Now back to verse 20 of Colossians
1, and having made peace through the blood of his cross by him,
by Christ, to reconcile all things unto himself, by him, I say,
whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, peace made. Peace was made. There wasn't
peace before, but it was made. It was brought to pass. Peace made his salvation, that's
what it is. Christ died the just for the
unjust that he might bring us to God. That's not just a change
of location, that's a change of status. That's a going from
condemnation to favor, from banishment to acceptance. Turn with me please to Romans
chapter eight and let's look at in consideration of peace made,
the Lord made peace by his precious blood. Romans 8, 6. If peace has to be made, then
there is enmity to be put away by that peace. Romans 8, 6, for
to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Clearly these two situations
are indicative of our condition by nature and our condition in
Christ. To be carnally minded by nature,
as we're born into this world, we're flesh. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh and is mindful of the flesh and the things of this
world. But to be spiritually minded is life. To be born again
of the spirit and to have spiritual understanding, spiritual ability
by the grace of God is life and peace. That's our text. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God. We need peace with God. We need
to be spiritually minded because we're born carnally minded. And
that is enmity against God, that's the problem. Peace must be made
because we're enemies of God. Enmity there is hatred, bitter
hatred of God. We hate God. Most religious people, I highly
suspect, would never admit that. I've never hated God. Just like
the Jews said, we've never been in bondage to any man. And they were in bondage when
they said that. People say, I've never hated God. And they hate
the God of the Bible when they're saying that. And look, here's the problem.
It's not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. And
that's not just the moral law. That's not just the 10 commandments.
That's anything God says. They're not subject to God or
what He says. It's righteous claims upon us,
and it's impossible that they would be, that they could be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Everything
we do in the flesh when we're carnally minded before we know
Christ and are in Christ displeases God. We simply all by nature are children
of wrath. That's why we use that phrase
so much. Turn to Ephesians 2 with me for a second. And this, I
believe, will also shed light on our text. Remember our text,
having made peace. Christ made peace through the
blood of his cross. Ephesians 2. And really this whole chapter,
we may not read every verse of this, but we certainly could
in light of our text. We all by nature are the children
of wrath. We use that phrase by nature
a lot because Paul here or the Lord through Paul's writing has
given us a way to describe our condition before God, before
God. Our condition before God, before
God. Before we met God, before we
knew God. What we are in ourselves, in
the flesh. And so of course we use that
a lot. When we need to talk about that, that's, I believe, the
best way to describe it, by nature, what we are naturally in this
world. We're the children of wrath,
and that's talking about God's wrath against our sin. Okay,
so Ephesians 2.1, and you hath he quickened who were dead in
trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, The spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience, that's all of us by nature, among whom also
we all had our conduct, our conversation in times past, in the lusts of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature, by nature, the children of wrath, even as
others. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were
dead and sins hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
you're saved. and hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that
in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For
by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. There's just no way to find any
boasting in that. There's no place to put a proud
foot down on that ground. Wherefore, verse 11, remember
that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time you were without Christ. being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ
Jesus, you who were at one time afar off are made nigh by the
blood of Christ. For he is our peace who hath
made both one. and hath broken down the middle
wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and
that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby. By the cross, by the blood, he
made peace with his precious blood. And so we preach peace on that
basis of reconciliation with God for a sinner by the blood
of his son. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter five, please. 2 Corinthians 5.18. The Lord Jesus Christ We're saying
and I pray by God's grace In God's power and God's Direction
and ability We're saying it clear from the Word of God that Christ
made peace between us and God and which is salvation. What happened in the garden?
Separation from God, enmity between us and God. Our sins have separated
between us and our God. Second Corinthians 5.18, and
all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. God
is the one that reconciled And Lord willing, we'll talk about
that a little more in a minute. What a wonder. What a wonder. God is the offended one. And
yet he's the one that made reconciliation. That's not how it's supposed
to work. But what a beautiful gospel truth that is. By Jesus
Christ. and have given to us the minute."
That's what we preach, reconciliation. Based on what? To wit that God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them. God doesn't impute our trespasses
to us. Now, justification says what
trespasses? But reconciliation and forgiveness
says God did something about our sins. God did something. He doesn't impute them to us.
How is that possible? We're the ones that did them.
We're sinful by nature and everything we do is sin and yet he doesn't
impute our trespasses unto us. But God's got to be satisfied.
God's justice has to be satisfied. So what does he do? He imputes
them to Christ. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. On what basis? We can't just say, well, we're
sorry, God. And this is what religion does,
isn't it? I'm ready to be pardoned. Wait
a minute, that ain't up to you. You're the guilty one, you're
the condemned. The guilty condemned does not
render the verdict, the judge does. Here's the basis upon which we're
reconciled to God. Here's how God cannot impute
our trespasses unto us, for he has made him to be sin for us
who knew no sin. How is that possible? He has
no sin nature and he never did any sin. It's called the gospel. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. You see our text there, reconciliation,
peace made through blood, So we see in the scripture, the
importance of peace, peace between us and God, the vital nature
of it. There's only one way that peace
can be made. We see that too. Does it seem strange to you that
the one thing that can bring peace with God is blood? Is that strange? Why blood? It's very simple, justice. Justice. God's not thirsty for blood.
He requires justice. And the wages of sin is death. Either Christ paid your sin debt
by his sacrificial, sin atoning death on the cross, or you will
pay towards your sin debt for eternity in hell. God will be
satisfied. His justice will be done. If you go to hell, it'll be because you deserve
it. If you go to be with God forever, It'll be because you deserve
it. And you know what I mean. Well,
you know what I'm saying. Because of the peace made by
Christ's blood, justice will be done. And for us, justice
is mercy. What a gospel. How can it be? How can it be? For all of God's loved and chosen
people, the Lord Jesus Christ made reconciliation by the blood
of his cross. That is, by making his own soul
a sacrifice for our sin. That's the only way reconciliation
can be made. And Christ is the only one who
can make it. It's his cross. His cross. By the blood of his cross. Blood
because death is owed. His blood because the price is
infinite. God himself being infinitely
holy. And that price can only be paid
by him. that precious blood of infinite
worth. The word reconcile means to restore
unto favor. You know that in Adam, we had
the favor of God. We didn't have holiness. Holiness
can never sin. It's not that holiness doesn't
sin. Holiness can't sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is immaculate. That means he can't sin. It's impossible. What's impossible
for us is possible with God. And what we do and are is impossible
with God. He can't lie. He cannot sin. He's immaculate. This is just the opposite of
what false religion teaches. They say you must accept Jesus.
The Bible says God must accept you. And that only happens one way,
by the blood of the Savior's cross. By Him, I say, Paul said. He repeated this, why? Because
it's vital that we understand that reconciliation cannot be
made by us. It's not our place to make it.
We have no right to even try. We can't make up for our sin.
We can't pay for our sin. We can't atone in any way for
our sin. And as I said, we have no right
to even attempt to. It's not our place. By him, I say, all that religion
does, Hail Marys, indulgences, counting
beads, walking owls, all of it, all the rest of it. Anything
that man does to mitigate sin just adds to our sin. Christ put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. Everything we do is sin. And think about this now. I want
to repeat the first part of it again. Everything we do is sin. Everything. Everything he did,
he did it to put away our sin. You think about that. Well, he created the heaven and
the earth. He didn't do that to put away our sin. Oh yes,
he did. That's exactly why he did it. Everything revolves around that
cross. Think about the enmity that's
put away. It's mutual. We hate God and God by nature
hates us. And I have to say by nature because
we know God's eternal. It's not that God ever hated
us and then he changed his mind about us. We know that. We're
children of his wrath by nature. He didn't used to hate us and
now he loves us. God loves his elect with an everlasting
love without beginning or end because of Christ, in Christ.
What we simply mean by saying that by nature we are hated by
God is that it requires the blood of Christ to reconcile us. In other words, the only way
God can look on us in love and favor is by looking to that blood. When I see the blood, not until
or unless, when I see the blood, I will kill you. Is that what
he said? What about us? We hate God by
nature too. What does God do to reconcile
us? Not only legally, but personally. It's one thing to wipe the books
clean, and he doesn't just do that. We're made the righteousness
of God in Christ. The books aren't clean, they're
full of righteousness. My righteousness, because of
the Lord my righteousness. We are beautiful through his
comeliness. That's legally, but what does
God do to reconcile us personally? He causes us to look to that
same blood. The blood, by the blood, he made
peace. You're gonna have to look to
Calvary. We see Christ crucified for us and we lay down arms. It's over, the war is over. I'm
shouting that on the inside, aren't you? We look to the cross until all
that is on that cross is in our heart. God gives us a new heart,
a heart that submits to Christ and surrenders to his sovereign
will and that loves him supremely. Paul said, in earth or in heaven.
Think about this, those who were already in heaven on the day
in time upon which Christ died. He reconciled them. They were
already enjoying the benefits, that word just doesn't
seem strong enough, does it? Of his reconciling blood. But
it was that blood that reconciled them. Those in heaven and those on
earth who by his grace believe on him. Those who were not yet
born are included in those in earth. You weren't there, but
you were, even though you weren't born yet. You're descended from
somebody who was on the earth then, and so you're counted as
in the earth. Everybody that knows Christ, everybody that
loves Christ, everybody that's saved by Christ in earth or in
heaven. What about those who were already
in hell? Well, very simply, they were
not reconciled to God by the blood of God's Son. That's evident,
isn't it? And our text reminds us of that
too. This reveals the foolishness of the doctrine that says that
Christ died in order to save everybody. There was already
a countless number of souls in hell on the day that he died. If you believe that Christ died
to redeem everybody, you might want to read the Bible. And I
don't say that flippantly. I know I did say it flippantly,
but I don't mean it that way. I mean it sincerely, not facetiously. Read the Bible. You need to hear
from God. Verse 21, and you that were at
one time alienated and enemies in your mind, by wicked works,
yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. I'm sure there are nuances to those words holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable. That could be three points of
discussion probably should be but Think about this How thoroughly this passage of
scripture explains how that it is Christ himself By him I say by him by him Christ Himself by what he did
for sinners that salvation is wrought salvation is accomplished
Salvation is perfected and finished You were at one time alienated
and enemies in your mind, that's what we said what we saw in the
scriptures alienated from God and enemies in your mind not
only had your sin separated between you and your God, but as we saw
a There's a question of personal enmity. Alienated from God, our
sins have separated between us and our God, but we also hated
God. Enemies in your mind, in your
being, in your soul, in who you are. That's what we read in those
three different passages of scripture earlier, but notice the words,
by wicked works. By wicked works, it's not just
a doctrine, is it? It's what we are. It's what we
do. It's our very being. What are
wicked works? What are wicked works? You know
what the best answer to that question is? All of them. It's
just another way to say works, isn't it? But a very descriptive
way to say works. not just murder and robbery and
adultery, religious works. We read Philippians 3 this morning,
some of it, and we saw what kind of works Paul had to renounce
and abandon in order to have Christ. It's what most people
would not call wicked works, but they were. There are only
wicked works aside. from what Christ did for us.
So even if you think and say that you're reconciled to God,
you say you love God, oh, how I love Jesus, you sing that song,
you say you worship God, that's what you do when you gather in
the so-called church where you go. But if your reconciliation
with God is based on anything that you have done, you are an
enemy yet of God Almighty. Your wicked works alienate you
from God. That's our text. He must reconcile. He must reconcile in the body
of his flesh through death. That's how reconciliation happens,
by him and what he did for us, not by being an example to you.
Well, he showed us how to live. That's not salvation. He died
for us. And it is by that person and
that death that we stand before God, holy and unblameable and
unreprovable in his sight. As I said, we won't take time
to see the nuances of those three aspects of our standing before
God, but it sounds real good, doesn't it? Perfect. It's perfect. And notice we're presented that
way. We're not found to be that way,
but he presents us that way before God. In him, he accomplished
it for us. And notice that our good doesn't
outweigh our bad. We're holy. Holy, not more holy. Don't take time to be holy. Look
to Christ and be holy. In God's sight, you see that?
In God's sight, not a great guy in man's sight. There's a lot
of great guys in hell, aren't there? Everybody, when they die,
what does everybody say? He was a great guy. If anybody's
in heaven, you know he is. Only the unblameable and unreprovable
can be with God. And that's only true by the sacrifice
of Jesus Christ. Notice these words in the text,
for you, for you. This is my blood which is shed
for you. And notice in closing, one final
thought that he did the reconciling. Well, you already said that Chris,
but listen to this. As we mentioned a moment ago,
whenever there's enmity between two parties on earth, it's the
offended party. The one who is wronged is the
one that requires reconciliation. It's incumbent upon the one who
has committed the offense to reconcile with the one he offended.
And God does require reconciliation But such is the mercy of God
in Christ that he not only is the one who demands it, but he's the one who supplies
it. The one we wronged, the one that
we owe an infinite debt, made reconciliation for us. That's why it's called salvation. and not an opportunity to be
saved. It's called being saved. His name is Jesus, for he shall
save. He shall save. The best prayer
a mortal man ever prayed, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, even the worst one. The worst one. I thought of this song when I, I wrote down that sentence, the
one that we wronged, the one we owe an infinite debt made
reconciliation for us. You know what popped into my
mind? Oh, how merciful. How merciful. Precious Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. Let's pray.