CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Colossians 1:21. You, that were sometime alienated.—Does not mean, of course, occasionally alienated, but as the R.V. gives it, “being in time past alienated”—up to the time of the reconciliation always estranged. Enemies in your mind by wicked works.—The most interesting question here is whether God is reconciled to the sinner or only the sinner to God. Is “enemies” to mean “hostile” or “hateful”? Lightfoot says, “It is the mind of man, not the mind of God, which must undergo a change that a reunion may be effected.”
Colossians 1:22. In the body of His flesh through death.—When a teacher has to be explicit it may seem to those familiar with the subject as if he were verbose or tautological. So here the body is no phantasm, but fleshly and mortal. To present you holy.—They were professedly holy “saints” (Colossians 1:2), and the final purpose of their reconciliation is reproachless saintship (on this word, and “unblamable,” see Ephesians 1:4). Unreprovable in His sight.—It is a lofty eminence to which the holy apostle invites us to look in this word. The light in which we walk—fierce indeed towards sin—reveals no evil, so that the most captious critic has no objection (Titus 2:8).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Colossians 1:21-22
The Personal Blessings of Reconciliation.
Having shown the relation of Christ to God, to the whole creation, and to the Church, and His connection with all moral beings, the writer now proceeds to point out the relation of Christ to individual man in delivering him from the fetters of sin, and opening up the way of reconciliation with an outraged but loving Deity. In this passage we have a description of the attitude of sinful man towards God and the method of His restoration. We learn that:—
I. Sin has placed man in antagonism to God.—
1. Man is estranged from God. “And you that were sometime alienated” (Colossians 1:21). Sin severs the soul from God. The principle of cohesion—the consciousness of rectitude which God implanted in man in his sinless state—is weakened, and the sinner, breaking away from the centre of all goodness, drifts into an ever-widening and ever-darkening wilderness of alienation and evil. Sin places man at an infinite distance from God, leads him to shun the divine presence and disregard the divine overtures. A state of alienation is a state of danger; it is a state of spiritual death; and yet it is painful to observe how few in this state are conscious of their awful peril.
2. Man is hostile to God.—“Enemies in your mind” (Colossians 1:21). The enmity follows from the estrangement, and both have their seat in the mind—“in the original and inmost force of the mind which draws after it the other faculties.” The mind of man opposes the mind of God, sets up a rival kingdom, and organises an active rebellion against the divine Ruler. “The carnal mind is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7). If the hostility is not always flagrantly open, it is in the mind; the fountain of all sin is there. To be a stranger to God is to be an enemy of God: “He that is not with Me is against Me.” The sinner is his own greatest enemy. It is a vain thing to fight against God; terrible will be the vengeance He will ere long wreak upon His enemies.
3. Man’s estrangement and hostility are evident in his actions.—“By wicked works” (Colossians 1:21). Man is stimulated by his sinful mind to perpetrate the most outrageous acts of rebellion against God, and to indulge in the most fiendish cruelty towards his fellow-man. But there are “wicked works” that may not figure in the criminal columns of the newspapers, nor be detected by the most vigilant watcher. To cherish envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness is equally heinous in the sight of God, and an unmistakable evidence of hostility towards Him. Sin conceived in the mind will, sooner or later, manifest itself in action.
II. Man is reconciled to God in Christ.—
1. The distinguished blessing. “Yet now hath He reconciled” (Colossians 1:21). To effect this all that is necessary is to persuade the sinner to cease his rebellion and submit to God. In Christ God is reconciled to the sinner; there is no need to persuade Him. He is love; the sinner is enmity. He is light; the sinner is darkness. He is nigh unto the sinner, but the sinner is afar off. The great object is to destroy the sinner’s enmity, that he may have divine love; bring him from darkness into divine light, bring him from his evil works nigh unto God, and reconciliation is the result (Biblical Museum). The amity existing between the soul and God, and which sin had interrupted, is now restored. Dear as are the friendships of earth, none can equal friendship with God.
“He calls a worm His friend,
He calls Himself my God;
And He shall save me to the end
Through Jesu’s blood.”
The loftiest communion of the soul with God is renewed. In this the soul finds its strength, consolation, life, rapture. How much does that man lose whose heart is not reconciled to God?
2. The gracious medium of the blessing.—“In the body of His flesh through death” (Colossians 1:22). The apostle here refers in the most explicit terms to the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, and shows that the great work of reconciliation was effected in His body, and through death, for that body was crucified and actually died. The apostle perhaps aimed at correcting certain pseudo-spiritualistic notions regarding the person of Christ, busily propagated by the false teachers; some of whom held that Christ was an angelic emanation which animated the man Jesus for a time and withdrew from Him before He suffered. While maintaining the proper deity and glory of Christ’s nature, the apostle plainly indicates that the divine method of reconciliation was by the incarnation and sacrificial death of Christ. He thus exalts the significance and value of the death of Christ. Reconciliation was not accomplished by the faultless example of Christ’s life or the supernal wisdom of His teaching, but by His crucifixion and death. The cross, with its unfathomable mystery, is to them that perish foolishness; but to them that believe it is still the power and wisdom of God.
III. The divine purpose in reconciliation is to promote man’s highest blessedness.—The magnificence of the believer’s future career will be in marked contrast with the obscurity and imperfection of the present; but even in this life he is lifted by the reconciling grace of God to a high standard of moral excellence. The terms here employed, while referring to the same spiritual state, delineate its different aspects.
1. The highest blessedness of man consists in his moral purity.—“To present you holy” (Colossians 1:22). This shows the condition of the soul in relation to God; it is freely offered to Him as a living sacrifice; the inward consciousness is wholly consecrated to the permanent indwelling of the Holy One; every thought, affection, and aspiration of the soul is hallowed; the whole man is enriched, ennobled, and radiant with a holy character.
2. The highest blessedness of man consists in his personal blamelessness.—“Unblamable” (Colossians 1:22). This aspect of character has reference to one’s self; it is the development in the outward life of the purity and consecration of the heart; it is a sacrificial term, and means without blemish. The soul is inspired with a sense of integrity, and of always acting for the best. When Socrates was asked, just before his trial, why he did not prepare himself for his defence, he calmly answered, “I have been doing nothing else all my life.” A noble, blameless life is its own defence.
3. The highest blessedness of man consists in his freedom from censure.—“Unreprovable in His sight” (Colossians 1:22). This feature of a holy character has reference to others. If man thus purified and blessed can bear the piercing glance of Him whose scrutiny no defect can escape, his character is unchallengeable. To be accepted and approved of God places him beyond the accusations of man or demon; the subtle insinuations of the Great Accuser are powerless to hurt. “It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?” To be holy, unblamable, and unreprovable in the sight of God is to enjoy the highest honour and completest bliss. This is the ultimate result of reconciliation in Christ.
Lessons.—
1. Sin is the great foe of God and man.
2. The death of Christ is the means of reconciling sinful man to God.
3. The aim of reconciliation is to produce an irreproachable character.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Colossians 1:21. Reconciliation by Christ.
I. Estrangement.—
1. The cause—by wicked works.
2. The result—not merely that God is angry, but we have become enemies to God.
II. Reconciliation.—
1. Christ has reconciled man to God.
2. He hath reconciled man to man.
3. He hath reconciled man to himself.
4. He hath reconciled man to duty.—Robertson.
Colossians 1:22. Holiness the Supreme End of Reconciliation.
I. Holiness an inward state and an outward result.—“Holy, unblamable and unreprovable.”
II. Holiness alone can satisfy God.—“In His sight.”
III. Holiness is the final completion of the soul.—“To present you.”