15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 And He is the head of the body, the Church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. 19 For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 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.
As Paul begins the book of Colossians, he speaks about our rebellion against God. He says we were “once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.”
Most people believe in some form of divine being, a kind of master of the universe who passes judgment on moral, ethical and faith-related matters, but who is also a friend in our time of need.
But Paul challenges that belief by saying that we were against God. We were His enemies, and we lived in a state of hostility against Him.
The majority of people would say they’re not really against the idea of there being some kind of God. They might not like Church very much and may regard it as mainly irrelevant in modern society, but they wouldn’t really go so far as to say they oppose God. After all, most of them are quite happy to attend Church weddings and funerals. But the Bible states clearly that until you know Jesus, a state of war exists between you and God, whether you have heard about it or not and whether you realise it or not.
But why is there this state of war? Mainly it is because we are basically evil people. Evil is probably a word we wouldn’t use to describe ourselves until we became Christians. Evil and wicked are words we apply to other people, but very rarely to ourselves. We’ve heard and said it all before: “No one is perfect, and I try to do my best. I’m basically a good person.”
Not many of us, before our eyes are opened by God’s truth have said, “I’m a wicked person and I’m basically evil.”
But the fact remains - that is what we were until we became Christians.
The reason people never apply these words to themselves is that the wrong standard or yardstick is applied. People are asked, “Are you evil?” And the quick reply is “No, of course not. There are many people out there who are far worse than I am. I may not be perfect, but I’m not an evil person.”
Why then, does the Bible teach that everybody is evil? It’s because our minds are hostile to God. One of the greatest lies we’ve bought into is that because we’re not perfect, God doesn’t expect perfection. We just need to be sincere and try to be as good as we can, and He won’t mind the occasional hiccup in our behaviour.
But He does mind. God does have expectations, and those expectations are perfection and absolute holiness. And we become enemies of God because we justify to ourselves what God Himself condemns.
Isaiah 59:2-4 challenges us, because we know it to be the truth “Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.”
This is the basic human condition before being justified by the blood of Christ. The greatest human dilemma is our hostility to God, and the fact that our sins have cut us off from Him.
Paul then continues in Colossians 1:22 with the message of hope as he speaks about the miracle of reconciliation to God: “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.”
Once we were enemies of God, alienated from Him because of our evil nature and evil behaviour. But, even though we were hostile towards Him, He still loved us. And He put into place the plan to reconcile us to Himself through Jesus’ death.
The death of Jesus was necessary for our reconciliation with God to become a reality.
Why did Jesus have to die? One reason is in Colossians 2:13-14, “You, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
It took the death of Jesus to free us from the debt that stood against us with all of its legal demands. Why was that important? Because the law of God brings us under condemnation. Whenever we try to impress God by obeying the commands of the law, we condemn ourselves because we end up disobeying that law. Breaking the law puts us under a divine curse. That’s what Paul meant in Galatians 3:10 – “All who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’”
So by becoming human and going to the cross, Jesus took the curse that rightfully should have fallen on us. That curse that comes from living under a law we cannot keep could not have been removed without a Saviour dying in our place. By dying for us Jesus not only shattered the curse, but He also shattered the law that kept us condemned before God. What this means is that no longer do we have to relate to God by perfectly keeping some law. We are saved from being under a continual curse, and that frees us to have a living relationship with Him.
Jesus not only had to die to abolish the claims of the law on our lives. He also had to die to act as a propitiation or atoning sacrifice for us. 1 John 2:2 says, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Propitiation is a word we don’t use much these days. An act of propitiation serves 2 main functions: The appeasement of wrath and the satisfaction of justice. God created you to live a pure and sinless life, and to model His image to the world. When you rebelled and failed to obey His commands, you incurred His wrath. The righteous anger of a holy God stands against you, and you need a way to turn that wrath away from you. And that’s why Jesus died. God is holy and righteous. And because of His holy and righteous nature, He demands that justice be done, which is what happened at Calvary. God’s perfect justice was satisfied on the cross..
The great question the Bible answers is not “How can a loving God send anyone to hell?” Rather, it answers this question: “How can a holy God maintain His holiness, uphold the integrity of His perfect law, and at the same time make it possible for His enemies to not go to hell?”
God by His very nature is perfectly holy and righteous, and His nature dictates that He cannot and will not bend the rules to allow us to escape the eternal punishment we deserve as His enemies. And that is why Jesus died for you.
God’s plan of salvation is actually two-fold: He saves you by accepting the atoning death of Jesus in your place, while at the same time He maintains His perfect, holy standards. You will not be in Heaven because you crept in under the radar or because God pretended to look the other way while you snuck in. You will be there because Jesus died to make it possible.
The mystery of the plan of salvation is that God has made it possible for Him to remain entirely holy, while at the same time He saves us. In His great and amazing grace, God made a way. That’s why we call it good news!
Before coming to Christ we are enemies of God. We have broken His commandments, and as Paul says in Romans 6, the wages of sin is death. We deserve to be punished for our sin, but in His mercy and because of His immeasurable love for us, God sent His Son as a substitute for us. 1 Peter 2:24 says, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.”
He took our punishment, and God’s law, which requires punishment for sin, was honoured. The price was paid in full, and we are now reconciled to God. In the words of Jesus Himself as He died on the cross, “It is finished.”
So what next for us? If God has done all that was necessary for us to be reconciled to Him, how are we to live the rest of our lives? Paul answers that question in Colossians 1:23, although the sentence is incomplete unless if we begin in the previous verse: “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.”
The work of salvation is complete, but there is an obligation for us. We are to continue in our faith, not giving up on the hope held out in the gospel. God has given us His Holy Spirit who is constantly at work within us, giving us the strength we need to not stray away from God’s truth. We are to become involved in the life and witness of the Church. God has provided for your reconciliation to Him through Jesus. The relationship is restored, but we need to live in this relationship.
Paul’s words in Philippians 2:12-13 have caused much confusion: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
This does not mean we must work for our salvation. Jesus has already done that. What it does mean is that we must work in our salvation. We need to “work out our salvation” in the way we live our lives as former aliens and enemies of God who have now been reconciled to Him.
When Paul wrote his letter to the Colossian Church, he encouraged them to resist a religious system that did not make Jesus the sole source of reconciliation to God. False teachers were saying that Jesus is only one of many steps to be taken to God, but they were wrong. What Jesus did at Calvary is all we need. We don’t need anything or anyone else to restore our relationship with God. It’s already been achieved, but we must strive to remain within that relationship – not by doing things, but by holding on to Jesus.
How many Christians make the mistake of trying to get to Heaven by perfectly keeping the law? How many of us have decided that reaching Heaven depends on being perfectly obedient? Some teach that we are now under a new law that must be flawlessly kept in order to be saved. That is unscriptural and heretical, because if we believed that, it would put our hope on Judgment Day in our works, rather than the perfect, complete work of Jesus on the cross.
Authentic Christians don’t live under a whole new set of laws. Authentic Christians live a transformed lifestyle.
And we do this because we are no longer enemies of God, and we no longer participate in evil behaviour.
Our lives are now marked by holiness and godliness, simply because we are now reconciled to God. We don’t strive to do these things in order to be saved. We do them because we are saved. The importance of the difference between these 2 principles is crucial. The only reason we have the hope of Heaven is because Jesus took care of our sin problem at Calvary, making reconciliation possible by His death.
On whom or on what is your confidence of salvation?
What is the basis of your hope of eternal life? Is your hope in your obedience? Is it in some set of laws or teachings that you think you need to perfectly obey? Or is your hope in what Jesus has done for you?
If your confidence is in Jesus, then know this: God has reconciled you to Himself. If your hope is in anything other than the life and death of Jesus, you have no basis for real hope in this life, and worse, you will die with your hope in a doctrine or a practice that cannot save you.
Because you are an enemy of God, you are condemned to spend eternity banished from the God who created you. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In the words of 2 Corinthians 5:20, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” If you are still an alien and an enemy of God, turn to Christ while you still have the opportunity.
If on the other hand, you have accepted salvation in Christ, remember that you are reconciled to God. You are no longer His enemy and the preceding verses of 2 Corinthians 5 are for you: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-19)