DUDLEY HALL —

“And 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 …”  (Colossians 1:21-22 ESV)

I hear popular pastors purporting to offer hope to discouraged people by refusing to mention sin or judgment, or wrath, or depravity. It seems that these topics are not popular and would turn some off if addressed. Scriptures are referenced but seldom interpreted in their context as encouraging exhortations are distributed to believers and unbelievers alike. “You are fine. You have just been a victim of poor thinking. But you can change that by a choice of your own. You can start over today with a positive mental attitude and your blessings are on the way.”

We all want to focus on the positive and actually nothing is more positive than the gospel. The gospel is positive that mankind is alienated from God and hostile in mind toward him and his kingdom. As a result humankind is involved in wicked behavior. He is so infected by his self-centered perspective and rebellion towards God he not only doesn’t want to submit to him, he can’t. He is in a position of alienation. Sinful behavior is a result of hostile thinking which is inevitable when we are alienated from God. There is a gulf between mankind and God. It is a gulf that demands justice toward sin. Only God himself can bridge that gulf. If he did not choose to pursue, we would be eternally hopeless.

The gospel is positive about that too. Any message that doesn’t include the substitutionary death of Jesus for reconciliation is a false hope at best. Our problem is not one of ignorance of right and wrong. It is deeper. It is not that we need more motivation or inspiration. Our problem is that at the core of our being we are cut off from the source of life and thus hostile towards God. We don’t want to acknowledge his sovereignty. It baffles our limited minds. So we accuse him of being unfair or unloving. We don’t want to acknowledge his mercy for it would require us to admit that we can do nothing on our own. So we develop a religious scheme that allows man to merit God’s favor by some self-willed behavior, and throw in some gospel words to make it appear Christian. And is it any wonder that our lifestyles are very similar to those who don’t even profess to know Jesus as Lord?

The positive hope of this text is that God has done all that is necessary to restore us to fellowship with God, who is life. In fellowship with him we can get about doing what we were created for. Yes we can choose to embrace a whole new lifestyle when we continually trust him as the Lord of our lives and the center of our thinking.

If mankind could improve his life by choosing to think and act better, Jesus paid a high price for nothing. He reconciled us to God. Those who live in him have the power to implement that. Those who don’t yet know him can only wish.