February 16, 2020
Morning Service

This morning we saw how we are “partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”  That means God has chosen us to become not only members of His kingdom, but we become part of His family.  Through His blood, Jesus has delivered us from the wages of our sin (death) and given us an avenue to not only follow Him, but to intimately know Him.  We then preceded to unravel a little bit of the mystery behind the Godhead.  Jesus is the Creator as “all things were created through Him and for Him.”  He is the Lord of all thrones, dominions, principalities and even life and death.  “In Him all things consist.”  Jesus is Lord of all and one day “every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Chris is Lord.”  It is extremely difficult to wrap our minds around the magnitude of the greatness and vastness of our God.  Paul does not stop there and let us rest, but jumps straight into the part Jesus plays in our reconciliation with God.   Reconciliation is our path to being found in God’s good favor.  It includes our acceptance of an invitation to follow, repentance of our sins, and the forgiveness of those sins all done only through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Col 1:19-22 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, (20) and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (21) And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled (22) in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—

            This was God’s perfect plan of salvation from the very beginning of time; that God Himself would become a man and die for man, His creation’s sin.  Reconciliation is offered to us through the cleansing blood of the Jesus upon the cross.  Though we were once enemies of God, alienated without hope, He not only the created the path to salvation but completed it as well.  The Hebrew writer said it like this:

 

Heb. 12:2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

        That is exactly why Jesus could say this in the Gospel of John:

 

Joh 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

        The road to reconciliation is designed, built and maintained by Jesus alone.  To attain a right relationship with God we must go through Him.  He is our road back home and to the intimate relationship with our Creator that we were designed for.  This road comes free to us, but it was paid for at a very stiff cost.  Jesus had to die upon that cross to present us “holy, blameless and above reproach in His sight.”  Isaiah 53 describes the cost and God’s reaction to it in great detail:

 

Isa 53:10-12 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.  (11)  He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His Knowledge My Righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.  (12)  Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

            Jesus is our Redeemer and our reconciliation came through His blood upon the cross.  Paul describes what is required of us next.

 

Col 1:23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

            Our reconciliation should bring us to a life of faithful following of our Redeemer.  We will desire to stay grounded and plugged in to all He has planned for us in this new life which He has purchased for us.  All things have become new; there is a change in us coming from the inside out.  Paul now explains what that looked like in his life.

 

Col 1:24-25 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, (25) of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,

        Paul’s ministry came at a cost for him as Jesus had told Ananias at his calling on the Road to Damascus.

 

Act 9:16 For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake."

        His suffering for Christ also benefited His body; the church as Paul gave his life to the ministry in which he was called.  He was indeed a good steward of all that God placed upon him to carry.  Paul now gives us the key factor on why and how things are now no longer the same but all new.

 

Col 1:26-29 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.  (27)  To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  (28)  Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.  (29)  To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.

        The false teachers in Colosse were expounding upon the “secret doctrine” that could only be given through their teaching and I believe Paul plays off of that point.  He gives us the key to “making all things new” by revealing the mystery behind God’s plan of salvation “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  God no longer sends the HS to “be with us,” but now the HS abides within us.  In the Holy Spirit’s presence in us lies not only our spiritual guidance, but also our eternal life.  The perfect plan of salvation is complete when we accept the gift, repent of our sins and are baptized for the remission of those sins.  It is then, somewhere within that process, that we receive the gift of the Holy Spirt to live within us and that changes everything.  This enable us to be presented to God “perfect in Christ Jesus.”  We are no longer clothed in the filthy rags of our righteousness (Isa. 64:6), but we have put on the perfect righteousness of Christ as Paul told the Galatians:

 

Gal 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

        God no longer looks at us a strangers or aliens, but He sees as His sons and daughters.  We are redeemed, reconciled and made righteous through Jesus Christ our Lord not only the Author of our faith, but also the Finisher.  This is the gospel message that is free to all who accept it. 

 

Heavenly Father thank You for Jesus who is our path back to You.