The Way we Were
and the Way we Are
Col 1:21-23
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.
What the reconciliation work of Christ means to you and me.
Last week we ended up on the totality of the work of Christ. Remember, we said that Christ reconciled all things to Himself. But beyond the grander declaration of the total scope, Paul takes a moment and looks at what Christ did for you and me as individual believers. People have said the only serious surgery is the one that they have. They mean this as a joke, but what they are saying is that usually people are most interested in what has happened to them. Here we have a statement about what has happened to you if you know Christ as your Savior.
There are some who like to consider that all of life is measured on a curve. That you might be at ease with that if you felt you were in the upper part of the class. I had some teachers that I was glad they graded on a curve because I didn’t have to have a perfect score; I only had to be better than the larger portion of the class. Sounds rotten, but that it the thick and the thin of it. If I scored better than 80% of the class, I’d get a B. Better than 90% of the class, I’d get an A. It didn’t matter if I got 10 out of hundred or 99 out of hundred. That is how it works when the teacher grades on a curve. But God has a different standard. God’s standard is pass or fail. Either you pass or you fail. And by the way, you don’t pass or fail based upon what you did, but rather on what family you belong to. If you belong to the family of God, then you pass. If you don’t, then you fail. And God is not obligated to pass a certain percentage of all humanity. He isn’t have any min specs for the number of people who will be in heaven.
Some might say, that doesn’t sound fair. Well, Paul reminds us what it means to be a person who doesn’t belong to the family of God. He says that person is alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds. Let’s look at each trait.
Alienated. Alienated from what or from whom? Well, from God. The word actually means estranged, separated, divided, or on bad terms. You were a great distance from God. The choice is between being close to God or being estranged from God. I wonder about our thinking when we consider people who are pretty good. What value is it from God’s perspective to be pretty good? Not only were we a great distance from God, which speaks of being spiritual remote to God. There is another thing here. If Alienated implies physically removed, look at the next phrase.
Hostile in Mind. We were distanced in terms of proximity, but we were also distanced in terms of purpose. It is almost as if Paul addressed many types of distancing that man does from God. Not only is every person a long ways away from God but he is also far removed from God’s purpose. This hostile in mind is the idea of being an enemy to God in your purpose or thoughts. Now some might say, wait just a minute, I was a sinner, but I never hated God. Did you follow Him? Did you strive to please God? Was that the over-ruling principle of your life prior to coming to Christ? You might also say, I came to Christ when I was four years old, I hadn’t really done anything that could be considered hostile to God. Refusing to acknowledge Him as the God He is, that is hostile to God. Letting your desires for your own life rule your life is hostile to God. And although we might say we never acted on this thoughts or feelings, keep in mind that this is where many of us still battle today. It doesn’t matter if you are new in the Lord or have been a believer for years, there is a battle going on in your mind to do things our own way. I believe that there are days when our evil nature shows itself only to us, and then there are those days when anyone who might watch our lives would see we have gone beyond that and, engaged in evil deeds.
Being engaged in evil deeds can mean all kinds of evil – there are the kinds of things that we probably wouldn’t want to bring up in Sunday school. But there is also a type of evil deed that is harder to spot. Remember the Pharisees of Christ’s day? What were their evil deeds? They were guilty of teaching that you could earn your way into God’s approval. They were guilty of using their spiritual roles to elevate their own person prestige in the eyes of others. They were guilty of coming to God and believing that they were already righteous. The evil deeds are the outward expression of the evil that used to lay within our hearts of those who are alienated from God and live in hostility towards God.
Now, another reminder of what it cost Jesus to redeem you: yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death. This was the path. There was no other way. This is the reason why we take communion, to remember this truth. He reconciled you in His fleshly body through death. I think we talked enough about this previously so let’s move forward to see the goal of that reconciliation. This is the restoration of the relationship between man and God, or the restoration of the relationship to what it should be. This is a very strong word and Paul uses this word to confront issues of false teaching. So Paul is showing that Christ is God; in verses 15 through 19 and then he goes on to show what was done by this deity, this God. There were people teaching in that day that Jesus wasn’t enough to save us. Sound familiar?
John M. used this phrase that I believe covers some differences between forgiveness and reconciled. Forgiveness deals with the sins of our lives. He forgives them. Redemption deals with the root, the condition of our nature. As slaves to sin He frees us. We’re no longer slaves to sin. Forgiveness deals with the fruit, redemption deals with the root. Now reconciliation deals with our condition, and sonship deals with our position. Reconciliation deals with our condition. We become His friends, we experience fellowship.
In order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. Remember you were formally alienated. Now you are no longer distanced from God. You have been brought close to Him. Notice the verb “to present” is the picture of someone walking into the presence of a King. That is what Christ’s death has done for you. All of us who were formally a long ways off, are now being presented before Him. And although you used to be hostile in mind, you are now beyond reproach. You used to participate in evil deeds, now you are Holy. What a dramatic turn-around. There is only one thing that can explain the difference and that was the work of Christ. It is truly a miracle but we have gotten too used to this and have at times turned it into the mundane. But this is why He must be the one to present you. You can’t present yourself because you have no rights to just walk into the presence of God the Father. You have the right only through the work of Christ. Because you have trusted the Son, you can now enter into the presence of the Father but only under the protection and authority of Jesus. Remember also that you don’t enter as a servant, you enter as a Joint Heir with Jesus.
This next portion of the passage is one of those that people discuss from all kinds of directions. If indeed you continue in the faith firmly – what is the role of our continuation in the faith? Are we required to continue in the faith in order to be saved? If that is true, then does salvation become a matter of our faithfulness, turning it into something we must earn or also said, a matter of works?
I’m so glad you asked. I am a firm believer that if you have ever accepted Christ as your Savior, in other words if for that moment you truly trusted Christ, then you are saved forever because your salvation is kept by the Father. There are others who believe that there is a clear demonstration of a true believer that they continue in the faith. I believe that the only way that a person can truly believe is by God’s drawing that person to Himself. So how could a person accept Christ without God’s empowering? I do admit that if a person does accept the Lord it seems that they would continue in the faith, but I am afraid that knowing if a person accepted the Lord or not is beyond my knowledge. Continuance is a test before men, but God tests the hearts of men. And in the end, it is the Lord’s call if you are in the family or not. Only He knows if you have truly trusted Jesus as your Savior. And what is to happen of those who have misled by cults and false teachers? Were they sheep or goats? There is the Biblical principle that His sheep shall hear His voice and follow Him. So maybe those who are led astray weren’t really saved, but it seems a fairly simple answer to a complicated question. Then again, remember that God baffles the wise because His simple things are wiser than man’s best knowledge.
Paul goes on to write to the church of Colossae about the gospel, telling them that it is:
- The gospel that you have heard– emphasizing that this was the same gospel that caused their lives to be so changed. He is stressing that people should not be quick to grab onto new ideas. You and I are saved by the same gospel that saved Paul, Peter and all who have been saved since the Lord walked on this earth.
- The gospel … which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven — there is only one gospel. Not many different ones for various situations. There is only one. Jesus said it and Paul wrote it, but for some reason we sometimes have a difficult time hearing this. We like to think that people can follow many paths and get to the same place we are – but Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” People don’t like to hear this, but any other gospel is there to mislead not to bring people to God. There are only two directions, towards the Creator or away from the Creator.
- The gospel … of which I, Paul, was made a minister — meaning that the same gospel that Paul preaches comes from the teaching on Epaphras. Not only does this gospel save us, but it calls us to service, it challenges us to a new purpose in life. Paul never stopped making tents either. If you were to ask him what he did for to earn a living, he would of course tell you that the Lord provides, but in his case, the Lord provided work of tent making.