The Reconciliation Of The Cross
Text: Col. 1:19-23
Introduction
1. Illustration: The Civil War was carnage. Then Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy died. And Ulysses S. Grant of the Union died. Their widows, Varina Davis and Julia Grant, settled near each other. They became the closest of friends. That's what we call reconciliation!
2. The same is true in the spiritual world. We were enemies of God because of our sin, but the cross of Christ reconciled us to God.
3. The cross...
A. Brings Us Peace
B. Brings Us Close To God
C. Brings Responsibility
4. Let's stand together as we read Colossians 1:19-23.
Proposition: The cross makes us right with God again.
Transition: First of all...
I. The Cross Brings Peace (19-20).
A. He Made Peace
1. January 9, 1963 was a day that most Browns fans thought they would never see. That day the owner of the Browns, Art Modell, fired Paul Brown, the only coach the team had ever known. Many people were angry with Modell over the firing, and some, like my uncle Clem, never forgave him for it. From the that day forward my uncle Clem became a Cincinnati Bengals fan because he couldn't forgive.
2. The same can be said of our relationship with God. We sinned against God, and as a result, we became enemies of God. That is why Jesus came to earth and why he went to the cross.
3. Paul tells us in v. 19, "For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ."
A. The little word for explains why Christ will have first place in everything.
B. God wanted his fullness (meaning “completeness” or “totality”) to live (meaning “live permanently”) in Christ.
C. Paul wanted to explain to the Colossians that Christ is God’s dwelling place; therefore, Christ is divine, sovereign, and preeminent.
D. Christ perfectly displays all the attributes and activities of God: Spirit, Word, wisdom, glory.
E. By this statement, Paul was refuting the Greek idea that Jesus could not be human and divine at the same time.
F. Christ is fully human; he is also fully divine. Nor is there more than one God; this one God, in all his fullness, resides in Christ.
G. Christ has always been God and always will be God. All of God (including his attributes, characteristics, nature, and being) indwells the Son.
H. When we have Christ we have all of God in human form.
I. Any teaching that diminishes any aspect of Christ—either his humanity or his divinity—is false teaching (Barton, Life Application New Testament Commentary, 874).
4. Then Paul said, "and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross."
A. God willed that through Christ all reconciliation would occur.
B. "Reconcile" literally means bringing back into proper relationship.
C. Because God was not the offender, the Bible uses the term relative to men being brought back into the proper relationship with God.
D. Reconciliation has both an objective and a subjective side.
E. Objectively, God removed the barrier between himself and sinful man by the death of Christ on the cross, so sinners may experience a living relationship with God.
F. Subjectively, people must accept the possibility for reconciliation that God has provided (, The Complete Biblical Library – Galatians-Philemon, 247).
G. This reconciliation was accomplished through Christ’s blood on the cross.
H. “Reconciliation” also means reestablishing a relationship, causing a relationship to become friendly and peaceable when it had not been so.
I. Because Christ is Creator and Sustainer of everything (1:17), his death on the cross provided reconciliation for everything.
B. Ceasing Hostility
1. Illustration: Amy Biehl died a violent death in 1993. She was a 26-year-old Fulbright scholar who had gone to South Africa to help register black voters for their first free election. But even though she was seeking to help the people of South Africa, as she was driving one day, she was dragged out of her car, stabbed and beaten to death by a mob which was committed to violence in order to overthrow of the apartheid government. Soon afterward, Amy’s parents, Linda and Peter Biehl, quit their jobs and moved from their Orange County, California home to South Africa — not to seek revenge, but to start a foundation in Amy’s name. Today, two of her killers work for the foundation. They call Mrs. Biehl "Makhulu," or grandmother, because of the way she treats them. She says, "Forgiving is looking at ourselves and saying, ‘I don’t want to go through life feeling hateful and revengeful, because that’s not going to do me any good.’ We took Amy’s lead. We did what we felt she would want." That is the picture of reconciliation. It not only forgives, it reaches out to restore. It pays back good for evil. It is following the heart and character of God.
2. Jesus death on the cross reconciled us to God for all time.
A. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (NLT)
And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
B. The greatest demonstration of love is that the God who created us, the God we sinned against, came and died on the cross so that we could be united with him again.
C. Even though we rebelled against him, he was willing to come to earth and stand in our place.
D. Even though we turned our backs on him, he did not abandon us to our own selfishness. Rather he came and demonstrated what it means to be selfless.
E. Even though we thought only of ourselves he came and thought only of us by dying on the cross for us.
F. The truest emoji of love is not a heart but the cross, because Jesus showed the depth of his love by hanging on the cross so that we could live!
Transition: In addition to bringing us reconciliation...
II. The Cross Brings Us Close To God (21-22).
A. You Who Were Once Far Away
1. The cross not only reconciles us to God, but it also does something very similar. it changes our position with God.
2. In v. 21 Paul says, "This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions."
A. Paul gave the reason why we need reconciliation. The believers in Colosse had, at one time, been far away (separated, estranged) from God and they were his enemies.
B. Their thoughts and behaviors had revealed, not apathy or ignorance, but hostility toward God because of sin.
C. They were strangers to God’s way of thinking. Wrong thinking leads to sin, which further perverts and destroys thoughts about him.
D. When people are out of harmony with God, their natural condition is to be totally hostile to his standards. God made peace by his death on the cross in his own human body (1:20).
E. In order to answer the false teaching that Jesus was only a spirit and not a true human being, Paul explained that Jesus’ fleshly, physical body actually died.
F. Jesus suffered death fully as a human; thus, we can be assured that he died in our place. Since Jesus, as perfect God, faced death, we can be assured that his sacrifice was complete and that he truly removed our sin (Barton, 874-875).
3. Then in v. 22 Paul adds, "Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault."
A. In Colossians 1:20-22 the concept that the Cross has effected “reconciliation” is crucial.
B. The level of reconciliation in Colossians is not a “twin reconciliation” (man to man, man to God); rather, a cosmic reconciliation is seen in which God’s enemies (1:21) are “reconciled” (cf. “having made peace,” through the death of Christ (Thoralf Gilbrant, ed., “599. ?p??ata???ss?,” in The Complete Biblical Library Greek-English Dictionary – Alpha-Gamma).
C. What is the goal of this reconciliation? He wants to bring his people into the very presence of God, holy and blameless, without a single fault.
D. Believers can be called holy and blameless because they have been acquitted of all charges (Ephesians 5:27; Jude 24).
E. Christ’s act of reconciliation put believers in perfect standing with God. By Christ’s death on the cross, God already dealt with sin.
F. His goal is to make believers his holy people, to transform their character so they can live consistent with their faith.
G. The pattern is the perfect life lived by Jesus Christ. The process of living the Christian life will end with the resurrection and will result in believers being presented to God as his dear and beloved children. (Barton, 874-875).
4. Now, because of the cross, we are no longer enemies of God but friends!
B. No Longer Enemies
1. Illustration: Two men were out hunting in the northern U.S. Suddenly one yelled and the other looked up to see a grizzly charging them. The first started to frantically put on his tennis shoes and his friend anxiously asked, "What are you doing? Don't you know you can't outrun a grizzly bear?" "I don't have to outrun a grizzly. I just have to outrun you!"
2. Our sins made us God's enemies; the cross made us His friends.
A. Romans 5:10-11 (NLT)
For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
B. Our sins separated us from a holy God.
C. Our rebellion but up a wall between us and God.
D. But the cross changed all of that; it made us friends with God.
E. Once we were far off from God, but God changed all of that by sending Jesus to die for us.
F. Once we were strangers and aliens to God, but God who is rich in mercy has made us a part of his family.
G. He did all of this through the cross!
Transition: The cross reconciled us and made us friends of God. However, with...
III. The Cross Brings Responsibility (23).
A. You Must Continue To Believe
1. Being friends with God is a great benefit, but with it comes great responsibility.
A. There are some very good and well meaning brothers and sisters who believe in a doctrine that is often referred to as "once saved, always saved."
B. This is the belief that once you accept Christ it really doesn't matter what you do afterwards, you will always be saved. Well I take issue with these brothers and sisters because I think it does matter.
C. Hebrews 6:4-6 (NLT)
For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— 6 and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.
D. You see I think Scripture teaches that we must remain faithful. While we serve a forgiving and patient God who understands our weaknesses, he won't put up with willful disobedience.
2. That's why Paul says in v. 23, "But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it."
A. Obviously, just making the decision is not all that is involved in the matter.
B. The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to continue in "the faith," but He cannot help us unless we permit Him to do so.
C. The language of the entire verse seems to lend support to the conditional element involved in continuing to allow Christ to accomplish His work in our lives.
D. He is not satisfied just to bring us to an initial experience with himself. He obviously wants that relationship to continue (249).
E. The certainty of believers’ present and future status with God should not be an excuse for careless living or dabbling in heresy.
F. Paul warned the Colossian believers to continue to believe this truth and stand in it firmly. As they built their lives upon the foundation laid by the gospel, they ought to build carefully through obedience.
G. Then their “building” would stand firm. The Colossians should not wander off into false teaching that contradicted the gospel they had heard and the hope they had believed for salvation.
H. This was the gospel to which Paul had become a servant; this was the only true gospel. This was what the Colossians had heard and believed. There ought to be no excuse for wandering away into false teaching (Barton, 875).
B. Remaining Faithful
1. "Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin." ? Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community
2. The benefits of the cross also come with the responsibility to remain faithful.
A. Revelation 3:1-3 (NLT)
“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Sardis. This is the message from the one who has the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars: “I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God. 3 Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief."
B. Just because the Gospel is free doesn't mean that it does not come with responsibilities.
C. Just because Jesus paid the full price for our sins doesn't mean that we are not held responsible if we stray from it.
D. God had called us to be set apart from the world in which we live.
E. We are called to be holy and blameless.
F. We are called to be followers of Christ and not followers of the whims of society.
G. We are called to say no to ungodliness!
H. We must remain faithful to God, and if we do slip up and repent God will restore us.
I. However, we cannot use that as an excuse to sin.
J. Follow Jesus and strengthen the things that remain.
Conclusion
1. We were enemies of God because of our sin, but the cross of Christ reconciled us to God.
2. The cross...
A. Brings Us Peace
B. Brings Us Close To God
C. Brings Responsibility
3. The cross made it possible, now are you ready to follow Jesus?
