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and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. 21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. (Colossians 1:20-23 NIV)Irreconcilable differences –– this is a phrase we’ve all heard. It is generally used in our society as a ground for divorce. Many couples, when they’re looking for a fairly easy way out of a marriage, will say that they are terminating a marriage because they have irreconcilable differences. What they are really saying is that they just can’t get along, and they don’t want to put in the time and effort necessary to work things out.
Irreconcilable differences are a huge problem in our world today. We live in a world in which people feel alienated. Of course, there are many "reasons" for this alienation. We are all familiar with the common ones–– race, education, money, status, and religion. Our world has a long and sad history of one group looking down upon another group because of issues like these.
And there are those who may feel justified in their alienation and hostility toward others because of some wrong suffered. They may feel justified in hostile attitudes and hostile actions because they have been done wrong.
Today we see an increasing hostility in our world. We should not be surprised. Jesus told us it would happen. He said that in the last days we would have wars and rumors of wars. You may wonder what he meant by that, after all, there have been wars ever since there have been people to fight them. I believe what Jesus was referring to was an increasing frequency of hostility. And we have certainly seen that.
The horrible attack on America of September 11 is simply the current manifestation of this increasing hostility and alienation. It has certainly made us, as Americans, aware of the kind of hostility that exists in many places around this world.
Why so much hostility? Why so much alienation? Well, the root cause of human alienation is alienation from God. Rodney King wondered aloud, "Why can’t we all just get along?" The reason why is because we are alienated from God. And until we are reconciled to God we will never be reconciled to one another.
It all began in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. They were not content to follow the will of God and chose to go their own way. They disobeyed God. As a result, sin entered into the world, and death because of sin. Theologians call it the Fall of mankind. Adam and Eve fell from God’s grace and received the consequences of their disobedience.
Sin came into the world and began to corrupt everything. And sin corrupts thoroughly. It cuts us off from God and produces alienation. It alienates us from God and alienates us from one another as well. Our only hope is divine reconciliation. In other words, God must step in and do something that we can’t do. He must bridge the gap. He must bring us back to himself. He must make things right.
…and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. (Colossians 1:20-21 NIV)
God has a plan of reconciliation. Even though we chose to sin and disobey God, he saw our condition and was not content to simply do nothing. He was not content to leave us in the sad situation in which we found ourselves, even though we deserved it.
The Fall brought sin and condemnation on all things. It brought the curse of God upon creation. Not only was humankind cursed, the creation itself was also impacted. We read in Romans 8:20 (NLT) that "Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God’s curse." This was a direct result of sin entering into the world. We see this situation expressed and what is called the Second Law of Thermodynamics, also known as the Law of Increasing Entropy. Simply stated, it means that things are tending toward increasing disorder and decay.
But God plans to turn this all around by reconciling all things, including creation. If we continue reading in Romans 8:21 (NLT), we find that "All creation anticipates the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay." When God fulfills his purpose in reconciliation, even the creation will be set free from decay.
Sin, you see, has corrupted us thoroughly. In theological terms, we call that Total Depravity. It means that we can do nothing to save ourselves. We need an outside power to deliver us. We need a Savior. And Jesus Christ is God’s answer to our alienation. He bridges the gap.
…by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross… But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death… (Colossians 1:20b, 22a NIV)
Jesus paid the price of reconciliation. We read in John 3:16 that God loved us so much that he sent Jesus to die for us. God sent Jesus to pay the price for our reconciliation.
He would pay the price through the Cross. In our text we read of his making peace through his blood shed on the Cross. This speaks of his death. The significance of his blood being shed was that his life was poured out. In other words, when Jesus hung on that Cross, he was being put to death for our sins. His death paid the penalty for our sin. The Bible teaches that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
When Jesus died on the Cross, he was dying in our place. He was standing in as our substitute. He was paying the penalty that we should have paid. He took upon himself our sentence of death. He died for you!
Furthermore, his death on the Cross reveals the serious nature of sin. Think about how God considers sin. Many of us take it lightly, but God does not. In God’s opinion, sin is so corrupting that it took nothing less than the death of his own Son to pay its penalty. God gave his precious, beloved Son. Nothing else would suffice. God takes sin seriously. So should we.
Christ’s death on the Cross enables God’s forgiveness. It satisfies divine justice and enables God to forgive us on the basis of Christ’s sacrifice. In enables us to be made right with God. It reconciles us to God.
…to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation… (Colossians 1: 22b NIV)
Your holiness is the purpose of reconciliation. God desires to present us to himself as holy people. We are to be holy in his sight. We are to be without blemish. We are to be free from accusation. This speaks of the purpose of God in reconciliation.
We are being made fit for heaven. As a part of this process, God is changing us from the inside out. Not only did Christ’s death reconcile us to God, it also works in us to change us into people who are like God.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)
When we received Christ, we received his righteousness. His righteousness was imputed to us. Now we stand clothed in his righteousness. It is not our righteousness. It is his. And God now sees us standing in that righteousness. In other words, he sees us through Christ. We are being made fit for heaven. And one day we will be glorified. That process has already begun.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NASB95)
The process has already begun. It will be completed at the end of the age when Christ returns to receive us into his heavenly glory. At that time we will be totally transformed as we receive our spiritual body. Until then, we are gradually being transformed more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ. This is the process that we call sanctification. It is a continual and progressive setting apart for God’s purposes. That is the essence of what it means to be holy. To be holy is to be set apart for God. That is God’s purpose for your life. That is his purpose in reconciliation.
…if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. (Colossians 1:23 NIV)
Your faithfulness is the proof of reconciliation. Our text gives us the standard that we can use to judge whether or not we have been reconciled. The standard is that we continue in our faith. We must be established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.
Have you ever wondered why some people who claim to be Christians show no evidence of their Christianity? There are some who claim to be followers of Christ, Christians, and yet seem to have no desire to go to church, read the Bible, worship God, or fellowship with other Christians. It seems strange that a true Christian would not want to do those things.
There is an answer. The sad fact is that not all who claim to be Christians really are Christians. The reason why many "Christians" seem to show no evidence of Christianity is that they are not really Christians at all.
You see, Christianity is a life-transforming encounter with God. Christianity is not religion. Christianity is not ritual. Christianity is not based on our heritage. And Christianity is not based on our good works. Christianity is a relationship with the living God. It is an encounter with God in which we surrender our lives to him and he comes into our lives to live in us. And if Christ is living in you, there should be some evidence of that in the way you live your life.
Now, I’m not trying to be judgmental. I’m simply inspecting the kind of fruit that hangs on the tree. Jesus himself said that you could tell what kind of tree you are looking at by the fruit it bore. So when you see apples hanging on a tree, you conclude that you are looking at an apple tree. When you see pears hanging on a tree, you conclude that you are looking at a pear tree. Pears do not grow on apple tree and apples do not grow on a pear tree.
When you see no evidence of Christian fruit in the life of a so-called Christian, then you have a right to conclude that perhaps they are not a Christian. If someone has truly been born from above, their lives should reflect that in continued faithfulness to God. Our faithfulness is the proof of our reconciliation. True Christians follow Jesus. True Christians worship Jesus. True Christians study the Bible. True Christians plug into a church. True Christians like to be around other Christians. True Christians share the good news about Jesus. True Christians follow Jesus!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (NIV)
Not only have we been reconciled to God, but we have also been given the ministry of reconciliation. We now stand in the place of Christ appealing to others to be reconciled to God. We are called ambassadors of God. And that is what we are. We represent the living God before the watching world. We hold in our hands the key to heaven. We have the truth of the gospel of Christ, the good news that Jesus died on the Cross to reconcile people who were alienated from God. In him there are no irreconcilable differences.
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