- City Church Team
Colossians 1:22-23
"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 - if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel." Colossians 1:22-23
Our iniquities have separated us from God (Isaiah 59:2) We were once his enemies. There is nothing we can do to win the favor of God. Jesus Christ is the only way to be reconciled to God the Father. We were once separated and deserving of wrath. (Ephesians 2:3) But God.
Jesus Christ himself has rescued us from the dominion of darkness (Colossians 1:13) Because of His redemption our sins have been forgiven. (Colossians 1:14) God was pleased to have His fullness dwell in Christ and to reconcile all things. He was pleased to make peace through his death (Colossians 1:19-20)
It is the very good and pleasing will of God that we know His great love for us. But we don't always get it. The world we live in paints God as oppressive. The gospel is offensive and worthless to those perishing. (1 Cor 1:18) We tend to question the goodness of God when things don't go just right. It is hard to see his goodness when our hearts turn hard because of compare and contrast to our culture. But it doesn't change His love. It doesn't change that despite our failures and our sin we are presented holy in His sight. There is nothing that can separate us from His love. The cross doesn't move. We have peace with God. We have mercies that are new each morning. When life knocks us down we have the cross. We only have these things because of Christ's death.
So, when we fall short (Romans 3:23) and when life doesn't go like planned we hold tight and stand firm on the gospel. We stand firm that he won't leave. We stand firm that we are set free. We stand firm and take up our cross. We hold fast to the very good words of scripture.
Respond with these questions:
What and who do you serve?
Do you believe God is Good?
Do you understand how sin separates you from God?
Is your joy and hope found on the cross?