Colossians 1
Salutation (1:1-2)
Reasons for Thanksgiving (1:3-8)
The Apostle’s Prayer in view of the Colossians (1:9-23a)
Praying for the Colossians’ needs (vv.9-11)
Thanksgiving for Our full Salvation (vv.12-14)
Expounding Christ’s Glory (vv.15-23a)
Two Preeminences of Christ (vv.15-19)
Two Reconciliations of Christ (vv.20-23a)
Reconciliation (Col. 1:20-22; Eph. 2:16; Rom. 5:11; 2 Cor. 5:18-19) has to do with God's work of bringing lost and guilty sinners back to Himself. Reconciliation deals with alienation, and the feelings of enmity that are in the heart of the sinner. Alienation and enmity are the result of man's sin. The fault is on our side... God's heart has remained unchanged! God does not need to be reconciled to man, but man needs be reconciled to God. Alienation is the moral distance between God and man. How does alienation occur? First, in Eph. 2:3 we find that man is at a distance from God; "by nature the children of wrath". Second, in Col. 1:21 it says we were "alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works". Not only is man at a distance from God by nature, but he travels farther away by his own actions. The alienation is on both sides: we couldn't be in God's presence, and He couldn't be in ours. Enmity is the opposition that arises in a sinner toward God. To emphasize, God had no enmity toward man, but man does toward God. How does enmity arise? Man commits "wicked works", and then has a bad conscience about those works. He then begins to think of God as his enemy. That is why men are called "haters of God" (Rom. 1:30) when God has done nothing against them. The enmity is in "the mind" of man. Therefore, reconciliation to God is needed.
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