Seeds for 1/27/2023 - Colossians 1:23a

Scripture: “But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.”

Observation: Yesterday we looked at the first half of this sentence, which spoke about a completed action—”now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death” (emphasis mine), that leads to a current status—”to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”

The second half of the sentence addresses the conditions necessary for that work of Christ to applied to someone. Obviously, it already applies to Paul’s audience, the Colossian Christians, because he is addressing them this way. So, is that the end of the matter? Apparently not. There’s a difference between belief done at a particular time versus faith begun at a particular time. Christianity is not simply about belief done once—agreement with truth claims about the person and work of Jesus, the nature of God and sin, then move on. Christianity is about faith begun and continued.

Faith is a journey. The man who said to Jesus, “I believe, help my unbelief!” spoke for all of us, didn’t he? Asking Jesus for help with his unbelief was an act of faith and hope. Notice that this is not works-based. Paul doesn’t say, “if you continue by doing good things to be worthy of Christ” or anything like that. It’s about continuing to put our faith and hope in Him. Paul says that continuing to depend on Christ is the necessary condition for having the ongoing benefit His reconciling, cleansing work apply and make a personal difference. Putting our faith and hope in other people, things, and belief systems is an ongoing practical challenge for us. But continuing, not only starting, with Christian faith and hope is the name of the game.

Application: What helps you stay “established and firm” in your faith in Christ and hope in what He has done for you? What chips away at that foundation?

Prayer: Lord, keep me in a daily walk with you, trusting in the hope I have in Christ. Amen.

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“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)

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