from God because God is holy and good and cannot be in the presence of sin.

Ephesians 4:18 ESV

18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

Additionally, our sin not only separates us from God, but also separates us from one another and the rest of creation.

Because God is good, he loves goodness and hates what is evil. Therefore his holy and just wrath are upon us because of our sin.

Ephesians 2:3 ESV

3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

The second word Paul uses to describe our sinful condition toward God is “Hostile in mind,” and means we are God’s enemies.

Instead of loving God, we hated him in our minds and attitudes, and want nothing to do with him. Every inclination of our heart and intention of our minds is evil (Genesis 6:5).

Paul says that this hostility toward God in our minds is expressed in our actions because we do evil deeds.

This means that our entire nature is corrupt, both body and spirit, and is at war with God.

Therefore, our sinful deeds come from our sinful hearts, thoughts, and desires.

Don’t miss this. . . because it demonstrates that we cannot clean ourselves up by changing our behaviors.

Paul is making this point clear to the Colossians because the heresy being taught in the church was that they could be forgiven and made holy through practices of abstinence and self-discipline.

However, verse 21 clarifies that the issue we all have is inside us. . . it is our sinful hearts. . . Therefore, we don’t need to resuscitated, but rather, we need to be regenerated. . . we are not sick and need to be made well. . . but rather, we are dead and need to be made alive.

2. Christ, Our Only Hope for Reconciliation (v. 22).

But, we were “once” these things. . . now, Paul tells the Colossians they have been reconciled in his body of flesh by his death.

“Body of flesh” refers to Jesus’s physical body.

Through faith in Christ we are united in his death so that we can be united in his resurrection (Rom. 6:5-6). So in some way, we can say that when Christ died, we died with him and were then raised with him.

But, why did God do this? Why did he choose to reconcile us?

It was not because of anything we had done or anything in ourselves, but solely because he wanted to and chose to love us and declare us valuable and worthy of the blood of Jesus.

Romans 5:6–11 ESV

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

We are enough in Christ. . . Jesus gives us value and makes us worthy and in Christ, we are the apple of God’s eye (Deut. 32:10; Ps. 17:8).

“In order to present you”. . . Jesus did this so that he could cleanse us of all our sin and give us his perfect righteousness.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God accepts us just as we are and does not ask us to change before we come to him. . . but asks us to surrender and submit ourselves to him in faith.

Then, when we come to him, he promises to change us by his Spirit. . . he will make us holy, he will make us blameless, and he will make us above reproach by the Spirit through clothing us with Jesus’s perfect righteousness.

The beauty of the continual forgiveness of God, even when we sin and fall short of his glory after salvation. . . Jesus not only fully cleanses us of all our sin. . . but he also daily washes our dirty feet (John 13:5):

“To dry up a flood of rebellion is something marvelous, but to endure the constant dripping of repeated offenses, to bear with a perpetual trying of patience, this is truly divine! -Charles Spurgeon

It is the same for us. . . Jesus is enough. . . he is all we need for life and salvation!

This verse speaks to the three different types of sanctification for the Christian.

Positional Sanctification.

Progressive Sanctification.

Perfect Sanctification.

In verse 22, Paul is speaking more to our perfect sanctification, in which we will be presented to God in the final judgment completely holy, blameless, and without fault.

Ephesians 5:27 ESV

27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

So, Paul reminds us that this new status is not the end in itself but has a further goal in view: that we who are already “holy” (positional sanctification) in status should become “holy” in reality (progressive/practical sanctification).

Jesus has cleansed us of our sin so that we would be holy and grow in our holiness.

He reconciled us to be holy as he is holy so that we can enjoy being in at relationship with the holy God and show his holiness to others so they would desire to be in right relationship with this holy God.

Paul is screaming at the Colossians to know that they have the fullness of God and have been made completely holy and blameless to enter God’s presence. . . through Christ alone. . .

3. Holding Fast to the Gospel, Our Need for Perseverance (v. 23)

Paul says this will be everyone’s fate who places their faith in Jesus and perseveres to the end.

He has no doubt that the Colossians will continue in the faith, however, as Jesus taught, faithfulness to the end is essential to the Christian life (Matt. 10:22).

Colossians and Philemon 3. The Hope Held out in the Gospel (1:21–23)

This warning, along with many similar ones, presents the “human responsibility” side in the biblical portrayal of final salvation. God does, indeed, by his grace and through his Spirit, work to preserve his people so that they will be vindicated in the judgment; but, at the same time, God’s people are responsible to persevere in their faith if they expect to see that vindication.

Positive descriptions to continue in the faith:

“stable and steadfast”

stable refers to laying a secure and firm foundation when building.

steadfast means to remain firm and constant, not shifting to the right or to the left.

Our foundation must be stable, founded upon and rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ, which will allow faith to be built up and remain steadfast.

Colossians 2:6–7 ESV

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

We never grow out of the gospel, but only grow deeper in the gospel.

“Some truths we outgrow and leave behind, for they are but rudiments and lessons for beginners, but this is not so with divine truth, for though it is sweet food for babies, it is in the highest sense strong meat for adults.” -Charles Spurgeon

Negative descriptions to continue in the faith:

We must not shift away from the hope of the gospel that Paul just explained to us last week.

The false teachers were seeking to get the Colossians to shift away from the gospel to “their version” of hope. . . but Paul encourages them and us to focus on the hope that comes through responding to the gospel in distinction from the false hope being offered by the false teachers.

This refers back to Jesus’s parable of the house that was built on the rock vs. the sand.

Paul calls the Colossians to build their faith on the rock of Christ and not on the shifting sands of the false teaching. . . and he calls us to do the same.

At the end of verse 23, Paul lists three reasons why they must not shift away from the gospel:

This is the only true gospel the Colossians heard through Epaphras.

This is the only true gospel that has been proclaimed, and is bearing fruit in all creation.

This is the only true gospel of which the Apostle Paul is a minister.

Therefore, the truth we must understand tonight that Paul wanted the Colossians to know is that the gospel is the one, universal answer to the quest for spiritual fulfillment.

The gospel is that God has reconciled us to himself through the death of Christ and has made us holy, blameless, and faultless before him. . . Therefore, there are three ways we must respond in repentance and faith to this truth. . .

Response

Be Reconciled to God.

2. Be Reconciled to One Another.

Jesus should be first in our witness.

3. Continue in the Faith

What things are causing us to shift our hope away from the gospel?

Build your life on Christ.