Paul’s ministry to the church, Colossians 1:24-29

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the famous English preacher of the late 1800’s, said, and I quote; “It is the duty of Christian preachers to expose error even when it was held by saintly believers.” I agree with that statement. Error comes in many forms, but the most deceitful means is when it comes from the lips of people who you think you can trust.  Spurgeon went on to say that he wouldn't preach error if the whole world should be converted by it. 

That may be a shocking statement, but what he was trying to say was that he would never preach error, no matter what appeared to be the consequences of doctrine that individuals might apparently be pleased with. One of the signs of the end times, the age of apostasy, is that as Paul told Timothy in 2Tim. 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,  and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

Unfortunately, that has become evident in the church at large today.  We have tasted a little error here, and swallowed a little half truth there, and we haven’t realized that we have drifted far away from the truth of the gospel.  I believe it is a problem in American society as well.  We are like the proverbial frog in a pot of warm water, which at the beginning he is able to jump out of the pot, but he finds the temperature is actually to his liking.  The stove though gradually heats up the pot, the frog goes from complacency to comatose until the water begins to boil, and before the poor frog realizes what is happening he is cooked.

That kind of complacency is what Paul is writing to the Colossians about.  They have found the waters of false doctrine to be quite comfortable.  They liked the false teachers that have found their way into the church.  Some commentators have said the false teachers were proposing a new doctrine which we might call Gnostic Judaism.  I’m not going to take the time to try to explain it.  But suffice it to say that it sounded very spiritual.  It sounded like it was based on the scriptures, at least the Old Testament scriptures.  They didn’t really have a New Testament yet and so they studied the Old Testament and whatever few epistles from the apostles that might have found their way to them.  But more importantly the false teaching appealed to their tastes.  It tickled their ears, so to speak. 

And we have a lot of churches today in America that are offering something similar. They are offering a gospel that appeals to our materialistic culture.  They are offering a social gospel.  They are offering a prosperity gospel. They are teaching a gospel that promises you don’t need to be sick, or suffer, or do without anything you want. God wants you to be healthy and wealthy.  It sounds so good.  The temperature of the water is quite comfortable, and they don’t care that they are becoming comatose. 

But Paul’s gospel is not like that.  Paul wouldn’t have passed muster by the typical pastor search committee.  He didn’t look very much like the polished and preening prosperity and word of faith type of preacher that we see in the local mega church or on television.  

Let me share something  with you just so you get an inside picture of what’s going on in many churches today. When my son was in college studying to be a graphic designer, he took an internship with a local mega church in San Diego.  They had a corporate office in some office park that he worked in, but they had several satellite churches throughout the city.  And one day I showed up there to see him at work, and they ended up giving me a tour of the corporate office.  

We saw the graphic design studio, the film studio with green screen which could be outfitted with the background of the appropriate church, and all kinds of things that went into producing the services for all these campus’s. But then they showed me a room which they called the sermon writing room.  I was naturally interested in that, so I asked how it worked.  And I was told that the sermon writing team, made up of a half a dozen or so young men and women,  met there and came up with the sermons that they presented to the  pastors who then practiced speaking them and then performed in front of the green screen and then presented in their church on Sunday.  I was stunned, to say the least, to discover that the pastor did not write his own sermon, nor was he even a part of the sermon writing team.  And then when I left the building, I happened to meet one of the pastors who was coming in to perform one of their sermons.  He was tanned, trim and fit, bleached white teeth, and had a great smile.  I felt like I had just met a movie star or something.

All across this country today, in pulpits in so called evangelical churches, pastors are preaching a canned, packaged, committee written message complete with power point graphics and Bible verses and touching illustrations that they purchased from one of those type of sermon mills. And like all false doctrines, there is just enough good stuff in there to make what’s not true seem like it’s not all that important. Someone who was defending one of those churches told me the other day that God can use canned sermons too. Well, that may be true, but my response to that is that God used an ass to rebuke the prophet Balaam, but that shouldn’t mean we want one in the pulpit.  

But this is not just a 21st century phenomenon. By the first dozen years since Christ ascended into heaven, this false gospel was already making dangerous inroads in the church.  Paul warned the Galatian church, Gal 1:6-8 “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;  which is [really] not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.  But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!”

This false, feel good gospel was not what Paul was preaching, however. The gospel that Paul was preaching is not something designed to make you feel special, or to make all your problems go away, or to help you become your best self now. Notice what Paul says concerning the gospel so far. He says we were enemies of God, and the only way to be reconciled to God is through the death of Jesus Christ. It took the death of Christ to reconcile you to God, to make things right between you and God, Jesus had to die on the cross, a terrible, torturous, violent death, to atone for your sin.

Because we were by nature enemies of God, engaged in evil deeds, but He rescued us from the dominion of Satan, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.  And regarding His Son Paul has much to say, not the least of which is that “He Himself will come to have first place in everything.”  Christ must have first place in our lives.  That’s what it means in Romans 10:9 which said, “If you confess Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” To confess Jesus is Lord means that He has first place in our lives. He is on the throne of our hearts. We no longer live for ourselves, but we live for God.

2Cor. 5:15 says, “and [Christ] died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”  I wonder if we were examined on that point as proof that we were indeed born again, would there be enough evidence to convict us?  Do we no longer live for ourselves, but live for Christ?

Paul goes on to say concerning the gospel of salvation that it produces a new life. 2Cor. 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”  We are a new creature, a new creation, no longer are our goals aligned with the ways of this world, or with acquiring the material possessions of this world, but fixing our eyes on Jesus as we walk in newness of life in Christ. 

Back in Colossians, Paul speaks further of this transformation in us, in vs 21: “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.”

The goal of our reconciliation is that we walk in holiness, that we live in a way that is blameless, beyond reproach. Now what does he mean, if we continue in the faith? Notice it says continuing in THE faith, not continuing in faith.  There was a popular teacher of an earlier generation who was a prosperity and word of faith preacher before it became quite as mainstream as it is today.  His name was Norman Vincent Peale.  You may have heard of his book which was a best seller;  “The Power of Positive Thinking.”  Mr. Peale made the common mistake of confusing positive thinking with faith.  I suppose you can have faith in carnal things.  I practice faith every time I get in an airplane.  

But that is not Biblical faith. I might convince myself to have faith that God will protect me if I put a blindfold over my eyes  and walk across Route 1.  But no matter how much I believe it, or want to believe it, that doesn’t mean that I won’t get run over by a truck.

Biblical faith is believing in the promises of God which are written down in the word of God, so that as Peter said, we have a faith more sure.  2Peter 1:19-21 “[So] we have the prophetic word [made] more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.  But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is [a matter] of one's own interpretation,  for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

Ok, then, so the gospel is the word of God, and faith is trust in the promises of God which are given to us by the Holy Spirit in the scriptures.  This is the faith that Paul is preaching in Colossians, which he delineates in vs 5 saying, “the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel.” And since the day which they believed by faith this gospel, Paul in the beginning of this epistle said he prayed that they would bear fruit, being filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that they will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might,]for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.”  That’s the evidence of their faith, the fruit of their faith, their walk in the faith.

Now why would they need all this strength, and power, and steadfastness and patience to walk in the faith? Well, the answer is revealed in vs 24, because of the sufferings which they would experience because of their faith.  Vs.24, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.”  What is he talking about here?  Is Paul saying that part of the Christian experience is suffering, and afflictions?  Yes, that’s exactly what he is saying.  I thought everything was supposed to be better when you become a Christian.  I thought we get to live our best life now, and also get heaven when we die. I thought God promised to make everything in my life work out for good.

What Paul is talking about is his identification with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ.  

"Filling up that which is lacking of the sufferings of Christ," he means that his sufferings, on behalf of the church of Jesus Christ, represents an identification with the risen Lord who has suffered for the church.  Paul’s suffering though is not for their atonement but as a minister for their spiritual edification. 

Contrary to the teachings of Norman Vincent Peale and others of his ilk, suffering is a necessary part of the Christian experience. If the church is the body of Christ, then we should expect suffering as we are a part of that body. In fact, Romans tells us that suffering leads to the glory which is the inheritance of our salvation.   Rom 8:17 “and if [we are] the children of God,  [then] heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.]” 

There are a lot of ways which we can suffer for our faith.  Because of our faith we can suffer rejection from family, we can suffer the loss of friendships, we can suffer by losing a job, or by losing some sort of favor at work which results in less pay or the loss of a promotion.  The list of ways we can suffer as Christians could go on and on.  But I will tell you something I believe very strongly.  We have not yet suffered like we are soon going to suffer, and I believe it will be at the hands of our government. I believe that the ways in which government restricted churches during the pandemic was just a trial run of things to come.  I believe the day is coming when we will no longer be able to proclaim the truth of God’s word without fear of reprisal.  The truth will be branded as hate speech.  We will be forced to either publicly approve of what the Bible tells us is sin, or we will find ourselves being censored and even shut down. 

But I think that many churches are trying to prove to the world that they are actually inclusive, loving people and so they avoid talking about sin, they avoid talking about damnation, they avoid saying anything that might not be perceived as politically correct.  But the Bible says you cannot love the world and be Christ’s disciple.  1John 2:15 says,  “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” And so if you call out the world and tell them the truth of the gospel, that they are sinners, and without God, and as such will be eternally separated from God in hell unless they repent, then you can expect to suffer affliction.  So perhaps another evidence of our salvation is to examine the degree to which you are suffering.  Now don’t misunderstand me, you can suffer because you’re a jerk too. I’m not advocating that.  But I am saying that it is likely that you will suffer for the sake of the gospel if in fact you are actually living in service to the Lord. In 2Tim. 2:3 Paul says, “Suffer hardship with [me,] as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”

Now Paul goes on to explain how this service works in vs 25-27 “Of [this church] I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the [preaching of] the word of God,  [that is,] the mystery which has been hidden from the [past] ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints,  to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Now in verse 23, it says that Paul is a minister of the gospel. In verse 25, he says that he is a minister of the church. Both of these are true.  A minister is a servant. That's what the term diakonos, the term used here means- the same word from which we get the term deacon. 

Paul is a servant of the word, and he's a servant of the church because you can never really be a good servant of the church of Jesus Christ if you're not a servant of the word. The blessing of the Holy Spirit can only come through the word of God. The things that God blesses are the things that are in obedience to the word of God. If a person is unable to verify his Christian experience by the teaching of the word of God, you can say it is a dubious Christian experience. Christian experience must be founded in the word of God. The word of God is our standard, and Paul is a servant of the word, and by that he is able to minister to the church.

Notice what Paul says the preaching of the word does - it it reveals the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but now has been manifested to His saints (that is the true believers, the church).   What is this mystery?  A mystery is something that can not be known unless it is revealed.  So the Holy Spirit has revealed through the word of God something that is now clear.  

 I have read a lot of speculations of possible meanings of  what Paul refers to the mystery, but I think that I will stick with what Paul is saying the mystery is.  He says, “what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, WHICH is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  The mystery is simply this; Christ in you, the hope of glory.  He is referring to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who is given to us at the moment of salvation.  Jesus said in the upper room that it was expedient that He should leave His disciples, so that He could send them a Helper, the Spirit of Truth.  

In Romans 8:9 notice how Paul uses Spirit of God and Spirit of Christ interchangeably. He says, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”  So the Spirit of Christ is in us as the result of our salvation.  But at the same time the Spirit is also a foretaste, or a deposit of the good things to come.  Paul says “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

The hope of glory speaks to the future. Christ in us now as the Spirit will be made complete and glorious when we see Him face to face at the consummation. Our future inheritance is the hope of glory.  And so as we said earlier, we suffer with Him now but we are promised glory later.  Remember Romans 8:17 which we quoted earlier?  “and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.]”  We are now saved, we now have the Spirit as a pledge, as a deposit of what will be fully realized when we are raised to glory at the resurrection.

The hope of glory is speaking of something in the future.  Now is not glory.  Now we suffer with Him.  Now we live as aliens in a foreign land.  Now we sometimes suffer hardships.  Now we don’t have everything that we might want to have.  In this world we serve the Lord, not ourselves.  We no longer just live for ourselves, but for Him.  And we look forward to that day when all things will be made new, and we shall be glorified.

You know, I worry about the world that my kids and my grandkids will have to live in.  I am afraid that the America of our father’s generation is long gone and not coming back. Some Christians  offer consolation by saying that God is still on the throne.  And yes He is.  God is on the throne of heaven and earth is His footstool.  But America has rejected God’s rule.  America said a long time ago that God will not rule over us.  God was on the throne in heaven when He allowed Hitler to take control of Germany.  God was on the throne when Russia and China became communist and killed and imprisoned millions of Christians. 

Listen, Romans 1 tells us that there comes a day in the course of human events when God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do the things which were not proper. God gives a people over to their desires, even if that desire is the means of their destruction. God gave Israel a king because they asked for a king.  And their kings led them to depravity, to the destruction of the temple, to become exiled in Babylon.  And yet, God is still on His throne and He will still accomplish His purpose on earth.  But God’s promise  is to one day destroy the heavens and the earth and remake all things new.  God’s purpose is not to make this world a better place, but to ransom a people from this world and take them out of this world.  One day His judgement will rightly fall upon this world and this earth will be destroyed by fire. 2Peter 3:13 “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” 

Now that’s God’s purpose and that is the hope of glory. That we that are saved, though we may suffer in this life, we will at the end of the age be raised to glory with Christ.  All things will become new.  Where righteousness dwells eternally.  A day with no night, no death, no sin, no sorrow.  That is the hope that Paul is preaching. That’s the hope of the gospel.

Well, Paul concludes this section concerning his ministry to the church by saying in vs28 “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.  For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”  

The purpose of Paul’s preaching is not just to lead someone to Christ, but to make them complete in Christ.  He is talking about the spiritual maturity of the believer.  And, guess what? spiritual maturity is tied to suffering.  James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,  knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”  

Listen, God teaches us more by walking with us in the fiery furnace than He does by walking with us on the mountaintop. The testing of our faith produces maturity and steadfastness through the word of God.  As we endure suffering, as we endure afflictions, as we live as aliens and sojourners in this world, we do so by faith in the word of God, trusting in His promises, trusting in His presence with us.  And we come out of those trials as if tested by fire, refined as gold, complete in Christ.

Paul knows that the secret of his success is not in the power of positive thinking, but it’s in the inner presence of the Holy Spirit who works mightily in him.  And that same power is available to us.  We walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh.  We walk in the wisdom of the word and not according to the wisdom of this world.  And through His word, and growing in the knowledge of Christ, we are being conformed to His image, and being made complete in Christ.  That is the goal of the gospel.  To make us like Christ, so that we might have Christ in us, that we might live like Christ in the world, and that we might one day be glorified with Christ.  I pray that is your goal as well. 

The Ministry of Reconciliation, Colossians 1:19-23

Twice in this passage we see a form of the word reconcile.  Reconcile, or reconciled, is one of those Christian words that we hear so often in the church in regards to salvation and yet perhaps we really aren’t exactly sure what it means.  However, it’s a word that you may have also heard outside of the church. It’s used for instance, in divorce proceedings.  There usually is some sort of effort to reconcile both parties, the husband and wife.  And what that means is that they come to an agreement, they make up, they resolve their differences that had driven them apart, so that they can come back together.

In fact that is how it is used in 1Cor. 7:11 which says,  “(but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.”

But it also has a financial meaning, which is often used in relation to balancing your checkbook.  To reconcile, means to make one account consistent to another.  The bank sends out your statement, and you take your checkbook and compare it in light of the bank statement (which is always the correct one, of course). And so you make whatever corrections are necessary to make your check book correlate to the bank.

Now both of those variations on the meaning of reconcile should help us to get a grasp on it’s theological implications.  To be reconciled to God speaks of a man being made right with God, his account with God being corrected in light of what God’s justice requires.

When Paul speaks though to the Colossians about reconciliation with God, notice that he first shows us the standard of righteousness which is in Christ Jesus.  In vs 19, Paul says that in Christ all the fullness of deity dwells.  He has just given in the preceding verses a liturgy of Christology, all the attributes of Christ which make up HIs deity.  And so he says in vs19 that in Christ is all the fullness of deity.  So Christ is the righteous standard of God in every respect.  And if we are going to be made right with God, then Christ is the standard by which we are reconciled.  He is the statement, so to speak, that we balance our checkbook against.

And so Paul says in vs20 that God is pleased that “through Him (that is Christ) to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”  God reconciles all things to Himself through Christ.  So not only is Christ God, as we saw in vs 15-19, but He is able to save in vs20-23. He is able to reconcile men to God by paying our debt through His death on the cross.

Salvation, or being saved, is another of those Christian words that we use very often, but perhaps not always understood. Because when the Bible speaks of salvation, there are at least 6 terms that are often used  to speak of salvation. Let me review them with you for a moment.  Five terms used in salvation; and the first one is justification.  In justification the sinner stands before God as a guilty sinner and is declared righteous.  Abraham was justified by faith, and so are we.

The second term used to describe salvation is redemption. In redemption, the sinner stands before God as a captive slave and is granted freedom by a ransom, or a payment.  That’s redemption.  The third term that is used to describe our salvation is forgiveness. In forgiveness, the sinner stands before God as a debtor, and the debt, having been paid, is forgiven, wiped clean. 

Fourth is the term we are looking at today; reconciliation. In reconciliation, the sinner stands before God as an enemy and through the peace offering of Christ becomes a friend of God. Fifth is the term adoption,  which also describes our salvation. In adoption the sinner stands before God as a stranger and is made His child.That’s adoption. And sixth, regeneration.  That which was dead has been given new life. So to summarize our salvation; We stood before God as the guilty sinner, and He declared us righteous. We stood before God as a captive slave, and He granted us freedom. We stood before God as a debtor, and He forgave us. We stood before God as an enemy, and He made us a friend. We stood before God as a stranger, and He called us His child.  We stood before God as dead in our sins, and we were given newness of life.

Now all of those speak of different aspects of our salvation, but today we are going to focus on reconciliation because that’s what Paul is addressing in this passage. And there are four aspects of reconciliation that Paul gives us here in these verses. The four aspects of reconciliation are the plan of reconciliation, the means of reconciliation, the purpose of reconciliation, and the evidence of reconciliation. 

First, let’s consider the plan of reconciliation. Vs 20 “and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, [I say,] whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

Now the key phrase there is “through Him to reconcile all things to himself.” So God reconciles all things to Himself through Christ.  All things can be taken to mean all of creation. And there is a sense in which as a result of Christ’s atonement all of creation will be restored to rightness with God.  All of creation is under the curse of sin. We live in a fallen world.  But the apex  of creation is man. When Adam sinned all of creation bore the curse of that sin.  And in like manner, when man is reconciled to God through Jesus Christ then the rest of creation will be reconciled as well. As Romans 8:19 says, “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.”  And then in vs 21 it explains, “that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”

All of creation is waiting for the reconciliation of God with man. Sin corrupted the universe. It destroyed the peace between one creature and the other, between all creatures and God. But the plan of God is that through Christ, the universe is going to be reconciled. It’s going to be restored to a right relationship to God. So that as Peter says in 2 Peter 3:13 “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”

Now when Paul says that all things will be reconciled that does not mean that everyone will be saved, and  that even fallen angels will be restored.  But what it means is that at the final reckoning sin will be done away with, those who have chosen to live in sin will be sentenced to eternal punishment banished forever from the presence of God, and those angels who have fallen will be cast into the Lake of Fire, no longer to tempt or deceive or bind men.  But it also means that those creatures, and every creature on earth and in heaven will bow the knee, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  And sin and death will be done away with, and only righteousness will dwell in the new heavens and new earth.

In vs21 he specifies who is reconciled; “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.”  The Bible makes it clear that in our natural, sinful state we were enemies of God.  It says in Rom. 8:7 that we were hostile, that means to be at war with God.   It says “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able [to do so,]”

And James uses a variation on that term, hostile, to designate the world as an enemy of God. James 4:4  “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” But through reconciliation, Paul says, you who were enemies of God have been made the friends of God.  God made peace through our Lord Jesus Christ by His death on the cross.

Eph. 2:12 says, “remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace.”  This was the plan of God from before creation, to create a people for Himself, who are like Him, for fellowship and communion with Him, and who will enjoy Him forever.

So that is the plan of reconciliation.  Now that brings us to the means of reconciliation.  Paul says how it was accomplished in vs 20; “And having made peace through the blood of His cross.” How did Christ reconcile man to God, who were His enemies, and make peace? He made peace between God and man through the blood of His cross.  He is speaking of a peace offering, a sacrifice. Now when the scripture speaks of the blood it is not referencing some sort of mystical power in the actual blood of Jesus Christ. We should not view the actual blood of Christ in some superstitious manner.  But what Paul means when he speaks of the blood of Christ or the blood of the cross is simply the death of Jesus Christ. Blood refers to the violent manner in which someone dies, not in some mystical power of the actual element.

We see the parallel between the blood of the cross and and death for instance, in Rom 5:10 which says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”  So we were reconciled through the death of Christ.  Not by some mystical element of the blood, but blood speaking of the sacrificial death of Christ.

In verse 22; it says it another way, “In the body of His flesh through death.” The death of the substitutional  Lamb of God was the way that God dealt with our sin, so that we might be reconciled to Him. The justice of God had to account for sin, and we had to pay the debt of sin, the penalty for sin.  But Christ offered Himself as a substitute for us, and by dying on the cross, shedding His blood,  He satisfied that debt.

So the means of reconciliation was to offer Christ as as sacrifice and a substitute for our sin, so that our sins are forgiven, and we receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  By faith in the death of Christ on our behalf we are reconciled to God.

Then Paul addresses the goal, or the purpose of our reconciliation. And we see the goal of our reconciliation in the second part of vs 22, “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.” In order to have complete reconciliation with God, there are three areas in which God has to make right.  We must be holy, blameless and beyond reproach.

To some extent these might look like synonyms.  But perhaps there are some aspects of each that have a particular meaning which might be instructive for us.  Holy refers to our relationship with God.  Blameless has to do with ourselves.  And beyond reproach refers to our relationship with others.  There has to be a holiness between us and God. There has to be a faultlessness within our own selves. And we have to be above reproach in our relationship to others.

Now when we are justified by faith in what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross, then we are made holy, blameless and beyond reproach.  But Paul adds an important little phrase, “before Him.”  In other words, we are holy, blameless and above reproach in HIs sight.  God sees us in Christ.  God sees the righteousness of Christ in us.  It’s like the line from  the hymn the Solid Rock that we often sing:  “Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.”

An important verse in this regard is found in 2 Cor. 5:21.  It says, “(God) made (Jesus), who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  In salvation, God transfers our sin upon Jesus, and transfers Christ’s righteousness to us.  So that when God looks at us, He sees Christ’s righteousness.  He sees us as Christ is; holy, blameless, and above reproach.  That’s why Paul can say in Romans 8: 1 that now there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.  

Now that phrase “In Him” also indicates our position before God.  In daily practice we may not always be holy in all we do, or blameless, or above reproach.  But positionally, we are in Christ.  And so God sees us as dressed in Christ’s righteousness.

Paul says in Ephesians 5 that we are  the bride of Christ, which will be presented without spot and without blemish.  And on that day, when the bridegroom appears, when sin will be done away with, when all things become new, when creation is reborn without corruption,  when we will be given a new, glorified sinless body, then we will become in practice what we are now in position.  Holy, blameless, and without reproach.

Now let’s look at the last point, which is the evidence of our reconciliation. Vs.23, “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.”

Notice that Paul says if you continue.  That’s the evidence of someone who has been reconciled to God.  If you continue in the faith.  If you continue to walk by faith and not by sight. If you continue in the faith firmly established.  That means you haven’t deserted the faith.  You haven’t believed some higher level of intellectualism which denies the truth of the gospel.  Steadfast, means to tie your ship firmly to the anchor  so that you are not tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine.  This was really the danger in the church at Colossae.  It was in danger of being shipwrecked by false doctrines that denied the deity of Jesus Christ. 

In Luke 8:13, is the parable of the sower.  And as Jesus explains the parable, He says ““Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.”  What does to fall away indicate?  It means they were never saved. True Christians will continue. In John 8:30 it says, “Many believed on His name. But Jesus said, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of mine.’” The evidence of  a true Christian is he continues in the faith.

Listen to 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out from us, that it might be made manifest that they all are not of us.” And then in verse 24, “As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.” Who has eternal life? Those who continue.  And one more, John 6:66. “As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.” True Christians continue.

But please understand that Paul isn’t saying that a true believer who falls away, or who backslides, can lose their salvation. What he is talking about is the sanctification of the believer, who continues to walk in faith, who continues to obey, and the goal is to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. See, salvation is made up of three parts, justification, which can also be called reconciliation, then sanctification, and then finally glorification.  So to continue in the faith is the process of sanctification, and to be presented to God as holy and blameless is glorification.

And notice what they are to continue in; “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.” The gospel is the message of Christ, the gospel of salvation. The gospel which Paul was preaching. They were to continue in the faith and hope of the gospel.  The gospel is what we are preaching.  In 1Cor. 1:21 it says, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” There is a lack of gospel preaching today in the modern church.  People don’t want to hear about sin, about salvation, about sanctification. So the modern church teaches about relationships, about finances, about social justice, about how to live your best life now.  But God’s message is the message of Christ crucified.  It’s the message of the cross, the gospel of reconciliation.

Now, in closing, I would like for you to look at a summary of the gospel of reconciliation which is found in 2 Cor. 5.  This passage parallels and summarizes this gospel of reconciliation for us.  It’s like a series of bullet points, and I’m not going to expound on them at this time, but just set them out as principles of the gospel of reconciliation. 

Number one, the gospel of reconciliation transforms men. Verse 17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” The gospel transforms people into a new creation.

Number two; it appeases God’s wrath. Verse 21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Christ bore our sins, so God could give us His righteousness. It satisfies the wrath of God.

Number three; it comes through Christ.  Verse 18, “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

Fourth, it is our ministry.  End of vs 18, “He gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” And the end of vs 19, “He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”  This is our ministry.  To tell the world that Christ has died to reconcile us to God, that we might become the children of God, and inherit eternal life in Christ. 

Fifth, it is God’s invitation; Vs. 20, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” 

 From time to time I hear Christians ask what kind of ministry opportunity can I get involved in at your church?  I want to participate in some sort of ministry.  And usually they are thinking of something along the lines of a homeless ministry, or a children’s ministry, or maybe a music ministry.  But God has already given you a ministry.  That being the ministry of reconciliation, where we act as ambassadors for God, representing Christ to a world that is at enmity with God, and giving them the word of reconciliation; that God has sent Jesus to die as our sacrifice and substitute so that we might be made right with God and receive the righteousness of God.  Our ministry is to go to the lost, the unsaved, those that have not yet trusted Jesus Christ by faith and believed in the work that He did on the cross to pay our penalty, so that they might be given the righteousness of Jesus Christ and be reconciled to God.

That is our ministry.  That is our responsibility.  I pray that you accept your commission as an ambassador of the kingdom of God, and carry out that office, pleading with those that are at enmity with God to accept the peace of Christ, so that they might be reconciled to God.