This includes you who were once far away from God. You were His enemies, separated from Him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now He has reconciled you to Himself through the death of Christ in His physical body. As a result, He has brought you into His own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault. Colossians 1:22-23
It is a universal truth that oil and water will not mix. As hard as you might try to mix them, the two substances will always separate from each other. The way that oil and water consistently separate from each other is a physical picture of the way that sin and God are permanently separated from each other.
Scripture teaches that because God is perfect and set apart, or distinct, from humanity, He cannot be near sin. Like oil and water, God and sin cannot ever mix. They are permanently separated from each other. The apostle Paul understood this when he wrote the book of Colossians. In Colossians 1:22, he writes that we were all once separated from God by our sin, or "evil thoughts and actions." Despite this bad news, we have the next verse, Colossians 1:23, which says, "Yet now He has reconciled you to Himself through the death of Christ in His physical body." You see, even though sin separates us from God, Jesus came to earth and took that sin on Himself, died on a cross, rose from the dead, and conquered sin and death so that we do not have to experience separation from God.
If you read the daily devotional yesterday, you know that we saw that when Jesus was dying on the cross for our sins, He spoke the words, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me" (Matthew 27:46). In saying this, Jesus felt the weight of the sin of the world and experiencing the feeling of separation from God the Father caused by sin. Though temporary, this must have been such a foreign and lonely feeling for Jesus. When we believe in Jesus and trust that His death on the cross and resurrection offers restoration in our relationship with God, we are no longer separated from Him because of our sin. Christ's death on our behalf reconciles us to God. This, my friends, is the hope you have if you turn to Him and place your faith in Him.
Have you reviewed the Bridge Diagram lately? You can find it in segment four here. Take some time to review it today and practice writing and talking to someone about it. As you acknowledge that Jesus bridges the gap that we experience between us and God, spend time thanking God that we have a restored relationship with Him because of Jesus.
Read Colossians 1:15-23 (NLT)
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body.He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,and through him God reconciled everything to himself.He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.
©2024 Sagebrush Church
