Colossians 1:21-23No longer alienated

Once you were alienated

from God and wereenemies in your mind

because of your evil behavior.

When was it that we werealienated from God?

Before Christ’s sacrifice and before faith came.

Aliens! Not just neutral toward God but enemies of his.

Does it work to crash the border and just pretend we are okay with God? Absolutely not!

Misconceptions:

God is okay with me if I try.

God accepts all good people.

War and Peace!

When armies fight, one side loses and then surrenders unconditionally as the Japanese did.

22But 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—

God made peace while we were still at war with him.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8).

What this means is that even before we knew it or believed it we had a new status with God. When the heavenly Father accepted Jesus’ perfect sacrifice for sin, God immediately saw every person as “free from accusation”, “without blemish” and “holy in his sight.”

Like the presidential pardon, God declared us all ‘not guilty’ in his sight because of Jesus’ death on the cross.

General justification

Objective justification

Universal justification

23if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.

If faith were our work,

there would be no comfort.

23if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.

But faith is God’s work in us through the gospel.

Subjective justification

Individual justificationPersonal justification

The gospel holds out full and free forgiveness of all sin and citizenship in the kingdom of God. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household. (Ephesians 2:19). We leave behind our lives as prisoners of sin and enter our free citizenship in Jesus.

Forgiveness in Jesus is an offer made to every person in the world. God withholds his love from no one. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your mind because of your evil behavior, 22But 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—