Once Alienated, Now Reconciled
Click here to listen to this sermon. “You, who once were 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” (Colossians 1:21-23). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! In the opening verses of our text, Paul contrasts our former state (“once”) with that which Christ’s work has “now” conferred upon us. Once alienated, we have now been reconciled to God through the work of Jesus Christ. “Alienated” describes a broken relationship, such as of spouses in a disaffected marriage or of parents and children estranged from one another. Alienation from God is the continual state of those without Christ. We are conceived an...