Would you open your Bibles with
me to the book of Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter
one. Well, in the songs that we've
sung, the hymns that we've sung this morning, and the passages
of scripture, the one that I read at the beginning, the one that
Brother Mark just finished reading, you may have come to see that
Now what I'm going to talk about this morning is the word reconciliation. Reconciliation. To be reconciled
with God. What does that mean? To be reconciled
with God means this. It means God is at peace with
us and eventually we are at peace with God. And the gospel, what
is the gospel? Well, Paul identified it there
in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 as the word of reconciliation. That tells you something. It
tells you if the gospel is being preached, you ought to be hearing
something about how God is reconciled to sinners and sinners reconciled
to God. It's called the word of reconciliation. Every time The gospel is preached. You know, we read there in Psalm
85 when the psalmist said, I will hear what the Lord has to say. And it says the Lord will speak
peace to his people. Now, how does he do that? It's
not just by feelings and emotions. It's by the word of reconciliation. Every time I preach the gospel,
it's God speaking peace. to his people. He's saying, I'm
at peace with you. I'm reconciled to you. Reconciliation means this. It
means the restoration of peaceful, friendly relations between two
parties who were at odds, even enemies. And that reconciliation,
that restoration of peaceful relations is on some common ground
that satisfies the needs of both. You understand that? And so that's
why the gospel is the word of reconciliation. A gospel ministry,
Paul wrote there in what Brother Mark read in 2 Corinthians, it's
the ministry of reconciliation. Well, reconciliation between
God and sinners comes about in one way, and one way alone. It
comes about by God's grace in and through the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the great reconciler. He is the Prince of Peace, the
scripture says. Here in our text, if you look
at verse 20, or read verse 19, I ended with this verse last
week, but it says, for it pleased the Father, Colossians 1, 19,
it pleased the Father that in Him, in Christ, should all fullness
dwell. Now that's the person, we're
reading here about the persons who bring about this reconciliation. And then it says in verse 20,
it says, and having made peace through the blood of his cross
by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven. Then it says in verse
21, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body,
verse 22, of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. That's reconciliation. So it comes about by God's grace. In other words, reconciliation
to God, peace with God is not made by man working his way into
God's favor or meeting some need that God has. It comes about
by God's free and sovereign grace, His mercy, in and through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And here's the breakdown of how
it all comes about. As I mentioned, number one, the
persons who bring about this reconciliation, and it says this,
verse 19 again, it pleased the Father, there's God the Father,
that in Him should, that in Christ, that's God the Son incarnate,
should all fullness dwell. Now if you'll look down at Colossians
chapter two and look at verse nine, what is that fullness that
he's talking about? In him should all fullness dwell.
The fullness of who? The fullness of what? Verse nine.
For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The Godhead, what is that? That's referring to the Father,
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The one
God in three persons and the fullness of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit dwells, tabernacles, in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ as God in human flesh, as God-man, bodily. God is spirit by nature and has
no body. But this person who is God, the
Lord Jesus Christ, there was a human body formed for him by
the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and in him,
as God-man, which refers to his work, his redemption, in him,
as God-man, dwells all the fullness of the Father, the fullness of
the Son, and the fullness of the Spirit. If you wanna know
the Godhead, if you wanna know God, If you want to know who
God is in the glory of His persons, in the glory of His nature, who
He is, what He does, why He does it, all of that, if you want
to know, you've got to look to Christ. You've got to look to
this person alone, Emmanuel. What does that mean? God with
us, that's who he is. Now, the apostle had already
written about the preeminence of Christ in his person and in
his work as creator and in his work as redeemer. So it is the
Lord Jesus Christ as the revelation and glory of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the Godhead. And
this speaks of his deity, who he is, and his sinless humanity. And let me tell you something
about that. You know, people talk about in that 2 Corinthians
5, 21 passage at Mark for God made him to be sin. That has,
listen, there is absolutely no way that sin could be transferred
into the person or into the consciousness or into the soul of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Why? Because he is God in human
flesh. That passage talks about sin
imputed to him. The sins of God's people imputed
to him. That's what it means. That's
all it means. But that's a lot. And it's more than enough. Dwelling in Christ. The Bible
says that in John chapter one and verse 14 that the Word, that's
Christ, the Son of God, was made flesh and dwelt tabernacled among
us. and we beheld His glory. He tabernacled. And this is the
glory of God. In Him is the embodiment of the
glory of God. And I often say this, if you
want to see a summation of the fullness of God's glory, it comes
in the fact that God reveals Himself in the salvation of His
people by His grace as both a just God and a Savior. In that one
phrase that's mentioned in Isaiah chapter 45, for example, specifically,
but the truth of it is from the beginning, from Genesis to Revelation.
How can God be both a just God, a righteous God, a holy God,
a truthful God, and still save sinners like me and you? If you
can answer that question, then you see the fullness of God's
glory in Jesus Christ. That's why he came. It's the
glory of God. It's the fullness of redemption
and salvation. It's the fullness of righteousness. He is the righteousness of God.
Everything that God is and everything that God does to save his people
from their sins is found in this person in whom dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. So who is it that brings about
this peace, this reconciliation? It's the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. It's God, salvations of the Lord.
It's not you. It's not me. It's God alone. And how does he do it? Now look
at verse 20. Here's number two, the work of
reconciliation. And having made peace. How? How is this reconciliation brought?
Look at it through the blood of his cross. Not, listen, not
by your believing, not by your cooperating, not by your doing
good, it's all the blood. And it says, by him, by Christ,
to reconcile all things unto himself, to bring about this
reconciliation by his substitutionary work as the surety of his people
on the cross, by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, everything that is at peace with God in heaven and
earth, everyone who is at peace with God in heaven and earth,
That's the saints who've gone on to be with him and the saints
that still dwell here on earth. That peace, that reconciliation
was accomplished by one person in whom all the fullness of the
Godhead dwells bodily, the Lord Jesus Christ. By one work, his
death on the cross. And that work of establishing
the common ground of reconciliation was totally the work of Jesus
Christ as my surety, as my substitute. the people whom God had given
him before the foundation of the world. And this great work
was his obedience unto death to pay the redemption price for
our sins and establish a righteousness whereby God could be both a just
God and a savior. You see, that's the question
of questions. Where do you find the answer? In the gospel of
peace. God can save sinners like us
and still be just in doing so. Turn over to that passage that
Brother Mark read in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Listen to how it's
put here. And this is what he's talking
about. Look at verse 17. He says, therefore if any man
be in Christ, now there's your key. Am I in Christ? Well, if you are, he's a new
creature, a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. Now we can talk about a lot of
things there, but basically what he's talking about is what I
used to think reconciled me unto God before God brought me to
salvation. That's old. That's passed away. Now I see there's only one thing
that reconciles God to me and me to God. Well, what is it?
Look at verse 18. And all things are of God who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. That's it. And hath given unto us the ministry
of reconciliation to wit or namely. Now what he's going to do, he's
going to describe the ministry of reconciliation and the word
of reconciliation. Here it is. that God was in Christ. Remember the fullness of the
Godhead dwelling in Christ. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
God engaged Himself in this one person. He engaged His glory. He staked His reputation upon
the work of this one person. Not upon you or me. If God's
reputation, if God's glory, if God's honor were conditioned
on us, He wouldn't be God. It's conditioned on Christ. And
he says, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. Now the
world there is referring to the world of God's elect. How do
you know? Because he's reconciled to them.
He's at peace with them. You see, no one will perish eternally
with whom God is reconciled. And here's what he says. How
is God reconciled? He does not impute their trespasses
unto them. He doesn't charge them with their
sin. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Now,
one thing the Bible teaches us that we need to learn and get
implanted in our brains, and we pray that God will do that,
is that whenever the Bible talks about the non-imputation, the
non-charging of sin to a person's account, a sinner's account,
It's basically telling us three things. It's telling us, number
one, that all those sins were imputed, charged, accounted to
Christ. And that's what verse 21 means.
For God the Father hath made him, God the Son incarnate, sin
for us. If God doesn't impute, God is
just now. If he doesn't charge me with
my sin, what does he do with it? If he don't charge, I'm a
sinner, I fell in Adam, I was born dead in trespasses and sins,
and I've committed sin, all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God, and the wages of sin is death, why? Because of
the justice of God. See, the wages of sin being death
is not due to the meanness of God. Or the temper of God. It's because of the justice of
God. He must do right. So if God doesn't charge me with
my sin, what does he do with them? Does he just put them out
there on limbo or something? No. He imputed them to his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what a surety is. Christ
is my surety. He took accountability, responsibility
for my sin before the world began. And so it means my sin imputed
to Christ. And secondly, it means this,
it means that his righteousness is imputed to me, charged to
me. That's what verse 21 means. Christ
who knew no sin that we might be made or become the righteousness
of God in him. Now the third thing means life
given at some point in time, and I'm gonna talk about that
in just a minute. But look at verse 19 again of 2 Corinthians
5. To wit that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself. God made peace, you see, that's
what he's talking. You remember when Christ in his
birth, the angel told the shepherds, peace on earth and goodwill toward
men, which literally means peace on earth and God's goodwill to
those who are his or who belong to him. That's not peace on earth
between nations and between individuals or families. It's peace between
God and his people through this person who would do a great work.
Establish righteousness. Remember we read in Psalm 85,
righteousness and peace have kissed each other. That means
God's justice and the peace that God provides have come together
on some common ground And then it talks about how righteousness
shall spring out of the earth. That's Christ in his humanity,
God in human flesh, who sprang forth, as sent from heaven, sprang
forth and did a great work on the cross in paying our sin debt.
So reconciling the world in himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto him, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. You see it? That's why Christ
came. to establish peace by the blood
of his cross. It took his death as the surety
and substitute of his people to bring about peace. And God,
from the very beginning, that's how he saw it, from the very
beginning. He always, listen, in his electing
grace, when he chose his people before the foundation, how did
he do it? In Christ. with having view in
his sovereign, unchangeable, eternal mind what Christ would
come and do and accomplish on earth in time. That's exactly
right. And I thought about this, you
see. You know, back in the Old Testament, James talked about
this, and James, I think it's chapter two and verse 25. You
know what Abraham was? He was the friend of God. They're
not gonna be friends unless peace is made. So how did God be at
peace with Abraham? How could God be friend to Abraham? It was based upon a future act. Whose act? The Lord Jesus Christ,
who would come in time and suffer and bleed and die for Abraham's
sin and be raised again because of Abraham's justification. It
was always the blood of the cross. God pictured that and typified
that in the slaying of animals. Unblemished lambs, unblemished,
spotless lambs and the animals that were slain. That was a picture
of what Christ would come as the Lamb of God and accomplish
to bring about peace between God and his people. Well, that's
That's the work of reconciliation. It's all accomplished by Christ
and it's all wrapped up in his righteousness. The merits of
his obedience unto death. Having our sins charged to him
and his righteousness charged to us. And then hold your finger
there at 2 Corinthians 5 and then look back at Colossians
1. Now, thirdly, here's the fruit of reconciliation. Now watch
this. He says in verse 21 of Colossians
1, he says, in you that were sometime alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in
the body of his flesh through death. Now stop right there. That word alienated, that means
separated from God because of sin. That's what separates people
from God, sin. That's why in order to be a friend
of God, to be with God, to be accepted with God, to be at peace
with God, the sin issue has to be taken care of. It has to be
dealt with. You see, God's just not gonna
let us off the hook. He's not such a loving, merciful
God. He's just gonna forego his justice and let us off the hook.
He won't do that. And then it says not only alienate,
not only separate, but enemies. because of unbelief. And where
was this taking place? It says, in our minds. That's the way we were. God was
reconciled to his people long before they were reconciled to
him. This alienation, that was in our minds, in our ignorance,
in our fallen state, in our unregenerate state, and it was by wicked works. Wicked works. What are those
wicked works? Well, it's any work that's done
in unbelief. It's even the best works, the most religious works
of men in unbelief. The carnal mind, Romans 8 and
verse 5, is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God and neither indeed can be. When do we in our minds become
subject to the law of God? When we see and believe and rest
in this fact that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. Now look back at 2 Corinthians
5 and verse 20. It says, now then. Now he says,
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. That's
the world of his people, to whom he's reconciled through the blood
of the cross of Christ, based on the righteousness of Christ
imputed. So he's looking at verse 20 now. He says, now then, we
are ambassadors for Christ. That means we preach his authority
and his word, not our own. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Now you be reconciled to God.
On what ground, preacher? Verse 21. For God the Father
hath made Him, God the Son incarnate, to be sin for us, Christ who
knew no sin, that we might be made, become the righteousness
of God in Him. upon that same ground, the blood
of his cross. That's his death. That's the
merits of his obedience unto death. His death, burial, and
resurrection. That's his righteousness imputed. You want to be reconciled to
God? You want to know if God's reconciled to you? Well, it's
all based upon the merits of the obedience unto death of Christ
as our surety and our substitute. He made peace through the blood
of his cross in the body of his flesh through death. Look back
at verse 22 of Colossians 1. Fourthly, here's the reality
of reconciliation. I want you to get this. He said
he did all this in the body of his flesh through death. And
what's the result? to present you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. What does holy mean? It means
separated. It means distinguished. Separated
from sin and its condemnation, not from its presence and its
contamination and its influence, not until we go to be with the
Lord. That's a sure and certain thing. But that hasn't yet happened. But this has already happened.
He set us apart unto God in Christ. That's what that means. And then
he says unblameable. What does that mean? That means
without spot or blemish. Like the sacrifices that God
accepted that were a sweet smelling savor to God. It's like Christ
himself. Sinless perfection. That's what
it means. How? How in the world can I claim
sinless perfection? How can you claim that? Only as we stand washed in the
blood of Christ and clothed in his righteousness. Now that's
it. Don't go any further with that. Somebody says, well, I
have a righteousness within me. Well, you're just fooling yourself,
bud. I have a righteousness. But it's Jesus Christ, the Lord,
my righteousness. I'm washed in his blood and I'm
clothed in his righteousness imputed. And notice it says here
in verse 22, holy and unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight. Now in my sight, that doesn't
hold true. As far as I look at myself and
I take assessment of myself, I go throughout the day and I
think about things I've done, things I haven't done. I look
in the mirror. I just don't see it in my sight. But here's the point. I don't
walk by sight or walk by faith. It's in God's sight. God says
it. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that does. So I'm
unblameable. I'm without spot or blemish legally
in the sight of God because I have the righteousness of Christ.
But then the next word is unreprovable. And you know what that means? It means you cannot be called
into account for your sins. That's right. It means unaccused. It really means blameless. You'd think unblameable meant
that, but really the word unreprovable means blameless. It means you
can't be charged. Why? Because my sins were charged
to Christ. Aren't you still a sinner? Yes.
But let me tell you something. All my sins are put away. They're
all taken away. That chorus, did you hear what
Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and you're free. They're all taken away. What is my account before God? The Bible says the kingdom of
God is not meat and drink. It's not what I eat and what
I drink or what I don't eat or what I don't drink. The kingdom
of God is righteousness. Now where are you gonna find
righteousness? In Christ. And peace, where are you gonna
find peace? And real everlasting joy in Christ. Where is it to be found? For
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. And here's
the reality of reconciliation. As long as I'm in Christ, I cannot
be called into account for my sins legally before God's bar
of justice. Again, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Now that's the fruit of reconciliation
but there's one more thing and I'm really, what I want to do,
I'm going to deal with this next week. It's in verse 23 if you'll
look at it. I'm going to deal one whole message
with this. The reason the natural unregenerate man cannot understand
this is because it destroys his whole motivation for obedience. destroys legalism, the mercenary
spirit. So the reason, they reasoned
this, well then we can just go out and live unto ourselves,
sin more, doesn't matter how we live, what we do, don't even
have to believe. But one of the fruits of reconciliation between
God and his people, you know what it is, it's the new birth.
And that's the third thing I mentioned. Remember when I said God not
imputing their trespasses? The non-imputation of sin, it
means number one, that my sins were imputed to Christ. Number
two, it means his righteousness imputed to me. But number three,
it results in the giving of spiritual life to his people. You see,
Christ's righteousness imputed is the ground of my justification
before God. It's the ground of my reconciliation
with God. It's the ground of peace. But
it's also the source and the power of spiritual life given.
And look at verse 23. It says here this. This only
applies to me. This only applies to you if you
continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved
away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard and which
was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof
I, Paul, am made a minister. There's the if. And it's a big
if. Now what does this if mean? Let
me just conclude with this. If there is not a condition that
we must meet in order to attain and maintain salvation or reconciliation
or peace with God. If there, if you continue, is
an evidence of those who have been given freely salvation based
totally and solely upon the work of Christ. It's an evidence of
God being at peace with me. And how do we know the difference
between the conditional if and the evidential? The gospel. You
know why most people believe that those ifs of the Bible are
conditions they must meet? in order to be saved. You know
why they think that way? First of all, because it's natural
for us to think that way. The natural man, unregenerate. Secondly, they're not hearing
the true gospel. They're not hearing about salvation
conditioned on Christ who fulfilled those conditions and secured
the salvation of all for whom he died. What they're hearing
is that, smile, God loves you. Smile, God will look over you.
Smile, God is so merciful, he'll just let you off the hook. He
sent his son to die for you, now the rest is up to you. You
see, that's not the gospel. That's not the word of reconciliation.
That's not the ministry of reconciliation. The word of reconciliation is
this, God, the Father, made him to be sin. For us, Christ who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. Now, as an ambassador for Christ, I beg you, be ye
reconciled to God on that ground. Cement to Christ and his righteousness. Why do so many not know it? Well,
they're not hearing it. They're going to church. They're
reading their Bibles. But all they know is salvation
conditioned on the sinner in some way, at some stage, to some
degree. And it's not the word or the
ministry of reconciliation in Christ. Peace by the blood of
his cross, all right.