The Unique Person & Work of Jesus Christ

Transcript

GRM 1129
12/14/2014
The Unique Person and Work of Jesus Christ
Colossians 1:12-23
Gil Rugh

I want to direct your attention to the book of Colossians, chapter 1. We talk about the birth of Christ and these are great days. I realize there are a lot of extraneous things going on but you see something of God's, we might say, common grace in exposing the world to the truth of the birth of His Son 2,000 years ago at Bethlehem. How amazing it is 2,000 years later so much of the world's attention, even in their confusion, misunderstanding, rejection, it is still a focal point and provides wonderful opportunities for us who know the Savior to talk to people about what it is we are celebrating here. Why is it a cause of joy? It is something unique that never had happened before, never happened since and will never happen again. That's how unique and special the birth of Jesus Christ is.

And Paul is talking about that very thing as he writes to the Colossians. We are reminded, Peter put it this way in Acts 4:12, “There is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” He is the one and only Savior. There is a spiritual warfare that goes on. Satan is opposed to the truth of God and the salvation that has been provided in His Son. In 2 Corinthians 4, we will get there shortly in our study of 2 Corinthians, he reminded the Corinthians that the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that the light of the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ does not shine in. Satan is committed to preventing people from hearing and believing the wonderful message that unto you this day in the city of David has been born a Savior, One who has been born to give His life to pay the penalty for your sin so that you might have life for eternity.

Satan not only works to keep people from hearing and believing the Gospel, he works once people have believed to bring confusion to their lives. That's what Paul is addressing in his letter to the Colossians. These are people who have heard and believed the Gospel, not through Paul but through a very close associate with Paul. And he started this letter in Colossians 1:3 by saying, “We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus.” Word has come to him in the city of Colosse that the Gospel has been given out and people have believed and been brought together as the church of Jesus Christ. And we are praising and thanking God for your faith in Christ. And when you believe in Christ you are brought together in a family. And so he thanks him for the love you have for all the saints in this fellowship of believers. And their hope is the focal point, now, of their lives, “the hope laid up for you in heaven.” And that's part of the Gospel, the word of truth. You heard about all this, that Christ came, He suffered, He died so that you would have hope—the anticipation of the glory of God's presence for eternity. He refers to it at the end of verse 6 as the grace of God in truth.

Now in this context Paul is writing to this church, a relatively young church, would be a sister church to a church like the church at Ephesus. They are in the same locale in Asia Minor. Paul wrote a letter to the church at Ephesus as well. It is being infiltrated by false teaching, those who would turn their attention away from the finality of the sufficiency of Jesus Christ and His death as the payment for sin. If you turn over to Colossians 2:8, you see he encourages them and warns them. “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ.” Stay with Christ, stay with the truth of the Gospel. These teachers that come in, they don't say, we don't believe in Christ, they don't deny that. They add to it—that's great you've trusted Christ, but there is more. Don't be deluded.

Verse 16, “Let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink, in respect to a festival, new moon, Sabbath day.” Verse 18, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement, the worship of angels.” He's going to deal with some of these things in the passage we're going to look at in a moment. “Taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, not holding fast to the head which is Christ.” He summarizes it in verse 23, “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion, self-abasement, severe treatment of the body. But they are of no value” when it comes to dealing with sin, “fleshly indulgence.” All these religious additions are of no benefit, they take you captive and move you away from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

So when we come back to Colossians 1 where Paul has to begin. Anytime there is an issue of how are you saved, or how do you grow in your new life in Christ, let's go back to the beginning. Let's establish the foundation to be sure you are clear. So he's going to walk them through the person and work of Jesus Christ. In the midst of this he'll talk about the uniqueness of God becoming a man when He was born into the human race at Bethlehem.

Verse 12, he's talking in the context of prayers that he offers for these people. He is “giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, for He rescued us from the domain of darkness, transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,” a kingdom that is yet future but of which we are citizens when that kingdom is established. The book of Revelation reminds us that we will rule and reign with Christ when He comes back to this earth. “He is the One in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” We're back to basic foundational truth. You placed your faith in the Gospel, the good news concerning Jesus Christ. He is the One and the only One in whom there is redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He goes on to talk about who Jesus Christ is. Because why do we get confused even after we have trusted Christ as our Savior? We lose focus on the basic foundational issues. We get pulled aside because people talk about their experiences. Here they talked about the importance of angels. Anybody want to be against angels? They are heavenly beings, can anything be wrong in including them in our worship? A great deal. All the focus has to be on Christ.

So he starts out by saying concerning Christ, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” The image of the invisible God, the Greek word is icon. We just carry it over into English, an icon, an image, something that represents something. He is the representation, He is the likeness of God, He manifests. That's what an image does, it makes visible, manifest. He is the image of the invisible God. That's who Christ is, that One born at Bethlehem who took to Himself humanity is the manifestation, the visible manifestation of the invisible God. Not that God had a body. If God had a physical body, Christ wouldn't have had to be born into the human race to manifest the invisible God. Jesus said, God is Spirit and those who would worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Worship is not a matter of externals, it is a matter of what is going on in the heart and mind of the person as he bows before God.

But Jesus is the manifestation, He is the very nature of God. John 1:18 puts it this way. “No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who dwells in the bosom of the Father,” He has exegeted Him, He has made Him known, He has explained Him. He came so that we might know the fullest, clearest possible way of what God is like because God was here, walking this earth.

Turn over to Hebrews, we just studied Hebrews recently, and in Hebrews 1. There are some chapters of the Bible that overlap and bring this material together—John 1, Colossians 1, Hebrews 1—those three chapters bring to one degree or another the same, basic material about the person and work of Christ together. Hebrews 1:3 concerning Christ, “He is the radiance of His glory,” referring to God the Father's glory. “He is the exact representation of His nature.” And as awesome and amazing as it is, that baby born in Bethlehem was the manifestation of God now encapsulated, if you will, dwelling in a human body. We'll speak more of that in a moment. So if you want to know what God is like, study the Bible and what it says about Jesus Christ. You'll note it is not concerned to describe His physical appearance—what color was His hair, what color were His eyes, how tall was He? And all of that. But His nature and His character are unfolded. That's why Jesus could say to one of the disciples, “he who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Not because He is the Father, but because He is the same Being, the same nature. He is God. All that God is, Christ is. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, comprising the one eternal God.

So back in Colossians 1, “He is the image of the invisible God.” The next statement, “The firstborn of all creation.” Some people take this to try to indicate that He is part of creation. See He was the One first born among the creation. That's not the point, to be clarified in the next statement. The firstborn carried the idea of preeminence, supremacy. Not always the one first born in time. Listen to Exodus 4:22, “Thus says the Lord, Israel is My son, My firstborn.” Well the nation Israel was not the first of the nations, Israel did not begin until God called Abraham in Genesis 12. The nations of the earth were divided before that. You read Genesis 10, there were nations already. But God made Israel His firstborn, He gave Israel priority and supremacy. “You only have I chosen of all the nations of the earth,” He writes through Amos the prophet. The psalmist writes of the king who would “fulfill the promises to David.” In Psalm 89:27, “I shall make him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.” What does he mean in the context of being king? I make him the highest of the kings, the firstborn, he gets supremacy over all. So when you read that He is the firstborn of all creation, the use is that He has supremacy over all creation.

Read the next statement, verse 16, “For by Him all things were created.” And at the end of that verse, “all things have been created through Him and for Him.” If you are familiar with the Old Testament, like the prophecy of Isaiah, you pick up around Isaiah 42 and read in those chapters that God reminds Israel that He is the creator of all things, He has authority over all things. Everything is under His power, under His authority, and will ultimately be accountable to Him. So you see Christ is the firstborn, He has supremacy over all creation, authority. Why? He is the creator. That's what he says. “For by Him or in Him all things were created.” Nothing is created outside of the involvement and work of Jesus Christ. All things, there is an emphasis here on that all, all things. Look at “by Him all things were created,” the end of the verse; “all things have been created through Him and for Him.” Verse 17, “He is before all things, in Him all things hold together.” Verse 20, “He came to reconcile all things to Himself.” That emphasis that it is all encompassing. Everything that exists was brought into existence in the context of the creating work of Christ.

That includes whatever is in the heavens and on earth, “whether visible or invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers or authority.” There is nothing excluded. These statements including the heavens, the earth, the visible, the invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers—they are different categories of angelic beings, created beings, spirit beings to serve in the presence of God and to do His bidding. They were all brought into existence by Him. There is nothing outside of His creating work. In John 1 we referred to verse 18, in John 1:3 it is declared again, “all things were created by Him. Apart from Him nothing has come into being that has come into being.” He is the creator of everything. Hebrews 1, we just were there, we can go back and forth from John 1 to Hebrews 1 and come back to Colossians 1 because they keep reiterating this central truth. In Hebrews 1:2, He is the One through whom God the Father also made the ages, all the periods of time and everything in them. Brought into existence in Jesus Christ. Angels, the universe, that we know now something of the expanses of the universe. And He brought it all into existence. If angelic beings were brought into existence by Him, remember over in Colossians 2:18, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement” and that self-humbling which is an artificial humbling, and the worship of angels. Why are you worshiping angels? You worship the creator of angels. It is a rebellion against the creator of angels when you worship the angels and not the creator. How are the Colossians getting confused? You have to go back. We start to wander off the track when we lose our focus and grasp of the foundational things. He created the angels, you worship the creator. Remember Romans 1? The condemnation of the creation. They worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator. Not to be done. Well, angels are heavenly beings, they serve in the presence of God. I would think they are worthy of worship. Well, think again. You only can worship the Creator, He is the only One to be worshiped.

We have teaching in some groups now, you pray to the saints. That's an affront to the living God. You don't pray to any of the creation. You pray only to the One true and living God. Well, we don't pray to them, we just go through them. Don't you do it! You only go to God the Father through God the Son. To set up any other means is to declare your rebellion. Believers get confused, they say, it didn't seem that bad. That's why Paul says, let's go back to the beginning. He doesn't deal with the religious errors until you get into Colossians 2. Let's lay the foundation again to be sure you are clear. Otherwise we are out here trying to resolve things and we haven't established the clear foundation.

Back in Colossians 1:16, “All things have been created through Him and for Him.” In Him, through Him, for Him. Everything is moving toward its ultimate goal to be realized in Jesus Christ. All creation exists to declare His glory. Remember Philippians 2? “He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” All the glory, all the honor goes to Him, the triune God and particularly the focal point for us is the Son who came to manifest the Father.

Back in Colossians 1, the all things, the all things, the all things. He wrote similar in Ephesians 6:12. There is nothing outside His creating work. Amazing how the wisest of human minds muddle around in foolishness because they reject the truth of the creating God. Trying to figure out where the water came from. I know where it came from, I read Genesis 1. I may not be smarter, but I know more than you do about creation.

Note verse 17, “He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.” He is not part of the creation, He is the Creator of creation. And furthermore we talk about natural law. Scientists want to study why things function, but do you know why it all holds together? Because Christ holds it all together. Just that simple. It all works, there is a stability, there is a productivity, it keeps doing what it should do. Not because of natural processes. God did not create it all, start it all and then withdraw. Christ is actively involved and if He withdrew His sustaining power it all would collapse and be nothing. In Him all things hold together. I'm not saying that it's not interesting and profitable for people to study, we learn the magnificence of God who has created. How can you see the wonders of creation, the diversity, the uniqueness in every little area, everything just has to work just right or it doesn't work at all. And then it is all kept going by Him. Do I think that an asteroid or something is going to crash into planet earth? Forget it, it's never going to happen. Well, have you studied? Not science in that area, no. But I have read the Bible, I know who is sustaining it all. And it will continue to be sustained. Doesn't mean there won't be catastrophes, but He brings them. Is there evil, talking about what we would call natural catastrophes, and I have not caused it, God asks. Nothing happens outside His sovereign control.

Go to verse 18. Hebrews 1:3 says He upholds all things by the word of His power. Same thing, He holds all things together, He upholds all things by the word of His power. Verse 18, “He is also head of the body the church.” Now we've stepped to another realm that particularly concerns us as believers. He not only is the creator of all things, the sustainer of all things, He is also the head of the church because He brought the church into existence. How does the church come into existence? Christ died on the cross, He purchased us with His own blood, we studied in Acts 20. We belong to Him. He is the head of the body, the church. He now rules over it. Paul is fond of this analogy of the church as the body of Christ—Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 14, other passages, here in Colossians, in Ephesians. The picture of the body because as a picture the head is sovereign and in control. The hand is not in control, the finger is not in control. No matter what part of the body you are dealing with, it is the head that is sovereign and gives the directions for what the hand is to do, the feet to walk. When there is a breakdown and the communication from the head to a part of the body doesn't work, then we're in serious trouble. So that's the picture. Yet we all are a part in the body, placed there by the Spirit. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, not the baptism of water, but the baptism of the Spirit, that work of the Spirit to identify us with Christ and place us into His spiritual body.

He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. It took His death and resurrection for the church to be established because the church comes into existence by believing in Jesus Christ—His death to pay the penalty for my sin, His resurrection because the penalty had been paid in full. There would be no church without the death of Jesus Christ. You've been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body, we are told. It took the death of Christ.

So He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, He is the firstborn from the dead. And He has priority. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 15. His resurrection from the dead is essential as the seal of God that salvation was accomplished, that the finished work of Christ was sufficient to pay the penalty for sin. He has supremacy, He is the One who will bring about resurrection from the dead. In a moment we will look at John 5:28-29, where we are told there will come a time when even the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. They will be called to life. He has supremacy in the resurrection.

So He Himself will have first place in everything. That's God's intention, that's why we referred to Philippians 2, so that “every knee would bow and every tongue confess” ultimately will come. Jesus Christ will be supreme over all things. He will come to have first place. That's why all things were created for him. We are moving toward their appointed destiny.

Then we come to verse 19. “It was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.” No question about what we mean when we say all the fullness. Come to Colossians 2:9, “For in Him,” referring to Christ in the context, “all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.” Remember we read in Hebrews 1 that He is the exact representation of God's nature. Everything that God is in His very nature, in His very being, Christ is. He is fully God. And He was not one little speck less than God when He was born at Bethlehem. Now how are we going to explain that? That He is fully God and He is conceived in the womb of a virgin and from conception He is fully God as well as man. The baby born at Bethlehem is all the fullness of God in a bodily form. One person, two natures—a human nature and a divine nature. Theologically it's the the-anthropic union, the Greek word for God and the Greek word for man. The God-Man union. How do we explain it? Give me an illustration. The problem is it's unique, there is nothing else like it that has ever occurred, never such a birth that God Himself has been born into the human race. And He is fully God and He is fully man. All the fullness of deity dwells in Him.

Come back to the passage I referred to in John 5:22, “Not even the Father judges anyone, He has given all judgment to the Son so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father.” If He is less than God, how could anybody be honored on the same level as God, if He is less than God? He is distinct because He is a separate person. There is God the Father, God the Son as well as God the Spirit, but they are all equal as God. They all partake of the same divine nature. That's another something beyond our human minds. To illustrate the trinity every illustration collapses because He is the only one true and living God. Three persons comprising the one God.

“He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears My word, believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life, does not come into judgment but is passed out of death into life. Truly, truly I say to you, an hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, those who hear will live.” He came to bring life. When you placed your faith in Him, you passed from death to life, you came out of the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. You became a child of God. Judgment is given to Him, the ability to give life is His. So there are differing responsibilities within the Godhead, there is an order within the Godhead. But the Son of God is not inferior to God the Father, nor the Spirit inferior to either. They are each one fully, completely God.

He has authority, verse 27, to execute judgment because He is Son of Man. We just looked at in Colossians all the fullness of deity dwells in Him. And He'll have authority to judge. God the Father won't judge mankind, God the Spirit won't, God the Son will. Why? He is a fitting judge. He is God so He has that infinite wisdom, infinite knowledge, He will judge the motives and thoughts of our hearts. But He is also man. It is fit that man would be judged by man, a perfect man, a man who is not just man, but God. During His earthly life He chose to limit the exercise of certain attributes that were His as God, now in His resurrected and glorified body He can function fully as God even as He is fully man.

“Do not marvel at this, an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and will come forth, those who did good to a resurrection of life, those who committed evil to a resurrection of judgment.” Everybody will be judged, there are no exceptions. That's why in Scripture God is instructing all everywhere to repent, for “He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man that He has appointed, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.” We are talking about the birth of Jesus Christ. Understand, we're talking about the One that every single person will stand before and give an account. As we're going to see in a moment, they are judged as those who did ‘good’ and those who did ‘evil,’ but you are not saved by your works. But your works reveal whether you've truly been saved. And that's how they are tied to the judgment.

Come back to Colossians. So this One born is fully God and fully man. A good way to talk to people, they are out buying presents, having Christmas parties, looking to get an extra day off work, whatever. Have you ever stopped to think how amazing it is that we are celebrating the birth of someone 2,000 years ago? Do you know how unique He is? He was not only a human baby born, He was fully God in that human body. Isn't that amazing? Did you ever think about how awesome that is? Did you ever think about why God was born into the human race?

Colossians 1:19, “For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross. Through Him I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” You see the key. All the fullness of deity dwells in Him in bodily form so that through Him reconciliation of all things could take place. Reconciled, to bring into right relationship. All things, I take it the all things would include the all things of verse 16, “For by Him all things were created.” Now we said that includes angels and everything. What about the angels who have fallen? He said He is going to reconcile all things to Himself. Some people take this verse to mean then that ultimately everyone will be saved. That may give them some temporary false peace of mind, but it isn't true. He is going to reconcile all things through the blood of His cross, His death on the cross, whether things are in heaven or on earth. But fallen angels will never be reconciled. But what will happen as a result of the finished work of Christ on the cross, ultimately everything will be brought into correct relationship with God, all rebellion against Him will be removed. So the fallen angels, Satan and the fallen angels and unredeemed humanity will be in an eternal hell, where they belong, no longer in active rebellion against Him. Raised to judgment, condemned whether dead or living. So in that sense everything will be in right relationship, the order that God intended.

And there will be the redeemed there. Christ had to come because the purpose of God in creating man as male and female was so that they might enjoy the glory of His presence forever. So it took the work of Christ so that all of God's purposes here . . . Without Christ coming all creation could have been condemned to judgment but God's intention was to have redemption.

So that's where he is going, to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross. Now you have to enter into the peace. “There is no peace says my God to the wicked.” He goes on to talk about what our former condition was. Remember he is writing to these Colossians whom he refers to as saints, holy ones who have placed their faith in Christ, in the Gospel, as we read in Colossians 1, have manifested the fruit of obedience to God.

Now he says He has reconciled you. And who were you? Verse 21, “Although you were formerly alienated, hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds.” There is no room for arrogance, there is no room for pride. Everyone who is ever saved comes out of this condition. There can't be people at Colossae who would say, you said that you were formerly alien and hostile in mind. I was a very good, religious person before that. Might have been a Jew. But being a Jew didn't save them. This is the condition of people apart from salvation in Christ. They are alienated from God, cut off from God, separated from Him. They are hostile in their mind toward God. They are not neutral. Understand this. This is why people think if we get the right people in government, if we make the right laws, because I think there is the moral majority. That was one of the biggest hoaxes ever put over on the evangelical church, that the unbelieving world is a moral majority. What kind of morality is it coming out of people whose minds are hostile toward God? Whatever God is for, I'm against; whatever He is against, I am for. Any wonder you see things like even recognizing marriage. There are lawsuits and everything going on in the remaining states and pretty soon the majority of the people are comfortable, let's just go along with it. It's okay. Why? Because their mind has always been hostile toward God. It's just not as openly manifest from different times and in different areas. Not just one, it's the character of their life. There is no agreement. Jesus said, “you are either with Me or against Me.” There are only two categories of mankind, which the church gets confused because the church at Colossae will think these seem to be good people. They talk about Jesus Christ in His death but they think there is more. They have seen visions and they believe that the angels who serve in the presence of God can be part of our worship. Can that be bad as long as they are not denying . . .? Well, yes it is terrible. Understand we just can't blend these together. This doesn't mean among true believers there aren't differences in understanding of different passages, but in our basic areas and more than just two or three areas but in our overall approach to Scripture and submission to Scripture there is agreement. If not then you don't belong to Him. “If you love Me you will keep My commandments.”

That's why Paul is starting out, let's lay the foundation, let's go back through this, because why are you confused? Jesus Christ is sovereign over all creation, including angels because He created them, so why are you worshiping angels? Everything necessary for your reconciliation before God, and as you'll see to be presented before Him complete in every way, is in Christ. Why are we including these other things now? So you have to go back and say, let's start at the beginning, let's start with the foundation. You were formerly alienated, you were hostile in mind. You were engaged in evil deeds.

Back up to Ephesians 2. Ephesians was written to a sister church of Colossians, the city of Colossae. Ephesus is in Asia Minor. It's very similar in content. You'll notice how Ephesians 2 begins, after he has explained God's work of salvation in their lives, and you'll note he uses a similar analogy in Ephesians 1:22, “He put all things in subjection under His feet, gave Him His head over all things to the church which is His body.” Same picture Paul used in Colossians 1. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked. If you have truly been saved, you don't walk like you used to walk, live like you used to live. You walked before you were saved according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. You understand it was the devil, his demons at work in your life before you were saved, in my life before I was saved. He was motivating you perhaps to be very diligent in your religious activity. That didn't move you any closer, you were dead spiritually. Among them we, too, all formerly lived in the lust of the flesh. No exceptions. We think, I never was such a bad person, I've always been a pretty good person, I've always tried to be religious, do good, to do good to others, follow the Golden Rule, not be extravagant, give to the poor. What does that have to do with anything? All of us formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, note this, were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.

We have to be careful, after we've been saved a long time we have to guard against thinking I never did some of those dirty things. I just cannot understand why anybody would do things like that. I don't even like to be around these dirty people, I think I'll go wash my hands. Who are you? What were you before the grace of God touched your life? What was I?

I've shared with you, I had a dear, elderly saint, long with the Lord, a friend of my mother-in-law. When I was in the ministry a while, she was in our home church when Marilyn and I were married, we went back and she said, “just remember, Gil, I knew you when.” That's why I came to Nebraska. That's what we were, don't forget it. I am no better than the worst of them at the heart of what I was apart from God's grace. I was by nature a child of wrath. Perhaps in God's grace I hadn't expressed it as fully or in ways some had. Don't think I was any better. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. I didn't know the depths of my depravity. That's what we were.

“But God being rich in mercy, even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, seated with Him in the heavenlies.” Verse 8, “By grace you have been saved through faith, not as a result of works.” Important to take people back to the beginning. You understand what you were. Usually I like to start there. A person struggling with the Christian or professing to be a believer but persists in sin, are you sure you are a believer? And you go through, Yes, I'm sure. Well, good, then it should be manifest in your walk. Doesn't mean you can never stumble, stumble seriously. But it means you don't live there. I mean, I can fall in the mud but it's not like the pigs, I don't live there. There has been a change. This is the power.

We talk about Christ coming. People want to celebrate Christmas and you start talking about do you know Christ had to come because you are alienated, you are the enemy of God, you are a child of His wrath? All of a sudden people don't want to talk about Christmas anymore. I don't want to talk about that, this is a time of celebration. I'm celebrating, I'm glad to celebrate the coming of Christ. Why? He rescued me from my lostness, my hopelessness, my deadness. “He has reconciled you,” Colossians 1:22, “in His fleshly body.” He had to come and be born into the human race. Remember Hebrews 2, so He could bring redemption to the human race. He didn't become an angel, so angels who sinned are lost and doomed to hell for eternity. He became a man so that the human race could experience salvation by faith in Him.

“He has reconciled you in His fleshly body through death in order to present you before Him,” you before His Father, “holy, blameless, beyond reproach.” That's remarkable. Verse 21, “You were formerly alienated, hostile, engaged in evil deeds.” And by the reconciling work of God in Christ I will someday stand before the throne of God who is holy, holy, holy and be presented as holy, blameless, without spot. Can I say what a good person I am? What a great God He is, what a great Savior He is, what a great salvation He has accomplished. He reconciled us.

“If indeed,” verse 23, “you continue in the faith.” This is the warning. Why are these Colossian believers getting confused? Maybe not everybody in the church at Colossae is truly a believer. It's not to cast doubt on anyone, but if you don't continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, we've talked about this in Corinthians, that's a work of God that He does in the lives of those who do believe in His Son. Doesn't mean we can't wander, we can't be confused. He warns and talks about that in Colossians 2. But if you can get off the path and stay there, you can turn from the Gospel, then what John wrote in his first epistle is true of you. “They went out from us because they were not of us. For if they had really been part of us, they would have remained with us.” What happens in our salvation, praise God, is there is staying grace. If you continue in the faith, and that means if you move off into the worship of angels and these other things, you are demonstrating you are not continuing in the faith. It's like Paul wrote to the Galatians, if you add anything to the Gospel that I preach or take anything away, you are anathema, cursed to hell.

We have to come back to the foundational things. We often want to mix salvation, some kind of sentimental, emotional thing and we don't want to be in judgment of people. I am not in judgment. This is what God says. I simply want to shine the light of God's Word on my own life, on your life and help others see where they are. There is no greater error than to think you are going to heaven when you are not. What an awful thing. “Many will say to Me in that day, Jesus said, Lord, Lord, we did all these wonderful things in your name. And I will say, depart from Me, cursed ones. I never knew you.” What a terrible thing. Think it's okay, I'm going to heaven, and you are on your way to hell. Any of the Colossians get upset with Paul for telling them this, they are revealing something about their character. Examine yourself to see if you are in the faith.

“You won't be moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, which I, Paul, am made a minister.” There is only one way of salvation, faith in Christ; there is only one way of the Christian life, walking by faith. We walk by faith, not by sight; we manifest the work of God in our lives by our faithfulness to Him. We become partakers of the divine nature. We haven't become gods, but we have become those who belong to the living God through His Son.

So the birth of Christ an awesome reality. Can I explain it? No. Can I declare it? Yes. God became a man, fully God, fully man; one person, two natures. So by His blood, His death on the cross it would be possible for those who are alienated from God, hostile toward God, involved in all kinds of evil deeds to be reconciled to God. Don't get involved in trying to tell people their life is terrible because they do this sin or that sin, get involved in telling them you are a sinner and you are separated from God. Your evil deeds just manifest that. You are not going to hell because you commit immorality, because you lie, because you steal, because you cheat. You lie, steal, cheat and commit immorality because you are going to hell. But you can be reconciled. The birth of Jesus Christ is testimony to that. The Son of God had to be born into the human race so that we might have a Savior so we could turn from our sin and place our faith in Him and be born again, moved from the realm of death to the realm of life. What a change, what a Savior.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the power of the Gospel which is Your power for salvation to everyone who believes. Lord, may we who have placed our faith in Him be careful not to be moved away from Jesus Christ. All that we are, all that we have, all that we hope in centers in Him. He is our Savior, He is our sufficiency, He is our security and we give You praise. Lord, may we be bold in love, to step forward these days when people talk about the birth of Christ and in their confusion they go about religious activities but they are lost and without hope in the world. May we bring them the light of the truth of Jesus Christ that they might hear and believe. May you be honored by our lives, by our testimony. We pray in Christ's name, amen.