“And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your minds as expressed through your evil deeds, but now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him — if indeed you remain in the faith, established and firm, without shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has also been preached in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.”
Colossians 1.21-23
Having spoken extensively about Jesus (vv.15-20) Paul now briefly turns his focus to his readers…sort of.
In our natural human and fleshy state we are, in [our] minds, strangers and enemies to God. This means that we will consistently choose courses of action that take us further from Him and not draw us closer to Him (cf. Romans 7.19). Into this situation stepped Jesus, who reconciled [us] by his physical body through death. Jesus died a real, physical, and bodily death to provide a better way of us relating to God. No longer does it rest on us with our inherent evil deeds but on the blameless and sinless sacrifice Jesus made of Himself. As Norman Geisler wrote:
“As John explained, it is necessary to confess “that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” (1 John 4:2). Spirits cannot die, and “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22).”
The Bible Knowledge Commentary
The warning is given that this applies if indeed [we] remain in the faith…without shifting from the hope of the gospel that [we] heard. The reconciliation that is offered by grace and through faith is applicable as long as there is abiding faith. The way this is written suggests that Paul expected that the Colossians would remain in the faith…without shifting but sometimes there is no harm in spelling out, explicitly, the truths of salvation.
For a thought to take into today I would encourage you to dwell on the truth that reconciliation to God, forgiveness and the ability to stand blameless before him come only through the body of Jesus broken for you and your abiding faith therein. The emphasis is not really on us in this passage, its on the God who saves and then as a consequence you who are saved. In a similar way to how the Colossians were being counselled to leave behind the thought that we can elevate ourselves to perfection through the syncretistic amalgamation of many worldviews, so too, simply must we accept that it is only through Jesus we are reconciled to God.
James Travis 