Is it possible for a saved man to not continue in the faith? What if he has been reconciled in Christ's fleshly body through death, in order to be presented before God set apart and blameless and beyond reproach, Colossians 1:22? What if he was elected before the foundation of the world, so that he would be set apart and blameless before God, Ephesians 1:4? What if Christ loved him and gave Himself up for the person to set him apart, having cleansed him by the washing of water with the word, that He might present the man to Himself, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that he would be set apart and blameless, Ephesians 5:25-27?
Sharing the Message of Reconciliation to God
Colossians 1:20-23
(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes are throughout sermon)
Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
Please turn to Colossians 1:20-23. We have been studying this section in great depth over the last couple of weeks, starting from verse 15. Each time we have been learning line upon line and precept upon precept. We've been gleaning depths and riches that God has loaded into each layer. Verses 20-23, are pregnant with so much truth that I could preach for a year on what is there and barely leave the text. To get us oriented, we remember that coming into this section, Paul has given us some amazing teaching on Christ's majesty. Jesus Christ is the firstborn. This designation of being the firstborn overflows with riches. Christ is the firstborn, as in, He is the only begotten Son. Christ is the firstborn, as in being the heir of all things according to the firstborn's birthright. Also, Christ is the firstborn from death in resurrected bodily form according to His New Covenant as the living New Covenant. These wonderful facts have amazing implications for all who are "in" Christ. All Who are in Christ in salvation are saved in the firstborn Heir, and the First born Heir is in all whom He saves. Paul calls it Christ in you the only hope of glory in Colossians 1:27. It is where we consider ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, Romans 6:11. Instead of being disinherited as wayward children, we are adopted in reconciliation to God in complete forgiveness and blessing in Christ by grace, through faith. This is an important message that God wants us to share. This is the flow coming into our Christ glorifying passage, Let's read it together,
"20 and through Him [Christ] to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven. 21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 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--23 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."
Please prepare your heart to learn from God's word along with me in this sermon titled,
Sharing the Message of Reconciliation to God
[prayer]
Throughout my life, I have had the opportunity to share the gospel with people in one on one conversations. One way that I have used has to do with my own version of an illustration I learned as a young child. I am not sure how the original illustration was shown to me, but I remember enough of it to where I adapted it for my own use. I have used my way of making the illustration on many occasions, changing elements of how I do it depending on what comes to my mind. For the most part, I have used the approach in restaurants while eating with unsaved people. I usually take a paper napkin and I draw a picture on one side that looks like the edge of a cliff--like a big number 7. I label this side, "People." I then draw a stick figure standing on the top. I draw a cliff on the opposite side of the napkin on the left. I label this side "God." Between the two sides, there is a space that looks like a valley. I label this "Eternal Separation from God." I explain that God is pure perfection. I go on to explain that everyone is separated from God and His purity because of sin, and so that puts everyone on one side of the chasm, as I point to the stick figure on the "People" side. I usually quote Romans 3:23; all people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I explain that we inherit sin from our great great grandparents, the first humans, Adam and Eve. So, in one sense, we exist as sin. We live as people who fall short of righteousness according to God. And then we also do sin, and so we are also active sinners. Sin separates us from God, and represents all of humanity in the fall. In the fall, people are un-reconciled away from God. We are lost. We are alienated from God by this vast chasm of separation that remains even after we leave the physical world behind. Then I show that everyone is conceived, born, and headed for the edge of the cliff, where they will perish in their sins, unreconciled to God forever. In sin we all deserve this fate. I go on to explain that the only way to be saved from this doom, is for God to save us by transferring us over to Himself in reconciliation. I use John 3:16 a lot. All who are on the God side are those He has reconciled to Himself. They will not perish. I then explain that our works don't get us there because works are merely manmade religious ways to try to cross the pit, and we can't do it. We can't get across by anything we do. I explain that false religions do not do it, because false religions are deceptions that are born out of our sin. Every false religion is really a path to the pit, even though we might want to believe it is a path to the other side. I explain that there is only one way to be saved, and God is the one who does it. I draw a cross in between the two cliff edges, where one side of the horizontal cross beam connects to the people side, and the other side connects to the God side. I explain that God saves sinners through the sacrifice on the cross, and resurrection of His only begotten Son, Christ Jesus. I draw an figure on the God side that is like a ginger bread man outline that is a little bigger than the stick figure over on the lost side. I label this symbolic figure as the righteousness of Christ. I put little light lines around the figure for shining light. I explain that Christ is the promised covenant of light prophesied in Isaiah 42:6, 49:6-8, 55:3-4--700 years before Christ was sent from heaven. I then explain that all who receive Christ's work on the cross as Lord and Savior, will be saved. I quote other classic passages like Acts 10:43, Romans 10:10, etc. I draw an arrow across the cross beam of the cross, and show that this is what God has done to make reconciliation sure. I then put a stick figure on the God side inside the body of the shining figure symbolically representing the righteousness of Christ. I explain that salvation is to be reconciled to God forever, where He changes people into new creations "in" Christ, Galatians 2:20. The old things of the other side have passed away. Now all things are brandnew in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5. I then make the general call and tell them that if they confess their sins to God, and have faith in Christ for His salvation, and turn from (repent from) the cursed life of sin that they are in now, then they will be saved. They will become a child of God in Christ Jesus, because He puts His Holy Spirit in them, giving them blameless life of forgiveness in a reconciled relationship with their Father in Heaven. I tell them that this is a miracle that God does. I love this illustration because it is short and simple, and I can modify the whole conversation in respect to dialogue with the person I am talking to. Consequently, I never share the illustration, or draw it, in precisely the same way each time; but for the most part, the way I have just shown is what I typically do. This morning we are going to explore some of the details of the reconciliation message. In doing so, I want to bring out four main points from the text.
/1/
The first thing I want us to notice is that when you share the good news of reconciliation, you must share that it is Christ Who is the one who reconciles. Paul says,
"20 and through Him [Christ] to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven."
Christ is the one who reconciles. He gets all the glory. In other words, not you, me, or anyone is able to reconcile himself to God. Every attempt to do so is a false religious activity that is empty and keeps you separated from God. We must always focus on Christ, and we must always explain that Christ is the one who made the needed peace, and He is the One who did it through the violence of the cross in shedding His blood. To get to this point, it is necessary to explain how sin separated us from God in the first place. Whenever you find yourself in a situation where you see the wide door opened to share the gospel, I strongly urge you to start at the beginning. Take the time to explain that in the beginning, Adam made the original separating violence through the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. He willingly ate the fruit according to the gullibility of His wife who believed that she would become like God in eating from it. Instead of being like God, our great grandparents became like sin, and so the curse that God warned them about was set in place. Explain the curse. People want to know where sin came from, and they also want to know why we die. I like to tell them that the false god of evolution mythically creates all life for the goal of death. The reality is that Adam and Eve were cursed with death because of sin, and they died in their sins. By the way, when you talk about Adam and Eve, talk about it like it is a fact, and anyone who does not believe it is ignorant. Turn the tables on the god of this age, who promotes faith in all the godless theories bantered around out there in academia like they are the truth. It is good to explain that throughout history, from Adam and Eve, God ordained the sacrifice of animals to temporarily cover the sins of His people until an ultimate covering would come. This gets people into recognizing the big prophetic plan that ultimately is summed up in the mission of Christ. It started with Adam and Eve, where God violently killed the animals to cover Adam and Eve with the skins. This did not take away their sins, but it covered them, (atoned them), until the One sinless man would come Who would take away the sins of God's people in Himself. God ordained sacrifices all through history in ritual to cover sins. They were prescribed to be spotless male lambs without blemish. The shedding of blood was required. They were only temporary though. Make these facts clear. Explain that the ultimate covering is the blood of sinless Christ, willingly shed on a cross in sacrificial violence, yet violence that results in peace between God and those whom He saves. Christ is the perfectly spotless Lamb of God. You might need to explain that all who were God's people before the cross, and had died before the cross, had to be reconciled through the cross too. It depends on the dialogue. Just explain that the people of God's election in ancient history past who descended down from Adam and Eve that we read about in the Old Testament were temporarily covered in continuous sacrifices, but they still died in their sins. I always think this is an important fact to share--everyone throughout all history, no matter how good and religious and pious and loving they seemed to be; everyone is still separated from God in unreconciliation in sin. People who followed the One true God of the Bible, also needed an ultimate sacrifice that takes away sin, even after they physically died. They needed the prophesied redeemer. Though they did not see Him, they looked forward to Him. Hebrews 11 is the Scripture to use. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way concerning the body of Christ of the New Covenant in Christ's blood,
"39 And all these [saints of the past before Christ who hoped in the One true God], having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us [People of the body of Christ of the New Covenant in Him] they would not be made perfect." Hebrews 11:39
The point is that all people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23--even those who had gained approval as ancient people of God. Not only this but the whole creation, that Christ made in the beginning, is tainted by sin. As a result of sin, reconciliation must occur for Christ to receive any of His creation for Himself, and the only way that can happen is for Christ Himself to be the reconciler.
/2/
This leads us to consider the second thing I want us to notice in respect to sharing the message of reconciliation. Namely, Christ is going to reconcile "the all" to Himself someday in a future perfection.
"20 and through Him to reconcile all things [literally "the all"] to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven."
Notice that the Spirit is telling us that through Christ, He is to reconcile all things to Himself someday. Those who perish according to John 3:16, will go on to pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. They are not among the all to be reconciled, John 3:16, 2 Thessalonians 1:9, Matthew 25:46 etc. Many things have not been reconciled to God. There are still evil things, and corrupt things left in creation. So, when we read this, we realize that there is a consummation sense to this where a future hope for Christ's created universe awaits a perfection that it is not experiencing right now. The cursed world exists after AD 70 with the destruction of apostate Israel, and so we know that there is a future glory remaining still in a now not yet realization. This is so important to share, because the good news is that reconciliation is to be saved; it is to be rescued, and the salvation is to be taken out of this cursed world, to exist forever where all things will be in a state of perfection that is more wonderful than we can completely imagine. It is the future hope. This means that Christ is going to glorify everything someday. When you share this, the Scripture to use is Romans 8. There, the Spirit reveals to us that the creation was subjected to futility, and,
"21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now." Romans 8:21-22
Tell people that reconciliation of all things means that it only gets better in the future for those who don't "perish." What is to come is nothing like what we have now, even at its best. Right now, there is still pain, suffering, and the laws of entropy where everything is falling apart, decaying, rotting, and just plain looking like the effects that sin has wrought in violence. The effects of sin are all around us--hurting us, oppressing us, deceiving us, and even tempting us. This is why we should always explain that in the midst of the pain, there is hope for the future because of what Christ has done, and yet there is also hope for right now in what Christ had done, which leads to the third thing:
/3/
In Christ's reconciling work on the cross when He made peace through the blood, the actual reconciliation is made evident in people, when through faith, they receive the gift of God's Spirit in actualized salvation;
"21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 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--
The "you" that Paul is talking about are saved people. They are reconciled in Christ by grace through faith. This is why Paul addressed them earlier, saying,
"... since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus ..." Colossians 1:4
In the parallel epistle of Ephesians, Paul says we are saved by grace through faith. Unsaved people do not have faith in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior. They are both alienated, and also hostile right now. The saved Colossians, like all of us who are saved, were, at one time, without faith in the true God, and Christ. Think about the crazy stuff people believe. Before salvation our natural minds could not understand the things of the Spirit of God, and were not even able to do so, 1 Corinthians 2:14. In respect to God, our minds were futile, Ephesians 4:17. When you share the gospel, people may think you believe crazy stuff too, but it doesn't matter. We are workers for the kingdom of God, Colossians 4:11. You believe the truth. So explain with surety and gusto that the unreconciled, unsaved, are all in the domain of darkness according to verse 13, alienated from Christ's kingdom. Explain that you were there once too. Get personal like this. Explain that there was nothing you could do to bring reconciliation--nothing the other person can do either.
Whenever you share the gospel, you may be talking to someone whose eyes have not been opened by God to understand. This is why they may argue with you at any point, or scoff, or even stop the conversation. Or they may even shake their head like they understand, but they still reject the gospel. You must remember that you can not make them get reconciled to God, and they can not bring themselves to God. Even if they try to outside of Christ, it is like a dirty rag trying to clean itself by its own power to make itself clean enough to be a clean rag. This is why we must always remember that it is God's clean pure sovereign work that reconciles anyone to Himself.
Notice that Paul says that the saved Colossians were all engaged in evil deeds before salvation. Everyone is engaged in evil; no matter how good we think we are, and no matter how good we think we act. This point will either resonate with the unsaved person, or it will repel them; so be ready for any kind of reaction, including the hostility toward God to be directed at you. But here is the big point of their separation to explain. It is not that you are doing evil deeds, and then God looks down upon you, and then says,
"Okay, I saw what you did, now because of that, I declare you alienated, and hostile in mind."
That is not how it works. The reality is that because everyone is born hostile in mind, being born in sin, that we are born alienated from God. What God sees is both:
God sees what you do.
God also sees what you are.
When we say that everyone is born into this world in the image of fallen first Adam; what we mean is that we are born into a real cursed sinful realm called the domain of darkness, verse 13. This is what Paul means here in his continued flow of thought. And so, in our state of alienation, God comes to us in love according to action that He foreknew even before the foundation of the world, and in love, He confronts us with His word, by His Holy Spirit. In love, He calls us, and draws us, out of our alienation to believe in the reconciliation that was made for the elect on the cross. It is a change of mind, from a change of heart, and with it comes a change of faith. We do not change our hostile God hating minds on our own, and we can not. You also won't be able to change the minds of others on your own either. God works the salvation process by grace through faith through the power of Himself as the person of the Holy Spirit through the gospel truth. Every unreconciled person you come in contact with will have faith in something. They might not call it god, and they might not call it faith, but they will seek and embrace pseudo-gods. Explain this to them. People seek and embrace the pseudo-god of atheism. People seek and embrace the pseudo-god of humanism. People seek and embrace the pseudo-god of agnosticism. People seek and embrace the pseudo-god of skepticism. People seek and embrace the pseudo-god of Mormonism, Islam, Buddha, Hinduism, and all these kinds of things, just like the Colossians did before embracing Christ in reconciliation. It reminds me of a place in India in the mountain pass between Indor and Bhatawa in Madya Pradesh. It is a roadside hovel, where roti and Chipati breads are cooked on open fires. Right there on the other side is a stream. Next to it, there is a giant orange boulder that people worship in faith. I remember an Indian engineer explaining to me that some years ago a construction crew removed the rock from the stream bed because it was in the way during some road work. When the rock was in the stream, it was just another rock. But once on dry land, people began to worship the boulder like it had come to life as a god. To really fix it up, they painted it orange and put a little face on it. They even built a roof over it. I remember seeing masses of people bowing down to a big orange boulder, praying, leaving money, and worshipping a piece of mineral that the one true God created. It is a pitiful sight, but there are perhaps trillions of little snapshots of false god worship like that all over this fallen world. It is misplaced faith that is generated out of the darkness that is in unreconciled humanity. The biggest and most popular false religion of all is faith in self. It's self worship. It started in the garden when Adam and Eve had faith that they would be like God. It continues today where billions of lost people, who are unreconciled to the One true God, foolishly believe that they are god. The point is that because human minds are alienated and hostile to the one true God, they have faith in things that our alienated minds try to create into false gods, whether it be themselves, a rock, a tree, or some grand and complex definition of something other than the One true God of the Bible. Unreconciled because of eating from the tree in the garden, we all make our own little religious pilgrimages back to the tree in the garden, and in selfish me orientation, in sin, we say that we want to be just like God, and so because we are not God, we imagine false gods into fictitious religious systems, and theories of spontaneous evolutionary origin of life, and all that kind of thing. Even though everyone knows it is a lie, and they know they are not really the God of the universe, they worship themselves as the center of what is important. It is a direct manifestation of the separating sin of Adam and Eve. So, when you witness to someone, tell them that faith in themselves fails in the end, but faith in the real God of the universe really saves. Tell them that something miraculous happens as God reconciles by grace through faith. The miracle is even happening in bringing the gospel to them. God is the one working. When you minister, make sure you say that the meeting is not an accident. You are demonstrating your own faith when you do--Even when a Christian shares an illustration with someone on a napkin in a restaurant. It doesn't matter. God sends the message to each of us in our own circumstances. He will use you to do it too. According to true faith, we know that the good news of reconciliation is brought to people in God's timing. Both the time, and the event, is part of His miraculous process. You and I must trust this fact any time we share the gospel of reconciliation. God brings the word of the gospel message through various channels. He uses the body of Christ, because God uses people. He uses His word. He uses Himself as the person of the Holy Spirit. God is the orchestrator. God is the miracle worker. His Holy Spirit miracle continues in giving the gift of faith. The miracle continues where God gives the rebirth. So, when we share the gospel, we must be thinking that the faith we want to see come from the other person, is faith that isn't going to come because of manipulation. It does not happen through making everything look good. It does not happen through the seduction of an amazing atmosphere. The power of God with His gospel, which pushes away those who are not elect thus showing that they remain unreconciled, and reconciles those who are elect, always accomplishes the effectual work in Christ according to what Christ wants to accomplish. It is not up to you to make people have faith. I think this is one of the hardest things for us to act out in practicality, and it really is a faith issue on our own part. What I mean is that we know that the whole process is between God and the person He has us bring the message to, but we want to see certain results. We want to see the person receive Christ in faith either right then, or a little later--we want to see them get saved. But, our job is really only that we are to implore people to be reconciled. That's it. And the reason we do it is because we are ambassadors. But we are not results makers. We must trust God by faith that the very fact that we shared the Gospel is all we are designed to do, meant to do, and can do. The rest is up to God, including the faith issues.
"20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we would become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5
So, what you are is a repeater who is sharing the facts in the Spirit. The facts are that God is the one who makes people the righteousness of God in Christ through faith. This is why you should share that we are all so wicked--so hostile in our evil in our alienation from God, that when you receive Christ as your Lord and Savior, God cleans the slate to His image. He's the perfect one. This is why I draw the bigger figure in the drawing presentation and then put the one representing the saved person into the figure. God embraces you in salvation forever. God holds you to Himself in perfect love. Explain that God has brought you to Himself in order to present you before Him like a clean, perfect spotless virgin bride forever, and ever, on and on, in ongoing, everlasting, eternity (aion, anionios).
@1 Salvation is for the purpose of being ___________________ before God in the perfection that He makes us into in Christ, (Colossians 1:22)
This is the essential basic of the gospel presentation, and when we share the message, like I explained in the illustration at the beginning, we need to demonstrate that true faith is eternal, and the salvation is eternal. It is important that you explain to people that all who are actually saved are saved for a reason. The Scripture states that it is to ultimately be presented before Christ, holy, and blameless and beyond reproach. Just like it is not a humanistic kind of faith that saves us, it is also not our own righteousness that keeps us saved like a guarantor. Instead, in salvation, we have His righteousness imputed to us in the miracle of reconciliation. He is the guarantor. I think that it is very important to explain to people that even in salvation, Christians will fail God. Grace can not be overemphasized when it comes to being reconciled to God. Obedience to God should be taught too. We are also expected to succeed in Christ who strengthens us. But the point is that the person is pure right now, and they need to know that this is comprehensive, because when they fail, they are going to wonder if they are saved--at least if they get some bad theology. They need to know that this world is not our home, and the struggle we have with sin is not going to last forever, and that they really are pure. In the resurrection, they will be presented in the purity that they are right now in Christ, but they will be changed to manifest purity in perfection. In the parallel passage of Ephesians, we find Paul using the same language by putting it this way,
"4 ... He elected us in [Christ Jesus] before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him." Ephesians 1:4
@2 God elected all whom He makes holy and blameless, in salvation, in Christ _______________ the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4)
It is what He wants, so He is going to get it. This is always the goal of reconciliation, and so a few chapters later in Ephesians 5, we see our glorious future, where the church will be presented to Christ, fully reconciled in all respects before Him. Paul says;
"25... Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 to set her apart, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be set apart and blameless." Ephesians 5:25-27
@3 Christ loved the church and ________________ Himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25)
Isn't this beautiful? This is salvation that was secured on the cross, and is received by grace through faith. This is you, me, the Colossians, and all saved people throughout all history. But the history doesn't stop. In fact it is only just beginning, and it only gets better, because just like a spotless bride is pure and she will be presented to her groom at the great marriage feast ceremony celebration, you and me and all Christians, no matter how dirty, sinful, and separated we were in our non-reconciliation beforehand, and no matter how much we fail the Lord in our thoughts and actions during our time of salvation, we are always spotless in salvation, and in the future we will not sin anymore in our perfection in our resurrected state. So, this is our faith, and this leads to the fourth, and final, thing I want us to notice in respect to the message we share.
/4/
Being holy and blameless and beyond reproach in reconciliation is to be Once Saved In Eternal Spiritual Salvation.
"23 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."
@4 If you move away from the ________________ of the good news of salvation in Christ, then you demonstrate that you are not saved. (Colossians 1:23)
We must remember that Paul is writing to Colossians from prison, and Paul has not yet been to see this church. The Colossians were evangelized by Epaphras, and it was Epaphras that planted the church there, and discipled the Colossians in the basics. Keeping this in mind, I want to remind you that Paul is sending this letter to Colossae to: A) introduce himself, and, B) to also lay out doctrine to battle Judaizers, proto-gnostic cults, and other pagan influences that were around infecting the church.
When Paul makes the expression to the Colossians concerning continuing in the faith, we must understand that the term, "the faith," is a term for the doctrines and precepts of Christianity. The term is different than saying "your faith," or "my faith." "The faith" means something very specific. The hope of the gospel that unsaved Colossians can move away from, is the data of the faith that Paul stated a few sentences earlier in the same flow of thought. Remember, Paul said that the saved Colossians are steadfast,
"5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel" Colossians 1:5
@5 All who are saved, have an eternal hope laid up for them in ____________________. (Colossians 1:5)
The hope of the gospel is the eternal glorious perfected life laid up in heaven that awaits all of us in our glorious future. This a foundational fact of the faith. This is why sharing the gospel, and seeing God reconcile someone is not the end of the work of God's ambassadors. We need to urge the person to be an ongoing disciple of the New Covenant word of reconciliation. We need to nurture them. It is important to make sure that they become part of a Bible believing, Bible teaching, biblically defined church. They need body life, and their spiritual body needs to grow by the milk of the word. They need to learn, live, and love the whole counsel of God in the doctrines and precepts of the faith once for all delivered Acts 20:27, Jude 1:3.
For the Judaizer, proto-gnostics, and other pagans who heard the gospel from Epaphras, and are familiar with the doctrines and precepts of Christianity as the word of truth, to move away from the good news (gospel) of the faith is to demonstrate that they are either fakes who claimed to be Christians, or they never claimed to be Christians anyway. Therefore, they show that they were always lost. So what Paul means is that continuance in the good news, which is to continue in the word of truth of the hope laid up in heaven through the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ, demonstrates the reality of true Holy Spirit actualized reconciliation by grace through faith. In other words, if you continue in the faith till death, then you show that you are a person who will be presented before Christ in the resurrection, spotless and without blemish.
Paul's words are not a warning. They are an encouragement.
But because there are fakes, we must prepare ourselves for such people. They are among the gatherings of Christians. They may even claim to be saved, but later on, we can be shocked to find out that they walked away from the doctrines and precepts of Christianity. This is a danger with children raised in a Christian environment. They are there all their lives, and they learn the language and the way to act, but inside they were never changed. They are not a miracle work. And so they show the work of sin later on when they reveal that they don't really believe. Paul's point is that true believers who are receivers, live being believers and true receivers, and die being believers and receivers. Unbelievers, who are not receivers, are people who are moved away from "the faith." They are moved away from the hope of the gospel as a matter of their unregenerate, unreconciled, natures. They hate Christ. They do not, and can not, continue in "the faith" because they never were in the faith as saved people. They were never in the Firstborn Heir, and the Firstborn Heir was never in them. They are, were, and will be, void of the Holy Spirit, unless they really do become saved in embracing the gospel. If you were one of the unsaved people, like a Judaizer, or a proto-gnostic cultist, who happened to be mingling with the true believers of Colossae, and you heard the gospel; and you were hearing Paul's letter being read to the assemblies, or you read it personally, and you reject the gospel which was preached, then you were not, and never were, in the category of saved people who continue "in the faith." You would have been merely exposed to the faith through the preaching of the hope of the gospel which you have heard. Just because you hang around with people who are reconciled to God, does not mean that you are truly reconciled yourself. It's like driving in traffic doesn't make you a car. You must embrace the gospel by grace through real saving faith, and as a miracle change, you will continue in the faith. It is like an illustration that I love to use. In the field of gemology, when you look into a diamond crystal, and into a salt crystal, up close with light, you can tell the diamond from the salt. But if you only see the outside of a rough uncut diamond crystal from a distance, and you see it in the dim light of appearance next to a salt crystal that has the same color, and clarity, and surface texture, even an expert can not tell the difference. The Creator who made both the diamond crystal, and the salt crystal knows which is which, but the rest of us mere mortals can not fully tell. But one of the crystals is a genuine diamond.
How do we know?
There is an easy way to tell which one it is. If you put both crystals in water, then you will see how perseverance demonstrates what was the reality all along, and it remains the reality forever. The diamond manifests itself as continuing in the realm and sphere of being a carbon crystal--a diamond. The sodium crystal (salt) dissolves away into a washed out state where it blends back into the sea of the world according to what it always was beforehand. It looked like a diamond crystal, but it was rock salt all along. The point is that your continuance, till the end, simply demonstrates the reality of the fact that you were reconciled by Christ all along, and this is Paul's point. The passage is not a warning. It is an encouragement.
I urge all of us to be mindful of the true meaning of being reconciled to God when you share the gospel. Always know that Christ is the one who reconciles, and reconciliation is in Him. Share this with gusto. Whenever you look around at this world, be recognizing that it is less than it will be. Christ is going to reconcile everything to Himself someday in a future perfection. Always consider your great privilege and blessing that God has expressed to you in real love. Consider it a blessing to be an ambassador for Christ. Christ reconciled the elect on the cross when He made peace through the blood of the cross for them, and the reconciliation is made evident in them when through faith, they receive the gift of God's Spirit in actualized salvation. Finally preach the security of this great hope as a staple of our faith. Being holy and blameless and beyond reproach in reconciliation is to be Once Saved In Eternal Spiritual Salvation, and that is what all who believe in Christ as Lord and Savior are by His Spirit. Amen
@1 Salvation is for the purpose of being ___________________ before God in the perfection that He makes us into in Christ, (Colossians 1:22)
@2 God elected all whom He makes holy and blameless, in salvation, in Christ _______________ the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4)
@3 Christ loved the church and ________________ Himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25)
@4 If you move away from the ________________ of the good news of salvation in Christ, then you demonstrate that you are not saved. (Colossians 1:23)
@5 All who are saved, have an eternal hope laid up for them in ____________________. (Colossians 1:5)
