I am reading in Colossians, chapter one. And the subject matter is Jesus Christ, faith in Jesus Christ, the gospel of our salvation, the grace of God, and truth. Included in these instructions are teachings on walking in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened by his power. And there is a reminder that God delivered us who are his from the domain of darkness (sin, Satan) and he has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
And then we are reminded that Jesus Christ is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and that he is our creator God who made us, and that he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church, which is comprised of all true followers of Jesus Christ who have died with him to sin, and who have been raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to God and to his righteousness. For Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness (Romans 6:1-23).
“And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.” (Colossians 1:21-23 ESV)
And here I want to look at two specific words, the first of which is “redemption,” which has to do with God buying us back from our lives of slavery to sin and winning us back to him and to his righteousness and holiness. It involves us being rescued from what enslaved us so that we can now live for our Lord and honor him with our lives (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). It is about deliverance from our old lives of living in sin so that we can now live holy lives, pleasing to God.
The second word is “reconcile,” which means to change, exchange; properly, decisively change, as when two parties reconcile when changing to the same position; usually used in a redemptive sense of a sinner reconciling to the Lord; to change from enmity with God to friendship, fellowship, partnership with God. It is about exchanging the old life for the new life in Christ Jesus. Once we lived in sin and for self and not for God, but now we have changed, by faith, and we have died to our old lives of sin so that we can now walk in holiness and in righteousness, in obedience to our Lord.
Therefore, if we are of genuine faith in the Lord Jesus, we should no longer be hostile in mind against the Lord, and we should no longer be practicing evil deeds, especially deliberately and premeditatedly. But now we should be living holy lives, separate (unlike, different) from the world and we should be being conformed by God to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ. And we should be walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, and we should be those who are continuing in these walks of faith and obedience to God, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the truth of the gospel.
But there are many people who are not following that teaching, and there are many who are teaching the opposite of that, who are the self-indulgent, the sinful, and the wicked who are drifting and wandering and interfering with the presentations of the gospel message. They are scheming against the truth of the gospel, and against the Lord’s messengers who are bringing the truth of the gospel to the people, and who are warning the people against the lies and the liars who are telling them that all they have to do is profess faith in Jesus and heaven is now secured them for eternity.
“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” (Colossians 1:28-29 ESV)
So we who are following Jesus Christ with our lives, in truth, and in righteousness, need to be those who are proclaiming the truth of the gospel that Jesus taught and that his New Testament apostles taught, in context. And we need to be exposing the fruitless deeds of darkness for what they are. For there are so many liars and deceivers among us who are leading the people to follow after a false and fleshly gospel that is not of Christ, and which gives their adherents permission to keep living in sin while claiming Jesus as their Savior and heaven as their eternal destiny.
For far too many people are believing the lies and they are still headed to hell on the promise of heaven because they have not died with Christ to sin, but they are still living in sin, and they are not walking in obedience to the Lord and to his commands, for they don’t want to, and they are being taught that they don’t have to, but that salvation and heaven are still secured them. So we need to be the Lord’s messengers in getting out the truth to the people so that they can have genuine salvation and forgiveness of sins and so they will grow to maturity in Christ and have eternal life with God.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
I Sing of His Mercy
An Original Work / April 10, 2014
Based off Psalm 32
Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven
By the blood of Jesus Christ.
Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does
Not count against them; freedom found.
When, in silence, I did not confess
My sin to You; had no strength.
Then I owned up to my sin and
You forgave and cleansed me within.
Therefore let the godly pray to You;
Draw near to You; grace they’ll find.
They will not be o’ertaken by afflictions,
But in Christ peace abounds.
Lord, You are my hiding place.
I find my refuge in You secure.
You protect me from all evil.
You give songs of vict’ry in You.
Lord, You teach me to walk in Your ways;
Counsel me in love, I know.
Help me to not be stubborn and
Unwilling to follow in Your truth.
Thank You for Your love and mercy.
I put my trust in You always.
I rejoice in my Lord and
I sing of Him throughout all my days.
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