Colossians 1.22b-The Purpose of the Reconciliation
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday June 21, 2015
Colossians: Colossians 1:22b-The Purpose of Reconciliation
Lesson # 29
Colossians 1:21 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. (NASB95)
“In order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” presents the Father’s purpose for reconciling these faithful Christians in Colossae to Himself through the death of Jesus Christ.
“In order to present” is the verb paristēmi (παρίστημι), which speaks of the Father “presenting” these faithful Christians in Colossae as holy, blameless and beyond reproach before His Son Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat in the sense of causing them to possess these characteristics in His Son’s presence.
“You” is the personal pronoun su (σύ), which is used in a distributive sense meaning “each and every one of you” emphasizing that the Father’s purpose for reconciling these faithful Christians was so that He could present “each and every one of them” holy, blameless and beyond reproach at the Bema Seat.
“Holy” is the adjective hagios (ἅγιος), which describes these faithful Christians in Colossae as experiencing sanctification.
“Blameless” is the adjective amōmos (ἄμωμος), which speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ not officially reprimanding these faithful Christians in Colossae at the Bema Seat because they remained faithful to obeying the gospel.
“Beyond reproach” is the adjective anegklētos (ἀνέγκλητος), which is used to describe these faithful Christians in the presence of Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat as those who cannot be accused of unfaithfulness because they remained faithful to the gospel in life.
“Before Him” is used of these faithful Christians standing in the presence of Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat in order to determine if they merit rewards for faithfulness or censure and loss of rewards for unfaithfulness.
Colossians 1:21 Indeed, because each and every one of you at one time existed in the state of being alienated, specifically enemies because of your attitude, because of your evil actions, 22 He has now in fact reconciled each and every one of you by means of His body composed of human flesh by means of His death. The purpose of which is to present each and every one of you as holy, uncensurable and unaccusable in His presence. (My translation)
Paul’s first statement in Colossians 1:22 teaches the faithful Christians in Colossae that the Father reconciled them to Himself by means of His Son’s human nature.
Specifically, He accomplished this by means of His Son’s death on the cross because each and every one of them at one time existed in the state of being alienated.
He reconciled them through His Son’s death because of their evil attitude and actions.
The apostle then presents the purpose for which the Father reconciled them to Himself through His Son’s death on the cross, namely, that each and every one of them would be presented as holy, uncensurable and unaccusable in the presence of His Son Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat.
The apostle Paul echoes this in Second Corinthians 11:2 when he informs the Corinthian church of his desire to present them to their husband Jesus Christ as a pure virgin.
All three of the characteristics which Paul lists in the purpose clause of Colossians 1:22 are directly related to the Christian experiencing their sanctification.
Specifically, they are all the result of the Christian experiencing their sanctification by remaining faithful to the gospel.
This interpretation is indicated by the fact that in Colossians 1:23 Paul presents the condition that these Christians must meet if they are to be presented holy, uncensurable and unaccusable in the presence of Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat.
He teaches that if they continue in the Christian faith firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel they will be presented at the Bema Seat as holy, uncensurable and unaccusable in the presence of Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat.
Therefore, in this purpose clause, these three characteristics are all related to these faithful Christians in Colossae reaching spiritual maturity and executing the Father’s will for their life to become conformed to the image of His Son Jesus Christ (cf. Romans 8:28-30).
“Holy” describes the state of these faithful Christians in Colossae at the Bema Seat as a result of faithfully experiencing sanctification.
Sanctification is a technical theological term for the believer who has been set apart through the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of conversion in order to serve God exclusively and is accomplished in three stages: (1) Positional (2) Experiential (3) Perfective.
By positional, I mean that God views the believer as crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ since at the moment of conversion, the Holy Spirit placed the believer in union with Christ.
This identified the Christian with Christ’s crucifixion (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20), His death (Romans 6:2, 7-8; Colossians 2:20; 3:3), His burial (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12), His resurrection (Romans 6:5; Ephesians 2:6; Philippians 3:10-11; Colossians 2:12; 3:1) and His session (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:1).
“Positional sanctification” is the believer’s “entrance” into the plan of God for the church age resulting in eternal security as well as two categories of positional truth (1 Corinthians 1:2, 30; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Ephesians 5:26-27; Hebrews 2:11; 10:10; Acts 20:32; 26:18; Romans 6:3, 8; 2 Thessalonians 2:13).
“Retroactive” positional truth is the church age believer’s identification with Christ in His death and burial (Romans 6:3-11; Colossians 2:12) or in other words, when Christ, died God considers the believer to have died with Him.
“Current” positional truth is the church age believer’s identification with Christ in His resurrection, ascension and session (See Ephesians 2:4-6; Colossians 3:1-4) or in other words, when Christ was raised and seated at the right hand of the Father, the Father considers the believer to have been raised and seated with Christ as well.
“Positional sanctification”: (1) What God has done for the church age believer. (2) His viewpoint of the church age believer. (3) Sets up the potential to experience sanctification in time. (4) Provides the believer with the guarantee of receiving a resurrection body.
“Experiential sanctification” is the function of the church age believer’s spiritual life in time through obedience to the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit through the communication of the Word of God (John 17:17; Romans 6:19, 22; 2 Timothy 2:21; 1 Peter 3:15; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4, 7; 1 Timothy 2:15).
“Experiential sanctification” is the post-conversion experience of the believer who is in fellowship with God by confessing any known sin to the Father when necessary followed by obedience to the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit through the Word of God.
Experiential sanctification is only a potential since it is contingent upon the church age believer responding to what God has done for him at the moment of conversion, therefore, only believers who are obedient to the Word of God will experience sanctification in time.
“Experiential” sanctification is experiencing the holiness of God or in other words manifesting the character of God through one’s thoughts, words and actions (1 Peter 1:14-16).
“Perfective sanctification” is the perfection of the church age believer’s spiritual life at the rapture, i.e. resurrection of the church, which is the completion of the plan of God for the church age believer (1 Corinthians 15:53-54; Galatians 6:8; 1 Peter 5:10; John 6:40).
It is the guarantee of a resurrection body and will be experienced by every believer regardless of their response in time to what God has done for them at salvation.
The apostle Paul teaches in Colossians 1:22 that not only does the Father want to present each and every one of these faithful Christians in Colossae as holy to the Lord Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat but also He wants to present them to His Son as “uncensurable.”
In other words, He wants to present them to His Son at the Bema Seat as being free from official reprimand, free from censure.
By remaining faithful to Paul’s apostolic teaching, they will not be officially reprimanded at the Bema Seat.
The last characteristic Paul mentions in Colossians 1:22 is that of being “unaccusable” meaning that the Father wants to present each and every one of these Colossian believers as those who cannot be accused of unfaithfulness because they remained faithful to the gospel.
This last characteristic describes a person who “affords nothing that an adversary could use as the basis for an accusation, one against whom it is impossible to bring any charge of wrong doing such as could stand impartial examination.”
Satan does accuse the Christian in the presence of God the Father and the Son in the throne room of God but none of his accusations can stick to the Christian.
The Son’s death on the cross paid for their sins.
If they sin after conversion, they confessed their sins so as to avoid divine discipline.
So it speaks of the faithful Christian who has been critically examined by the Trinity, elect and non-elect angels over the course of their time as Christians.
The judgment is that they are free of any charge of any wrongdoing because they kept short accounts with God by confessing their sins and they made it their habit of obeying the Word of God which resulted in their being faithful.
“In His presence” refers to these faithful Christians in Colossae standing in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at the Bema in order to have their service for Him evaluated to determine if they merit reward or not.
It does not refer to the Father since Romans 14:10 and 2 Corinthians 5:10 all teach that the Lord Jesus Christ will evaluate each and every Christian’s service to Him at the Bema Seat.