Reconciled by Blood

5th Sermon for “Peculiar People” Sunday School Class

July 31, 2022

Please turn with me to Colossians chapter 1, verses 21 through 23

This is the word of God

And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 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— 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.

Let us pray........

Our Father........

We live in a world that presently has a population of about 8 billion people. Every day on this planet there are over 70,000 people who are born into this world. Every month there are 2 million people born on this planet and every year there are another 25 million people who enter the human race. It has been estimated that in the history of the world from the beginning to this present hour, there have been a total of 60 billion people on this planet. Most of which most of whom have live very obscure lives. A few, that made a small ripple effect upon the world. Of all the 60 billion people who have ever entered the human race, there can only be One who is the greatest who has ever lived. No other human being in history other than this One, has attracted more attention, has garnered more devotion, has been subject to more opposition and criticism, nor has become the object of more worship, than this One, who is the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He lived 2000 years ago in a small little nation in a sliver of land known as Israel. He was born of relatively unknown parents and lived a life, a very mundane and common existence, yet no one has affected the human race, like this One Individual, Jesus Christ.

No one knows the exact date of His birth, and yet the entire human history is divided by His time of entrance unto this planet. He never wrote a book, and yet more books have been written about Him than anyone who has ever lived, no one else is even close.

He never raised an army and yet millions have marched in His army and have given their lives for Him. Except for one brief period of His childhood His travels were limited to an area the size of Dallas/Fort Worth. And yet today, His influence is Global and reaches around the world. He never spoke to more than a few thousand people at any given time, and yet His words have been translated into over a thousand languages and made available to some 2 thousand people groups. He had no formal education, and yet today there are thousands of schools and colleges and major universities and seminaries that are founded upon His name. He never painted a picture, He never composed a song or poem, and yet today He is the subject of more paintings and the subject of more songs than any man who has ever entered the human race. It is absolutely impossible to overestimate the influence and the impact of this one solitary life that was lived by Jesus Christ.

Leading up to today’s lesson, starting in verse 13, we saw that Christ is the Beloved Son of God. In verse 14 we read that we have redemption and forgiveness of sin through Him. In verse 15 Christ is referred to as the Image of the invisible God, and that He was the firstborn of all creation. In verses 16 and 17 we learned that He is the creator of all things and that He himself holds all things together. And in verses 18 through 20 He is recognized as being the Head of the body, that is, the Church, that the fullness of the Father dwells in Him, and that He reconciled to us to Himself, through the blood of His cross.

Today’s lesson is going to consist or rather be broken up into 3 points:

The first: Who we once were and why

The second: Who we are now and how

The third: What we can expect and when

(keep in mind that in the Text Paul uses the word you, as it relates to the Colossian Church, but I am going to use that interchangeably with us and we in order to make it personal, which is purpose of the Text)

Starting in Verse 21 “And although you were aformerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,

Paul begins here by saying that the reader of this letter was formerly alienated and hostile in mind and engaged in evil deeds.

Point Number 1: Who we once were and why

Notice the word formerly. This implies that the reader, ie the Christians, were formerly these things. They were formerly alienated and hostile in mind. This implies that they are no longer in that former state of mind. He is contrasting who they once were by who they now are.

Now let’s look at who the Apostle Paul says they previously were:

They were alienated and hostile in mind.

The word alienated here is the Greek word apallotrioō, This word means to be estranged from, or completely excluded from. In other words they were lost or as one lexicon puts it, banished. This word Apallotrioo is used only two other times, both also by Paul...

First in Ephesians 2:12 (note) where Paul writes, “remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded (or appolotrioō) from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world"

Second in Ephesians 4:18 (note) “being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart”.

The Apostle not only notes that they were alienated, but that they were hostile in mind. This word hostile is a very strong word in the Greek. It means openly hostile or deep rooted hatred. (its probably something similar to the way that we hate sin or the devil if you are a Christian)

In Romans 8:7 Paul says this:

“because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so”, then he continues in verse 8 “and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Here Paul uses the same word, hostile, and expounds upon it saying that the carnal man can do nothing except be hostile to, or hate God, and cannot please Him.

This term is used in several passages by the Apostle and in every case, it refers to the hatred of God by an unsaved people.

Notice that this hostility being described takes place in the mind. This is not the physical brain but the actual thinking process of the mind. This is quite frankly an active hostility in the depths of our thinking framework, so it makes sense that they were not able to subject themselves to, or please God.

Furthermore, they engaged in evil deeds.

With the heart and mind set, actions will soon follow.

Be so very careful to what you allow into your mind.

Evil deeds are inevitable when the mind is hostile toward God.

So to sum up Point 1, Who we once were:

We were a banished, alienated, and completely excluded people, and WHY,

Because we utterly hated God and we actively devised evil schemes, and then carried them out.

Verse 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”

First, I want to say this, it is utterly impossible to be reconciled to God. Man just simply cannot do it. But God provides a way.

Verse 22 says, “He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach”

The word “reconciled” here is the Greek word ap-ok-at-al-las´-so (apŏkatallassō). In this context, in the redemptive way, it means to change the relationship between 2 enemies. Jesus is said here to have changed the relationship of man, who was actively hostile and living in absolute hatred toward the Father in both thought and action, to one of being holy and blameless and above reproach toward the Father and Himself.

So how, how did Jesus accomplish this?

The verse tells us: He (speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ) reconciled us (if we are in the Lord Jesus) in His fleshly body through death. That is how He did it. He who knew no sin hath been made sin for us… 2 Corinthians 5:21

This is the penalty for sin. Sin is of upmost importance to a holy God, and he demands death for it.

I think that the best verse for understanding this is Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

This is an important passage by Paul because we can see that Christ does not contradict the death required for sin but rather fulfills it. Death has always been and will always be the requirement for sin, but the free gift of God is His Son, bloody and beaten, and nailed to the cross. And furthermore, to rise and reign for ever and ever, amen.

This is how we were reconciled to a Holy God. This is the means of reconciliation mentioned in verse 22.

To sum up point 2: Who we are now

We are holy and blameless and beyond reproach, completely reconciled to God,

and HOW: By the death, burial, and resurrection of our Beloved Savior Jesus Christ.

He received our penalty, and we received His righteousness.

Verse 23

“if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not shifting 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.”

The first reason for the “if” is for the non-believer:

Though this Letter was written to Believers, it was to be read within the home churches to all that were in attendance. This word “if” would serve as a warning to any hearer that’s heart was not completely devoted to the Lord Jesus.

Dr. Johnson on this topic says this:

“There are people gathered together in the company of people like this and who also meet with saints everywhere who are mere professors of the faith and not really possessors of a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s one of the simple facts of Christian experience. There are many people who even over years make a profession of faith but who fall away, who evidence they were not true believers. So, the question of a man’s confession and the reality of it are raised by these “ifs”.”

One of the quote unquote, “believers” that Christ was referencing in the Parable of the Sower, or Parable of the Soils, as it is sometimes rendered, which is found in ALL THREE of the Synoptic Gospels, show this separation…. this contrast of the righteous and unrighteous, the saved by the unsaved.

Turn with me if you will to Luke chapter 8 verse 11….

Now Jesus had just finished giving this parable and now starting in verse 11 he explains the parable:

11 "Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God.

12 "Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.

13 "Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.

14 "The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to maturity.

15 "But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.

First, I want to point out that it appears in all these cases, well at least the last 3 for sure, that they profess to be saved, or at least I assume by the words of the Lord that they have some level of truth or joy from the Gospel,not in a saving way, but that they seem to have some level of response to the Word that they heard. But it is only the final person in verse 15 that bears fruit and perseveres.

Also notice in verse 15, “But the seed on the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in AN HONEST and GOOD HEART.

We know from Psalm 14, Psalm 53, and again in Roman’s chapter 3 that there are none who are good.

The first three discussed in this parable have hearts that are corrupt, in one way, shape or form, and as a result the Word that is planted in them is of no avail, for they are dead, spiritually speaking, and all of them cease to persevere. But the last one mentioned by Christ is said to have heard the Word “in an honest and good heart.”

This must therefore point to a regenerate heart. Notice first that it was in an honest and good heart that the Word was received in, this happened first, and it was according to this that they were able to hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.

Matthew Henry says this, “a heart free from sinful pollutions, and firmly fixed for God and duty, an upright heart, a tender heart, and a heart that trembles at the word, is an honest and good heart, which, having heard the word, understands it (so it is in Matthew), receives it (so it is in Mark), and keeps it (so it is here), as the soil not only receives, but keeps the seed.”

So, the first reason for the “if” in this verse was for the non-believer. The second reason, and perhaps the more important reason that the “if” is used is for the Believer: The “if” is a means for the preservation of us, by causing us to be more diligent in our Christian activity.

Note this: The way that this “if” is written is assuming the end result. Paul here is stating this with the understanding that the one who perseveres will in fact be the one who has genuine faith.

One commentator put it like this:

“Perseverance proves faith genuine character and is therefore indispensable to salvation. To be sure no one can continue in the faith in their own strength. The enabling grace of God is needed from start to finish.”

So, this word “if” IS a conditional “if”, but not in the way that people often times render it. It is not an “if” in the conditional context with the possibility of a true believer being able to walk permanently away from the Lord. No, but rather in the conditional context that if we are truly the one in which we, through the finished work on the cross, were reconciled to the Lord, “and will continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that we have heard.”

First John 2:19 says this:

They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.

Spurgeon’s commentary on this is sobering:

“The worst of men go out from among the best of men, the antichrists go out from the church of Christ. The raw material for a devil was an angel. To make a Judas, you must make him out of an apostle. May God purify his professing church since even in her own loins she breeds adversaries of the faith.”

This “if” is therefore an encouraging “if”. It is a promise if you are in the Lord Jesus this morning, but damnation to the mere professor of faith.

The Apostle Paul ends verse 23 with this:

“and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven”

Paul, in reference to the heresies that were being introduced to the Church in Colossae, tells them to not be lured away by strange teachings about Christ. Once again Paul reiterates, as he had previously said in verse 5, that they have heard the True Gospel, and to not allow the new teachings against the true Gospel, lead them or any of the Brethren astray.

This is an important note to end on. How many times do we allow our own ideas or our own emotions to corrupt the True Word of God?

The Gospel is the Gospel. Truth will always remain truth. The Word of God is never changed by the zeit·geist. There will always be new doctrines, new ideologies that will seek to disrupt the pure testimony of the Holy Scriptures. Always compare what you hear to the unchanging verses of the Word of God. Always remember, that Scripture interprets Scripture. Anything added to the Word of God that is not expressly stated in the Scriptures is simply not the Word of God. No matter how much the idea appears to make sense, no matter how often the spirit of the age demands that the Scriptures are not accurate or complete, if it is not found within the True and unblemished Word of God, it is heresy and will lead to a wrong understanding of who our God is, and will ultimately lead to death.

And Paul qualifies this by the end of the verse:

and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.”

We must always seek understanding of the Holy Scriptures first by prayerfully seeking God through the Scriptures, and second by trusted men of the faith.

So The Third Point: What we can expect and when:

We can expect, that through the Bloody Reconciliation, for the one in which Christ was slayed upon the cross, will absolutely persevere to the end.

I’m going to end with a quote from Dr. S Lewis Johnson:

“I have seen Christians 25 years old in the LORD, who have never learned this simple principle, Scripture is to be interpreted by Scripture. And I have often seen, I’m sure that you have had the same experience, I have often seen sincere Christians who have not learned this lesson led astray by the quotation of Holy Scripture by heretical men. It is of the greatest significance to study the Word of God. If you are not willing to study the word of God, if you are not willing to make this Scripture which is before us today, your meat and your drink, you will be at the mercy of the satanic emissaries of heresy.

Let us pray…………………

Our Father……………