Colossians 1 – New Identity, Deep Roots – Part 4
We like words here at Dix Hills and once is a very interesting word. Obviously it’s a word that
can mean one time and no more. I can still hear the sound of some of my teachers’ voices telling
me-I’m only going to say this once. With the idea that you better listen up-or else you’re not
going to know what to study or what the homework assignment is! Do you hear people making
this statement-I’m only going to say this once! And I’m always stuck saying-What? I missed itwhat did they say? Do you think they’ll repeat it? Or as a kid, did your parents ever say-I’m only
going to let you do this once. With the idea that you really shouldn’t be doing this. My parents
never wanted me to have sugared cereal for breakfast-We’ll only let you eat Fruit Loops this
once-of course I never reminded them how often they said that allowing me to eat Fruit Loops a
lot. But if you’re a parent have you caught yourself saying that? I’m only going to let you do this
once. But beyond the idea of once meaning one; it’s also a word that points us back to the past.
When someone tells you about a vacation they took you might respond-we went there once toowould love to go back! Or maybe it’s the opposite-we went there once, we’ll never return to that
place! And the key part is once-because it’s not happening again. It’s from the past-which is
often how the word is used. “Once upon a time” is the classic beginning to any fairy tale. And in
that context, once has the idea of formerly, the way things used to be. “That was once a great area
to live in-now it’s hit on hard times” “There used to be a great restaurant there once-but now it’s
changed cooks and the food’s terrible,” “That was once the coolest trend around-now you
wouldn’t be caught dead wearing it.” Once carries with it the idea that something’s changed, and
changed quite drastically. What does the famous hymn say-I once was lost, but now I’m found. Once is a great word that relates to who we were before coming to know Christ-and it’s one of
the words we want to key on this morning.
Open your Bibles to Colossians 1 as we continue our series in this letter entitled-New Identity, Deep Roots. And it’s that new identity we’ll be focusing on this morning-because look at how
our passage starts off-v. 21. Or if you have the NIV it just launches right into the word-Once you
were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. And it
says once-because if you’re a follower of Christ there’s been a drastic change. Once, formerly, in
the past you were alienated from God. Speaking of words-that’s another good one-alienated. When you hear that who doesn’t think of aliens, little green men, or Star Wars (I’m bummed
there wasn’t a new Star Wars film this year!) But here’s everyone’s favorite alien-Yoda. Who
doesn’t love him? And there’s everyone’s least favorite alien-Jar Jar Binks. Who did like him?
Least favorite alien in the Star Wars universe. But there’s probably a lot of you-my mother’s this
way-who gets all confused with Star Wars, saying-I don’t get any of it-all those weird aliens and
creatures, doesn’t make any sense to me. I can’t understand it. But that basically proves the point
of the word because alienated means that it is foreign to you, you don’t relate or understand, it
doesn’t make any sense to you, it’s alien. And here in v. 21 it’s saying that in our sinful, lost
states we were alienated from God, separated from Him, we couldn’t relate. And that wasn’t
because we were some strange alien race on planet earth that God couldn’t relate to. Rather, God
was holy and we were not. He was perfectly good and righteous in all things and we weren’t.
And the rest of the verse describes why-we were hostile in our minds, doing evil deeds. There’s
no getting around that point. Our thoughts, our desires were hostile to God’s desires. While He’s
concerned with love and compassion, we want vengeance -Wait until I tell them off-I’ve got a few
choice words-they’ll know not to mess with me. Or if God wants us to build others up, we often
do the opposite of tearing people down-Oh that’s juicy gossip, I can’t wait to share it at work
tomorrow. Or while God seeks honesty, we prefer dishonesty-This is a sticky situation-I’ve got to
come up with a good lie to get out of this one. And beyond that we get caught up in all kinds of
grumbling and bitterness, anger, not to mention sexual immorality, impurity, greed, materialism
and selfishness. As humans we’re not alienated from evil behavior-not at all-we know evil
behavior all too well-it’s God who we’re alienated from.
Look at Isa 53:6a; Rom 3:10-14; 18 (NIV). This is not a good resume for us as humans-and it’s
mainly taking about the mouth-not even mentioning our hands, our hearts, our minds. But let’s
be honest, who’s mouth hasn’t acted like this or been full of poison and negativity? As sinners
we resent God and have no fear of Him precisely because we love our sin, we relish in it and
desire to go our own way, doing our own thing. So the truth of God’s Word doesn’t say that as
humans we’re all children of God; that we’re all part of His big, happy family-which is what a
lot of people think-that here in this world we’re all God’s children. It’s actually saying the
opposite. As humans we’re enemies of God, we’re hostile to Him, we’re like a vicious gang of
rebels, like a pack of wild dogs or brainless zombies, we’re outsiders looking in, we’re across the
tracks, on the other side of the fence-because of our sin. There’s a huge gulf, a separation
between us and God. And that includes everybody. No one is any better off because of how hard
they’ve tried to live good and no one is any worse because they’ve made too many mistakes.
When it comes to how we relate to God, as humans we’re all in the same boat which is that we
are God’s enemies because of how we’ve acted and what our deeds deserve. What happened to
Adam and Eve after they disregarded God and ate from the tree? They got booted out of the
Garden. They could no longer be in the same place God was. It’s alienation-so as humans we are
hostile aliens in God’s sight. Have you thought of it like that before?
We try to alienate ourselves from germs and diseases so we wash and sanitize our hands and get
flu shots; we try to alienate ourselves from annoying neighbors so we put up big fences,
ultimately we want to be alienated from the crime and corruption of the world so we try to live in
safe neighborhoods. But have you ever thought that God is alienated from us, from you and me,
because of our evil deeds, because of our sin? It’s a harsh description. But what’s that great word
Paul’s inserted into the verse-v. 21. Once! I love this word because it means formerly, what was
the case, the way things used to be aren’t anymore. That one word changes everything.
Pt1:Once: Alienated and Enemies. When Paul is writing to this church in the town of Colosse,
he’s telling them who they used to be-and it’s the same for us-people that are alienated from
God-but thankfully he adds that little, but massively important word, once. If once is not
included in v. 21 it just says-You’re alienated from God, separated by your evil deeds and stuck. But once means not anymore. Now things are different-and it’s because of Jesus.
The next verse explains it-v. 22. This is the big change; truly a seismic shift. It’s that theme in
Colossians of new identity-but now He has reconciled you. Having the pronouns in the right
order is so important. Neither the Colossians back then, nor you or I today, reconciled ourselves
to God, it was God who took the initiative and made reconciliation with us. He did it. And all
throughout the Bible we see that truth-Adam and Eve hid, God found them; Jonah disobeyed and
ran away, God rescued him from inside the fish; Zacaheus cheated people out of money, Jesus
went to his house, Peter denied the Lord 3 times, the Lord restored him, Paul was going his own
way, traveling to Damacus, and Jesus called out and saved him. And now it’s the same for us in
Col 1-He has reconciled you. So as a follower of Christ this is what now makes up your identity, this is who you now are, you’re no longer who you once were. That’s Pt2:Now: Reconciled and
Free from accusation. Often in life we step out to make reconciliation with family or friendsespecially when we’ve wronged them and we’re at fault. Hey, I’m sorry-I’ve been acting like a
jerk-I haven’t treated you right, will you forgive me? And the desire is to put the issue behind
you and move ahead in a restored and reconciled relationship with that person. But that’s not
what happens when it comes to God. With God we were the enemies, as the previous verse has
made so clear, and as enemies reconciliation wasn’t on our radar. We were happy continuing
right on in our sin, running headlong down our own path, doing our own thing, ignorant of our
destruction and ruin. Basically we were amusing ourselves to death, until God in His wisdom
and grace took the initiative and saved us from ourselves. The words of Romans 5 captures it
well-Rom 5:10. This is an incredible truth! Who do you know that’s reconciled with their enemies? Have you
reached out to your enemies lately? Hardly anybody does that. We’ll reconcile with friends if
there’s been an issue; we’ll reconcile with family because they’re family and we sort of have tobut who willingly reconciles with their enemies? Maybe you remember the famous American
feud between the Hatfields and McCoys-these two families along the W. Virginia/Kentucky
border fought with each other for over 30 years-from 1863-1891. A few years ago I watched the
tv miniseries with Kevin Costner-and there was zero reconciliation in that entire show. They
remained enemies and fought to the bitter end. And that’s so common in our lives. We think
we’re well justified in hating our enemies-that there’s good reason why we’re not reconciledbecause they’re our enemies. But that’s not how God operates-He reaches out and in His grace
saves and reconciles us-even when we were His enemies. We looked like the Hatfields to God!
But because of Him the feud is over and the fighting can stop.
And how does it happen? Go back to Rom 5:10-what does it say-by the death of His Son. Look
back at Col 1:22a. If you have the NIV it says it very vividly-by Christ’s physical body through
death. That’s reminding us that His death wasn’t some abstract or nebulous concept. It was very
real as His body, His flesh, was crucified and killed instead of us. He served as our substitute. So
for that to happen, what was necessary? A body, the Incarnation. Jesus, as the eternal Son of God
and 2nd Person of the Trinity, needed to be truly human-which meant a real, actual human body. And that’s the Christmas story-Matt 1:21. To be our substitute, to stand in our place, He needed
flesh because that’s what we have. A legitimate substitute needs to share the same essence-that’s
what a substitute is. Hence, a substitute teacher is still a teacher. But I’ll admit there’s a lot of bad
substitutes out there-like turkey bacon. That’s no substitute for real bacon! Or what do health
experts tell us-when you’re craving chocolate or a bag of chips, substitute it with fruit.But is that
a legitimate substitute? Hardly! If I eat the fruit I’m still craving the chocolate. An orange
doesn’t share the same essence as a Reese’ peanut butter cup. It’s a terrible substitute.
But that’s not the case with Jesus. Hebrews 2 says He shared in our humanity. That Jesus, while
fully God, was also fully human; making Him a perfectly legitimate substitute. And this was one
of the truths being questioned in the Colossian church. Remember we said that Epaphras who
helped plant the church went to go see Paul for some theological help because there was a
variety of false teachers negatively influencing the church. One of the things these false teachers
believed was that the physical world was evil-that matter, all we can see and touch was corrupt- and that only the spiritual world was good. So in their minds, a holy God couldn’t come in
contact with the evil matter of the world. God had to keep His distance, thus they concluded that
Jesus couldn’t have actual human flesh, He was just some sort of spiritual being or emanation
from God, not a real, living person. Eventually this thinking became known as gnosticism. But
Paul is directly challenging that thinking, he’s correcting that idea by saying-Oh no-Jesus did
have a fully human body, He had flesh just like we do. Therefore salvation happens by Jesus’ body when He, as our substitute, bore our sins on the cross and died. It’s not some obscure
philosophical, spiritually-disconnected, thought-it’s reality. Jesus died so that you and I could
live. The words of Peter totally agree-1 Pet 2:24. It’s not through yourself, you’re not saved
because you started living better, you’re not saved because you started going to church or turned
over a new leaf, you’re not saved because of anything in you. You’re saved because you trusted
in this truth alone-by Christ’s wounds, by His death, your sins are paid for and you’re reconciled.
You trusted in the substitute who died in your place. And so if it’s based on Him-and not
yourself-it brings incredible security. Look back at the second part of v. 22. That’s the outcome and it’s really important! Because you’ve been reconciled to God through
Christ you are now justified before God. I want you to follow this thinking. Just as your sins
were imputed to Christ, which means counted to Christ when He bore them on the Cross, so His
righteousness is then imputed to you, meaning counted to you. It’s the great exchange: your sin
for His righteousness. Christ not only died the painful death you deserved, He also lived the
perfect life you never could, and because you are now in Christ by trusting Him, God considers
you in the same way He considers Christ. So what this verse is saying is remarkable! God sees
you as holy, He sees you as blameless, He considers you above reproach, He says you are free
from accusation. You, with all your struggles and failures that threaten to undo you, with all your
bad habits and sinful tendencies, the mistakes you often make or the trouble you often get into.
Despite all that-God says because of Christ no one can bring any kind of charge against you.
This is one of these moments where you wonder if you read it right. Is that what the verse really
says? Yes it does-that’s the glorious news of the gospel! So back to the other part of Pt2:Now:
Reconciled and Free from accusation. I like what one author says-Tchividjian, 74-6. Do you think of your Christian life that way-completely based on what Jesus has already done
for you? Or do you think of your Christian life, your standing with God, on the basis of your
efforts and your good deeds? When I read this verse in Colossians telling me that in Christ I’m
above reproach and free from accusation I say “great” but that’s not how I often live. I tend to
live my Christian life with lots of accusations-primarily accusations from myself. Things likeJim, you’re not good enough. After the way you’ve acted, do you really think God would save
you? Look at your life, look at your struggles, and all your failures-God can’t be happy with you.
You better hope He overlooks what you’ve done or else you’re in real trouble! I don’t know
about you but it’s easy to point the finger at myself, easy to hear those accusations, and believe
the lies of the Evil One that it’s all on my shoulders, all about me and my efforts to make God
happy. Or that when I sin, I better work extra hard afterwards to make it up to God, I better have
a longer devotion and pray more earnestly so that God sees I’m serious. Have you found yourself
doing that? Sorry God, I’ve really messed up this time and let you down, but I’m going to pray
extra hard and read my Bible a lot longer today and then you’ll see I’m serious about following
you. This will be a top-notch devotion! I mean it. And afterwards, when you’re done, you think- That ought to show God-and off you go feeling good, patting yourself on the back, temporarily
stopping the accusations until the next time you sin and mess up and the cycle repeats. We say that we’re saved by faith, but we so often live as if we’re saved by works, trying to
counter every accusation with some good deed on our part in order to tell God-So I messed up
over there, but did you see what I did here, Lord, how good I was? But that kind of thinking
directly contradicts what Scripture is saying. You’re not free from accusations because you
proved yourself to God by all your good deeds and religious passion, you’re free from
accusations because of Christ, because He has reconciled you to God, because He has made you
holy and blameless in God’s sight-Rom 8:1. Not minimal-but no condemnation. You’re free from accusation not because of you, but because of Him. You have to stop listening
to the accusations around you-whether from yourself saying you’re not good enough, whether
from other people constantly reminding and accusing you of your past and all your baggage, or
whether from the Evil One himself who seeks to accuse and discourage you. I want you to see an
incredible few verses from Revelation 12-it points to the future but it impacts us today-Rev 12:9-
11a. Certainly this points us to our glorious future where the Evil One will be forever defeated, but the reality of that truth begins today. Today you overcome the accuser and his accusations by
looking to Jesus. He gave up His life and died for you in order to present you to God holy, blameless and free from accusation. That was the purpose of His substitutionary death. So
you’ve got to stop looking at yourself and your behavior, you’ve got to stop evaluating yourself
based on how clean or sinful you feel, you have to stop listening to what others say about you- and you have to evaluate yourself according to what Jesus has done for you. Absolutely no
accusations will stand against you once you’re forgiven in Him. God will never say to you-You
were doing so good in your spiritual life, such promise, and then you messed up. You were so
close, I wanted to save you, but your sin was too much in the end, sorry. That’s not how it works.
God doesn’t need you to prove yourself to Him, to show Him how good you are, Jesus has
already done it for you. God doesn’t want you laboring to work and earn your way to heaven, He
wants you securely resting in Christ’s finished work on your behalf. Because of Christ you
already possess God’s approval, you already possess God’s love; you already have security, freedom, meaning and purpose. Because of Christ you already possess forgiveness, cleansing and
His righteousness. When God thinks of you right now, in this very moment, as you’re sitting
here-because of Christ-God sees you as holy, blameless and free from accusations. It’s amazing,
almost baffling, but it’s true! Is there any better confidence or peace than that!
And that’s what causes your walk with Christ to grow. Your growth doesn’t happen by trying
your hardest to behave better, your growth happens by believing better; by believing in the
righteous standing that Christ has already secured for you. That you would wake up each day
realizing-I once was this-alienated from God, doing evil behavior-but now I’m this-reconciled
and forgiven, free from accusation! That’s the truth of the gospel, your new identity in Christ.
So there’s 2 takeaway’s this morning in light of these verses-the first is-Silence the accusations. Maybe your heart has been full of condemning thoughts all week, maybe you’re constantly
questioning your salvation, constantly wondering if God’s given up on you, always worried that
you’ll mess up one time too many. Maybe you think you already have and there’s no hope left.
Or maybe there’s a sin or some baggage from your past or things you regret doing that you’re
constantly dragging along, you’re constantly letting that mistake accuse you and tell you that
Jesus surely couldn’t save someone as bad as you and deep down you fear that maybe you won’t
make it to heaven. Silence the accusations because they’re not the truth. The moment you start
trusting the accusations is the moment you stop trusting Jesus. Have you thought about that? God
didn’t save you to always be constantly worrying and wondering-am I doing enough, am I good
enough, is God mad at me? No, He’s saved you by His grace so that as His child you would be
securely and confidently resting in Him-Keller, Jan 24. Resting in the truth, not the accusations.
And that brings us to the next takeaway-Saturate your heart with the truth. This morning we only
covered a couple of verses-if I hope to finish Colossians before Easter I better pick up the pace!
But we’ve examined two incredible, amazing, hard-to-believe they’re true verses-but they are
true. This week, let these two verses saturate your heart. If you want to silence the accusations,
you have to speak the truth to yourself. The moment you start to feel like you’re not measuring
up or doing enough, to remind yourself that it’s not about what you’ve done but who you’re
trusting in-and that’s Jesus-v. 22. There’s nothing of feelings there-it’s all truth, it’s all factual.
This is something that took place historically on planet earth-Jesus’ physical body, His flesh, was
put to death to permanently and eternally reconcile you to God. And because Jesus accomplished
it for you, there is no possibility it can ever be undone. Even though you don’t always perfectly
follow Him like you should-I know I don’t-even though you still mess up and stumble and fall,
you can never revert back to a state of divine alienation. It’s not who you are anymore. Being
reconciled to God and free from accusation is your new identity. It’s a lot like having your birthday every year-once you turn a year older you can’t go back to the
age you were. If you turned 20-you can’t go back to 19. Or if you turned 30 you’re not going
back to your 20’s and if you’ve turned 40 or 50 or more the 20’s are long gone! I can remember
my birthday in 7th grade and I can picture sitting in my room at one point having this moment of
sadness because being a 7th grader and leaving behind 6th grade felt like I was leaving my
childhood behind. Apparently I felt like I was entering a state of deep maturity and wisdom as a
7th grader-becoming the man I was supposed to be! But I still vividly remember thinking that I
can’t go back to being a kid again-and I was really sad because I loved being a kid. Running
around outside, riding my bike, playing with my toys-it was great! I still try really hard to be a
kid! But the reality is I’m not-obviously I haven’t been since 7th grade. But I cannot go back to
being a kid-it’s impossible. And it’s the same thing with being reconciled to God. Because Jesus
has accomplished it for us we can never go back to a state of alienation from God. These verses
in Col 1 aren’t conditional on how good you’re doing, or based on your faith in yourself (which
might be minimal because you know you’ll blow it!). This truth is based on your faith in what
Christ has already done for you and it’s a permanent reality-v. 22-23. Don’t shift from the
gospel, but steadfastly silence the accusations and saturate your heart with the truth of what Jesus
has done for you! And here this morning if you’ve never trusted in that do so-if you have
continue!