Transformed by Grace | Colossians 1:21-23

In this passage, Paul reminds believers of the dramatic transformation that has taken place through Jesus Christ. Once they were alienated from God, hostile toward Him in their thinking, and characterized by sinful behavior. But through Christ's physical death on the cross, they have been reconciled to God and brought near. God's purpose in this reconciliation is not only to forgive them but ultimately to present them before Himself as holy, blameless, and above reproach. Paul concludes by exhorting believers to continue steadfastly in the faith, remaining anchored in the hope of the gospel they have received. The passage highlights the believer's past condition, present reconciliation, and future glorification.

Colossians 1:21-23

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation[a] under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Transcript

Scripture Reading And Prayer

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, Colossians chapter 1 in and uh beginning in verse 21. And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. If indeed you continue in the faith stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. It's the word of God for the people of God. We thank you, Lord, for your word. You may be seated.

The Transformation Tuesday Big Idea

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Well, if I were to ask you which day of the week you liked best outside of Sunday, because I know that's your favorite, most of you would answer Friday, Saturday, you know, thank God it's the weekend. If you were to ask me that same question, I would have an unconventional answer. I would answer Tuesdays. I might be the only man in America who loves Tuesday the best, you know. Um, you know, there's a couple reasons for that. Number one, generally Tuesday is my day off, and I won't get into why that works for me, but it does. And then, but secondly, I love Tuesdays. I, you know, I'm not a fan of social media, but I like to be on social media on Tuesdays because there's this hashtag called Transformation Tuesday. Have you heard of this? Like, okay. Um, this is a day in which people share ways in which they've changed physically, emotionally, behaviorally, spiritually. And you know, I really appreciate that. I love to celebrate those moments with others. Well, today the Apostle Paul gives believers in Colossae a transformation Tuesday picture of sort. He reminds them first of who they were in before coming to Christ, and then he reminds them of who they are now in Christ, and then finally he looks ahead until the last day to show them who they will be in Christ when he returns. And so we're gonna consider each of these epics today, and the aim is simply this to remind us of the way in which the Lord of unmatched glory transforms believers. Doesn't the Bible say we are new creations in Christ? Like it doesn't just help us a little bit. No, beloved, we are made new in Jesus. I want to remind us of that, and then I want to encourage us to live in accordance with that transformation.

Who We Were Without Christ

SPEAKER_00 3:07

So, number one, who we were. Did you ever look back at an uh old picture? You know, some of you who were around in the 70s, you had the long hair and the bell bottoms, and you just, and man, you then you thought you were the coolest person in the world. And you look back and you think, Christopher, by the way, I like your long hair. Um, you look back and you go, What was I thinking? The shag carpet that you thought looked nice. You go, what was I thinking? Well, we've got a pretty bleak picture when we look back to who we were. Look at verse 21. And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. Boy, Paul is really encouraging the church, isn't he? Number one, he says, You are you were spiritually alienated. That word means estranged or shut off from God. Ephesians 2 12, that helps us understand what Paul is saying here. He says, Remember that you were at the time separated from Christ, alienated. Now, watch this from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, without God. What a tragic state to be in. But now, he writes, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. So you've got to understand that the church in Colossae was primarily made up of Gentiles, non-Jews. Okay, most of us, probably all of us in here are Gentiles. Now, the Gentiles under the old covenant, they were strangers to that covenant. Yes? That they were not part of God's chosen people. But how many know that Jesus has inaugurated a new covenant? So anyone now, apart from Christ, it doesn't matter if you're Jew or Gentile, if you're not in Christ, you are in a state of alienation. So they were spiritually, these Colossians before coming to Christ, they were spiritually alienated. But secondly, they were mindfully hostile. Now, sin is not just an action issue. Sin is a matter of the mind and the heart. Even if you are disciplined enough before coming to Christ, even to be a you know semi-moral person, your heart was still wicked. Romans 8 7, for the mind that is set on the flesh, which is any mind not set on Christ, is hostile to God. For it does not submit to God's law. Watch this, indeed, it cannot. A hostile mind is one shaped by the desires and the values and the worldviews that exist in the world today, the secular world. This is a person whose heart is bent on doing their own will for their own glory instead of God's will for his glory. They are hostile in mind towards the Lord. Now, some of you are thinking back to your pre-Christian days and be like, you know, you're like, well, I wasn't a Christian, but I certainly wasn't hostile. Many unbelievers today, even atheists, would say, Well, I don't believe in Jesus, but I'm not hostile towards him. But they are, and you were before coming to Christ. Let me show you this to you in Matthew 12, 30. I think we have this verse on the screen. Jesus says, watch this, whoever is not with me is against me. Think about that. Whoever is not with me is against me. Whoever does not gather with me scatters. You know what I think Jesus is saying here? There's no neutral ground. You're either for God or you're hostile towards him. You're living for Christ and the glory of God, or you're apart from Christ. And watch this. The Bible talks about this. You are at enmity with God. Pretty serious state to believe to be in. I don't recommend it. So these Colossian believers, before coming to Christ, they were spiritually alienated, mindfully hostile, and then behaviorally wicked. Okay, he he goes on to say, you did much wicked behavior. That is true of all of us. I got saved at seven years old, and I promise you, I was doing wicked things uh at six, you know. That's true of all of us. Now watch this. If you're here and you have a you had a colorful past, let's say. Okay you go, well, sure, that was me. But that's true of you who think you're moral, you were moral before coming to Christ. You were an upstanding citizen, a good father or husband, husband, or hus, you know, wife or mother. Let me show you this. If you go over a couple of pages to Colossians chapter 3, here's what we see that all sin is wicked. All right. So Paul mentions these earthly deeds, these wicked deeds, and he begins by listing out sexual immorality and evil desires. Okay. Now you go, see, there it is. I've not done those things. I don't desire evil, and I've not been sexually immoral. Okay, fair enough. But the list goes on. He lists anger and wrath and slander. Have you ever gossiped about somebody or obscene talk and lying? This is not an exhaustive list. The point is, if you've sinned, you've done a wicked deed. And I'm looking at you, and I know you've done many wicked deeds, all right? Look at your neighbor and say he's talking to you. You know, this is why I love, this is why I love prison ministry. Because I don't when I when I go into a prison, I don't have to convince most convicts that they've done wicked things and that they they're sinners and need grace. You know who it's much harder to convince that they need salvation? Self-righteous, moral people. Beloved, we have all we're all guilty of wicked deeds. So before coming to Christ, every one of us were spiritually alienated. We were hostile in mind and guilty of wicked behavior. Now, why is Paul reminding the Colossians of this? Why does Paul want us to remember that that this was our state? I think at least for two reasons. Number one, it produces great humility. Doesn't it? It produces great humility. Think about this. The longer you've been a Christian, the harder it is to remember where God brought you from. And here's what that means. Sometimes as Christians, we can think, well, you know, look what I've done. Look what I've done. Look how good I am. And we remember it's only we forget it's only God's grace in us. And here's what, here's the thing with that. If we will be humble and remember where God brought us from, it's real hard to judge other people. Because I've seen some Christians who have been delivered from some major things, and then they look at others and they go, Well, hmm. You and I shouldn't be judgmental towards any unbeliever. Because if not for grace, you would be right there. That's who we were. But Paul moves on very quickly.

Reconciled By Jesus Not Effort

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Let's talk about who we are now in Jesus. Look at verse 22. He says, You who were once alienated, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. Watch this. We are no longer alienated if we're in Christ, but accepted by God. In Jesus' day, watch this. It was divided into many different courts, each one getting closer and closer to the manifest presence of God. So, so you know, it's like the VIP room, right? The closer you got, the more exclusive it was. So the non-Jews who wanted to seek the God of Israel, they could come to the temple, but they had to stay in the outermost courts that Herod added on each side of the temple. From there, you could go into another court, which was that's where the Jewish women could go, but that's as far as they could go. Then you had the court of Israel where Jewish men could go. Then you had the next court, which was called the holy place. All of the priests could go into the holy place, but then you had the holy of holies, and only one man, the high priest, only once a year could go into that room. So under the old covenant, here's the thing: even for God's people, they were kept at a certain distance from God in his presence. If you violated the you know, the restrictions, like if your kid got away from you and just ran into the holy of holies, boom. You step in there, you're gone. Because sin separates us from God. A holy God could not accept in his presence that manifest presence, a sinner, an impure sinner. But that's no longer true, because we're pure in Christ. Watch this Hebrews 4:16. Let us then, this is why we don't have different rooms. Like I don't get to go into a special room in the church to meet with God. My office is a closet. Just saying. Y'all need to give more. Let watch this, Hebrews 4.16. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace. Draw near to the throne of grace. Go into the Holy of Holies, that we might receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. Why is it that we can now enter into God's presence? Go right into the throne room. See, when a transformation Tuesday pick is posted on social media, it's generally accompanied by a paragraph telling the world how much, how disciplined they were, how they they followed some diet rigorously, how they were out, you know, side rain or shine, running, jogging, walking. They want you to know how they've how hard and diligently they've worked over the last year or so. That's okay on some level. But you and I must remember that we are not transformed. We cannot come into God's presence because we've worked really hard. We can't come into God's presence because, oh man, look, look, look how disciplined we've been in prayer and Bible study. And I haven't missed a Sunday in the last year. No, you can't approach God's presence because of that. Look again at verse 22. He has now reconciled us, brought us near to God. That means Jesus has in his body of flesh by his death. You know why we sinners can approach a holy God? Because Jesus paid for our sin by his own blood. And because he took on our sin, he became sin for us, we became the righteousness of God. So we can go into God's presence because God sees us through Jesus. We are in Christ. We have died, we've been crucified with Christ. It's not we who live, but Christ in us. And when the Father looks at us, he sees his pure, spotless lamb of a son. So we can go to God. You know, I had somebody call me a couple of weeks ago that went to this church a long time ago and lives in Lexington, hadn't heard from him in a very long time. And he had a friend who had a tragic motorcycle accident. He was in a hospital in ICU on life support, and his parents were distraught and had to make the tough decision to take him off life support. But he called me and he he asked me to pray, which that's awesome. I want to join him in prayer. But the implication that I got from his call was that I had some special access to God because I'm a pastor. And I baptized this young man years ago. And the truth is, yes, we ought to pray for one another. And the Bible does say, call the elders of the church, you know, in James and have them pray for you. But I want you to know, friend, if you are in Christ, you've got access to the throne room as well. We can approach a holy God. We were alienated without hope. Let's remember that, but Jesus. We were separated from God, but Jesus. We were at enmity with God, but Jesus. We were dead in trespasses and sin, but Jesus has transformed us. He's brought us from darkness into life, from death into life, from wickedness into holiness, from hopelessness into hope. What a savior. What a savior. Here's the thing I think Paul wants to do, wants us to do. I think God, the divine author of the Bible, wants us to do. Here it is. I want, I think He wants us to remember the past, but not dwell on it. You know, you should view your past like you do your rear view mirror. Your rear view mirror is there for you to periodically glance at to see what's behind you. But what happens if you stare in the rear view mirror? You run over Meredith. Inside joke, sorry. You'll hit what's in front of you, or you'll simply not be able to move forward. And I think that's what happens when we dwell on the past. Some of you, you do have a really colorful past, and it still haunts you. And I want you to remember what God's delivered you from, but don't dwell on it. That's not who you are anymore. You know, the Bible says that that, you know, if we're in Christ, that's the implication that if we know God, when when we confess our sins, our sins are as far as the east is from the west. It says that the Lord, thank God, He remembers our sins no more. Now, now watch this. The Lord does not have divine amnesia. That's not what that statement means, that he just somehow, oh man, what did he do? No, he doesn't hold our sins against us. So I want you to know, listen, when God looks at you, he loves you. And he's not trying to put a guilt trip on you for your past life. He sees you in Christ, he loves you as he loves his beloved son. You, if you're in Christ, you are sons and daughters of God. Let it go. Thank God for delivering you. I mean, Paul did that over and over. I was a murderer, I killed Christians, so on and so forth. That's what Paul said. But God, He didn't dwell on it. Don't let your past stop you from moving forward and drawing near to God. Let it go. We've been transformed, we are in Christ. Now, finally, who will we be?

Who We Will Be On That Day

SPEAKER_00 20:44

He has reconciled you by his death in order, watch this, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. Friends, we're all gonna stand before a judgment seat someday. We're going to give an account for our life. Jesus will present us, those who are in him truly, holy, blameless, and above reproach. Thank God for that. The word holy here is the word in Greek hagios. And it's interestingly already in chapter one, it's been used three times. In verse two, you can check this later. Verse four and verse 12. But you know what's interesting in those verses? It doesn't translate the Greek word as holy, it translates at translates it as saints. And the the focus in those verses is on believers' current standing. We are, you don't always act like it, I don't always act like it, but in Christ, we are saints. Listen, sainthood is not for some special, you know, missionary or priest. We are all, Paul writes, I mean, this is so clear. He writes to the saints at this church, to the saints at this church. If you are in Christ, you are a saint positionally. Now, watch this. Here on verse 22, the infant the emphasis shifts to future hope, not our sainthood now, but how Christ will present us on the last day. And he will present us as holy, separated from the world, separated for God's purposes on the day of judgment. Then he'll present us blameless. Though we're all guilty, Paul said it of wicked behavior, and even as Christians, we still sin. Yet we will be blameless on that last day because Jesus, the spotless Lamb, our sins are like crimson, that they shall be washed white as snow. We will have white robes, spotless before the Lord, blameless. Then he says, We'll we'll be presented above reproach. This has to do with our legal status before God, meaning that no charges will be brought against real followers of Jesus. All believers will stand innocent before a holy God. There's no better news in the world because if you're not in Christ, it's not going to go well. You will be judged, you will stand before a holy God. You will regret that you do not believe you did not serve the God of the universe, and you will not be granted eternal life. You will in the end be thrown into the lake of fire. And I don't want that to happen to you. See, we who are in Christ, we've already been transformed. And so again, watch this. Positionally, you and I are saints. But practically, again, we don't live up to that title, if you will. But on the last day, watch this sin and death and decay will totally be eradicated. You'll never lose your temper again. Hallelujah. Your spouse will never lose his temper again. Hallelujah. You will never be tempted to lie. There'll be no theft, no murder. Praise the Lord. I mean, aren't don't you long for the day when you're not even tempted to sin anymore? Oh my goodness. We'll be so satisfied in Jesus. We won't want sin. We will see him in his full glory.

Continuing In Faith Without Extremes

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Now, Paul ends this with a condition. One of the big questions when it comes to transformation is this is it going, is the change going to stick? You know, I gave up alcohol. Am I gonna be able to stick with it? I lost all this weight. Am I gonna be able to keep the weight off? And that man, that's a fair question. I have a good friend who lost over a hundred pounds in just over a year. Amazing, amazing guy. I love him to death. But tragically, after keeping the weight off for about a year, he slowly started falling into some old habits and eventually maybe even gained more weight than he lost. And by the way, he's since lost it again and he is keeping it off. But the the question, and I receive this question from time to time, will Christ's transformation in your life stick? Well, Paul closes the section by answering that question. Um, he says this you will be presented in the end as wholly, blameless, and above reproach. Now there's the word if in chapter 23 or verse 23. If you continue in the faith, stable, steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. Now, don't miss this. To experience the final transformation on the last day, we must do what? Very clear. Continue in the faith. Now, that sounds like we must work really hard. But I want you to notice how we continue in the faith by not shifting from what? The gospel. Our final salvation isn't dependence, dependent on uh our working really hard. For us to finally be presented as holy and blameless and above reproach, we have to continue cleaning, not cleaning, clinging to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We don't depend on our own strength. We we it's it's we look to God, we we look to God for salvation, we continue to look for Him for salvation, we look to Him for our strength to make it to the end, to persevere, and we don't look to any other God for that. That's interesting, isn't it? Because Christians, you know what in Galatians talks about this, some Christians that they know they get saved by grace through faith, but then they think, well, that's not how I'm kept. And they take their eyes off the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now here's the thing works are important, they're important, and I'm I'm gonna talk about that, but but they're not the means of salvation. I think that place of not keeping the faith, I think that's a hard place to get to. I want to let me just unpack this just for a minute here, because this is important. Some of you came from fire and brimstone churches, and you didn't know whether you were saved from one minute to the next. And I want to say to you, the cross is not that fragile. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And listen, so what happens is this you sin, you're not kicked out of the family of God. And how do I know that? Because if you were, Hebrews 6 says you could never come back, for Christ would have to be crucified all over again. But when you sin, you repent. You turn from it. And if you do it again, you repent from your heart. But here's what happens if you don't repent. Here's what happens. Hebrews 3, I believe it's verse 12. I quote it often, says, Exhort one another daily, lest you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and fall away from the living God. It is this habitual sin that hardens your heart. And it's not that God pushes you out of the family, it's that you become so hardened that you lose faith. You you lose the ability to see the beauty and the majesty of Christ, and you'll walk away. And I've seen it. And oh, that is tragic. Thank God for friends who call out sin in your life. So you've got on one hand the the fire and brimstone preachers that that take out the beauty of the cross and the security and the assurance of the cross, and you can't have peace in Christ. But on the other hand, you have these hypergrace, you know, preachers who say, live like you want. It's fine. As long as you've prayed a prayer at the altar, that's hogwash. So, in closing, here's here's

Turn To Christ And Live Transformed

SPEAKER_00 30:15

where I want to go. If you're here today and you're a non-Christian, let me say to you, you can't change yourself. Jesus is offering you salvation. And some of you think, well, I've got to transform myself, I've got to clean myself up, and then perhaps Jesus will take me. You can't do it. You come to him as you are, he will transform you. And I invite you to make that decision today. No, I've never heard anybody regret this. You know, if I've been, I've said this before, but I've been by a lot of bedsides where people are about to take their final breaths. As a pastor, that's that's part of the job. And I've never heard anybody say, you know what, I really regret being a Christian. The only regret I've ever heard is this. I wish I would have become a Christian earlier. So if you're here today and you're not a Christian, I invite you today. Like, don't let the day pass before you turn to Christ. But those of you who are Christians, and I hope that's most of you, let me ask you this. Does your life reflect the transformation that Jesus hope brings, that Jesus brings? We're not saved, we're not kept by good works, but watch this. Those works are important. J.I. Packer said this the only proof of past conversion is present convertedness. Have you really been transformed by Jesus? Let me ask it that way. You know what the scariest, most sobering verse in the Bible is to me? It's in the book of Matthew when Jesus says, Many will say to me on that day, the day of judgment, Lord, Lord. Now, so this is somebody who, oh Jesus, there you are, my buddy, my master, my friend. They think they're in the kingdom. But Jesus said this. He'll say to many, not a couple, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, and he'll say, What? Depart from me, turn from me, you what? Doer of iniquity. In other words, your life, your your works showed that your heart was not changed. And and here's the the clincher. He says, For I never knew you. See, if you know him, you will not desire, you'll stumble, I stumble, but you will not desire to habitually sin. So if your life, you may say today, oh, he's my Lord. But if your life has never been transformed, I would question the reality and I would uh of that trans that salvation, and I would call you to repent and truly turn to him today. And then finally, I hope this is true of all you, uh all of you, that you are a Christian and he has transformed you. And here's what I want to tell you. I want to beg you to live accordingly. I want to beg you to live accordingly in a I'm talking a bit differently than my former point. Most of the transformation Tuesday posts are related to extreme weight loss, somebody getting healthier. But here's what's so interesting. Uh, psychologists tell us that there's an interesting phenomenon that happens in many of these cases. Watch this. Some of these people are transformed physically, but emotionally, they still feel and live like that old self. This is very interesting. They still tend to avoid mirrors, they feel a sense of shame. They still feel like people are judging them because of their weight. They still even watch this by oversized clothes. Their bodies have changed, but their minds and behaviors cannot catch up. Let me give you one more example of this. This is a well-known fact that many children who are in the foster system, Ron, you can probably attest to this, or maybe they've been adopted. If they've come from really difficult childhoods, though they're in a home where they're loved by the adults there, maybe they've been adopted and taken in as part of that family. And they sense that to some degree. But do you know many of them still hide food under their beds? They steal food. You know why? They know on some level, oh, these parents are different. They love me. But that old self, it just is so ingrained in them that the times they had to scaven for food, they'll literally hide food around the house. They'll steal it when there's no need. Why? Because they've got a new family, but their minds have not, their hearts have not caught up yet. Tragically, that's the case for many believers. Jesus transformed them, but they still walk in defeat rather than victory. Walk victoriously. They carry shame rather than peace. They fall into old patterns instead of the new way of life. They classify themselves by their old identified their old identities instead of their identity in Jesus Christ. You were once alienated. I was too. We are now reconciled if we're in Christ. And we will soon be presented holy and blameless and above reproach. That's your story, that's my story in Christ. Don't live beneath it.