COLOSSIANS 1: [13-] 20-23 [HOPE FOR LIFE Series]
THE FOUNDATION OF HOPE
WHY HOPE? Another way to look at the question could be, WHAT IS THE BASES OF OUR HOPE? WHAT IS THE FOUNDATION or THE ROOT OF OUR HOPE?
Why Hope? Because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ we can have hope! Nothing in this world even compares to what God can do in our lives. He begins this good work when we place our faith for salvation in Jesus, in who He is and what He did for us on the cross. Nothing in this life compares to the eternal life God gives us through the Gospel. The hope of eternal life is based on our acceptance of the Gospel. Hope therefore in verse 23 is called “the hope of the gospel” or the hope based on the good news. "The Hope of the Gospel" is not only revealed by the Gospel, it comes from the Gospel.
Nothing else compares to what God can offer me because Christ in me is the HOPE of glory. If you have Christ, you have the hope of the Gospel which includes the hope of salvation, the hope eternal life.
In other words the basis of our hope is our reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. Reconciliation has a beautiful and significant meaning for those who have come to know Christ personally. Our passage calls to mind the great change that occurs in lives that have been reconciled with God. [Anyone who calls to mind what they were [becoming] prior to experiencing God’s grace will joyfully celebrate and praise God for His transforming work of redemption.] Those saved by the gospel of grace are challenged to continue striving forward in the truth that had saved them (CIT). For the Son’s reconciling love gives persevering faith through the hope of the gospel.
I. THE NEED FOR RECONCILIATION, 20-21.
II. THE MEANS OF RECONCILIATION, 22a.
III. THE RESULT OF RECONCILIATION, 22b-23.
The preceding paragraph taught that all God's fullness is in Christ. The purpose of God's fullness in Christ was reconciliation. He is God in human flesh. As verse 20 teaches us, it is only in and through Christ that we can we be reconciled to God. "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."
Having proclaimed the deity and work of Christ, Paul now reveals what it means to us. It is only because of the deity and work of Christ that we can be redeemed. With joyful wonder the Apostle testifies to the Colossian believers that they too have become recipients of God's marvelous act of reconciliation when they believed the gospel. By faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ they had been made acceptable to God.
Note that peace with God is made "through the blood of His cross." Without the death of Jesus on the Cross there is no forgiveness of sin (Heb. 7:23) before God. Jesus became our substitute as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Our reconciliation or atonement is because Christ went from being the spotless Lamb of God to being sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21) as He died for us or in our place on the Cross. Our hope of Salvation is based on the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Verse 21 impresses on us the transforming power of reconciliation by reminding us of what we were like before we were redeemed. "And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds"
Here we encounter three words of separation that describe people before they are saved. First, they-we were alienated. Before we give our lives to Jesus, we are alienated from God. This means that we are separated from or estranged from Him. Reconciliation is necessary because people are alienated ["cut off, estranged"; apo-allotpios] from life and God (Rom. 1:20-23; Eph. 2:12; 4:18). We are alienated because we turned away from God and have been shut off from fellowship with God. [The prodical son was alienated (Lk. 15:21) from his father.]
Second, our minds were hostile toward God. Before conversion the Colossian believers were enemies or hostile to God in their minds, meaning in their internal thinking & external behavior. [The mind is the seat of thoughts, attitude, and disposition.] Sin begins in the heart (Mt. 5:27-28) and manifests itself in overt deeds (Gal. 5:19). People are outwardly hostile against God because of their inward hostility (eksthrous, "out of" or "from God "). Our intellectual capacities were so distorted that we worked against God's purposes.
Would you readily admit that before you came to Christ, that your mind was hostile toward God? What this is saying is that we were strangers to God's ways of thinking and, as a result, we lead a life of sin. Thus this hostility can manifest itself in outright rebellion against God to the subtle ways we ignored God in our everyday lives. We used our thinking ability to justify ourselves and our actions.
Romans 8:7-8 (NASB) "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, (8) and those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Our natural way of thinking set us against God.
Third, we were engaged in evil deeds. Wicked works are the evidence and manifestation of alienation and hostility. Calling our deeds evil sounds harsh doesn't it? What are evil deeds? Everything we do that is in opposition to God's will is considered an evil deed. Not just the extreme actions. An evil deed is ANYTHING that stands in opposition to what God has told us. It is living for ourselves and not for God and His glory. The mind set on the flesh leads to deeds of the flesh (Gal. 2:20).
If we are our own center of reference, if we want things to revolve around us or our understanding, we are separated from God. The emptiness we know, the feeling that we are driven, our lack of confidence, our fear of relationships and our fright of the future, our hoarding of ourselves and our talents, and our misdirected extravagance and waste of material resources -all these witness to the fact of sin and its tenacious pull upon our lives. Even when the strangle-hold of sin is broken, we do well to remember: "And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled" (v. 21).[Dunnam, Maxie. The Preacher's Commentary Series, Vol 31. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982, S. 349]
You and I were estranged and hostile toward God. We were without any hope of attaining eternal salvation. Without any hope of saving ourselves. And that is the condition of the whole human race. Rebellion against God reigns in the hearts of men- you and me included. We are rebels by nature just as much as any Khomeini, Khadafy or Osama Ben Laden.
1st, The Need for Reconciliation,
II. THE MEANS OF RECONCILIATION, 22.
How can fallen man have fellowship with God? Only Verse 22 indicates God's terms of reconciliation with sinners. We can be reconciled to God only through the death of Jesus. "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-"
These blessed words should resound like thunder in our heart. The pivotal word "reconcile" is one of the most significant in the NT. It is a key to understanding what Christ has done for us. [He uses a group of words, all having basically the same meaning, to express the central experience of the Christian faith. William Barclay states that all these words are compound forms made from the simple verb allassein which means "to change".]
In the New Testament, [with two exceptions (1Cor. 7:11 and Acts 7:26),] the word reconcile [katallassein (from allassein) and its related forms] is used to designate the restoration of the relation-ship between persons and God. [In 2 Corinthians 5:18, there is a series of uses of this word: "God has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself;" "we pray you to be reconciled to God." In Romans 5:11, he uses a noun form, speaking of Christ: "through whom we have now received our reconciliation (katallag). Some translate that "atonement," which in English has the deep meaning of being brought together, at-one-ment. In Romans 5:10, Paul uses the same image he uses in the Colossian passages: "while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son."]
Please note that God has not been reconciled to a man, but man must be reconciled to God. [The major reconciliation passage (2 Cor. 5:18–20) speaks three times of God reconciling persons to Himself. God's passionate yearning for His children's return home is never abated; the fire of love burning in His heart is unquenchable, constant, and continuous. Nothing lessens that love or turns it into hate. God is that "hound of heaven" who pursues us down the nights and days, who "moves my soul to seek Him seeking me," who loves us to the Cross. I am the one to be reconciled. I am the one to be moved to penitence and surrender.]
The meaning should be clear. Through what Christ did, the lost relationship between persons and God, can be restored. What did Jesus do? He died, judged in our place, for our sin on the Cross. Jesus Paid it All as the old hymn reminds us . . . [ vv 2,3,4.]
[We are reconciled through Jesus' death. The death must be understood in light of the person who died. Since the person was infinite, so His could be. It could include an infinite about of suffering and pain, and infinite amount of penalty and payment.]
Reconciliation with God can be offered us because of the life and death of Jesus, the fullness of God in human flesh. Romans 6:23 states, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." It is a gift given to us from God. He is the gift-giver. Thus He is the one who sets the terms for how to receive this free gift and then makes the offer to us. You did not purchase or earn your gift so you cannot dictate the terms of acceptance. Your either accept it on His terms or you have rejected it. He will not give His indescribable gift to us on our terms. We must receive it on His terms, or He will not gift it to us.
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[Notice also that in order to redeem humans, Christ Himself had to become truly human (1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 2:17). Thus Christ's real physical body and death were necessary for man's salvation (Rom. 7:4; Heb. 10:10). Man was alienated from God, Jesus lived in perfect harmony w/ God. We were hostile toward God, Jesus was a friend of God. Our actions were evil, Jesus did only the works of God.]
The reconciled God justifies by grace the sinner who accepts the means of reconciliation. Those who surrender to Jesus allow the Holy Spirit into their life to transform their relationship, mind, and behavior in order to bring them back to God. Have you done this... have you surrendered your life to Christ? Are you being brought back to God's way of believing, thinking and acting?
III. SOME RESULT OF RECONCILIATION, 23.
Verse 22 also tells us that the purpose of Christ's death is redemptive. Christ died for you, "in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach-"
To present you is the ultimate purpose of reconciliation (Eph 5:27). ["To present you holy in His sight" (before Him, kata-en-& rion, lit. down in look, indicating the Lord looking down in our souls).] Christ's death is the basis for judicial justification (Rom. 3:21-26), and for progressive sanctification (Rom. 6-7). He cleans us and makes us holy for Christ's righteousness becomes our righteousness. [We become sanctified as we follow Him. ]
So a result of Christ's reconciling work is to present believers as "holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation." When you belong to God, you are set apart as something special, you have a special purpose. Holy, in this context, means to set aside to be dedicated to God [like the holy utensils of the tabernacle were set a side for the special purpose of service to God].
That does not mean you are sinless or perfect. But God has expunged our record and accredit to our account Christ's perfect record (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 John 4:17). He pronounced us justified after we acknowledge our sinfulness, place our faith in Jesus as Savior, and surrender our life to Him as Lord.
[Unblameable is a technical, sacrificial term and means “without flaw, free from defects, without blemish, and stainless in character and conduct."] Christians are not only holy and without blemish [mous; translated "blameless" in Eph. 1:4 & Phil. 2:15; "without . . . blemish" in Eph. 5:27 and "without fault"; in Jude 24)] in Christ, we are also are free from accusation (anenklētous). This Greek word [is used five times in the NT and only by Paul (here and in 1 Cor. 1:8; 1 Tim. 3:10; Titus 1:6-7). It] connotes not only one who is free from all charges, but one against whom charges will not be recognized. Satan is "the accuser of the brethren" (Rev. 12:10, KJV), but Christ is our "Advocate" (1 John 2:1, KJV) before the Father. By the merits of Christ believers are free from every charge (Rom. 8:33). When you are in Christ, when Christ has become your head or Lord your are freed of every accusation of man and demon before God both here and hereafter. The accused are beyond reproach and the condemned are freed, if they are reconciled with God. What hope the believer has through Jesus' precious blood!
Verse 23 states that this reconciliation in Christ comes only by an abiding or continuing faith. "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 text is insistent that believers must continue and confident that they will. They had a settled faith. It was established (grounded like a building on a strong foundation) and firm (hedraioi, "seated or settled" 1 Cor. 7:37; 15:58), so Paul expects they would continue or be able to continue building a God honoring life. [We are never to take a vacation from God.]
Because of Jesus' work on the Cross, we can be presented to God as holy and blameless “if” we continue on in faith or reliance on Christ and His teachings. [The Greek first-class conditional sentence [ei, Gk., if, since, plus the indicative mood] expresses Paul's certainty that they will in fact continue. The phrase could well be translated "since you continue in the faith."]
In good conscience therefore, I cannot assure someone who walked forward at a crusade twenty years ago or was baptized several years back but has not continued in the faith that he will be presented to the Father as being holy and blameless. [Every true believer in Christ will endure to the end (John 10:28, 29; Phil. 1:6).]
Colossians 1:23 refers to "the hope of the gospel." There is no sweeter message of hope in all the world than knowing that in spite being miserable and depressed with a sense of guilt and estrangement before a holy God, you can go to bed that very night - this very night - with a quiet and peaceful heart knowing that every sin you have ever committed and ever will commit is forgiven and you are reconciled to the Almighty by the death of His Son. That's the free offer of the gospel!
And the gospel is the good news that there is hope for sinners, the worst of sinners: the hope of forgiveness (a weeping harlot saved by faith); the hope of reconciliation (a broken prodigal coming home); the hope of holiness (a leper cleansed by the touch of Jesus).
There is hope given in the gospel. We read of: the hope of righteousness (Gal 5:5); the hope of His calling (Eph 1:18); the hope of eternal life (Tit 3:7); the living hope (1 Pet 1:3-4); and the hope that we have (Heb 6:19).
In fact he spoke of the hope, the confident expectation, which this gospel of reconciliation provides not only to them but also to the whole world -to every creature under heaven. This obvious figure of speech indicates the universality of the gospel and its proclamation[, not that every person on the globe heard Paul preach.] [Walvoord & Zuck, p. 675.] [God makes Himself known to every creature. Creation and the conscience within the heart of every man are continual messages to each individual of the reality of the Creator God . God is fair and will judge each man fairly, according to the knowledge given him (Romans 1-2).]
The hope the Gospel in its fullest sense is the expectation of ultimate, complete salvation that will belong to believers upon the return of our Lord [Vaughan, Curtis. The Expositor's Bible Com. Vol 11. Regency. 1977. p 188]
IN CLOSING / RESPONSE
When we are separated from God, it will affect every other area in our life in a bad way. A right relationship with God is the foundation for everything else we do in life.
Atonement for sin was absolutely necessary for until alienation, hostility and evil works were dealt with, there could be no reconciliation. [God cannot be reconciled with sin. Man must be reconciled to a Holy God in holiness.] We can now be offered holiness, blamelessness, and irreproachableness, in Christ Jesus.
The only hope we have of being saved is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Once we are saved we can have the hope of the Gospel, the hope of heaven, the hope of becoming more and more Christ-like as God continues the good work of redemption in our life.
To what are you clinging to establish your future? We need to believe in the promises of Scripture. We need to place our hope and faith in Jesus and the Word of God! We are to cling to the hope of the Gospel. When you accept Jesus, you are telling God that you are surrendering your life to Him on His terms! Are you ready to be reconciled to God through Christ?
If you have never really accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, would you do it right now? Do not delay or put it off. If you would like to receive Christ by faith, pray this simple prayer in your heart:
Dear Lord, I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I believe Jesus died for my sins on the cross, and rose again the third day. I repent of my sins. By faith I receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior. You promised to save me, and I believe You, because You are God and cannot lie. I believe right now that the Lord Jesus is my personal Savior, and that all my sins are forgiven through His precious blood. I thank You, dear Lord, for saving me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, God heard you and saved you. I personally want to welcome you to the family of God and rejoice with you. So please come forward at this time and share that with me. As we stand and sing... #...
