Living in the "If"

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS

LIVING IN THE "IF"

Col 1:21-23

21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

NIV

The big “If” is at the core of this truth. However, first, we need to see this truth. Indeed, there is no question that because of the way we once thought and behaved we were enemies of God, but not in the physical sense, as we were enemies in our minds. God has always loved us, but we once hated him. He was never our enemy, we were his. We are the ones who waged war on his way of life, on his standards, on faith, proclaiming it to be a religion of man, only using God for their own self-interests, if in fact, there was a God. We separated or alienated ourselves from God and his love for us. We kept him at a distance and would not have anything to do with him if in fact he actually existed. We know now that we were evil because we were not in Christ. However, we have been reconciled by Christ’s physical body through death. This word reconciled is the exact same word in the meaning of the Greek word. It means to restore friendly relations. Once being an enemy, or not on friendly terms with God, he took the first move, he initiated the treaty through sending his Son to earth in the form of man, to die on the cross, being the perfect sacrifice for our sin thus reestablishing a way for us to be restored into friendship with God. Through the work of Jesus on that cross, he now presents us holy in the sight of God, without blemish and free of accusation. That simply means we are no longer accountable for our sin. When God looks upon us, he sees his Son, perfect in every way, thus God sees us sacred to him, holy, set apart for him and free of faultiness, without blemish, or perfect, and free of accountability of our sin. Now that big “if”, which actually does appear in the Greek. All this truth we can enjoy if we continue in our faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This simply means, continuing to have faith in Jesus, living by faith, and not by works. We must stand firm that it is by faith alone that we are saved, and not by works, lest we boast. This kind of flies in the face of the idea of being a “good Christian”. We are Christians because of our faith in Christ, not because we complete a list of things we need to do right and things we need to not do. We cannot live checking off lists, that would be work, but we must live a life worthy of our Lord and that is a life believing, a life of faith. Sure, we want to please him, and do the work he has prepared in advance for us to do, and what is the work of God? To believe in the one he sent. The one work we have to do, is to have faith in Christ. We cannot be moved from our faith. Nothing can deter us from that faith. We live right in the middle of the “If”. We will not be moved.