Was and
Is
(1-18-04)
Colossians
1:21-23
COL 1:21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your
evil behavior. 22 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-- 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not
moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature
under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
“Once
you were…but now He…” Each of us who is in Christ has a was and an is condition with a contingent “if”
clause concerning a “will be”. Some waters get deep real fast don’t they?
This is not a lesson to cause trouble and confusion but rather to help bring clarity and resolution. (I Hope)
All of us, regardless of
how good we might think we were or are, before we came into a relationship with Jesus as our Lord and Savior, were just what
Paul says we are. Because each of us has sinned, even if we think we have not, and were alienated from God. That is separated
from Him. Each of us because we are born in the flesh are born into an existence of separation. We have all been deceived
because we are in the flesh and in the world and from the world. ( Gal.3:22; 1Jn.2:2, 5:19; Rev.12:9) Our sinning demonstrates
that truth.
Each of
us, who has been born again of water and Spirit, are now in the state of “reconciliation”. Just what does that
mean? Reconciled is a mending and bringing back together what has been separated. To bring back into harmony again says one
dictionary. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and they died spiritually, which was the consequence of eating the forbidden
fruit. What that has meant for the rest of humanity is that every human being has been born dead as a consequence of their
choice. (You may not like this conclusion but Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in John 3:3-21 validate it.)
Being
born again brings a person back into harmony with God. The “if” clause indicates that we have a responsibility
to maintain the harmony. We should not return to a position of rebellion against God and His will for us. To do so would be
equal to nailing Jesus to the cross all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace (Heb.6:4-8) But for the sake of this
lesson I am more concerned with the “IS” part. The Now part of our relationship. What is that relationship?
Those
who have entered into this relationship entered into a rebirthing from a fleshly existence into an existence in the Spirit.
The promise spoken of by Peter. (Acts 2:38-39) The same event that Paul speaks about in Gal.3:26ff. Each of us, and all who
have ever entered into this transformed state of existence, have experienced a change in who they are. Not a change they themselves
forced by their own wills but a change that God worked upon them and in them.
This change
that God has done we would do well to cooperate with, but how can we if we will not believe what God has said through the
writers of scripture that he has done? We must be willing to accept the marvelous working of God upon our lives, even those
things that are hard for us to understand. If it was a human thing then it would depend on our own might and power, but it
is a God thing!
