Focal Passage: Colossians 1:21-23
One of the joys of ministry is meeting people who live long,
productive lives.
I once knew a woman who was 105. I also knew a couple who
had been married more than 75 years.
They had married at about age 20 and lived past age 95.
They were “happily” married, yet I’m sure they would agree
that even their marriage wasn’t perfect.
They had 5 children — children tend to have their own kind
of problems. They, like all the rest of us, had times where they had
disagreements and needed to “make up.”
The Bible has a beautiful word for this “making up.”
It is “reconciliation.” We all make mistakes. We all have a
condition I refer to as “meitis (me-I-tis).” It can be terminal.
When Paul wrote to the Colossian Christians, he had one goal
in mind for them — that they might be “right” before God. He knew they had been
pagans. They had thought like pagans and they had lived like pagans (v. 21). It
was the life they knew best. But after becoming Christians, they realized God
had a higher standard for their thinking and their believing and their living.
Their new standard was Christ.
Paul also made it clear that although they had Christ’s
teachings and power available to them, living this Christian life was not going
to be easy.
Their faith could be shaken. They could stray. They had to
commit to this life and not be deterred by the voices and will of others (v.
23).
In verse 22 we have three beautiful words to describe this
goal of being “right with God.” None of us is capable of attaining these words.
What are they? Holy, faultless (irreproachable), and blameless.
These are words to describe God, not you and me. Yet, these
words are the fruit of reconciliation. Holy, set apart, without fault or blame,
forgiven, recipients of grace.
How is this possible?
The answer is found in verses 20-21. Christ has reconciled
“you” to God by the giving of His body, by the shedding of His blood on the
cross.
Further, that one act of amazing love has paved the way for
the Christian to have “peace” with God, both in the earthly life and in the
life to come. God’s wants honesty from us. Strange as it may seem, I’ve met men
who “remarkably” claimed to have never, ever had a disagreement or ill word
with their wife.
I worry about people who make such claims. Hopefully, we’re
more honest with God.
Hopefully we recognize we’re only “right” and “righteous”
when we admit we’re sinners saved by grace.
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