Colossians 1:21-23
21And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
I. Intro: Steadfast in Your Faith
A. Illustration: Lt. John Blanchard & Hollis Maynell
B. Many things distract us from living up to our identity in Christ—especially guilt and fleshly temptation
C. Paul continues the narrative of reconciliation: the rescuing of the broken and repairing and repurposing it for His work
II. Remember Your Past Life (v.21)
A. Alienated—estranged, cut off, separated
1. We start life as alienated—this is a past tense word that implies a change… but before Jesus, we have always been this way (Ephesians 2:12-13)
B. Hostile in mind—“hostile” = “hate-filled”; “in mind” = intentional, conscious
1. It is in our fleshly nature to despise God and resent His righteous standard (John 3:19-20)
C. Doing evil deeds—not simply thinking evil thoughts, but actually carrying them out
1. Our works will always bear out what side we’re really on (Titus 1:16)
2. The alienation, then, is mutual: we don’t just alienate ourselves from God, He also alienates Himself from us (Psalm 5:5)
III. Remember Your Present Reality (v.22)
A. Reconciled—“made peace”
1. Jesus did all the work by accepting “in his body of flesh” the entire onus of God’s judgment to deal with our sin (2 Corinthians 5:18-19, 21)
2. “In order to present you”—it is not just Jesus’ job, it is His pleasure to introduce you to His Father, the King
3. In what way are we advocating for this relationship to the lost around us? (2 Corinthians 5:20)
B. Holy, Blameless
1. “Holy” = “completely other than”; in this context, it means we are completely separated from the sin that defined before Christ
2. Not just the past sins, but also the desire to sin going forward (Romans 3:23-26)
3. The “fairness” of Jesus’ sacrifice is God’s to evaluate, not our enemies—or even us (Romans 8:33)
4. “Blameless” = “above reproach”; Christ’s righteousness is counted for us so our sin cannot be, so no accusation can “stick”
IV. Remember Your Future Potential (v.23)
A. IF is a big word
1. This does not teach a “losable” salvation if we don’t continue in the faith, but a salvation that will continue to produce faith if we had it to begin with, because we are not the same as before we received it (2 Corinthians 5:17)
2. For the believer, “if indeed” can be read as “because”… but Paul knows not all who claim to be “of the faith” really are
a. This is a metric that has been reached by Christ, not one that we must meet in our own power)
B. How do we determine, or prove, this “if indeed”?
1. We will continue in faith
a. Because Jesus the the author of our faith (Hebrews 12:2)
b. Because this inevitably manifest righteousness and godliness as a result of the indwelling of His Holy Spirit (John 8:31-32; 1 John 2:19)
2. We will be stable & steadfast—because our faith is founded on Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11; Philippians 1:6)
3. We will not shift from the hope (Philippians 2:12-13)
V. Conclusion
A. Don’t forget where you come from—same place as literally everyone else
B. When you remember your sins, don’t omit the part that Jesus also already paid the penalty for them.
C. Recognize that true repentance and faith always produces godliness—not out of compulsion, but out of our new nature
