Do You Continue In The Faith?

Colossians 1: 21-23

Paul has just stated that Christ Jesus has reconciled all things in heaven and on Earth in His authority of having all the fullness of God to dwell in Him (that we saw yesterday). 

Now Paul is going to make it personal.

(21) And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 
(22) yet He has now reconciled you 

Christ has also reconciled each member of the church at Colossae, and by extension, each of us all through the centuries who have become members of His body, the church. Even though we have formerly engaged in all manner of evil works from a mindset hostile to God.

This is how He did it:

in His fleshly body through death in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach--

This is why He had to be human, in order to die a human death in the place of us humans as the Lamb of God. And to have physical blood to shed, God's own blood, to splash on the sides of His altar, the cross; to wash away every shadow of a stain of sin from each of us. That is how He cleanses us pure enough for God the Holy Spirit to come and live permanently in each of us. 

When he says, holy and blameless and beyond reproach, he's saying that the blood of Christ has washed us completely pristine clean and pure. This is one of the most amazing things God has told us in His word. That He would be able and willing to "wash us up" like this, after all the evil and wickedness we have indulged in, in rebellion against Him, is just fantastic!

(23) if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister. 

Paul is telling them (and us) that if they have not continued to believe the original message of the simple gospel, that has never changed; then they are not washed clean. In believing something else, anything else, then they have been led away from God and His salvation. 

When someone has been drawn to God, and realized that Jesus took their place in death on the cross, because they deserve that execution, not Jesus; that is when His blood will wash them completely clean so the Holy Spirit can live in their spirit. This is being "born again," or "born from above," (John 3: 3-8) into God's own family. 

Then with God the Holy Spirit living in every person who has been born again, He makes us all members of one body, the body of Christ, with Christ Jesus as the Head. This is a permanent position. 

But if someone thinks that they are a Christian, but they have been pulled away from the simplicity of this gospel, then they have never been born spiritually, because once you're born, you can never be unborn again. 

Paul has heard that other teachers have come to Colossae who mix Christianity with worldly philosophies, diluting the purity of the message, and seducing people away from God, as we will see in Chapter two. 

When false teachers come into the church denominations and congregations and bring in other ideas, Scripture calls these "seducing spirits" with "doctrines of demons" (I Timothy 4: 1). Paul tells Timothy about some of these doctrines in this chapter of his first letter to Timothy. 

Several of our church denominations and congregations are being led by these false teachers. Many of the members of these churches may think that they're Christians, but they have not been taught the Truth. 

To know if your pastor is teaching the Truth, you must know what the Truth is. That is why each member of God's family is responsible to do his or her own Bible reading and study, to be able to recognize when they hear error. 

In the U.S. government, Treasury officials who are tasked with recognizing counterfeit money study the real dollar, the real hundred dollar bill. Then they will be able to pick out anything that doesn't conform to the legal tender. 

We are tasked to study our Father's love letter to us, to be familiar with what it says: the stories and rules and ideas that God told us, so we would know Him and His ways. Anything that is contrary to what He said is false and wrong. It's counterfeit. 

Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians to encourage them to remain faithful to the Lord, in spite of the false teachers that have been trying to disrupt them. 

O my Father, I pray for all those who want to come to You, but have yet to hear Your Truth. I pray that You would lead them to open their own Bibles, to research Your Word, to hear Your faithful teachers, and to search for You with all their hearts. Then You promised that You would be found of them, and then they will experience Your great salvation from the power of sin over them. 

Father, send out Your children into their own families, and neighborhoods, and places of employment, and the communities they live in. Send me, Father, into my own neighborhood and community, and call to Yourself my own family members who have yet to come to salvation. 

Use me, Father, to help Your children to grow to maturity, and to be able to share Your love with many others who are yet to be born into Your family. Use my life, my words, my gifts and abilities, my possessions, to bring growth to Your family, Your Kingdom. 

Grant me good success in all my endeavors to worship You and to love You by loving others. Let all that I do, moment by moment, day by day, bring glory to You through my Lord Jesus Christ. 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Even so, come soon, Lord Jesus!