Part 8

to God. His resurrection is proof that God accepted His sacrifice for sin.

The people of Colosse, as well as you and me, were at one time separated from God and alienated from Him in our minds because of wicked works. Instead of loving God and gladly and willingly seeking His perfect will, we were all in rebellion against Him and went our own way, desiring and doing what we deemed to be pleasing and best for us at the moment.

But even while we were yet in rebellion against our God and Maker, He gave His Son to redeem us, pay for our sins and accomplish our reconciliation (cf. Romans 5:6-11). The Colossians – and you and me – were reconciled “in the body of His flesh through death.”

And why did Jesus die for our sins, and the sins of the world? Why did He accomplish our reconciliation and the reconciliation of all mankind? That He might present us “holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.” Jesus died on the cross and paid the just punishment for your sins and my sins – indeed, for the sins of the whole word – that He might present us to Himself without sin and unblameable in His sight! Jesus paid the penalty for your sins and mine that He might pardon and forgive us and present us to the Father free of all sin and guilt.

And how does this forgiveness and reconciliation become our own? How do we appropriate it for ourselves? How can we be presented holy and righteous and unblameable in His sight? Through faith in Jesus! This pardon and forgiveness, this reconciliation accomplished by Christ Jesus, becomes our own simply by believing the Word of God which tells us we are reconciled and forgiven through Jesus’ blood shed for us on the cross! That is how the believers in Colosse became saints in God’s eyes, and that is how you and I can be presented holy and righteous before our heavenly Father.

It is as Paul says, “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