A few weeks back Ryne Cali came over to my house to help me diagnose where I might be losing some heat through my ductwork. The problem, however, is that the only way to access my ductwork is through a square cutout in the ceiling of my upstairs hallway. So Ryne jumped up there, started pulling himself up, and then began having some trouble. Most of his upper-body was absent from view, as he had gotten a good portion of himself into the opening, but his legs were kicking, and there was nothing for them to push against. Therefore, I leaped to his rescue by grabbing his feet and pushing him until he was completely in that square opening in my ceiling. And I thought to myself this week how clearly that pictures the labors of believers as we move from generation to generation.
You see, the hope of each generation is not that the following generation is just like them, is it? Rather, I think that each generation finds delight at the idea that they might hoist the next generation up a bit so that they might see further and even more clearly.1 I saw this a couple of weeks ago as I was preaching at my home church. The people to whom I was preaching seemed to find joy not only in the truths we were looking at over those three days but also found delight in seeing me as a product of their labors. They rightly understood that they had helped give me a foundation that had enabled me to study and now return to teach them. They rightly understood that they had enabled me, as it were, to stand on their shoulders and see further and more clearly than they had been able to see.
And by the Lord’s grace, I have learned so much over these last fifteen years since I left Paducah, KY. That was incredibly clear to me this week as I was looking at Colossians 1:21-23. As I wrote down some notes from this text, I first thought, “These are just basic truths of the Christian faith.” And that’s true. But my second thought was, “My understanding of these truths fifteen years ago is but a dim shadow of my understanding of these things now.” What I now understand as basic truths, I barely knew just fifteen years ago.
And as I realized that, I stopped and prayed for our children, “Father, would you let them see as basic truths, those things which took most of our lives to learn? Would you allow us, who stand on the shoulders of those before us, to hoist up the next generation so that they might understand more, see more clearly, and love more deeply than we do?”
Yet, we must realize that this doesn’t happen without labor from us, does it? Hoisting our children up means that we must instruct them. The book of Deuteronomy tells us, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).
I note this because today as we look at Colossians 1:21-23, I believe it is fair to say that these verses provide for us some fundamental truths of the Christian faith. They might have been truths we’ve known well for a while or some truths we’re just learning. But my prayer as we look at these fundamental truths Paul lays out for the Colossians is that we might grasp these truths ourselves, delight in them, and commit to making sure that newer believers in our midst might understand these fundamental truths of the Christian faith at an earlier point in their Christian walk than many of us did and that our children might understand them at a younger age than many of us did.
What a privilege it is for us, then, to consider again together who we were before Christ saved, what Christ has done to save us, what that means for us, and our responsibility as believers. That is what I want us to see from these verses this morning. So, first, let’s remind ourselves of what we were like before Christ and what is true of those outside of Christ now. In verse 21, Paul reminds the Colossians and us that . . .
Paul teaches us this by reminding the Colossians of who they were before they came to faith in Christ. He writes in verse 21, “And you, who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds . . .” This is what was true of us before we believed and it is what is true of unbelievers right now. And part of it, I think is pretty obvious to us, isn’t it? Paul begins by noting that we were “alienated” from God.
Now, we don’t have a problem with that, do we? It’s pretty easy to acknowledge that at one time we were not God’s children but those who had sinned, fallen short of his glory, and were objects of his wrath. Probably everyone learned some kind of form of evangelism in our lives that stresses this point. Perhaps we say that we’ve been separated from God because of our sin or we stress that because God is holy and we’ve sinned, we’re justly under God’s wrath outside of Christ. And the Scripture uses this language as Isaiah 53, for example, tells us that, “All we like seep have gone astray” (Is 53:6). This picture of a sheep wandering far from its shepherd, Isaiah tells us, is a fitting picture of us. We were separated from God, removed from God, under his wrath, or, as Paul says here, “Alienated.” Again, that causes us no problems, and I don’t think there is a second’s hesitation from us in saying that this is true about anyone who does not have faith in Christ.
However, Paul doesn’t stop with the word “alienated” in describing these Colossian believers before they came to faith. He also adds that they were “hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.” And, I think, for us, we might be a bit slower to recognize this truth in regards to unbelievers. After all, don’t we know of unbelievers who seem everything but “hostile in mind”? Perhaps they say to us, “I just can’t believe the Bible, but I want to know truth” or they say, “I would definitely believe in Jesus, I just have doubts.” And what about the guy who does not believe in Jesus but is spending his life running an orphanage, providing for uncared for children in a third world country but doesn’t have faith in Jesus Christ? Is he really “hostile in mind, doing evil deeds”?
Paul says, “Yes, he is. Yes, they all are.” And the reason why Paul can say that, and the reason why it is true of every unbeliever that he is hostile in his mind toward the Lord Jesus Christ is that Romans 1:18-23 tells us that what can be known about God is plain to every man because God has shown it to them, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). Therefore, when someone does not believe in Jesus Christ, it is not because they do not know that the God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ exists, it is because they rebelliously suppress what they know to be true in their unrighteousness so that they worship something other than God. That is, they are hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.
You see, the guy who says he’s searching for truth but refuses to bow the knee to Christ is rebelliously employing his reason in an attempt to deny Jesus Christ. He might tell you a hundred different ways that he is just trying to be reasonable, but he is simply exalting reasons against Christ in his rebellion. He’s got an axe to grind against his Creator. And therefore, he has become foolish and his heart and mind are being darkened and growing ever more foolish.
This is where every man is, and it’s why the gospel is so important. Ultimately man needs more than a reasonable argument, though there is nothing wrong with countering a man’s belief with a reasonable argument and showing him his folly. But ultimately, man needs to hear the gospel, or he will not be saved. The only thing that can break through our rebellion and make us wise, opening our eyes to see the glory of Christ is the gospel – the good news of what God has done for us in Christ so that we might no longer be alienated from him but reconciled to him.
We made the first point without finishing Paul’s thought in verse 21. He is describes who we once were in order to make the point that God has done something to change that, namely, he reminds us in verse 22 that . . .
In verse 22, Paul says that the Colossian believers who had been alienated from Christ “he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death.” Here, Paul is making reference to the fact of Christ living, dying, and being raised for all who would believe.
But there are a couple of ways we could misunderstand this verse. First, we could misunderstand it by thinking that the problem was just our mindset. That is, you read verse 21, which tells us we were hostile in mind and think, “So, the problem was just us. God needed to come and change our minds. That’s how he reconciled us to himself.” And many have thought that, suggesting that God doesn’t someone need appeasing; the problem is just with man. In this line of thinking, we might imagine God sending Jesus into the world to bring the good news, saying, “Listen, I’ve got nothing against you, so calm down with your hostility and all will be will.”
But that’s not the biblical picture. It is true that we were hostile in mind and rebelling against God. But it is also true that God, therefore, had something against us. You see, because we were sinners and God is a holy and just judge, it wasn’t that we were just hostile to God, his holy wrath was hanging over us. And, God had already revealed in Exodus 34:6-7 that he would be no means clear the guilty.
So, if God’s just wrath was bearing down on us and we needed more than just to change our mindset, what was our hope? This is what Paul answers in verse 22. You see, God reconciled us to himself by sending his Son into the world to receive the just punishment that we deserved because of our sin. On the cross, Jesus actually bore the wrath of God that should have been ours so that the just punishment of all who will believe in Christ has already been paid. And because Christ bore God’s just wrath in our place, now God is able to declare us righteous and remove any condemnation from us so that his wrath no longer hangs over us. So, Christ came to take on flesh and die in order that God’s holy wrath might be satisfied.
The second way we might then misunderstand this idea of Christ reconciling us to himself by his death is to think that somehow this was initiated by us or some combination of us and God. That is, we might think that somehow man said, “Alright, I know you’re wrath is over us, but can we do something about this?” That is not the biblical picture. Then, was it somehow God and man coming to the table together to see what could be worked out? No. Rather, God was the one who took the initiative and did everything necessary to reconcile us to himself.
Though we were God’s enemies and the objects of his wrath, God loved us while we were his enemies and sent his Son to die for our sins. The one against whom we had sinned and whose wrath we were under initiated and did everything necessary to bring us back to peace with him. This is our hope. And yet Paul continues, reminding us at the end of verse 22 that . . .
Why did Christ reconcile us to himself? Paul answers, “in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him” (v. 22). You see again that the one before whom we’ll stand is the one who died for us. And he died for us not to make us pretty good or not as bad. Christ died for us in order to make us stand before him perfect on that final day. That’s the language Paul uses: holy, blameless, and above reproach.
You see, it is impossible for Christ to reconcile us to himself without completely removing our sin, paying the punishment we merited, and providing for us perfect righteousness. If Christ had simply made us people who no longer were hostile in mind and now loved God, that wouldn’t be sufficient because of all the sin we had done to that point would have merited God’s wrath. We would still have sin that we had committed and stood guilty before a perfectly holy and just judge. If Christ had simply made us so that we no longer wanted to do bad all the time but wanted to obey God much of the time, then that would have been insufficient because unless we obey God perfectly, we stand guilty of violating all the law. If you break the law only at one point, you’ve still broken the law, haven’t you?
But Christ did everything necessary to present us to himself as perfectly holy, blameless, and above reproach. No one will stand before Christ and receive blessing on that final day without standing in Christ’s perfect righteousness, and no believer need worry that he or she will stand before Christ in anything less than Christ’s perfect righteousness.
This is why we love the biblical truth that we are justified by faith alone. It’s why we love to remind ourselves that God is holy. Why do we sing and raise our hands at the fact that God is holy? How does that help us? It helps us by driving from our minds any thought that we can do anything to contribute to our righteous standing before God and paves the way for us to remember that Christ has done everything necessary so that we can stand before him blameless on that final day. We are called merely to trust in what Christ has done for us. This is what we mean when we say that we are justified by faith alone.
And, yet, this doesn’t mean that we claim faith in Christ at some point in our past and then move on to trust in something else at a later point. That is not the Christian message. Rather, Paul reminds us in verse 23 that . . .
Paul provides a condition in verse 23, doesn’t he? He writes that we are reconciled to Christ and will be presented before him blameless on that final day “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.”
These kinds of things can make us uncomfortable, don’t they? We know we’re saved by faith alone and that God keeps those who are his, so we’re uncomfortable with a condition, aren’t we? How can he say that we are reconciled and then make it dependent on our holding steadfast to the gospel, not moving from hoping in the finished work of Christ alone?
Well, he can say that because the fruit of one who truly believes is that he continues to believe. This is why Christ gave the church two ordinances – baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In baptism, we show that we have placed our faith in Christ and are trusting in him alone for our righteous standing before God. We do that once because we are converted once. However, we then are given another ordinance in the Lord’s Supper whereby we show that we continue to believe and trust in Christ alone for our salvation. And this is gracious of God so that we might continue to proclaim to ourselves and others that we are holding fast to the gospel – which is true and which is being vindicated as his people are preaching the gospel all over creation and people are coming to faith and being transformed.
Therefore, if you are tempted to reject Christ and think all will be well because you once professed having faith in him, don’t be deceived, you will be judged in the end. If you say that it is simply too hard to hold to faith in Christ because of the difficulties that come with following him, do not be deceived, you either trust in Christ alone for salvation or you trust in something else and are condemned. It is only those who persevere in faith who will be saved on that final day.
And yet, I know you well enough to know that some have now grown anxious who have no reason to be anxious. Perhaps you’re sitting in your seat this morning thinking, “I am trusting in Christ now, but who knows what the future will hold. What if something tragic happens in my life and all of the sudden I’m not going to continue to trust in Christ alone twenty years from now?” The answer to that is not to look to the future which you don’t know but to look to two things. First, ask yourself today if you are hope is in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection for your salvation. Do you believe he lived, died, and was raised for you and are you trusting in him alone for your salvation? If you can answer that positively, then realize that his promises apply to you. And one of those promises that Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians 10:13 this that God is faithful, and “he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” So, if you believe at this moment, that promise applies to you. So, proclaim you present faith in Christ and trust in his promises by coming to the table. But if you are wanting to abandon faith in Christ, repent, and come to the table to express that repentance, your faith in Christ, and trust in his promises. Let us this morning, delight in our reconciliation through faith in the finished work of Christ. Amen.