WORDS OF GRACE: RECONCILED
Words of Grace: What God Has Done For Us • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 2 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Sermon Scripture
Sermon Scripture
13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
:-23
Last week I spoke of how we have taken all of the words that speak of God’s grace, all of the “gospel” words and put them in a box, sealed it shut, and stamped “saved” on it. I spoke of what we miss when we do that and the danger that it lends to our doctrinal or theological understanding and development.
However after the sermon, my wife, shared with me an illustration that I think is better. (no surprise there)
What we are doing in this Biblical Word study is similar to when a woman puts all of her necklaces or chains in a box and then later goes to wear one only to find that all of them have become tangled up into one. They are all jewlery, but they are not all intended to be one and as they are tangled up, they each are robed of the ability to be worn to display their own beauty. Well what we are doing in this study is trying to untangle the jewlery that has been boxed up for so long. Each word is another chain, another stran that we have to pull out of the bunch and identify what that chain alone is.
So that is what we are doing as we are speaking of the grace of God and the finished work of Christ the Lord:
Christ has come incarnate - in the flesh.
He has come to redeem. As we saw last week from the Hebrew, He has come incarnate as kinsman redeemer.
In His diety spoke worlds into existance
Placed the stars in order
Spoke man into existence from the dust of the earth...
This same one is the Head of the body: the church.
We also find in our text that there is a permanicy in the incarnation of Christ.
Jesus did not begin in the manger and end at the resurrection.
Jesus always was and Jesus was always God: but He was not always incarnate.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
John
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:
The Word became flesh and dwelt amoung us...
Jesus became incarnate
And that incarnate word became perminate.
And now all of the fullness of diety has made its perminate home in the incarnation Col 2:9
19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,
Now in the image of Jesus Christ, we have the image of the invisible God. The first born of all creation.
Beloved church, do not allow your minds and hearts to sleep on this.
Many religious sects would lur you to sleep through the business of what you must do, but I tell you to be awaken by the greatness of what God has done and is doing.
Diety (God) has created a union - He has made peace
irena pueano - Greek - to permatley make peace
God has done this by means of or through the blood of the cross. He has perminatley made peace.
The cross cursed Christ we are told: so that He that knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
We have peace with God. Let me say it again so that every Christian here this morning can hear:
We have peace with God.
We live in a time when you have two things being debated:
First is easy believism: you have all heard of it. The concept that it doesn’t matter what you do, you just have to believe and belief is simply identified as an intelectual acknowledgment rather than a belief that holds the power of life transformation. Well you have heard me say before that easy beliefism is a faliciy, but it is not a falicy because it is “easy” but rather in being dependant upon your belief, no matter how easy or little it is, it still cannot save…of course this means that “difficault believism” is just as much of a falicy. Grace + x = no grace.
From those who rightly see great error in easy believism also comes the counter thought that we need to preach more on sin and hell. Well friends let me offer, that their is absolutley a hell, and sin is very real, with very grave consequences. However for you elect of Christ Jesus, let this not come into question: There is no hell for you and the sin question is absolutley settler, period: end of story: We -You have peace with God.
It’s not nececarilly that we don’t preach death and sin enough but that we don’t understand the fullness of the depths of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. From alienation to reconciliation, from war to peace.
That, that realization that you have peace with God - not that you can get peace with God, but that you have it: is why it is called good news. God is not in conflict with us the elect, and neither are we or should we be in conflict with God.
God created peace, through the blood of the cross.
He did this to reconcile all of creation to Himself and you, and I say Amen, praise God for that great hope!
19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
You were reconciled through the blood of the cross
It has been said that the OT saint was reconciled by credit, but you have been reconciled by cash: paid in full.
OT looked forward to the cross, you look back to the cross.
Beloved what this means in developing our “consistent theology or doctrine” is that we must consent that:
You were not reconciled (on a human calandar) when you recieved, turned, preformed a prayer, gave a right hand of fellowship, walked down an isle, confessed publcally or were dunked under water.
You were reconcilled at the cross of Calvery where Christ died a substitutionary death in your place.
37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”
We are a gift from God the Father, sealed in the blood of the cross.
We were reconciled having been alienated.
20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,
Alienated is a perfect passive.
Just as we highlighted the perminancy of the incarnation in verse 19, here we see the completness of the alienation in verse 21.
This is not a partial alienation where one is more alienated than another.
We were totally, completley alienated.
The passive voice suggest an operator was involved.
Thus, being completley alienated their is great need, complete and total need for reconciliation.
This is through Christ.
Looking at Words of Grace, we began last week with one of three great words that deal with the work of Christ:
Redemption - The finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ as far as sin is concerned (sinward) - we covered this last week
Propitiation - The finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ as far as God is concerned (Godward) - we will cover this next week
Reconciliation - the finished work of the Lord Jesus as far as man is concerned (manward) - God is not reconciled to us, we are reconciled to God. That is, we are completley restored to a former state. From complete alienation to complet reconciliation.
All three of these apply to those of us who belong to Him.
I do not know if God the Father gave you as a gift to God the Son, but I do know that He gave me.
I am in Christ Jesus reconciled to God. I am restored to a former position.
Have you ever read and taken full note of it’s words:
25 For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
The seep do not turn, but they return. They are reconciled, restored to a former position.
Planted by God the Father.
You did not plant yourself in, you did not graph yourself in. Oh beloved, look away from this terrible attempt of the gospel of our day which echos “you, you, you”…you choose God, you serve God, you please God....you, you, you, me, me, me....may it never be.
No, you were planted by God the Father
Chosen by God the Father in Christ before the foundation of the world.
God the Father reconciled us in the Lord Jesus Christ that He might be able to present us before Him holy, and blameless, and beyond reproach.
22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—
Colossians 1:2
Holy - The word Holy is our standard word for saint/saintly.
Holy - The word Holy is our standard word for saint/saintly.
Friends their is nowhere in scripture where we read of any committee that is necessary to see if someone is worthy of sainthood.
Holy is the word saint, and everyone of you children of God in Christ is a saint.
A saint is one who has been set apart for God. God did the setting apart.
It is a horrible misrepresentation of scripture to say that sainthood means a wonderful and beautiful life.
Though it probably should result in such - you must note, that that is not what the word means.
The word holy/saint means to be set apart for a particular purpose.
The word here in our text means to be set apart for God just as a pot or pan was.
In the OT, pots and pans were “holy” same word. They were set apart for the service of the Lord.
Now it’s hard to work sin into the concept of pots and pans. Thats because the word means set apart - not sinless.It is separate from common condition and use, dedicated.
16 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
It not about works, it’s about designation.
This text has been used and abused to control how people live...
Be holy as God is holy, but that is not what the text says:
The text says as it is written, You (absolutley) shall be holy - you shall be set apart, for I am holy
We who were sinners were made the righteousness of God in Him becasue Jesus Christ died in our place.
Planted - Chosen - Alienated - Reconciled by God - not of ourselves
God since before time, has been more intimatley involved in your life than you have ever taken time to consider beloved.
Back to 1:22 of Colossians:
HOLY, BLAMELESS, BEYOND REPROACH BEFORE HIM OR IN HIS SIGHT - Literally before the very apple of His eye.
In the apple, the center of God’s eye, He sees you as:
Holy - Set apart for God
Blameless - Without any blemish
Beyond Reproach - Without any charge
That is amazing! One might come up and attempt to say, I have lived set apart and I have no blemishes on my record, but that does not keep one from having a charge brought against them. A charge is not a conviction but can perhaps be as or more damaging than one. But through the blood of Christ we are chargless. Oh how many have feared, what charge Satan might bring forth on that final day and how they may be humiliated. Not in Christ beloved. You are set apart, without blemish and without any charge. You will not be set in limbo or placed in a waiting period while a charge waits trial. Once alienated, now in Christ, fully reconciled: set apart as God’s, without blemish, and without charge.
33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;
One might charge me now, but glory be to God when before Him in Christ Jesus, by the grace and word of God I have a hope that says that Satan will not even be able to mount a single charge against me.
You live under the grace of God. You don’t live under carma, or under a superstitsious God waiting to use your trespasses to spite you.
Listen, and understand what I am saying here: I care for you and your good and in that I care about paths chosen, However speaking of thinking in a condeming way (or negativley judging way as to belittle) I don’t care how you live.
Speaking in that extent: If the way that you live before God does not bother you then it surley won’t bother me.
“Let everyman be fully persuaded in his own mind.”
Now I believe and preach without exception that the word of God contains everything that we need and should subject our lives to for faith and practice.
But the primary purpose, context and thus usage of this book is the glorious revelation ofthe person and work of Jesus Christ.
Until you have properly comprehended what God has done for you in Jesus Christ, faith in practice is foolishness.
How many Christians do you know, who prophessing to be Christians are trying in all sincerity to buy what God has already given in the work of Jesus Christ. Living out some sort of religious merit system. We are not, and I repeat, not in a merit system with God almighty. We stand before Him in grace and in grace alone.
Now, if, in some twisted way, the thought that you stand before God as unblamable, leads you to a life of licentousness, sin and debautery. Then I would have to conclude that you have no comprehension at all of the finished work of Christ.
Think on marriage. If a husband displays his sincere love and devotion to His wife, does that lead her to unfaithulness and perversion of life? Would the husband be better served in a rule driven locked up home? Of course not. We would never label a legal driven marriage as better than a love or trust driven marriage, and yet for some reason so many grab onto a law driven gospel over a love driven gospel.
Now we move to verse 23 and this is an interseting verse and it is perhaps why I chose this text for this morning.
This is the champion verse of the arminian camp.
Consider carfully with me what it is to mean if you are of those who believes that one can be redeemed and then loose that redemption...
This is the champion verse of the arminian camp.
Think on which we read during worship this morning
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:37-
37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:
Now we have those who would say, “I believe all of that, none of that can rip me from God’s hand, but I can”.
No power in Heaven or earth or hell can rip me from the hand of God from the love of God, but I can.
28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
Would we, should we really be so careless in our theology as to charge Jesus with falsehood? Jesus says “I give” not you…and “no one will snatch them” that would include you in the “no one”.
Would we, should we really be so careless in our theology as to charge Jesus with falsehood? Jesus says “I give” not you…and “no one will snatch them” that would include you in the “no one”.
28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
John 10:
Would you say that it is wrong for me to put trust and belief in the words of my Savior?
Isn’t it wonderfully true, that His soverign word is more securing than that of my current persuasion?
How can one say that I had eternal life once, ....if you had it and lost it, then guess what?…it’s not eternal.
Note for interesting study: Jesus does not say, I “save” them and they never perish. He says I give eternal life. I am finding that when the Holy Spirit is speaking of eternal life, the Holy Spirit says so.
So we see in John chapter 10 that we are a precious gift given from the Father to the Son and the son is perfectly protective of that gift.
But here is the twist. Somehow after covering all of this wonder of what God has done, many get to the 23 verse of and immediatley go back to…ahhha....see…it all depends on me.
All of this conquering, all of this gift giving, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ all of it’s fruitfulness or benefit is now dependant on me.
We read the 23 verse as a clause or a catch to the previous verses.
23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
Is it that verse 23 tears down everything that we have seen in the previous verses?
Church, if we were 400-500 years ago in church history, you would not have heard such a self dependant catch used in the interpretation of verse 23.
Instead the majority or even unanimous opionion of the theological body of Christ back in history was that the verse means what it says.
Somehow today the majority interprets verse 23 as: “If you don’t continue, then you will go to hell.”
Lets look at the text:
21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,
Colossians
22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—
death should be “the death” the greek has “the”
death should be “the death”
present you = aorist - means it’s not going to be don twice
If you must believe that one can be “saved and lost” then you have to at least admit from this language and that they can never be saved again.
This being the case would thin out certain theological ranks pretty rapidly.
It can never happen again. It is impossible to renew one unto repentance, “seeing they crucified to themselves again the Son of God and put Him to an open shame”…it will not be, because that is to say that His work is not sufficient and thats an impossibility.
So…look at the text:
When did he reconcile you?
In the body of His flesh
How did He reconcile you
By means of “the death” that is the death upon the cross.
Conclusion:
You were reconciled at the cross
How do I know that you were reconciled at the cross?
If you continue in the faith and you are not moved away from the hope of the gospel
What if you don’t continue in the faith?
Then you were never reconciled (thats what the text says)
The text is in no way an urging for you to do something.
It is instead supreme comfort that because God has done something, an inevitable result follows.
Your continuance does not insure your reconciliation. (there is no way that you can make the text say that)
Your reconciliation insures your continuance
The reality of my present reconciliation is my future continuance.
Now rather than being a banner verse for the arminian persuasion it is a devesting theological combative truth to it.
It would be foolish for me to say that you are present this morning if you claim to be three years from now. No, you are either here this morning or you are not. Three years from now has nothing to do with it.
It is just as foolish to claim God as saying: Now you are reconciled, if you continue three, ten, one-hundred years from now. No you are either now reconciled or you are not. What you do tomorrow or next year doesn’t matter. If you are in Christ, chosen from before the world began, certified on the cross and raised from the dead then it is true.
However the verse in question is verse 23 so having walked through it contextually, lets quickly look at it grammatically:
Does our contextual understanding hold up to the rules of grammar in this text?
23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
If = first class condition - indicative mood - the mood of reality - argument is based on assumption of reality. Turns the presentation into a supposition.
As such the “if” does not translate understanding well.
In some cases the indicative would be translated “since”…or...
One might explain it by saying, “if you continue, and lets assume that you do”. In other words a question of doing is not assumed on the text but rather an assumption of truth for the argument Paul is making or rather, the teaching that the Holy Spirit is giving.
the faith = the faith (faithfulness) of Christ
not your trust in Him, but His faithfulness
He is the God that has given you new life. And that new life, that new man cannot sin.
So He who is absolutley faithful is the one who is promising your continuance
Your relationship to God in the fellowship area may be shakey, but in the positional area, you are His, sealed by Him.
Having been firmly established = perfect tense = meaning perfectly or completely done and that it was done in past time. We are looking at the present reality of a past completed action (passive voice)
firmly/steadfast - adj. - well grounded, firm in foundation, not movable
not moved away from the gospels hope - genative called the ablative - meaning it is moved from one to the other.
It is not your hope in the gospel
It is the gospels certainty
“You are not moved away from the certainty of the good news”
In other-words, the good news was not synergistic news:
The good news is not God saying, if, if, if, then I will, I will, I will.
That is not the message of the gospel, though it is the primary message of today.
This modern gospel holds a liberalism, a humanism, a legalism that is so pervasive that we struggle to untangle it from the true gospel. And few Christians seem to recognize it’s danger and it’s horror.
Thousands of young people, thousands of young Christians who are washed in the blood of Christ are growing up in churches never knowing it, never knowing fully what Christ has done for them, because the entirety of what is being preached to them is not what Christ has done, but who them must try to be and try to do.
They are being told that Christ is still there waiting on them so that He can finish His work rather than being told the truth that they are the workmanship of God established firmly in the death of Jesus Christ and made alive in His resurrection: HOLY, BLAMELESS, BEYOND REPROACH BEFORE HIM OR IN HIS SIGHT - Literally before the very apple of His eye.
In the apple, the center of God’s eye, He sees you as:
In the apple, the center of God’s eye, He sees you as:
Holy - Set apart for God
Holy - Set apart for God
Blameless - Without any blemish
Blameless - Without any blemish
Beyond Reproach - Without any charge
Living praise God in light of the present reality of the past work that God has already completed in Christ Jesus.
Beyond Reproach - Without any charge
However, I don’t conclude this sermon thinking that we are not some of those thinking that we must do something to bring something to completion. We too are of this generation who has been entangled in “what we can do for God” rather than “what God has done for us”…
I pray, that the Word of God this morning by the guiding of His Spirit will take our eyes off of self effort and place them steadfastly on the transforming power of God and what He has done that we now get to live in the reality of.