Victory in Jesus

Because of our time limitations last week, we didn’t look as closely at the text I chose for my message in the second chapter of Colossians. So, let’s return to that text today. To maintain context, here is the whole section I cited last week.

 

Colossians 2:1ff Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. 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. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; 

 

and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.  When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

 

Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

 

I think it will be helpful to summarize what we have already seen in this text last over the past two weeks: 1) Be firmly rooted and built up in Christ. 2) Be alert that you are not taken captive by ungodly and false philosophies about God and biblical morality. 3) Hold fast to the biblical truth that all the fullness of God dwells in Christ.

 

One of the heresies circulating around the churches in Colossae was the demonic-inspired doctrine that Christ alone was not sufficient for salvation. They taught that the Christian needs additional mediators – even angelic mediators. They said Christians also need the secret knowledge available to only a few chosen spokesmen for God, and that they need to add legalistic practices to their faith to be saved.

 

Of course, all the New Testament writers loudly condemned those heresies. And they should be loudly condemned today as well. Christians are ‘complete’ because – and only because – they are joined to Christ by faith. Their righteousness, their justification, their forgiveness and their full acceptance before God are all theirs through that union.

 

Think for a while about what that means for YOU, who, because of your repentant heart, are now joined with God the Son. It means you are fully accepted by God because you belong to God incarnate. You don’t have to DO anything more to be accepted by the Father who loves you so much that He gave His Son to be YOUR propitiatory sacrifice – our atoning sacrifice that satisfied God’s righteous wrath against our sins. Listen to St John describe it: “And this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins." (1 John 4:10)

 

The Christian is fully complete in Christ. There is nothing else we can do to make us more acceptable to God. Listen again as Paul continues in today’s text: “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”  . . . in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.” (verses 20-23)

We could live alone in a cave and still actively live in sin. Adhering to various Dos and Don’ts are of no value against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. And why is that? Because of our sin NATURE. Although sin no longer reigns in the life of a Christian, sin nevertheless remains in the Christian and will continue to remain until we are no longer in our body. And while that uncomfortable truth can send us toward depression and the temptation to give up the fight, we should always remember St Paul’s agonized cry in the last part of Romans 7:

 

“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”  Romans 7:18-24

 

Who will set him free? Who will set US free? Paul answers his own question, and I will get to it in a moment, but first, please hear this: There not a Christian in all history who has striven to serve God and has not at the same time also known the experience Paul wrote about. And that is why his answer to his own question has been a glorious encouragement to every Christian who has struggled against their own sin nature:

 

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-4)

 

We do not need to hold strict adherence to a list of Dos and Don’ts in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men to make us acceptable to God. We only need obedient faith, trust, bold confidence in what He has done for us in Christ and to live in obedience to His commandments that results from our faith.

 

Paul then continues his instruction to the Colossians – and the those at Ashwood Meadows in verses 11-15 – “And in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.  When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

 

Circumcision not only brought the child into God’s covenant relationship with God, but circumcision was always meant by God to be more than the removal of a piece of flesh. He intended it as a symbol of the removal of evil from the heart. Listen to Him speak through Moses: (Deuteronomy 10:16) “So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer.”

 

And, again in Deuteronomy 30:6 “Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.”

 

Now, listen to God through Jeremiah nearly 1000 years later (Jeremiah 4:4) “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskins of your hear . . . or else My wrath will go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”

 

So, when the apostle Paul continues in the next clause: “Having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead,” we ought to humbly ask ourselves what is the use of being baptized if we do not seek the Lord in obedience? Isn’t that what John the Baptist declared to those coming to the Jordan? “Therefore, bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.” (Matthew 3:8-9)

 

In other words, without living a life of repentance, circumcision becomes uncircumcision – as Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome: “For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.” (Romans 2:25)

 

And I think it is equally true, without living a life of repentance, baptism becomes unbaptism.

 

Paul continues in today’s text: “ When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

 

I’ve heard it preached that after the Fall we are diamonds but covered with mud. They say Jesus’ blood cleans off the mud. Where pastors get such erroneous ideas demonstrates either their biblical illiteracy, or their disbelief in the inerrancy, infallibility, and full inspiration of God’s word.

 

God threatened our first parents with spiritual death – a broken fellowship with God – if they ate of the forbidden tree: “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

 

St Paul understood the Genesis text to mean exactly as it is written, which is why he told the Ephesians they were dead – the word he used is the same we use for ‘necrotic’ – they (and you and I) were dead in their sins – until God, by His grace, made them (and us) alive.

 

When we were ‘born again’ God forgave all – all – our sins, having canceled out each one, having stamped on the ledger the equivalent of our ‘Paid in Full’ stamped on a financial debt we no longer owe. As the songwriter aptly described it: “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 that surely is why the apostle continued his jubilant exultation: “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”

 

When Paul wrote that Jesus triumphed over the powers by the cross, he wasn’t talking about the powers of Rome. He was speaking about the same powers of the air that he speaks in his letter to the church at Ephesus: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)

 

On Calvary’s cross, Jesus triumphed specifically over all supernatural demonic powers in all the unseen realms around us. That’s also why Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians: “At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10-11)

 

Every knee. Every tongue. In heaven and on earth and under the earth. And that is all because of what God did on the cross when Jesus gave Himself as a sin offering for all who come to Him by faith. And because of the death of God-Incarnate, you and I who are IN CHRIST have victory (present tense) victory over sin, death, and the devil.

 

Victory over sin: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:1-4

 

Victory over death: (1 Corinthians 15:51-57) “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Victory over the devil: “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) Romans 16:20 “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”

 

Christian, it’s because of our obedient faith in the substitutionary atonement of Christ that the spiritual armor Paul wrote of in Ephesians six is efficacious for the Christian: The helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the sword of the Spirit, and the rest of the supernatural armor.

 

In HIM we are complete. We need nothing else to enter that place where, as Isaiah tells us, “He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces . . . And it will be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” (Isaiah 25:8-9)

 

Well, we’ve run out of time again. Let’s stop here and return to chapter three next time. But for now, to reiterate what I hoped to make clear during this message:

 

First: We need nothing else to add to the atoning death of the Son of God on our behalf. No rules, no sacraments, no visions, no other mediators. Jesus, God incarnate, is fully sufficient for our eternal salvation.

 

Second point: Unless our hearts are changed, neither circumcision nor baptism mean anything of eternal value.

 

Third: In Christ alone the Christian has victory over sin, death, and the devil. The armor of God is overwhelmingly sufficient defense against our supernatural enemy. Therefore, be careful to wear that armor every day.

 

We will continue our study through Colossians next time.

Rooted in Christ

 

Last week we looked at Paul’s comments in the first chapter of Colossians regarding Christ’s deity and humanity. It’s BECAUSE of who He is – God incarnate – that He is able to forgive sins and reconcile us who were God’s enemies because of our sins. It’s BECAUSE of who He is – God incarnate that Jesus can reconcile us with the Father because of His substitutionary and atoning sacrifice of the cross. With that quick backdrop, we now move into chapter two, beginning with verse six and through verse 23 for context:

 

Colossians 2:6-8 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. 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.

 

 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.  

 

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. 

 

Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

 

We’ll not have time today to unpack this entire text, so we will return to it next week. But for today, let’s first turn our attention to verses 6-7: “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

 

The entire New Testament instruction about receiving Christ follows a clear pattern: First, we learn about Jesus from reading Scripture and from those who accurately teach God’s word. We then accept by faith who Jesus is – that being, God incarnate whose sacrifice on Calvary is entirely sufficient for our salvation – meaning specifically that He substituted Himself to receive the Father’s wrath against us for our sins, and that by His atoning blood has forever purified our sins and fully reconciled us to the Father.

 

Paul then goes on to tell his readers that since they received Christ by faith, they must now WALK by the same faith in obedience to all His commandments. Paul goes on in verse seven to instruct those who have received Christ to become “firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.”

 

Which ought to now raise the question, “How do we get to be firmly rooted, built up, and established in our faith”? As we would expect, God tells us how throughout His word. Here are only a scant few examples:

 

First, regularly reading and meditating on what God tells us from Genesis through Revelation. Peter tells us, 1 Peter 2:2-3 “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”

 

Paul adds: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” 1 Timothy 3:16-17

 

And again, he writes, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15

 

A person who has access to the Bible and is able to read or listen to it being read, has no excuse whatsoever to neglect reading and studying the Bible. Sin will keep you from the Bible, or the Bible will keep you from sin. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.

 

And beware ANY church or church leadership who dissuades or penalizes people from reading God’s word. Such dissuasion is sure evidence of an ungodly, satanic attempt at a deadly control of your eternal destiny.

 

How else to be firmly rooted? Maintain an ACTIVE prayer life. If prayer was not a vital practice for the Christian then Jesus would not have wasted time praying, as He so often did throughout the gospels. Neither would He have given His disciples a pattern for prayer in Matthew 6 – best known as the “Lord’s Prayer.” And neither would the apostles have spoken so often of their own prayers and requested the prayers of their readers.

 

How else to be rooted? Participate in discipleship programs such as regular attendance at church, local Bible studies, and prayer meetings. “Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)

 

Please be sure of this: Being “rooted and built up” in Christ requires a continuous pursuit of a relationship with Him through the things I just mentioned. And it requires of us a resolute decision to live obediently to His commandments. There is absolutely no advantage in studying scripture, living a life of prayer, and regularly attending church if one is not equally determined to live in DAILY obedience to God’s commandments. Please, do not deceive yourself or be deceived to think otherwise. The possibility of self-deception could be why Paul continued his letter with this warning in verse 8:

 

 "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ."

 

The Greek work Paul used here for ‘captive’ has the idea of being carried off as a prisoner of war.  And that’s what happens to anyone who gets seduced by humanistic and anti-Christ ideas. They become casualties, prisoners of the spiritual war all around us.

 

Alistair Begg correctly identifies three major lies of which Satan has convinced a huge swath of biblically illiterate and morally compromised humanity, each of which will make captives of all who swallow the lies.

 

Lie number one: There is no God. The universe and human life are the product of chance; Lie number two: There is no absolute moral truth. Right and wrong are matters of personal preference rather than based on God’s revelation; Lie number three: There is no absolute truth. Truth is subjective. Each person can decide what is true for them.

 

Anyone with unveiled spiritual eyes will immediately recognize these poisonous lies have infiltrated and nearly overwhelmed our culture – even many of our churches. One example is the ever-popular mantra of the pro-abortion crowd, “My Body, My Choice.” And so, we sacrifice more than 2,000 precious babies each DAY on the blood stained altars of American abortion clinics. Two thousand Monday. Two thousand Tuesday. Two thousand Wednesday, and so on through the week, week after week. Month after month.

 

Another example of Satan’s deadly corruption is evidenced by the annual June celebration in America of ‘Pride Month’? The sin for which God judged Sodom and Gomorrah arrogantly marches in streets across our nation and insinuates itself in governments at all levels, the media, entertainment, many churches – and even in grade school classrooms. In other words, Satan’s evangelists shout, “No one – even God, if He exists – no one has the right to tell ME how to conduct my life and my choices.”

 

All of what’s happening around us is neatly summed up in this mournful verse: “Pride is like a fountain pouring out sin, and whoever persists in it will be full of wickedness.” (Ecclesiasticus 10:13)

 

Christian – listen to Jude’s warning: “Godless people have slipped in among you. They turn the grace of our God into unrestrained immorality and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Jude 1:4

 

Christian, be aware of such people. You will know them by their fruits. Listen to Paul’s warning to Titus about them: Titus 1:16 “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

 

Christian, listen to Jesus: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” Matthew 7:24-27 

 

Christian: “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith.” (1 Peter 5:7-8a)

 

It is the fool who, while knowing the truth of God’s final judgement of sin, continues to walk the path that leads to eternal death.

 

Let’s return now to our text in Colossians chapter two. Paul continues in verse nine: “For in Him [Christ] all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete.”

 

All the fullness of God dwells in Christ. All. Not 90% of God, not 99% of God, 100% of God resides in bodily form in Jesus. This is one of the clearest examples in all Scripture that testifies to the deity of Jesus. And it is – once again – it is because of Jesus’ deity that those who are ‘in Christ’ have been made complete. The Greek word translated “complete” carries the idea of being filled, made full, or brought to completeness. Nothing lacking.

 

I see we have run out of time, so let’s stop here and plan to return to it next week. But let me simply summarize today’s message: Be rooted in Christ. Be built up in Christ. Get to know Him better through careful and diligent reading and reflecting on His written word, and through daily prayer, and routine gathering together with others of like faith.

 

Time is shorter than any of us think.

 

Forever Reconciled

 

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 4^th 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)