Our reconciliation.
St. Paul had just been describing the great universal reconciliation. He now directs attention to the enjoyment of a share in it by himself and his readers. It is useless to think of a grand and glorious restoration if we lie outside its blessings, dead and lost. Yet there is a constant danger lest we should be merely interested in the contemplation of the riches of redemption from the outside. Especially when we are considering very large, sublime truths, we are tempted to ignore our own experience. It is instructive to observe that St. Paul always connects his most abstract speculations with practical results, and descends from soaring visions of truth to personal experience.
I. A PAST ALIENATION. This was the early condition of the Colossians; it is the condition of all of us before we are renewed in Christ.
1. The alienation arises out of wicked works. We cannot keep our sins to ourselves. They affect our relations with God; they separate us from him. This is the worst result of them.
2. The alienation consists in the state of our minds. The deeds of the hand react on the thoughts of the heart. He who begins by breaking God's Law ends by separating his whole inner life from God.
3. The alienation results in enmity to God. It cannot remain in passive neglect of the will of God. He who is not with Christ is against him. He who does wicked works may think that his deeds have no relation to God; but, in truth, he is fighting against God.
II. A PRESENT RECONCILIATION.
1. It is accomplished at a great cost. Nothing less than death—the death of the Son of God—could bring it about. How stubborn must have been our enmity! How great must the love of God be! How highly should we value the reconciliation which God has provided at such a fearful price!
2. It is enjoyed through our union with Christ. The reconciliation is "in the body of his flesh." As we eat his flesh, spiritually, by faith and communion, we receive the blessing of reconciliation.
3. It is a present condition. "Yet now hath he reconciled." Reconciliation is accomplished at once, fully, perfectly, and ungrudgingly, with no hints or reminders of the old sins ever again brought up. In the strength of the reconciliation we go on to the working out of the salvation that is only perfected when all sin is conquered.
III. A FUTURE PERFECTION. Though reconciled, we are not yet presented to God. A process of preparation is necessary for this.
1. The reconciled must be made holy. Forgiveness is the first step; but it is not the last. Without holiness no man can see God. The whole of life should be a cleansing and purifying and preparing for the unblemished condition in which only Christ can present us to God. But the reconciliation is a necessary preliminary, an important beginning, and a constraining motive for the perfect purification.
2. We must do ore-Tart to realize the future perfection. It depends on our continuing in the faith.—W.F.A.