Col No.7 Redemption accomplish and applied

And we take the reading collectively. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 20th verse, and God willing I want us to consider right down to the 22nd today. Let me read it from the AV, may I incidentally commend to you the new version of the Bible, the international version, which was released this week, particularly for young people who find the AV rather hard to understand in some areas, having not been brought up with this type of language.

I consider the international version to be a much better option than the living Bible, which is very weak incidentally, particularly in the passage of Scripture that we're looking at this morning. If you'd like a copy of the international version, then you'll get one from the bookshop. Well I'm reading to you from the King James Version, because as you know it's the one the Apostle Paul used, or so I'm told.

And having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. You will recollect that the previous verses that we were considering, from the 15th onwards, possibly as I argued, constituted an early Christian hymn, and dominant in those verses is the thought of the majesty and the chief position of the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, you will remember that two consecutive Sunday mornings we looked at that passage of Scripture, and on the last one I preached under the heading of Hail the Chief, for Jesus Christ is chief.

In him, says the Scriptures, all things cohere, and he has the preeminence, the authority over everything in this world and in the heavenly regions. But today, as we continue following through the argument of the apostle, you will see that dominant in the verses that we are reading is the thought of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and the consequences of his offering of his body on that Roman gibbet. We've just been singing the hymn, When I survey the wondrous cross, and that leads me to say this, my friend.

Did you really survey the cross? Survey is a good word. Isaac Watts was never one lost for the right phrase or term as he put together so many Christian hymns. When I survey the cross.

That's not some hasty glance. That's an evaluation of all that is meant by the Lord Jesus Christ dying on Calvary. Did you survey it again this morning? Did you say, ah yes, that was God's own Son dying for me? Did you weigh it up in the balances? And did you once again allow your heart to go out in praise and in adoration to a God who has done all things well? Well, it's the supreme work of Jesus, his supreme accomplishment, and the application of that accomplishment which is worked out for us in these verses.

He came to do one thing, to redeem men and women, and that work of redemption found its climax at the cross. And here is the apostle who loves the cross of Jesus going once again to Calvary and not only emphasizing what Jesus has done, but he tells those who are sensitive enough to listen to what he has to say of the blessed benefits that flow from the cross work of Jesus. But before we break the text or this passage open into what shall be two parts or not separate parts this morning, let me make one or two further observations by way of introduction.

There was a man who lived in the first centuries of the Christian Church by the name of Athanasius. He was one of the greatest men that God ever gave, the redeemed community, an astute theologian, but even more importantly, he was a man who was sensitive to the things of God. And he wrote a most remarkable book, De Incartione, On the Incarnation.

And in that book, this very interesting expression is found. Something like this, translated from the Latin. What it took God to create, it would take God to recreate.

Let me repeat that and I'll spell out its significance. What it took God to create, it would take God to recreate. Why do I mention this in this context? Well, in that Christian hymn that we have been reflecting upon, the previous verses, references made to the creative activity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the one who is before all things. He speaks and the world, the universe comes into existence. But man marred the blessings of God in the world that he had made.

Man in rebellion against God brought some of his blessings down to the level of the gutter, and a work of redemption, a work of rescue needed to be launched. But who could do this? Who can recreate sinners? None other than God. And that, my friend, is the reason for Bethlehem and for the cry of the infant Christ in the cot there.

That is the reason for Calvary and the carpenter hanging from that Roman gibbet. Here is God, who moves into time, into space, takes upon himself flesh and blood, like unto yours and mine. So that he can release the power of regeneration, of recreation, for Athanasius is dead right, his theology is faultless.

What it took God to create, it will take God to recreate. Bear that in mind for a moment. And another point, what would you say is basically wrong with the world today? It wasn't so long ago that I was flying over Uganda, and now we hear of the Tanzanian troops actually in Uganda itself, and the problems between the Ugandans and the Tanzanians.

Why is this alienation apparent in the continent of Africa? Let's take the Far East for a moment. We were told not that long ago by Karl Marx, who was working away here in the British Museum, that he had brought into being, through his own writings, some common denominator which would bring all the working classes of this world together, and now what is the spectacle we see? The Republic of China, invaded and being invaded by the Republic of Vietnam. And yet both these two countries have, as a common denominator, a Marxist ideology.

How do you explain this alienation? Now let me not be unfair in citing my examples. Let's take Northern Ireland. Here are people, our own kith and kin, from the British Isles.

Fighting against one another, and it's been horrific, and it gets more and more tragic as the years go by, despite all the prayers that we offer for that needy area of our own beloved country. How would you, in one word, describe the problems in Belfast and the rest of the cities and the towns in Northern Ireland? Well, surely it's the problem of alienation. One man not able to get on with another man.

It goes back historically, if you like, to Cain and Abel. Cain, who perpetrates the first murder, and who dares to suggest to God that he's not his brother's keeper. But why couldn't Cain get along with Abel? Well, you see, the problem is even more deeper than their own relationships, one to the other.

It's the problem that first is put into words in the opening chapters of Genesis, when we hear the Lord God coming down in the garden in the cool of the day and saying, Adam, where art thou? Adam, alienated from God. What's another word, a synonym for alienation? Divorce. God and man divorced, separated by, on the human level, an unbridgeable chasm.

And this we see to be the problem that has dug the footsteps of men and women down the centuries, which has been the cause of all broken down relationships amongst humankind. We're out of school. In our relationships with the Lord God Almighty.

All right, third point, by way of introduction. Hold on to your seat, I'll not keep you here all morning. What one word, my friend, describes the effects of the Christian gospel? It's twice mentioned in the verses that we've just been reading.

One word which describes the effects of the Christian gospel. You'll find it perhaps better expounded in 2 Corinthians and chapter 5, towards the end of that chapter. The word is reconciliation.

The redeemed community, the likes of you and me who have trusted Jesus as Savior, have had placed within our responsibility the dissemination of the gospel, the word of reconciliation we are to spread around to other men and women, because we believe that Jesus Christ through his death on the cross has reconciled a penitent humanity to the Lord God. And as a result of this has brought into brotherhood and sisterhood all those who have trusted Jesus as Lord and Savior. Now all that is embraced within these three verses, you see, because Paul is speaking about the redemption accomplished by Jesus at Calvary and the application of that redemption in the ranks of humankind.

So then let's look at redemption accomplished just for a moment. And it's there within the 20th verse, and not difficult for you to understand, even though you'll be a very young person. Here the apostle is still referring to Jesus, and he says that Jesus Christ has made peace through the blood of his cross.

Peace with whom? Well, peace with God. And notice this, in the work of reconciliation, there's only one who can engage and bring it to perfection. And having made peace through the blood of his cross, the apostle repeats himself, by him to reconcile all things unto himself.

By him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. Who's going to be the great reconciler in the world today? Who's going to bring Russia and China together? Who's going to resolve the situation in Northern Ireland? Who's going to resolve the tragedy of apartheid in Southern Africa? Some political commentator, some astute politician, some great sociologist, no, my friend. The only one who can deal with the alienation in the ranks of humankind is the Lord Jesus, who has dealt with it at its core, inasmuch as he has made peace between man and God possible.

Only Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me.

The apostle Paul elsewhere says there is no other mediator between man and God apart from the man Christ Jesus. You can turn to Islam if you like. You can turn to all Eastern mysticism.

You can look at the cults, the moonies, and all the rest of them. Take them together and all the leaders that they suggest. And I tell you, there is not one person who can achieve this work of reconciliation.

The Bible says there's only one, and that is Jesus. Here is the exclusiveness then of the work that he accomplished on the cross. But more than this, and it follows logically in this 20th verse, not only is there a reference to the exclusiveness of the achievement, but the costliness, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

That was a vicious death. No more diabolical method had been worked out by man to rob his fellow of life than death on the torture rack, which we call the cross. And there Jesus went to achieve his life's objective, redemption for you and for me.

Not only was it a vicious death, it was a sacrificial death. Again, stay with the verse. These things are quite easy for you to hold on to and understand, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

Here is an offering, a sacrificial offering. Him taking his blood, pure, undefiled, and offering it in your place and in my place, accepting upon himself the responsibility for our own shortcomings. Here is a death, I say, that was vicious, that was sacrificial, and what is more, was cursed.

Deuteronomy tells us cursed is every man that dies on a tree, that hangs on a tree. And the apostle Paul in the Galatian epistle says this, that Jesus has taken the curse that belonged rightly to you and me. He's absorbed it in his own body.

He's taken the consequences of it. And this is how he has achieved our salvation, our redemption. Here is the exclusiveness of Calvary.

Here is the costliness of Calvary worked out. But here, too, my friend, is the comprehensiveness. Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself.

Do you realize that the death of Jesus atones for every created being who acknowledges the Lord Jesus as his savior? Do you not see here in the 20th verse a parallel, almost a repetition, although the context is somewhat different, from the 16th verse? The 16th verse references to the creative activity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has brought all things together that are in earth, visible and invisible. He has brought all things together that are in heaven.

All right, come through to the 20th verse. Now, not dealing with creation, but recreation. And we read, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself.

By him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. Do you not know that as the effect of the fall, not only does humankind suffer, but the whole of the created world? Paul makes this very plain in Romans chapter 8. He says that the whole world is under bondage, it's under the tyranny caused by our own sinfulness. This is why we have so many what we call natural disasters and problems in our world.

Earthquakes and all this sort of thing. It's all traced back to man's fall and the curse of God being upon this world. Ah, but Jesus has reconciled to himself all those who trust him.

And one day, what is he going to do? He is going to recreate the heavens and the earth. In the earth, righteousness shall be seen. And the word of God shall cover the world as the waters cover the sea.

All this the Lord Jesus Christ is going to achieve through the redemption that he has made perfect in the offering of himself on Calvary's cross. So then there is the fact of that redemption. Redemption accomplished, but redemption applied.

Let's break this up. We've touched on it because as I said, the compartments are not watertight. Here they are in the 21st and the 22nd verses made reference to the application of what Jesus has done on the cross and its benefits.

Now there must be an application to an achievement that has been realized. You imagine a doctor or a medical student who's just received his degree of Bachelor of Surgery. Well, he's accomplished something.

Thank the Lord for that. But the achievements, the application of that achievement rather will be seen in terms of people who are healed as he applies his medical skill. Here is an architect who's qualified in his particular science.

And how will we see the benefits of what he has accomplished on the intellectual level? Well, we'll see it in the buildings that he will be responsible for the erection of. Well, here is the Lord Jesus having achieved the supreme thing that he came into this world to do. The offering of his own body on the cross for the sins of men and women.

How will this be applied? Well, the Apostle Paul is very personal in the 21st verse. He says, to you, Colossians, and to you people there in Worthing who are reading this epistle centuries after I was originally inspired to write it, you who were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, and yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you wholly and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Paul, as I say, becomes personal.

He refers to the previous condition of the Colossians, and then he makes reference to their changed situation. Their previous condition in verse 21. You were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind.

He's reflecting there what he's already said to the Ephesians in the second chapter of that epistle. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Now, you were in this state.

I was in this state. I was an enemy of God. There was rebellion, not only in the external activities that I engaged in, but rather, says the apostle Paul in the 21st verse, you were enemies in your mental attitude towards the Lord.

Alienated, enemies in your mind. This is what you were like, until what? Until the death of Jesus on the cross. And until you heard of the glorious gospel of salvation.

You remember how I told you in earlier studies how these Colossian Christians were centred in the city which really was the headquarters in that area of immorality. And there was nothing more wonderful to the apostle Paul, as he spells out in the second verse, than the fact that in Colossae there were saints, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colossae. In Colossae and a saint.

For the apostle Paul, it was a remarkable thing that God could bring people out of the sewage of Colossae and raise them, elevate them to become sons and daughters of the living God. Now, how did this come about? Well, it was the application of the achievement of Jesus. That's the reason why he died on the cross of Calvary, to lift men and women.

Ah, but this is not something historical, not alone. This is something that is very contemporary. This is what he does today.

The effects of Jesus' death on the cross, they're still with us in the 20th century. He raises people from one level of society and he lifts them to become the sons of the living God. So the apostle makes reference, as he applies the work of redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ, to what these Colossian Christians were in their previous condition.

But then, in the 22nd verse, he also spells out the nature of their chained situation. The Lord Jesus in the body of his flesh, the true human Jesus with flesh and blood like yours and mine, through his death on that cross, has done what, Paul? Well, says the man from Tarsus, he's done three things. He presents you holy and unblameable and unreprovable before God.

Presents you holy, what does he mean by this? Free from all sin. He makes you sacred for the Lord, that's what holiness really means. It's even got its origin historically back in the idea of certain of the Jewish people being reserved for the Lord, the chasidim, the separated ones.

Well, this is what God has done on this earth through the gospel. He has separated a people for himself, a people who were intrinsically holy, no. A people who have been made holy through the holiness of Jesus, having been passed on to them, a people separated for the Lord, their God.

But more than this, they are an unblameable people. Again, still in that 22nd verse. And the word would better be translated, a spotless people.

A spotless people. This is what Jesus was, absolutely perfect. The apostle Peter makes reference to the Lord Jesus as a lamb, a spotless lamb who will be slain for the sins of the world.

In Ephesians, he speaks about the church, in Ephesians chapter five, as being made perfect through the activity of Jesus. Now, he's speaking personally to these Colossians and by extension to you and me. In the body of his flesh, Jesus has made you sacred for the service of God and he's made you spotless.

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Spotless and unreprovable, guiltless. So that none could come along and argue that we should not have access into the presence of almighty God.

That was the reason why we read together from the passage in Romans, which speaks about the fact that none can condemn us. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yes, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us, who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution and so the apostle Paul goes on.

My dear friend, don't you realize this? That because you belong to the Lord God through Jesus Christ, you have been made holy in his holiness. You have been made spotless in his purity. And what is more, and this is a glorious thought, you are made unreprovable.

No one can come along, no angel can come along and say that you have no right to have contact with God. You have every right at all. Why? Because Jesus has made peace.

No one can come along and say, look, here is the law of God and you have not fulfilled the conditions of that law, therefore you have no contact with God. Why can't they say this? Because Jesus has kept for us the requirements of the law. Even Satan, the accuser of the brethren, cannot stand up in the courts of heaven and say that that particular group of people have no right to be reconciled to the father.

They have every right. Because God has sent his son into the world to die for us and to make us to be, as I said in our prayer, by grace what we could never have attained to be by nature, he's made us to be sons of the living God. So then, all this is involved in these three verses.

Here is the greatest achievement of Jesus spelled out. Here is redemption accomplished by the death of Jesus on the cross. Here is redemption applied.

Throughout the whole of human history, there are men and women who have benefited from the death of Jesus. And one day, in the decades that are yet to come, the Lord Jesus shall gather the whole of the redeemed community and he shall present them faultless before his father. The Lord God is not through with this heaven and this earth.

The day is yet to be when the creative word of God shall again be spoken and there shall be a new heaven and there shall be a new earth and righteousness shall indwell that earth and righteousness shall indwell that heaven. And those people who have trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are involved, have a part in this intoxicating program. God is not through with this world.

He is still the sovereign Lord of the universe who's bringing to pass his perfect plan. How? Through the death and the benefits of the death of Jesus Christ. Here is redemption accomplished.

Here is redemption applied. But I leave you with a question, my friend. Has that death and its benefits been applied to your own heart? Have you yourself personally confessed your need of Jesus? Have you instead of being divorced from the father been reconciled to the father through the son? Have you realized the reason for the incarnation, the reason for the taking of flesh by our Lord Jesus Christ and coming onto this earth? Have you realized the truth of Athanasius' words that what it took God to create, it took God to recreate? Well, may God make these things very plain to each one of us.

Amen. And our Father God, we would heap up our adoration and worship to our Lord Jesus Christ and to yourself for sending the Savior to this sin-stained earth. We praise you that he has released the power of recreation and we ask that all of us, by confessing his Lordship and acknowledging our sinfulness, may know the infusion of power wrought by his Spirit in our hearts and lives, so that we may prepare for that new era which yet you have to usher in and help us to be faithful and realistic and rising to our responsibilities in this world today, fraught with so many problems.

Lord, send us on our way, rejoicing in your goodness and resolved to live for Jesus. Amen.