Colossians 1:21-23 –

²¹ And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²² 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, ²³ 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.

Real Letter, Real People, Real Author

We are continuing our journey with the Colossian believers through Paul’s letter to them. I say it this way because this was a real letter to real people written by a real man. This is not simply a theological—let alone philosophical—exercise in analyzing abstract concepts. The Colossians are our brothers and sisters, we will see them in glory someday soon. There is a gospel history to our faith today – enduring faithful saints long before us. Praise God for the great cloud of witnesses that have endured before us! The real words to real people is true for the Bible as a whole, it is not just some book. These are the words of the Living God written in a real time and preserved for us, so that as the author of Hebrews says: “all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”

My aim this morning: Remind you of the great hope we have in Christ who has reconciled us to God the Father and will present us holy and blameless. Therefore, we joyfully persevere in Him, through Him, and for Him for our utmost joy and His utmost glory today into infinity.

The reality of this letter is that it is not just written for those who are navigating hardships. Yes, the Colossian church was facing hardship in unique ways, but I imagine that some believers were coasting, not wanting to draw attention to their lives, or they were seeking comfort, maybe a justified holy comfort. This letter, friends, is for anyone who claims Christ is their treasure, to stir their faith daily in the sufficiency and joy in Christ. Often it is not just hardship that draws us away from Jesus, but the comfort, the ease, the ordinary days of this life, especially in the West. We drift if we are not careful. In fact, there are many warnings throughout the Bible of wandering away from God, we are to be diligent in our faith. To simplify all of this: whether hardship or ease is your current posture, this letter is meant for you to proclaim to your soul that Jesus is awesome so that you press on to the end. 

With that in front of us, let’s walk through Paul’s words starting with how vs 21 & 22 are connected and vital to understanding vs 23.

1. Your Condition and Calling: From Alienated to Reconciled Delight in God (vv. 21–22)

“And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²² 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.”

Once alienated, cut off from the joy in God (v. 21). Alienated (apellotriomenous) meaning “transferred to another owner”. We belonged to sin, self, and Satan before Christ saved us since we were in Adam as all mankind is. In Adam, we are born alienated from God. Our very nature opposes Him. As individuals, we willingly embrace that alienation through sin (thought, word, and action), some of us more subtle than others, but until the light of Christ shone in our hearts, we loved being separated from God. Paul tells us this alienation affected our mind: “hostile in mind” meaning we were an enemy of God in our minds, and it affected our behavior, thus “doing evil deeds” meaning out of the heart the body acts. Not just guilt, but misdirected desires. Choosing broken cisterns over the fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:13), this phrase points us to the core problem of sin which is seeking joy in everything else other than where is can be found which is Jesus. We are alienated not only from God’s presence, but from God as our delight, treasure, and joy…alienated from life. Therefore, we are joyless, lifeless, hostile people in our sin. Can you just notice the ‘once’ for a moment. We can see there is something else coming…once you were like that…BUT GOD….transferred us from this alienation.

This same term was used by Paul earlier in verse 13 “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son…”

So, now we are reconciled, restored to God as our treasure through Jesus to present you holy into the joy of your Master. For those who have been adopted or adopted someone, you understand this in a unique way.

Verse 22: “Now He has reconciled…” God’s answer to your alienation is reconciliation, accomplished at the cross. Friends, this is the initiative of God. He did not meet us halfway in our separation, but He came all the way to meet us down in the pit of our own sin and guilt. He does this “in his body of flesh by his death.” This emphasis by Paul reminds us of a real Savior, real body, real blood, real cross for a real redemption. Christ didn’t just make salvation possible, He secured your salvation and your reconciliation. Not just peace with God, but access to God as your supreme joy. The result of this reconciliation is “to present you holy, blameless, and above reproach before him…”, presented as acceptable before God, clothed in Christ’s perfection. This salvation includes transformation. It is not just escaping from righteous judgment, but becoming holy like Christ. The Apostle Peter tells us Christ died to bring you to God fulfilling the goal of salvation which is seeing and savoring God forever (1 Peter 3:18). This is key before we move onto the striking word we find in vs 23.

2. Your Response: Continuing Because You Treasure Christ (vs. 23a)

 ^“if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast…”

The Bible does not contradict itself. Since Christ purchased your salvation, He will keep those He shed His blood for…not a drop is wasted. We believe that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone – we do not do anything to earn or keep our salvation. The ‘If’ is a warning, friends. Throughout the Scriptures, the Lord warns His people as a loving act. The “If” statements of God bring clarity to our responsibility in hearing the gospel and treasuring Christ as He also does a work in our hearts and minds at the same time. Here are a few instances:

Genesis 2: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Deuteronomy 28: ““And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth…“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.”

2 Chronicles 7: “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, ¹⁴ if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Then in Ch 15: “The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.”

Isaiah 1: “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; ²⁰ but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

In the NT, this pattern continues way before Colossians. 

Jesus in John 14: ““If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Jesus, then follows this with the hope of the Helper coming…so that we would work to keep His commands out of love and duty, not to earn the free gift of salvation.

John 15: “If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷ If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. “

Paul in Romans: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (ch 8)

Lastly, the author of Hebrews: “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. ¹³ But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”

This “if” describes the evidence of true faith as it is attached to what true faith produces outwardly. True faith endures because it is a gift to have eyes to see the best treasure, most satisfying treasure. It is the beautiful combination of you working out your salvation, laboring to be more like Christ and the LORD working in you to both work and will in His delight to make you more like Christ who purchased you, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of His beloved Son, Jesus. 

So, Paul says, if indeed you continue in the faith. Those truly reconciled must truly persevere. Paul’s focus in this statement is for those who claim to treasure Jesus, continuing in the truth of the gospel. Friends, continue in the faith, don’t move away from the hope of the gospel which you heard. In fact, repeat the gospel to yourself as the best news. This stirs our hearts to continue in godly conduct. Not that we are saved by our godly conduct, but as evidence of our new hearts and minds that find the commands of God joyful to follow. It is even more important for Christians to continue in the truth of the gospel because we are saved by grace through faith. This is what Paul means by walk worthy of your calling – live a life, not of perfection, but of continually running to the throne of grace with a humble heart and bold proclamation that Christ is your treasure, hope, and joy. 

If the gospel through the Scriptures teach the final perseverance of the saints, which they do, it teaches at the same time that the saints are those who finally persevere in Christ. Continuance is the test of reality. The elect, God’s people in Christ, will persevere because God preserves them by capturing and sustaining their hearts. Listen to two prophets in the OT: Ezekiel 11:19 – “¹⁹And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh…” Ezekiel 36:26 – “²⁶ And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Jeremiah 31:33 – “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 

Or the great and final prophet, Jesus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God…. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” 

Later the Apostle Paul gives this great hope of the work of God to the Romans: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him… For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

We persevere because Christ remains more satisfying than anything we could turn to in this life. Apostasy, falling away from faith, happens when people drift not just intellectually, but affectionally, meaning they stop delighting in Christ and His gospel because they never truly did.

So, Paul uses these two great words, stable which is to be rooted in a deep satisfaction in Christ and steadfast which is holding fast because there is nowhere better to go. This isn’t a new thought by Paul, he said at the beginning of this letter, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴ since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, ⁵ because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, ⁶ which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth… we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰ so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹ being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy.” Later, he will say, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”

This language of being established is heard from Peter, “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” 

The disciples say to Jesus as should we, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life…” [John 6:68]

So, fight for joy in Christ for perseverance because Christ is our foundation, He established our hearts in Him, and keeps us. Endurance is not sustained by duty alone, but by delight. Have you tasted and seen that the Lord is good? Then why go elsewhere?

I love this from J.I. Packer: “It would not be difficult to point out at least twenty or thirty distinct passages in the Epistles where believers are plainly taught to use active exertion in their Christian life. They are told to strive, to fight, to run, to work, to put off sin, to put on righteousness, and to make every effort to grow in grace.”

Hear the words of Jesus: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” 

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” 

This is the same message from Paul. Stay on the foundation which is stable and steadfast, for you are not stable in your faith…but Christ is! Christ is the solid rock on which we stand, all other ground is sinking sand! Seek Christ daily, for apart from Him you can do nothing.

3. Your Unshakeable Foundation: The Satisfying Gospel Is Your Confidence (vs. 23b)

“…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.”

“Hope” is not wishful thinking, it is confident joy in what is coming because of what you know today. We trust in Christ and His promises. I trust Him to bring me to glory, therefore I trust that He will strengthen me to persevere today. God preserves us by continually showing us that Christ is better through ordinary means of grace. Through His Word which reveals Christ’s glory. In the Gospel which fuels joy. In His Church, to stir up our affection for Him and therefore a love for His people. By His Spirit to awaken delight in the things of eternity. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, don’t drift from the gospel. Drink deeply from it, stay satisfied through it. Those who truly taste His worth for their own souls will never finally walk away because their faith is a gift from the One is who secured us.

The hope of the gospel is Paul’s hope, our hope. “If Christ is for us, who can be against us? If God did not spare His own son, but gave Him for us, how will He not also give us all things [to keep us in Him]?…”…”In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

The gospel is not just truth to believe, it is beauty to behold and enjoy – what greater message!? We don’t just cling to the gospel because it is true but because it is infinitely satisfying. It is our ballast in the storm of life and a shock to my soul when I start to drift and become comfortable in this world. 

The Gospel History Behind Us and Before Us

So, my brothers and sisters, we press onward toward the prize that is ours in Christ Jesus. For the weary, if your joy feels weak, don’t run from Christ, run to Him. Even a flicker of joy in Christ is evidence of His preserving grace. For those drifting, the danger is not just leaving truth, it is settling for lesser joys. Come back to the only One who truly satisfies today. For those who have yet to turn to Jesus, you are still alienated from the only lasting joy. Look to Christ who offers not just forgiveness, but fullness of joy in God

To all of us, remember your past alienation for it will deepen your gratitude in Jesus and fuel enduring affection for Him. Your greatest gift in salvation was not escape from hell, but God Himself. The pursuit of holiness, becoming more like Jesus should not be drudgery. It is instead a means of fitness for joy in God which is the aim of our life!

We do this along with the rich history of our other brothers and sisters who did the same. The Colossian church does not exist any longer. In fact, some time after 60 AD a massive earthquake devastated the region and Colossae never recovered. But God took His gospel into the small house churches in Colossae, it took root through Epaphras and was strengthened by Paul the Apostle in believers of the region. It rapidly moved along Roman roads and trade routes into key cities like Ephesus, Antioch, and Rome by the late first century. By the 300s, after the conversion of Constantine and the Edict of Milan, Christianity spread broadly across Europe. Missionaries carried it into places like Ireland through Patrick in the 400s, and later across northern Europe through medieval and Reformation movements. In the 1600s, the gospel crossed the Atlantic with English Puritans to what we know as New England as they sought religious freedom and saw missions opportunities to share the gospel with people in this new land. The gospel spread through the First Great Awakening in the 1730s–40s under preaching from faithful men like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. As settlers moved west in the late 1700s and early 1800s, the gospel advanced through frontier revivals like the Second Great Awakening, carried by circuit-riding preachers across places like Kentucky and Ohio and then further West. As people believed, churches were planted. By the mid-1800s, the message reached the Upper Midwest as immigrants—especially Scandinavians—brought Lutheran and evangelical faith into Minnesota. Missionaries, church planters, and settlers established congregations throughout the region. Eventually reaching north along the MN/Wisconsin border. Faithful believers still saw the need to reach every community with the gospel and establish faithful churches. In 1997, Kost Free and Lakes Free cast a vision for a church in Wyoming, MN. Now, 30 years later, there is a faithful gathering of saints who proclaim the gospel, treasure the gospel, and long to see the gospel be proclaimed in our communities faithfully again and to the ends of the earth so that some day all peoples will be gathered around the Risen King to worship Him and enjoy Him forever. 

This is a legacy, family. Jesus said He would build His Church and He has, He will. And, our King has commanded us to go help others to treasure Jesus as we do and His commands are not a burden because He has strengthened our hearts according to the riches of grace in Christ. So, the author of Hebrews again:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. ⁴ In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, ¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. ¹⁴ Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵ See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God…”

Don’t shift from the only hope in Christ who established your hearts in faith to the praise of His glorious, abounding grace.