Plainly Speaking
 with Karl J. Forehand

 

 

The Process of Freedom – Part 2

(Colossians 1:21-23)

by Karl J. Forehand

 

  The current war is an illustration of our spiritual situation.  It is not exact – no illustration is – but, it helps us think about the components of our condition. Read along with me:

 

And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,  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-- 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.  (Colossians 1:21-23)

 

1.      We were formally alienated

 

   Alienated means “estranged” or “excluded.”  Iraqis under 30 probably cannot even conceive of freedom.  They have been excluded from it all their lives.  It is similar to our spiritual condition without Christ.  In Ephesians 2:12, Paul said, “Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”  Without Christ, we are without hope.

 

  To be “hostile in mind” is to be at odds with or unable to reconcile.  We may not have been violent towards God.  We may not have shaken our fist at Him; but in our minds, we were rejecting, distrusting and unwilling to come sit at the peace tables.  We might have made some concessions, at times, to get what we wanted.  But, we remained “hostile in mind.”

 

  “Because of (our) evil deeds” we are in this condition.  Many of us want to dismiss this because we don’t think were committing “big” sins.  We are born into a condition of sinfulness that alienates us from God’s Kingdom.

 

   In this alienated state, spiritual freedom seems foreign to us – we are hostile toward it – we are unable to attain it.  Sounds hopeless – sounds like the Iraqis. 

 

2.  We are currently reconciled

 

  The first part of verse 22 begins, “But He has now…”  We were formally alienated, but He has changed the picture.  He had to do what we couldn’t.  We have freedom that we want to provide for the Iraqi people.  Jesus, in a similar manner, suffered, and died, to give us what He has.  There is always a price to reconciliation, but one can only give what they have.  Sadaam can only give what he has.  The U.S. can only give what it has.  Jesus gave us what He has – His righteousness.

 

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  (II Corinthians 5:21)

 

  The objective in Iraq is to give people wholeness and a real life.  God’s objective is to give us personal holiness and eternal life.  It says, He wants to present us “holy and blameless” before God

The Gnostics believed that God couldn’t intervene in the physical, because He only dealt with the spiritual.  But, understand that we often need physical solutions.  Have you ever been hungry?  The problem in Iraq cannot be solved unless someone goes through the steps needed to reconcile things.  Jesus did that for us.

 

3.      We will eventually be glorified

 

  We now have a real hope.  Not just a hope of eternal life, but hope that we will be changed when we are with Him.  Our hope is one that endures.  It is not dependent on circumstances.  Paul encourages the Colossians in verse 23, not to move away from that hope and start “reinventing the wheel.”  We can’t just die with Christ and then forget to live with Him.

 

  The test in Iraq will not be whether the Iraqis wave bye-bye to Sadaam.  The question is whether they will have the courage to face the challenges and obstacles to living free.  Many of us are like that – it almost seems that we prefer bondage.  Freedom is a challenge.

 

  Some questions:

 

Do you understand that you have been reconciled from alienation?

 

Have you embraced the life of Jesus or just accepted His death?

 

Will you hold fast to your hope even when it gets difficult?

 

 

 

 

© 2003   Karl J. Forehand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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