This post continues with the subject of reconciliation.
Colossians 1:21-22 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Again, I like the CJB: “In other words, you, who at one time were separated from God and had a hostile attitude towards him because of your wicked deeds, he has now reconciled in the Son’s physical body through his death; in order to present you holy and without defect or reproach before himself….”
“alienated” = to estrange away, i.e. (passively and figuratively) to be non-participant
The truth is that we were all once estranged from God and not participating in the joy of His provision for us. Jesus taught that you are either on His side or you aren’t.
Matthew 12:30 He that is not with me is against me….
If you are a friend of the world, you declare yourself an enemy of God.
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
“Wicked works,” works that are in direct disobedience to the teaching of God’s word, are evidence of friendship with the world.
Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
1John 2:15-16 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
Jesus, in an unbelievable act of love for His enemies, sacrificed Himself on the cross to provide reconciliation for man. He gave Himself up to physical death as the perfect sacrifice for sin in order to reestablish a way for us to have fellowship with Him in peace and harmony. And He took it to the nth degree. His sacrifice provided for the Father to look at us and see us as:
- Holy – pure, morally blameless
- Unblameable – unblemished, without fault, undeserving of censure
- Unreprovable – unaccused, having no foundation for blame
He clothes us in His righteousness and presents us to the Father as though we had never sinned.
(to be continued…)
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