Continue In Your Faith

About a month ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Peru where my daughter was completing a six-week rotation at as a pharmacy student. She is in her final year of pharmacy school and her professors encourage their students to get a wide variety of experiences including some in foreign countries. It had been many years since I traveled outside of the United States and I had forgotten about the one thing you literally guard with your life when traveling internationally. No, it was not the money in my wallet, nor my cell phone, nor my credit cards. It was my U.S. Passport. Perhaps it goes without saying but let me ask you why a person’s passport is so important when he or she is traveling abroad? This document is important because of what it says about me. It is my identification and it declares that I am a citizen of the United States. It is also important to me because of the connection it gives me to our nation. All U.S. passports declare, “The Secretary of State of the United States of America hereby requests all whom it may concern to permit the citizen/national of the United States named herein to pass without delay or hindrance and in case of need to give all lawful aid and protection.” That is not an insignificant statement! And perhaps that says it all regarding why we protect our passport so carefully when traveling—it is our identity and it brings us a promise of protection.

You may recall that the Bible uses the image of citizenship to talk about our salvation. The Apostles Paul used that comparison in two of his letters—Philippians and Ephesians. In Philippians 3:20 he declared, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” And in Ephesians 2:19 he reminded his readers that through faith in Jesus, “you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people.” So do we have a passport that reflects our heavenly citizenship? We do. Maybe it can’t be as easily carried in a pocket or purse. But God’s Word is in a sense our passport. Here he tells us who we are. Through his Word he connects us to salvation. Through the Scriptures we are told the Good News that Christ has died for our sins. This same Word of God has created faith in our hearts to believe the Gospel. And it is this Word also connected to water in baptism and to the bread wine in the Lord’s Supper that protects and sustains our faith as we travel through life.

So what do we do now? We hold on to this heavenly passport with even more diligence and eagerness than we would show toward our U.S. Passport. Today let’s take to heart a portion of God’s Word that encourages us to continue in our faith. We ask God the Holy Spirit to work through the Epistle Lesson for this Sunday from Colossians 1:21-29. (Read text.) Did you catch the phrase that seems to put a condition on our salvation? As Lutheran Christians it may strike us as not very Lutheran! The Apostle Paul declared that we have salvation “if you continue in your faith.” Let’s take the “if” out of it! Although that is a sober warning. Friends in Christ, let’s make it our goal through God’s strength to continue in our faith. Yes, brothers and sisters in the faith, my heartfelt encouragement to each of you is:

“CONTINUE IN YOUR FAITH”

I. Stand firm in the Gospel that brought you to faith

II. Mature in the fullness of faith through the gospel

From what we can piece together, false teachers had been leading the Christians in the city of Colosse away from the true faith as they had learned it from the Apostles. The Colossians had become confused about what it meant to live as Christians. Therefore, as he did in a number of his other inspired letters the Apostle Paul directed his readers back to the basics of the Christian faith. He reviewed the undeserved love that God showed the world by sending his Son as the substitute for sinners. He again declared that those who put their faith in Jesus receive the benefit of his sinless life and sacrificial death. It then makes sense that the Apostle Paul warned the Colossians to continue in their faith so they didn’t lose the treasure that was theirs. They would do that by standing firm in the Gospel that brought them to faith and by maturing in their faith through the Gospel.

I.

To remind the Colossians what was at stake in their spiritual lives the Apostle Paul contrasted what they had been before the Gospel brought them to faith. “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.” Prior to the Holy Spirit’s work in their hearts to turn them from unbelief to faith they were separated from God and unable to please him. In his Word to us God declares that he cannot tolerate or overlook sin. He is completely holy and so he must drive unholy sinners away from himself. And that separation would have to continue forever in hell. But what had God done for the Colossians and for all people? “ 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…” Although the word “reconcile” may not be commonly used among us we can understand the basic concept. Most of us know how to “reconcile” our checkbooks. Even with online banking it’s something we still need to do. We look at the statement our bank gives us and we compare it to our check register. We hope that all of the deposits and withdrawals match up. And the word reconcile is still used in connection with husbands and wives who may have been separated or considering a divorce. When they are brought back together we say that they “reconciled their differences.” Here the Apostle Paul told the Colossians that God had reconciled them to himself through Jesus’ suffering and death. It was done by Christ’s physical body when he took the place of sinners and suffered their punishment. The sins of all people were deposited on Christ. His innocent death and perfect life are then credited to guilty sinners. And like a husband and wife that were reconciled with each other God reconciled people to himself through Christ. He only sees the holiness of Jesus when he looks at believers. Their sins have been atoned for and forgiven.