Colossians- Lesson 6 week 2

So we're in the book of Colossians, chapter 1, verses 21 through 23. And I think maybe I'll just start off by reading that passage, just get our minds back on the things that we covered last week, and then we'll jump into question number 3. So you'll want to have your questions out, and Bible open to Colossians 1 if you would like to read along.

So, Colossians 121, and although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind and 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. 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."

So we're in the part of Colossians that has to do with Christ's deity, the fact that he is incomparable to any other option that these Colossians are being faced with in terms of whatever form of Gnosticism that they were hearing in Colossae at the time, really what I like to think of it is not so much, let's not worry about whether it was Gnosticism or Asceticism or whatever kind of ism, let's just recognize that they were dealing with unbelief and there was a tendency to want to shift away from biblical truth that they had and to begin seeing that there is this potential idea of reconciliation through other means other than Christ.

Christ's deity in terms of not only the spirit but also the flesh was something that they struggled with, thinking that flesh and bones were by nature evil. And so they struggled with this idea of the gospel of a man coming to earth that was both man and God, literally dying on a cross for them. Is that possible to actually reconcile them from what they knew their sins to be? They've got this issue going on and Paul is writing from prison to them to encourage their hearts about the nature of Christ. So that's what we're looking at.

So question number three is, is the alienation and enmity in one's mind a barrier to the possibility of reconciliation? It's kind of a wordy question. I think the key to that question is, is it a barrier to possibility? Not, is it a barrier, but is it a barrier to possibility of reconciliation?

We've talked a little bit about reconciliation. We're going to go back into that on question number four. So let's just talk about the barrier aspect. In terms of the time that you spent working through this question, what would you come up with? Can you explain what you mean by alienation and enmity in one's mind? How does that fit in again? So remember last week we were talking about how alienation and enmity really could be summarized in the word enemy. And we went back and said when did mankind become an enemy of God.

And we talked about how in Genesis 2, the Lord placed before Adam and Eve the warning concerning the tree of life and eating of the fruit that was forbidden. And he made a statement that in the day that they eat of it, they will what? Death means what? Death means separation.

So when we think about enmity and alienation, it's all tied to the separation that spiritually took place and physically takes place over the course of our life, but more specifically the spiritual alienation that occurred on the are in the Garden of Eden at that very moment, and then as Adam and Eve beget man, we bear the seed of Adam, we belong to the seed of Adam, we are from Adam, and so by nature of our birth, we are born into alienation and hostility of mind. And we talked about last week how hostility takes on a lot of different forms.

Some are more in your face, others are hostile in secret places and in secret ways, but that the natural sinful state of man is to be an enemy of God. And so there needs to be something done in order to reconcile that situation, which is where that word reconciliation comes in, and we'll talk about that. So, is your sin nature? And by virtue of your sin nature, your alienation, your hostility, is that a barrier to being reconciled to God? No. Why? Well, because we were crucified with Christ and we no longer live and we're a new creature in Christ. And that new regenerated being that is separated from the flesh doesn't have a problem.

So do we see situations where sinful man are then called reconciled in the Bible? We see it in this verse, don't we? Let's read chapter Colossians 1, 22 one more time. It just says, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body. So the Colossians were, in verse 21, alienated, hostile in mind, they were enemies, but he says yet Now you were reconciled. And then he goes on to talk about the means by which that happened. So this verse actually shows us that a sinful past filled with the hostility toward God is not a barrier to the possibility of reconciliation.

So, this verse states that, and we can go into many others, and we will look at a couple others in a moment, but if separation, if this idea of Seth, death and separation, that's a new word for you. You'll never forget what death means now, because now you've got Seth in your toolbox. I've done that so many times. One of my favorite ones is, I'll see, It's gloriful. Somehow it came up wonderful and glory all in one, and I was like, isn't God just so gloriful? He is. I like to make up new words.

Fortunately, that's not convenient for a Bible teacher, but nonetheless, is the separation that we all experience, being born of Adam, is that a barrier to reconciliation? And we said, no, it isn't. We see that men get reconciled. Sinful men get reconciled to God. So, what is the barrier? There has to be a barrier. What is it? Unbelief. Unbelief. You guys agree with that?

Our will. Okay. I think that our will is just another way of thinking about, and more specifically, about what triggers belief, right? The term volition or will, our ability to choose, is definitely involved in the process of being reconciled. But there are schools of thought out there.

If you haven't come from them yourself or dabbled in them or still wrestling with them, Calvinism has a very specific view on the barrier of entry in order to be reconciled. They call it this total inability to believe on your own. The Lord has to do certain things to you in order for you to actually be reconciled. And I won't go into great depth with that, but there's a process by which Calvinism teaches that you're chosen, and then you are regenerated.

In other words, you're out, dead, coal on a slab, as Verne calls it. You're chosen, and then he gives you life. And then you get to believe, and your will is capable of choosing God. And then you become a believer, and then you're saved. And so he gives you life first and then you're saved. And so how does reconciliation fit in this? Well, in Calvinism, you're regenerated so that you can be reconciled.

But that's not an order that we see in the Bible, but it's an order that fits a very unique system called Calvinism. And so while not needing to feel like we need to go into that in great depth, I think it's easier to say, let's not worry ourselves with getting the process right in a system. Let's worry about getting the process right according to what the scripture says. And so when we look at John 16, 8 through 11, or even John 5, 24, Titus 3, 5, we'll look at those real quick. I'll just read them to you.

John 16, 8 says, And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. So when Christ does the convicting, what is the state of man? Because they do not believe in me? So they're not believers when Christ is doing the convincing. So this process of convincing takes place in an unbeliever's will. What is it, is it just your will that has the ability to move you past the barrier from sin and hostility in mind into reconciliation? Is it just your will? Working on its own? Unconvinced, un... They're rebellious? No, no. What's your thought?

I think the Holy Spirit's necessary to draw us. Is it that the Holy Spirit is regenerating you, giving you a new life so that you can believe, or is He actually convincing the sinful will to believe in what God offers to you in reconciliation? He works through the Word, and the Holy Spirit does the convicting. We talked about that a lot last week, didn't we? about the combination of the Word of God being able to penetrate heart and soul and get to the deepest point of joint and marrow, that deepest place, the place that our words and our sermons and our really nice conversations, while can be encouraging, cannot penetrate in the same way that the Word of God does. And so here, the Word Himself is communicating to these sinful unbelievers and He is convicting them about their need of righteousness and the result of judgment. And it is the Holy Spirit, through God's Word, that is drawing and convincing a person to believe.

Now, when they believe, are they truly believing? Or is someone else believing for them? If it's not your belief, do you ever possess anything that the Lord says results in the belief that you have in Him? If somebody else believes for you, What does that do?

Nothing. So, yeah, go ahead. I've had some friends who say you have to give up too much. So they don't like to go that route, believe in the Lord. So in their mind, what's the barrier to reconciliation? Pleasure. Too much. I don't know what that is for them. I know what it is for me. Giving up too much. So they see this as, I've got to give a bunch of stuff to God, in order to be saved. Is that what we read?

Titus 3.5 says, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds, the stuff, the given up stuff, He saved us not on that basis, which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. So, actually it's a very simple process, and these systems that are out there, Calvinism, Arminianism, The systems themselves, in order to logically make sense, and I'll have to say that it's nice to have a logical system that you can just explain from A to Z, and you can just beat down in the mind of people that are confused and say, this is the way it has to work. And I was a product of that, and I definitely like logical, strategic ways of thinking. And Calvinism has taken much of the Word of God, same with Arminianism, and created a system out of it. But where it tends to struggle is it starts to make assumptions outside of what the Bible actually tells us. And that's the dangerous part.

So what I would encourage us to do, and have had to walk in my own journey of faith with, is let's let the Bible speak, and let's stop where the Bible doesn't speak. So if the Lord says, I am going to give you this gospel message. You have an opportunity to believe in your hostile and sinful mind. We know that the Holy Spirit is convincing us. And when we believe, that barrier is overcome, not because we overcame it, but because Christ overcame it for us. And stop. Why do we need to talk about anything else happening in the mind of God when Scripture doesn't actually explain that process in that way? So the process that we see quite often throughout the scripture is believe and then you're given life. And so when we think about our own barrier to reconciliation, you at some point believed. And a lot of times it's not this monumental moment. I might have mentioned this last week. Sometimes you're just listening to the radio, driving a truck for five years, and at some point you were convinced of the truth of the gospel, And you believe.

And it's not a big deal. You don't have to go back and say, oh, I remember my spiritual birthday. And some people have that pleasure to be able to go back and remember that very moment. Others don't. There was a process. I don't know when it exactly happened, but at some point I came to believe. And I know now that the Holy Spirit was using His Word and His drawing and convincing to regenerate me. Then we stop. That's the end of that side of the barrier question that we're talking about here.

John 5, 24 says, "...truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes, him who sent me, has eternal life." So you've got to hear it, and then there's got to be this process where your will is convinced of the Holy Spirit communicating truth to you, and you believe. and that might be monumental for you, it might be emotional for you, it might not be. There's nothing in the Bible that says you need a hallelujah chorus to make sure that a person is a believer, or you need tears of total, you know, just freedom, or whatever it is that they say. We all have different emotions that are wrapped up into that time when we believed, but what's necessary is the gospel, and the Holy Spirit working in your heart to believe what is said to be true about his death, burial, and resurrection.

There's other verses we can go into, but I think to answer the question, sin and hostility of mind is not a barrier to being reconciled. Christ came to save sinners, right? So reconciliation is possible not only for us, but for every unbeliever you know. Regardless of the things they think they have to give up, They just need to be communicated with in a sense that it's not about what you give up. It's about what you're given. Right? Not about you. This has nothing to do with what you are doing. It has to do with all that Christ did. And we're going to move into that in the next question.

Bob? I was just going to say, one of the things that I think we overlook is that we're not just believing facts. that we're actually being introduced to our Lord Jesus in a personal way, in such a way that He becomes attractive. The Holy Spirit makes Him more important to us than the things that we're giving up because we're focusing on Him by the Holy Spirit's work through the Word. And when we see him, it isn't just that we're hearing, but we're hearing under. We agree with the Holy Spirit. He is marvelous. He's done all of this for me personally. He took my place. Paying a debt I could never pay.

I want to go into that. I think that's a really good segue into the next question. So I'm going to hang on to this word, attractive, and talk about that a little bit. I'm just curious. It seems like sometimes it has to do with people's lives just falling apart, or they're going, man, I'm trying to run this life. I'm such a cool guy. And you're just at the top of my game and all of a sudden you're in garbage up here. You really have a felt need that, you know, I'm not running my life so hot.

Here's another good word. So let's talk about these two things that were just brought up. Let's talk about felt need first and then we'll talk about making the Lord attractive to someone. and how that gets done. I know that's not exactly how you said it, but we'll talk about it. So does someone have to have a felt need in order to accept the good news?

No. It's a good answer. The answer is no. Is someone's necessity hit the bottom of the barrel to be up to here, to have nowhere else left to go in life, is that the place that a person has to be in order to believe? Is it oftentimes the place that people get to? It is.

But it's not a necessity. In other words, my kids didn't get the opportunity to hit the bottom of the barrel in their life, although they might have thought that was the case when they got grounded or sent to their room for a time out. But they didn't come back from a time out and say, that was the worst thing in my life. I'm ready to hear about salvation. So felt need is something. What's a better way of saying it? It's not about your felt need, but about what?

Maybe a realized need, or real need, or maybe we could say what the Bible says is the need of every person. Whether a person recognizes that they have a need or not, the Bible tells us that our Creator knows us intimately. because he designed us, and he is taking an active role in reconciling sinners, so he knows where the sinful mind is, he understands it. While never being sinful in the same sense, he understands the need for salvation of sinners. So much so that he actually came to this earth as a as a man, and bore the sin of the world.

So the felt need is not so much a felt need, it's a spiritual need. It's a real need, or a realized need. And so our job, oftentimes as ambassadors, we introduced that word last week, our job as ambassadors is to help a person understand their real need. You may not feel like you want to be saved because there's too much to give up. we're not talking about your felt needs.

You may hit the bottom of the barrel and realize, you know, hey, you've lost everything. Well, if you introduce Christ in conjunction with a felt need, eventually they aren't going to have that same felt feeling, right? Maybe they rise up and now they're on top of the world, still without salvation, so it's like, why do I need Christ?

You know, Buddhism got me out of that deal. So it's not about the felt need, it's about them realizing the true spiritual need that the Bible says they have. And we've all come to that realization because the scripture has convinced us, along with the Holy Spirit. And that's what they need, more than anything, is to have the Word of God alive and working in their heart with regards to who they are and how they stand before God.

So now let's talk about, so we said no, let's talk about attractive. And let's do that with the next question. What does reconciliation mean? Let's start with some contrast to reconciliation, since we've talked about that word quite a bit. What's the opposite of reconciliation? Separation. Separation? Okay. Let's use some other words to help flesh the contrast out. Alienation. Alienation. Disagreement. Disagreement. Let's paint a picture.

You and a close friend get into an argument. And you probably can think about the last time this happened. And you broke fellowship with one another. I shouldn't have used the word fellowship. Your friendship is just at stake. And you go your own separate ways. And you both stay hostile of mind towards one another. And you spend time thinking about just how detrimental that was to your friendship.

And you all of a sudden decide, I need to make things right. So I use that term, make things right, with my kids all the time. When they break a type of friendship with one another, mainly in this illustration, their sibling, they need to go and spend time with the Lord until they're prepared in their heart to make things right with their brother or sister. Same thing with you and your friend. Hopefully as a believer, you're convinced of how important it is to reconcile your friendship.

So when we think about man being sinful and God offering this idea of reconciliation to sinful man, He is offering an opportunity on behalf of a sinner to make things right on their behalf. What's really interesting is that man doesn't come up with the idea of how to make that work. So unlike the illustration where we're going to make things right with our friend, Here's the guy in the situation with the Lord. He's the guy that is saying, I know that there's something wrong, even though you don't, and I'm going to offer you a means of which to make things right, even though you don't deserve it.

So I'm still offended by sin, but I'm offering you as an offended God, being just, but also being equally loving, I'm offering you a path to make things right with me. So then the question is, if reconciliation basically means to make things right, and it's God is the one that's doing the making right, then how far does that offer extend?

Is it just to a few? How far does it... It's reconciling the world. Okay, the world. Well, what does this chair need to be reconciled for? Is it the world in the sense of every human living being or is it angelic beings? Is it created things? Humans. He subjected the creation to futility too. The whole thing. So how far is the next question? So question five has to do with how far does reconciliation reach?

Before we go there, and you want to keep thinking about this, but I think that when we're thinking about As ambassadors, how are we making Christ attractive to unbelievers? Is it making sure that you have the most trendy band set up for the service? I guarantee you that is a strategy for many churches. Is it about having the most motivational speakers up in front so that whenever a new unbeliever walks into that door, That guy, or gal, is capable of just slaying the dragon motivationally. You need to focus on the cross, don't you? The cross, okay, so let's draw a cross.

I know when I was a non-believer and I was kind of surrounded by believers, this was my first year in college, I realized that they had a relationship that I didn't have or thought. So let's write Christ in us. Is seeing Christ in us enough to overcome the barrier needed for reconciliation? If I see Christ in you and you love me to the Lord, is that enough? No? So, I think we would all agree, and we'll just make kind of a leap to this, making Christ attractive to others is definitely a walk with the Lord that is in fellowship. You can't be out of fellowship with the Lord and have Christ do the living through you.

You're going to be doing it. And it's going to look pretty sloppy. I call it the fake it till you make it strategy. And you can look pretty darn good. I can get up here on some Sunday mornings and be out of fellowship and I can teach and I can talk. We can all fake it till we make it. I'm just saying that you can learn how to be a good Christian, and you can speak the Christianese, and you can walk the Christian talk and walk, and you can fake it.

But a true trust in the Lord begins to develop fruit over time, doesn't it? And so it's not about how well did that person perform in that moment while they were kind of out of fellowship, just kind of on cruise control, they knew what to do, they knew what to say, but what does their life look like over time? In a lot of ways, Christ and us being attractive is something that takes place over the course of many months or years in a person's life. you start to see fruit.

Even if you're an unbeliever, you don't understand what's going on with these guys or gals, but it's like something is happening that is different. And that's kind of the way they first recognize it. It's like, this is different. There is a relationship, and it's kind of up and down, and it seems like a real-life relationship. It's not just a hundred percent, you know, like, pedal to the metal, super-Christian guy, but he's real, just like David, you know, in Scripture. He had problems, but he bore fruit and he grew in maturity over time.

Question? I know this is a little different, but I think it's very important when we see a stranger come in to extend friendship and welcoming because I've had some friends who said, no one even said boo to me. And I think that's an important place on our part to extend. It is very important, not because it's a rule. but because it comes out of Christ doing the living through us.

He is interested in sinful beings. So if Christ is doing the living in us, we are going to be interested in the life that a person potentially has in Christ and the avoidance of eternal separation. That's true love, in my opinion. It's truthing in love. You love someone so much that you're concerned about their spiritual well-being.

And so, it's not so much that we have this kind of protocol. When a new believer comes in, everybody bum rush him and make sure he gets the love and attention he needs. That is the strategy of many churches. And they have people standing at the door making sure that happens. And that's not a bad thing per se, but it's not a rule for us.

It's a life of Christ doing the living, and he has a relationship interest in people. So, definitely, that's true. Definitely. Let's talk about the cross side of this. When we're thinking about, it's not just enough for Christ to do the living through us that brings someone to know the Lord. It definitely helps bring an interest in the relationship factor, but they need truth.

And so when we think about the cross here, I'm going to use the term the finished work of the cross. So when we talk about the finished work of the cross, what are we talking about that's taking place? Because we're talking about the finished work of the cross being something that unbelievers need to hear. Do unbelievers need to hear about their position and their blessed state and their seating in the heavenly?

Do they need that? They don't have it. Do they need to know about their forgiveness that they enjoy? Their complete and total forgiveness? Maybe at some point, but there needs to be an understanding of what took place on that cross and how it applies to them.

So, we have three words, I think, and I'm just going to put these up here for us. We have the word redemption, we have reconciliation, and then we have propitiation. Those are big theological terms. Propitiation. I can never spell right on these things. Anybody else here have that problem? The big words sometimes get flipped in my brain.

So, this comes out of Lewis Barry Schaeffer's Systematic Theology. I'm not the one that came up with this. And you think, oh my goodness, we're talking about systematic theology and we're talking about theologians in theological terms. Don't worry, it's not a big deal. This has to do with something that took place on the cross that every believer understands but may not use these words for.

In this particular verse, which aspect of the finished work of Christ are we talking about? What is he talking about in this verse? Which one? Reconciliation. This one. A lot of times, I think this is like, these are all different ways of looking at the same finished work. And they just have different perspectives to them.

So when we think about reconciliation, We're really talking about the sphere of a relationship between a God who is offering salvation to an unbeliever, in which this exists between the sinner and God. So reconciliation has to do with the sinner and God.

What do you think redemption, what's the relationship problem that's being solved for there? He redeemed us out of the slave market of sin. Sin. Okay. So reconciliation has to do with the sinner. Redemption has to do with the person. So we say sinner and his sin. What about propitiation? God is satisfied. God is satisfied. So how do we talk about that view? It's between God and the sinner.

Could that be de-sin redemption? Here? Yes. De-sin. Not your sin, as in, you know, you popped off to one of your friends on the phone because you were rude, you know, but the sin nature, right? Which produces sinful acts. So it's not the sinful acts, it's the sin nature.

So we have these different aspects here, and what's helpful to understand, I think, is that when we're talking about making attractive the gospel, we have these words that bring up really interesting pictures, right? And we create analogies out of them. When we think about redemption, what are some of the analogies that the Bible uses to help bring the redemption out in our minds? What's the pictures? Okay. I will have to admit, I'm thinking of a specific one.

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. When we think about God redeeming a sinful man, what are some of the words that versus... Slavery. Slavery. Okay, so let's use slavery. That's what I was thinking about. So here in redemption, again we're talking to the unbeliever and we're saying the finished work of the cross applies to you. In other words, redemption applies to an unbeliever, reconciliation applies to an unbeliever, propitiation applies to an unbeliever, and that it's being offered as the finished work of Christ. When this happened, when Christ was crucified, buried, and rose again, these things became available to the entire world, as we're going to find out. And so, in the redemption side of things, he's saying, I came and you were enslaved. You're shackled and chained to what? Sin. Sin nature. You can't ever shake that thing.

If a believer says, or if a non-believer says, well, I don't feel like I've got sin shackled to me. I don't feel like I have sin shackled to me. What would our response be? Their operating system is sin and sin constantly. Well, I don't sin as bad as that guy. Then that's your pride. My sinful operating system is at least not as bad as yours.

So, I mean, I got a little bit of a heads up on you. Isn't that what people do though? They instantly start comparing their sin to other people's to figure out how bad it's supposed to be. It's like, okay, I'll give you a little bit. I'm shackled to a few things, but I'm not shackled to the same things that Saddam Hussein was shackled to, or Hitler, or that guy down the street. You should see what he's doing.

Okay, well, what would you say, like what I mentioned last week, to this neighbor who just said, everybody goes to heaven? I mean, I think I missed an opportunity. No, no. So maybe you did, maybe you didn't. And I guess my encouragement to you would be that what's happening in your mind right now is that you are thinking about that. and you're probably praying about it too to some degree, or you have the opportunity to, but now we as a body get to come and encourage you about a situation that you brought to us. And so you're working this out. So this opportunity that this woman gave you is now causing you to ask deeper questions about your own faith and how to translate that. So in terms of missing an opportunity, I see it as you're gaining an opportunity now to start thinking about things so that when you do get the chance to talk to her again, you've got some more truth in your bag. So, what would we say, in terms of redemption, if everyone... Did you have a thought?

Yeah, a couple of things. With that, it goes to that, look the guy down the street, this, that. In those instances, say, I'm a sinner. They look at you and think you're great. I'm trying to identify that I was a sinner. And they're like, what do you mean you're a sinner? Well, I'm a sinner, just like the worst guy you can think of or the best person you can think of. We're all sinners.

All these boil down to, I always come down to the question, or not the question, well, the only thing left for every human being is who is Christ. The sins have been paid for, and that's what, you know, everything's been paid for. All the sins have been paid for. The only question left for every human is who is Christ, and the belief in Christ. So it boils down to that, is, you know, we're all sinners. We all needed that. And that you identify, at least, you know, I would say I identify with the sinner because they kind of hung. And we have the free gift, because it's already paid for.

The only question left is, who is Christ? Is he the Son of God? Did he die for me? Did he pay the sins for me? And do I believe that? That's the only question left for every human being. I think that, yeah. Well, I was just thinking, I mean, the payment for sin is death. It doesn't qualify what kind of sin, who did this, who did that. The payment for sin is death, and the question is, who's going to pay that?

Okay, so I think that we're definitely thinking this through really well, and it's good. I think Courtney brought up a really important point. I think with redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation, when we're talking about the finished work of Christ, we're not sitting there just talking about what Christ did. We're also talking about who you are.

So if I could humbly just add to, at the end of the day, the only question that has to be answered is, who is Christ? That has to be answered. But I think there's even another question that comes to mind with regards to each of these scenarios that we'll talk about a little more, is who are you in relationship to Christ? So if we're introducing Christ to a relationship, we're introducing a person who has an operating system to an opportunity to be reconciled or experience propitiation or redemption.

So that could be two sides of the same coin, and I think probably that's the best way to say it. Every time we're introducing something that the Lord did on our behalf, we're thinking about the flip side, which is, I can't do that. So over here, You know, what is, and I'll just say, you. So let's use this example.

In redemption, in a situation of slavery, who is Christ in that picture of the finished work? What does he come and do in the slave yard? He comes, he pays the debt payment. he pays the ransom payment, he takes the key, he unshackles you, and he removes you from the place of slavery. So here, now we know he saves us from sin.

Over here, you get saved. So what about reconciliation? What's the picture there? God does what? He gives you a way. Go ahead. He reconciles us to himself and he restores a lost relationship. Would you say... I think that's good. He restores. How about connection? Reconnect. Not any reconnect. He connects us for the first time, right? Not reconnect.

Restores or connects, we could say. brings to harmony. Yeah, he makes things right. But he's the one that's doing it. What's your experience in reconciliation? Receiving. Now you get to be a friend. Before you were an enemy. Now, I'm saved, and now I'm a friend of God. I've been reconciled. Part of his family. Part of his family.

Reconciliation is pretty simple in terms of the salvation or the gospel message, but as you start to look at reconciliation as a believer, you start to learn, okay, I'm not just a friend of God like I understood when I first became a believer, but now I'm a child of God, and now I'm seated at the right hand of the Father who loves me and cares for me, and I have access to Him in prayer. This making things right reconciliation at the gospel level, while might be very simple, gets expounded upon in very deep family relationship types of terms throughout the rest of the scripture, doesn't it? Let's talk about propitiation. What happens there in terms of I think the lamb slain picture is really what is going on with propitiation. Propitiation just simply means that God is satisfied.

So if an unbeliever needs to know that the sin operating system is a barrier to being friends with the Lord, then there has to be something done about that sin. And what is that? For us, it's the cross. When we think about the Passover lamb, you need to find an unblemished, male, perfect, lamb, and there was other qualifications, and then that lamb was taken, the sinful man was to place his hand on the lamb, as to communicate my sin being transferred to this innocent creature, and then they were to take that lamb and let the blood run. so that all of the life was taken from that sacrifice. And the word sacrifice to the Lord means that I am satisfied that the innocent, perfect, has died in the place of the guilty, imperfect. So that was just a picture. Now when we move to the finished work of the cross we have the fullness of that picture taking place where Christ took upon us being perfect without blemish, male, all of the things that God required for a perfect sacrifice. These are the qualifications that I need in order for a sinful sacrifice to be made so as to offer these things to someone. And Christ was all of those things. And when He shed His blood, that gave the possibility for every unbeliever in the world to have propitiation with God, meaning that he can be satisfied not with what you did, but with what He did.

He was a satisfactory substitute. Go ahead. I guess I kind of have to reorder it a little bit. Yeah, you can reorder it. Because propitiation was the first thing that the sins were paid for, and God was satisfied with the payment. If it ended there, we're still sinners. God was satisfied that all the sins were paid for, but we're still sinners.

And then in the redemption part, I guess a little bit more that He redeemed us, that He unshackled us. It isn't that he pulled us out. We still have to, by faith, because he can unshackle us, but we can stay right in the prison or right in the thing. It's like all this, it's been paid for. You still have to receive that free gift by what faith or belief, which is unmerited action. It's nothing other than no benefit to our belief. But He redeemed us. He paid the price. God was satisfied. And then we have to receive that free gift. It's like getting a gift but never opening the package. It's sitting right in front of you. The package is there. But until you open it, you don't receive that gift.

So in redemption, we by faith, receive that gift. That's right. And then after that, and the redeeming part is the separation, not only from slavery, it's separating us from that sinner, that sinful nature. Giving us a new nature. The redemption is taking us out by grace out of Adam. and placing us into Christ. That's the redeeming, taking us out of slavery to sin, to slavery to righteousness. And that's the placement of us into Christ.

So does that make sense to what Courtney's saying? Because I think it's an important point, is that, and not so much the order of these things, but these are all the things that are available to every single man. So we're not saying, we do not say, although there are systems of belief out there that do say, redemption is limited to the elect. That's not what I believe the scripture talks about. Reconciliation is only available to the elect and propitiation is only available to the elect.

When we read about these finished works of the cross in the Bible, it says, the world, over and over and over. And you have to do a lot of verbal gymnastics to get around that. And the easier route is to just simply take the scripture for what it says, continually, over and over, that redemption, reconciliation, propitiation is for the world. He did these things to the world.

So this is the message wrapped up in the death, burial, and resurrection of And I'm not saying that you have to be able to go through all of this in order for a person to believe. The gospel is simply that Christ died on the cross for you, was buried, and rose again, and that because of your belief, you have access through the substitution of the death of Christ to salvation. But you can continue to help build an understanding of what the finished work of the cross means to them through these different these different, I don't want to say words, but these different realities. So when we think about what Courtney's saying, what can be done is that a person can sit there, an unbeliever can say, okay, I've been given redemption.

I've been offered redemption. You've offered me redemption through your message. You've offered me reconciliation with God. And you've offered propitiation. with God. I believe now that you've offered all of these things to me, and I believe that they're available to me."

And they could still not be saved. And they would be right, because all of these things have already been done on their behalf, but it is only belief that creates this situation for them. It's just like Courtney was saying, you could be unshackled and decide to stay a slave. You can have the payment made for you and not choose to have that apply to you. You can have reconciliation offered to you and decide you don't want to be a friend.

So this is the gracious love of God that is so attractive in the finished work of the cross that can still be rejected by someone not believing, but it can also be applied instantly through belief. I've got to give one clarification. That's a propitiation. That really doesn't have anything to do with us. That was between God the Father and God the Son. That was done by Christ going to the cross, taking all the sins of all time, and then giving up His life, His blood, and paying the price. That propitiation was between the Father and the Son only. And that was accomplished between those two. The son accomplished it. The father was appreciated. He accepted that.

Beyond that, then it's the other two that are where we are offered that. Because he, you know, again, it could have ended right there. God the Father was satisfied with the sins, but left us as sinners, never to be placed into Christ. But by grace, he offered us the co-crucifixion, the placement of us into Christ. So I say propitiation, that's between the Father and the Son. And that was for the whole world. That was for all sins, everybody. That's offered to... So I'll just read a couple of verses and then maybe add a little bit of thought to that.

So in Romans 3.25, as whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This, so propitiation, this is what it was for, Romans says, to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed. So, propitiation is between God the Father and God the Son, but it is done as a demonstration of righteousness available to unbelieving men.

Additionally, in Romans, or I'm sorry, in 1 John 2.2, it says, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins. That's personal. and not only for ours, but the sins of the whole world. And so, I would just argue that while the majority of this term relates to the sacrifice being made and the satisfaction that God has on behalf of that sacrifice, God has chosen to make propitiation a demonstration of how He can be satisfied with sin because of the substitute of Christ on your behalf.

And so, as a demonstration, I think that it fits very nicely in the finished work of Christ. And these verses, I think, help support that. Any questions here? I just love the simple thing. In Isaiah, you know, when Isaiah is talking about the point of the suffering service, and it tells all the suffering that God is going to do, and humiliation, and everything. But it said, when you make his soul an offering for sin, you'll see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. And that's Jesus being satisfied. That's right.

And that satisfaction and knowing that you have... My sins are not... I'm not at empty with God anymore. He's satisfied, not with me, but He's satisfied with my Savior. With the sacrifice that Christ was on my behalf, He is satisfied. And because I am in Christ, He's satisfied in me. I'm in Christ. There's no more wrestling any longer.

And so, just one thought here before. One thing I want to say is that while we can look at these theological terms, I don't want to frustrate you in the sense of, oh, I've got to understand all of this in order to communicate the gospel. No. I'll just make sure you're not hearing that.

What this is doing is giving us different angles of the finished work of Christ so that it becomes more attractive even after we've believed it. So, at the end of the day, this is a person. And we are introducing a person to someone. And to the point that was made earlier, we are not introducing a bunch of theological terms and knowledge that someone needs to contemplate and believe. We are introducing them to a person who has done these things.

But at the end of the day, they need to be asking the question, just like Courtney said, who is Christ? If he's done this for me and this is available to me, who is he to me? Is this just a really nice story? Or is he actually the one that accomplished this for me? And I believe that.

So, we're studying what the Colossians were struggling with. And they were struggling with being reconciled to God. They thought they needed to be reconciled through other different spirits. And Paul is saying, no. Jesus in the flesh, and that's what we'll talk about next week, Jesus in the flesh reconciled you all, and the whole world, and every created thing. The extent of his reconciliation was worldwide. Okay? Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for just the simplicity of what you did on our behalf, but we also thank you that we can dig deeper and understand the different angles of how intricate all of the things that you have done on our behalf can be understood by us. And we can understand who you are and what you've done in deeper ways, in ways that just touch the soul and touch us as new creatures placed in Christ, in ways that create nothing but just such a gracious act on your behalf. And Lord, we just are humbly receivers of that grace and those gifts. And we just want to thank you that you would love us so much that in our hostility and just alienation and enmity with you, Lord, you chose and made a way so that we could be made right with you. We could be reconciled.

And we just want to thank you for that wonderful gift. And I pray that you would continue to work these truths into our minds so that we could behold you in ways that are deeper and more meaningful, so that we understand who we are in Christ even greater. It's in your name that we pray. Amen.