Colossians 1:19-23

Hey, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2022, Lord willing, we'll make it all the way from the book of Acts to 2 Thessalonians, not Philemon. It's 2 Thessalonians. Well, we have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's word.
Let's pray. Father, You are so gracious to us, giving us Your Word, blessing us with Your Spirit, saving us by Your Son, displaying Your glory. We pray that You would help us this morning to understand. May our eyes be fixed on Christ. May we love You in Jesus' name. Amen. Here we go. We're at the book of Colossians 1, beginning at verse 19.
For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell, 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. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, Yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight. 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." Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to this? So what's this passage about?
Well, Paul is still in his mode of giving thanks, but now he's kind of gone on about this idea of this wisdom and understanding of God. And here he wants them to know about the reconciliation of Christ. See, there was once enmity between God and man. and God has made a way forward. But it's not just between God and man, but it also seems like there is enmity in heaven somehow, somehow in the spiritual realms there was some type of discord, but God put an end to things somehow. And so he says in verse 19, for it pleased the Father that in him all the foolish should dwell. Somehow the Father was able to this is the amazing thing there's a second person of the godhead and all the fullness of deity he dwelled in christ is in christ and by him this is jesus and by jesus reconcile all things to himself by him whether things which are in heaven or on earth, having made peace through the blood of his cross." How is the way of peace paved? It's by Jesus' blood on the cross. It's by Jesus' propitiatory death on that cross that Jesus died.
And he didn't just, you know, cancel out the debt. He did do that, but he didn't just do that. See, one of my seminary professors put it this way, if somebody hits your car in the parking lot, they might say, oh, I'm so sorry, let me, let me pay you back. And you might say, you know, let me pay for the damages. And you might say, Oh, okay. Yeah, that's no problem. No big deal. But every time you see that person, you might go, Oh man, they messed up my car. You know, I remember when they hit my car. That's not what Jesus did. It's not like he just paid for the damages, but there's still some strife, some bad memory of us. No, Now what Jesus did is he went further than just paying the debt.
He fully reconciled us in his death. There is no more enmity between God and his people. Jesus has fully reconciled us. This is the difference between expiation and propitiation, two big $5 theological words, but expiation is just that, well, he's put away our sins, but we might still have enmity with Him. No. The way of peace has been made. The perfect sacrifice has been done.
And so when God sees you, He sees His Son and His face smiles upon you. Because He loves His Son perfectly and you are in His Son and His Son is in you. And so the way of peace has been paved. The way of peace has been paved by the blood of Jesus on that cross. and you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled." Right? That's who we were. Wicked people shown in our works and he's reconciled us to himself. He's made us his people.
"...in the body of his flesh through death to present you Jesus died on that cross, not just to pay for your sins, but notice what this says, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight. If you are united to Jesus Christ, you are holy. You're consecrated, set apart for a royal priestly use, blameless, without spot or wrinkle, as clean as snow, as white as wool, above reproach. If Christ has died for us, who can be against us? Who could bring a charge against God's elect in Christ Jesus? They can't, because Jesus was enough. So you are holy, blameless, above reproach. This is what Jesus has done, presenting us to the Father. This is the reconciling work of Jesus Christ.
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, become a minister. I'm gonna just go ahead and say, B, what's the best verse? And I wanna use verse 23 is what we're called to do. What's this about well, or sorry, what's the best verse I would say verse 19 and 20 is what I would underline for the best verse to summarize this but now see Calling what are we called to do?
I want you To hold fast to the hope of Jesus Christ Don't forget what Jesus has done. I Be rooted in Jesus. Be grounded in Jesus. Be steadfast in Jesus. Some people, the day that they confessed Jesus was this big, momentous, amazing day, but as the years wane on, as the days continue, it might become easier and easier just to, well, you just close your Bible. You just stop praying. You just, you know, push these things to the side. You get busy with life. No, no, I'm begging you, I'm pleading you, hear what this says.
We believe in the perseverance of the saints. Whoever has been given into Jesus's hand, no one can snatch them out. And yet that does not give us an excuse to become lazy in our faith. If we're in Jesus's hand we ought to look up to Jesus and we ought to love Him and follow Him and desire to do what He does. If you love me keep my commandments. Jesus knows His sheep and His sheep know His voice. Follow Him. Don't turn your ears away from Him. Go to Him. You've been reconciled to God.
Don't forget this great blessing. Do not allow this redemption and reconciliation to be a license for you to go into licentiousness. No. We do not say that grace abounds, that sin might abound even more. May it never be. But grace abounds that holiness might take root in our hearts, that we would remain steadfast in Christ, that we might work out our salvation with fear and trembling. It's Him who has begun a good work in you, and He'll bring it to completion. So don't lose hope, Christian. Persevere, run the race with perseverance, with joy. Be rooted in Jesus, be steadfast in your hope.
Let's pray. Father, please never let us take our eyes off of Jesus. Lord, we pray, we plead with you, God, please teach us to love you. Give us a will and a resolve that we would cling to you for dearness of life as a life ring in the ocean. But Lord, may we know that you're the one who has reconciled us to yourself. Thank you for Jesus Christ. Thank you that you call us blameless, holy, above reproach. Lord, let us walk in that new identity. In Jesus's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. And I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.