If
you were with us last week, you may remember my message focused in verses 12-14
of chapter one in which Paul tells us the Father “has qualified us to
share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued
us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom
of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the
forgiveness of sins.”
Let’s
now move further into the chapter, beginning with verse 15: “He [Jesus] is
the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by
Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all
things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things,
and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the
body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in
everything. 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.”
In
the verses immediately preceding our text for today, Paul wrote of the Christian’s
redemption and forgiveness of sins – IN JESUS, which is the critical key
phrase. It is Jesus, who, as Paul writes in verse 15, who is not only the
fullness of God incarnate, but He is also the image of God.
The
Greek word for ‘image’ carries the idea not merely a reflection of God but an
EXACT representation of His actual Being itself, fully expressing the Father’s
character and essence.
That’s
why the Lord Jesus said “I and the Father are one [essence’]. That’s why
the writer to the Hebrews reiterated: “And He [Jesus] is the radiance of
[the Father’s] glory and the exact representation of His nature
and upholds all things by the word of His power.”
In
other words, Jesus is God incarnate.
Why
is it important that we believe Jesus is God incarnate? It’s only because Jesus
IS God that anyone can be qualified through faith in Him for eternal life. It’s
because Jesus IS God that anyone can be reconciled through faith in Him to the
Father. It’s because Jesus IS God that anyone can through Him have forgiveness
of sins.
And
why is that? Because all sins – little sins, big sins, in-between sins – ALL
sins are ultimately against God’s laws, and only the offended can forgive the
offender. That point is yet another reason we know Jesus is God because He
forgives sins which only God can forgive.
Listen
to this vignette in Mark’s gospel when a paralytic was brought to Jesus for
healing: “Jesus . . . said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are
forgiven.” But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their
hearts, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can
forgive sins but God alone?” Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit
that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, “Why
are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to
say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and
pick up your pallet and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of
Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, He said to the paralytic, “I
say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.” (Mark 2:5-11)
No
wonder the religious leaders so often tried to kill Jesus – because time and
again He claimed to be the Son of Man – a Biblical reference to Daniel’s
prophecy of the Divine Messiah in chapter seven of that book.
Furthermore,
and equally as important as Christ’s divine prerogative to forgive sins, by willfully
breaking His laws and remaining in sin, we make ourselves enemies of God.
James
tells us: “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among
you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your
members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder.
You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do
not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you
ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world
is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of
the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:1-4)
Listen
also to the apostle Paul, “But God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much
more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be
saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we
were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His
Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
Romans 5:8-10
Enemies
of God. That’s a disquieting and yes, an offensive truth for many even in the
pews, but a truth that must be believed if we are to ever understand WHY
we desperately need Christ’s atoning death.
John
tells us (1 John 5:19) “The whole world lies in the power of the
evil one; Paul writes “The whole is guilty before God” for breaking
His commandments (see Romans 3:19).
Listen,
please. Until a person kneels before Christ in repentance, they remain guilty
before God of their sins and under the direct influence of the Evil One. That
makes them God’s enemy. It’s not that God makes Himself their enemy, but rather
because of our sins, we make ourselves His enemy.
And
it is only because He loves us, each of us – no one excluded – it is only
because He loves us so much, despite our sins, that He chases after us, offering
us to be reconciled with Him.
St
Paul tells us: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now
all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through
Christ . . . namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to
Himself, not counting their trespasses against them . . . Therefore, we are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we
beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him
who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:17–19
The
Biblical definition of ‘reconciliation’ encompasses the idea of a change
from one of hostility to peace. Our sins alienated us from the Holy God. but
God provided the means – the ONLY means – for sinners to be brought into peace
with Him through the cross and the empty tomb. As Paul tells us a few verses
later in this first chapter of Colossians: “You were formerly alienated
and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled
you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before
Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”
And
please note this: WE did not initiate reconciliation. God initiated it.
We
did not chase after Him. He chased after us.
Some
of you may be familiar with the Poem, “Hound of Heaven.” Here is a small portion
of it: “I fled Him, down the nights and down the
days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the
labyrinthine ways of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from Him . . .
from those strong Feet that followed, followed after. But with unhurrying
chase, and unperturbèd pace, deliberate speed, majestic instancy, they beat—and
a Voice beat – more instant than the Feet.”
It was about this poem that Fr. John Francis Xavier (d.
1920) wrote: "As the hound follows the hare, never ceasing in its
running, ever drawing nearer in the chase, with unhurrying and unperturbed
pace, so does God follow the fleeing soul by His Divine grace. . . Divine grace
follows after, unwearyingly follows ever after, till the soul feels its
pressure to turn to Him alone in that never ending pursuit."
God
pursues us for the same reason a parent chases after his child who dashes into
traffic. God chases after us, He pursues us, because He loves us. He wants to
protect us. It doesn’t get any more complicated than that.
But
– and this also is important – and contrary to what some deceptive teachers and
pastors tell their congregations – for those who persist in their rebellion
against God’s laws, there DOES come a point that God no longer pursues them.
And THAT is a dreadful place to be.
Yes
– THAT is a dreadful place to be when God stops pursing us and lets us go our
own way along that wide road that leads to destruction and eternal damnation. Scripture
is clear about that in passages such as the last half of Romans chapter one
and the last several verses of Proverbs chapter one. I encourage you to
read those texts for yourself.
What
I have said thus far about forgiveness and reconciliation is, we should know, immutably
predicated on the deity and humanity of Jesus. That truth cannot be stated too
often, especially considering how many voices contradict this unambiguous
truth. The very destiny of our eternal souls depends on what we believe about
Jesus. No wonder Satan has birthed so many false ideas and doctrines about Jesus
the Christ which have survived and thrived even to this day.
Listen,
Satan and his demons know that Jesus is Almighty God incarnate. They know there
is absolutely no salvation outside of Jesus the Christ, that there is no other
name given among men whereby we must be saved.
They
know all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus. That’s why,
for example, demons cried out as He was about to cast them from the demoniac: “What
business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment
us before the time?” Matthew 8:29
One of the more prevailing heresies that continue to this day in 2026 was
started in the 4th century by a Church bishop by the name of Arius.
Bishop Arius taught a huge swath of Christendom that Jesus was a created being.
If you are familiar with modern Jehovah’s Witnesses, Judaism, Islam, and Joseph
Smith’s Mormonism, you will recognize the Arian heresy continues in various
forms to this very day.
This
is not a minor and insignificant point. As I hope I have already demonstrated
from Scripture, our eternal salvation rests squarely on that point. If a person
has heard the truth about Christ and rejects the truth about Jesus the Christ, that
person cannot be saved.
Listen
to what Jesus said of Himself in John 8:24, “Unless you believe that
I am, you will die in your sins.” We find later in that
chapter the Lord told His inquisitors, “I tell you the truth . . . before
Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:49-58).
The
‘I Am’ in these texts drew on the memories of His Jewish listeners to Exodus
chapter three and the burning bush when God introduced Himself to Moses as, “I
Am.” And if you know your Bible you remember it was for such proclamations that
the religious leaders tried to stone Jesus for blasphemy. “For a good
work” they said, “we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because
You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” (John
10:33)
In
his book, ‘Mere Christianity’, CS Lewis said it as well as anyone: “I am
trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often
say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t
accept His claim to be God.”
That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the
sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either
be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he
would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him
and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.
But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human
teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Okay,
application time. Do you believe that Jesus is who He said He is, that He is
God incarnate? Do you believe that He alone is the door to eternal life,
that His blood alone cleanses us of sin?
As
the hymnwriter reminds us: “He paid a debt He did not owe, I owed a debt I
could not pay, I needed someone to wash my sins away; And now I sing a brand
new song, “Amazing Grace,” Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.”
And
as another hymnwriter asks: Have you been to Jesus for His cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace
this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
It
is only because Jesus is our Emmanuel, Jesus is Almighty God incarnate that our
confessed sins can be washed away. And so, as I close this message, I will once
again remind us to be CERTAIN of our washing.
And
HOW can KNOW for certain that we are washed, cleansed, justified, forgiven,
reconciled to the Holy Father in heaven? As Paul and Silas told their jailer in
Philippi: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” (Acts
16:31)
My
brothers and sisters, please, choose to remain fixated on what Scripture tells us
about WHO Christ is and what He did for you on Calvary when He died to pay the
divine punishment for your sins – for our sins – punishment we all rightly
deserve to pay.
But
also, please hear this: Saving faith is not simply ‘intellectual’ faith. After
all, as I said a moment ago, Satan and his demons believe who Jesus is – but
they rebelled against Him. They still do.
Saving
faith is OBEDIENT faith – obeying Christ’s commandments, living lives of
holiness, and being quick to repent and turn from sin when the Holy Spirit
brings our sins to our attention.
I
close with this final word: The Holy Spirit tells us through St Paul: “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.
Be
reconciled to God. Stay reconciled to God and thereby remain at peace with Him
by living a holy lifestyle, repenting when you stumble into sin. Then, and only
then, “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7)
