All right, as I mentioned, this is just one of the high points in the Apostle Paul’s letters with regard to the doctrine of Christ. So we’ve taken our time with it. I think this is our third Sunday with it. Just for review, remember that in verses 12 to 14, Paul offers prayer and thanks to God for the rescue that has been accomplished in Christ. And then verses 15 and following expand on that with regard to the qualifications of the rescuer, Christ. And we saw two broad sections to this. First of all, we have in verses 15 to 17, Christ the Lord of creation. And then verses 18 and following, Christ the Lord of the church.
Christ The Lord Of Creation
In verses 15 to 17, we emphasize the terminology there. Christ is the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of all creation. We saw the image reflects a strong assertion of Christ’s deity. It also has Trinitarian implications that we looked at. And then the term firstborn there has the connotations of preeminence. And the reason he is firstborn is because he created all things—not just all other things or all subsequent things, but everything was created by him. And so he is God, he is the creator, he is preeminent over all: Christ, the Lord of creation. We saw that this is probably, allegedly at least, many New Testament scholars believe this is one of the traces of an ancient hymn that was sung in the early church that Paul has either taken up or at least adapted in some way.
Christ The Lord Of The Church
And then verses 18 and following, Christ the Lord of the church. And here we took up some of the terminology of Christ the head of the body, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. We saw that he has preeminence now because he is the first one raised in that eschatological resurrection. We saw the broader New Testament teaching that Christ’s resurrection is that of a forerunner. And we, because of our union with him, will be raised as well at his coming. But it’s not two separate events so much as it is our being taken up in Christ’s resurrection with a bit of a time delay.
But he is the head of the body, he’s the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, and then we spent a good bit of time on this term, the fullness: in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. And so if in the first stanza we had Trinitarian implications, we have to spend some time on that. Here we have the second leading mystery of the Christian faith, and that is the person of Christ. He is both God and man together in one person. One person, two natures. You can hardly imagine a more unqualified statement of the deity of Christ than this one. All the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in him.
And so we took some time last time to look at the two natures of Christ and the broader picture of Scripture, both Old Testament and New Testament: how it’s anticipated in the Old Testament with the “coming of God” prophecies and the “coming of David’s son” prophecies, and how those two prophecies merge at times. And sometimes David’s son, the Messiah, is spoken of in terms that transcend any mere human being. But in fact, it is God who comes in the person of David’s son. And so David’s son is also David’s Lord.
And all of that would have been rather confusing before the fact, but it all comes to fruition in the incarnation of Christ. We have God becoming man. And so we spent some time looking at the two natures of Christ, how we see that in the life of Christ in the gospels: that as to his humanity, he is born; as to his deity, he is eternal. As to his humanity, he is helpless—a baby becomes thirsty, suffers; as to his deity, he upholds all things by the word of his power at all times. We saw that as to his humanity, he learns. Luke 2 tells us that; he grew in wisdom. But as to his deity, he’s eternally omniscient. And so we see that we’re always then the one person functioning always now in two natures, as to his deity and his humanity.
This is the second leading mystery of the Christian faith. We can articulate it, we can describe it. At the end of the day, it’s like the Trinity. It’s difficult, impossible, I guess, to get your mind fully around it. But I think at least toward the end last time, I mentioned some of the statements from the Council of Chalcedon, 5th century, 451 AD, which hammered out the statement of the person of Christ. The point at issue there was, as many of you have heard and are aware, Arius (A-R-I-U-S). Arius was a bishop who had denied the full deity of Christ; he was willing to say that Christ was superior to what we are, but not quite all that God is. And so this council met to hammer that out.
And the important word there—Athanasius was the hero of the story. He, in particular, led the charge against Arius. And I think he’d made the statement that he wanted to produce a statement, a creed like we have, that Arius could not sign. “And unless we do that, we haven’t done our job.” And the real sticking point—and some of you know the Greek word homoousios—consubstantial or of the same nature as the Father. Consubstantial with the Father as to his deity, consubstantial with us as to his humanity. And that word homoousios was very important. Arius was willing to say homoiousios, of a similar nature. Athanasius said, “No, that’s not enough. We’ve got to say homoousios, of the same nature, consubstantial with the Father.”
Here’s a great story. At the council, Nicholas, another bishop there, Saint Nicholas, if you will—you’ve heard of him this time of year. Nicholas was there and got so angry with Arius that at one point he walked over and smacked him across the face. Good old Saint Nick was a violent man. And some of you may have seen on my Facebook page this week, the little boy sitting in Santa Claus’s lap, and he asks Santa, “Homoousios or Homoiousios?” And Santa says, “What?” And the little boy says, “You’re not the real Saint Nick.”
Oh, anyway, that’s what we’ve seen so far. Christ, the Lord of creation; Christ, the Lord of the church. If this is a hymn, by the way, look at what they sang. Talk about substance to a hymn. I love it. All right, then I think we ended up last time just pointing out quickly, pointing ahead to today, that all of this about Christ—the second person of the triune Godhead, the one who now is God incarnate, God and man—that is a gospel essential. And what I mean by that is take this away, take away the incarnation, and you have no gospel of salvation left. Who can represent God in saving us but God himself? Who can save but God himself? Who can represent us but one of us? Human obedience is necessary for salvation. It must be one of us if he is to be a true substitute. So this is a gospel essential. That’s what Paul has in mind in 1 Timothy 2:5. There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, the only one qualified to do the work.
This, by the way, has massive implications with regard to the argument that comes up with our pluralistic society today all the time: “Well, you can believe that Jesus saves, but there could be other ways.” And the first question you have to ask is, who else is qualified? Who can do it? And the proclamation of the New Testament everywhere is that Christ alone is qualified, and these are the basics of his qualifications to be our Savior. God has come to the rescue in the person of Christ, the God-man. And that’s what the Council of Chalcedon had in mind when they said, “For us and for our salvation,” regarding his being consubstantial with the Father and consubstantial with us.
The Doctrine Of Reconciliation
All right, well, all of that is what is in mind in verse 20: “And through him to reconcile all things to himself, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” So having discussed his qualifications, now he tells us, this is the one who has reconciled us to God. So he gives this broad characterization of the work of Christ. Reconciled: the doctrine of reconciliation. Or as he says it here as well, making peace. We were alienated because of our sin. The relationship, here as he describes it in the next verse, “alienated and hostile in your mind by evil deeds,” now reconciled. So a broad characterization of Christ’s work: he came to reconcile us to God. We were enemies; now we are in fellowship with God as his friends.
How did Christ accomplish this? Answer: “through him to reconcile all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” And there’s the emphasis everywhere. Christ, the God-man, standing in the place of sinners, offering himself in sacrifice for sin in our place, and having removed the obstacle of sin, brought us into fellowship with God. And I love the expression “making peace by the blood of his cross.” That’s what he accomplished. Brought us into fellowship with God through his self-sacrifice.
Now there’s an interesting statement here that has puzzled interpreters ever since Paul wrote it, probably, and that’s regarding the scope of Christ’s work. “All things, whether on earth or in heaven.” What does that mean? Well, I can take a stab at it, but that’s the best I can do. It is obviously not speaking of outright universalism. There are too many passages in the Scripture that speak of eternal punishment and those who have not been reconciled being consigned to everlasting perdition. And in fact, here in verse 23, Paul mentions the necessity of perseverance that we’ll talk about in a few minutes, if I can get there.
So all who refuse Christ will be condemned. Well, then what is the reference of this, “whether on earth or in heaven”? Is it talking about the saints in heaven? Does it have some reference to the angels—fallen angels as well as the angels of God? I don’t know. At the very least, I think we can say that he is saying here that all of the universe will be set back in order because of the reconciling work of Christ. Those who are his will be safe, and all of those who have opposed him will be subdued. And so reconciliation in the broadest sense: everything put in order finally through the work of Christ. That’s the best I can say.
Verses 21 and 22. Here we have a vivid description of what it looks like in the experience of the individual believer. Verse 21: “And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.” Again, we have the reminder here of reconciliation coming by means of the substitutionary work of Christ. But what we have here in these two verses is a marvelous contrast of before and after. What we were, and what we have become in Christ.
Look at it again. “You who once were alienated and hostile in mind.” Notice it’s not just external actions. That’s next: “doing evil deeds.” But those evil deeds stem from a mind that is alienated from God and hostile against God. Now that hostility actually goes both ways. Hostile against God because we want our sin and have a natural disposition of opposition to God, but because of that, God’s opposition to us. There’s hostility; there’s enmity going both ways. And that’s the previous condition, our status before God. Alienated and hostile. But what has happened is we’ve now been reconciled—from alienation, estrangement, and hostility to now being at peace with God, “reconciled in his body of flesh by his death.” From alienation and hostility to acceptance, peace, and fellowship with God. Marvelous before and after contrast.
And in fact, verse 22 specifies a little more carefully even the outcome of it all: “in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.” That’s our new status before God. Now there is no way that kind of language—holy, blameless before God—there’s no way that language can be anything more than pretending, except we have a holy and blameless substitute who has stood in our place and given us his righteousness and taken the curse of our sin. And all of that is bound up in what Paul is saying. Here’s our new status before God, the great change that’s available only through the cross of Christ. We who were aliens, and in fact enemies of God, now accepted at peace and in fellowship with God.
Marvelous passage, marvelous condensed description of what salvation is. I’ve got to mention this. This passage, verses 15 to 23, is the passage of the first sermon I ever preached, right here. I’ll give you the outline: The Man of the Cross, The Meaning of the Cross, and The Message of the Cross—even alliterated. I was 21 years old. Pastor Greg, you and Jim Greider will remember the sermon contests at the college we went to. Of course, they were there way ahead of me. I’m much younger than they are. This was the first sermon I preached. I preached there, preached to 7,000 people. My dad said, “It only goes down from here, Fred.”
This was the passage. The Man of the Cross: He’s Lord of creation. He’s the image of God. He’s the firstborn of all creation. He’s the fullness of Godhead. That’s the man of the cross, God incarnate. The Meaning of the Cross: He affects reconciliation for us through his blood. The Message of the Cross: Be reconciled because reconciliation has been accomplished through the work of Christ. First sermon I ever preached, same message I’ve been preaching ever since. The Lord offers terms of peace through Christ, the only one qualified, the only one who’s done the work; come to him and be reconciled.
All right, the Doctrine of Reconciliation. Any questions before we move on to verse 23, which takes us into the Doctrine of Perseverance? Any questions on this passage up to this point?
The Doctrine Of Perseverance
All right, verse 23. This verse actually addresses a huge theological problem in our day. We often call it “easy believism.” It might not be the best terminology because belief—believing in Christ—is really all you need to do to be saved, right? But easy-believism is the terminology we’ve used that captures what has just been an awful blight in our church in the last couple of generations, particularly: that you can make your decision, pray your prayer, and then, “once saved, always saved.”
Now, I believe that once you are saved, you are always saved. But that kind of terminology has been bandied about in the church—that no matter what decision, once the decision has been made, no matter what the life is afterwards, no matter if he never shows any fruit of salvation, he’s still saved because he made that decision. And we’ve got churches full of, I’m convinced, unregenerate church members who think they are saved because they made their decision.
This verse, I think, is designed to counter just that kind of thinking. We’ve been reconciled through Christ, to “present you holy, blameless, above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.” Notice that statement, “if indeed.” You’re reconciled if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you’ve heard. This is one of those contingency passages that we find in the New Testament, and there are many of them, that stress our responsibility to believe in order to be saved and to continue believing.
One of those contingency passages. Now there are many of those, and let me give you one or two others. Someone look up 1 Corinthians 15 and read verses one and two. “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” Okay, you’re saved by the gospel, which you believe, if you hold fast to the word that I preach to you. And then notice that next statement, “unless you’ve believed in vain.” So two things here in this passage. One, the necessity of continued faith. And two, he points out, “unless you’ve believed in vain.” There we have stressed the idea that there is such a thing as a faith that does not save. We call it spurious faith, a kind of flash-in-the-pan kind of faith. Unless you’ve believed in vain, and unless you hold fast to that faith. It’s a contingency passage.
Let’s look at John 8, verses 30 and 31. Here, Jesus is speaking to the Jewish crowd. And notice what he says here. Someone read for us John 8:30 and 31. Chapter 8, verses 30 and 31. Anybody? John 8:30 and 31. Verse 30 says, “Even as he spoke, many believed in him.” To the Jews who had believed in him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Okay, notice, they believed on him, verse 30. Verse 31: you’re my disciples if you believe, if you continue in that faith.
One more, look at Matthew 24, verses 10 to 13. Familiar passage; Jesus is describing the course of this age up to the end. He is describing this time of distress that will both mark this age and continue in more intensity at the end of the age. Notice how he describes his followers, Matthew 24:10 to 13, all right? “And then many will fall away, betray one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Okay, verses 10 to 12 stress for us the distressfulness of that time, what it’s going to be like. There’s going to be opposition because of our faith. And then verse 13, the one that endures to the end, that’s the one that will be saved. Salvation is marked by continuance in the faith.
So salvation, as we know, hinges on faith. Have to believe in order to be saved. And it shouldn’t surprise us then that unbelievers, those who are not believing, will not be saved. And that’s all this is saying. Now related to all of that is what I’ve already mentioned with regard to 1 Corinthians 15, and that is there’s a kind of faith that does not save. We call it spurious faith or a superficial attachment to Christ. We saw that in 1 Corinthians 15, “unless you have believed in vain.” There are many passages that speak like that. Matthew 7 reflects that. In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, many will say to me in that day, “Lord, Lord,” acknowledging the Lordship of Christ. “Haven’t we done this, that, and the other? We’ve prophesied. We’ve done wonderful works in your name.” And then I will say to them, “I don’t know you anymore.” That’s not what it says, is it? “I never knew you.” The fact that they did not, in this case, Matthew chapter 7, follow the teaching of Christ marks that their faith was a spurious faith that does not save at all.
I have so many passages written down here we could look at. One is Matthew chapter 13, the parable of the sower. You remember the stony ground hearer in the parable of the sower. Stony ground is—that is, there’s a layer of earth, but beneath it’s rocky, a shelf of rock. And so there’s not much depth of earth for the plant to grow. And so the seed is sown, it germinates and shoots up. And because it’s got no depth of root, it just shoots up and it has a great flash-in-the-pan kind of display of saving faith. And then the sun comes out, and it can’t stand it. It doesn’t have any depth of earth to get the nutrients from the soil, and it falls away and withers. And there is one picture of someone who has a kind of faith, but not a saving response to the gospel.
Another famous example of this is Acts chapter 8. I’ll just summarize it. Simon, the sorcerer. And the gospel is preached there, many believe, and it tells us in Acts chapter 8 that Simon himself believed. And in fact, he was baptized. And then he sees the miracles that are happening through the apostles. And true to his character, he says, “Here, let me pay you and give me that ability to perform miracles.” And you remember Peter’s response? “Take your money to hell with you.” Exactly what he says to him. “Your heart is not right with God. You’re still in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity.” He’s not saved, and yet he believed, was baptized, again, demonstrating that there’s a kind of faith that does not save. Other passages are like that; I think that’s all we’ll look at for now. I think I’ve made the point. So there are contingency passages like what we see here in Colossians chapter one and some of the other places.
Related to that, there is a kind of faith that does not save. And then another topic we should look at in reference to this, and that is the simple observation that saving faith is marked by continuance. Saving faith is marked by continuance. Saving faith is not a once-and-done thing. Saving faith is marked by continuance. So the most famous verse in this regard, look at 1 John 2, verse 19. Someone read that for us. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” Now that is a very important statement. Their going away, their leaving, demonstrated that whatever profession of faith they had was not real. He does not say they lost their salvation. He says their going away demonstrated the spuriousness of their faith. Because—and then the positive statement—if they were of us, if they were genuinely one of us, you would have known it. How? They would have continued with us. That’s the mark of genuine saving faith.
Since you’re in 1 John, look at chapter 5 verses 4 and 5. 1 John 5 verses 4 and 5. “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” Sure. Now there again, we have a positive statement of what it is to believe in Christ for salvation. It’s marked by continuance and overcoming. There you have it again. That, in a sense, is what we saw in Matthew 24: “He that endures to the end shall be saved.”
We have the time. Let’s look at 1 Peter 1, verses three to five. Someone read that for us. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Okay, it is by God’s initiative, verse 3, that we’ve come to life in Christ. Verse 4, he states the inheritance that we have ahead of us. And then verse 5: by God’s power we’re being guarded. There’s preservation. But notice what it says: “who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” That God preserves us, but it is precisely through faith that he preserves us.
So what he’s saying simply is that God saves us. Yes, it hinges on faith. We believe and we’re justified. And the mark of that faith is that it continues. Now here we have some terminology questions. Should we speak of the “preservation of the saints”? Or should we speak of the “perseverance of the saints”? Some have objected that if we say “perseverance,” it puts too much emphasis on us and what we do. We should just say the “preservation of the saints.” But here we learn that yes, it’s both. God preserves us and the means by which he preserves us is through our persevering in the faith. And here both are brought together. As a corollary to that, anyone who does not believe will perish. But all who are saved will persevere.
And there is one other verse I’d like you to look at. Look at Jeremiah 32, verse 40. I think it’s an important verse. He is speaking here in terms of the promise of the new covenant and this new covenant salvation that will come finally in Christ. And notice the provision that God makes in this new covenant. Jeremiah 32, someone read verse 40. “I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.” So there’s the provision that he’ll save us, he’ll change our hearts, and he’ll put it in our hearts. Part of salvation is this: that he puts it in our hearts to follow him and to follow him forever.
So, all of that together, I think we have to come to the conclusion that salvation, by definition, is a lasting rescue from sin through faith. It is preservation, but it is preservation in what? Well, if salvation entails believing, then preservation entails perseverance. We’re not talking here in verse—back to Colossians now—Paul is not simply giving us a contingency passage, “if you believe.” What he is also telling us is something about the nature of salvation itself. Salvation by definition is a lasting and continuing thing, that God preserves us in faith.
And so on the one hand, we can give the caution: if you do not believe and if you do not continue to believe, you will not be saved. On the other hand, we must say that those who are genuinely saved, because this is what salvation is, will continue in their faith forever and not leave. So again, Colossians 1:23 here—he’s not simply saying that perseverance is required, but he’s telling us something about the nature of salvation itself. And in fact, the way Paul words this in the original, in the Greek, assumes it’s a full expectation that they will, in fact, continue. Continuance is both the promise of genuine salvation and it is the evidence of genuine salvation. Both the promise and the evidence of genuine salvation.
All right, so this morning then we’ve looked at the doctrine of reconciliation, and now the doctrine of perseverance. Any questions? Clarifications, comments? Yeah. Well, you had a good vocabulary lesson. Yes, Ian. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it can be abused both directions, can’t it? On the one hand, you can say these contingency passages mean that you’ll lose your salvation. When you take it in the whole, it obviously doesn’t mean that. The other abuse is that it can—unless you do x, y, z according to the way, and here’s the hitch, according to the way we define salvation and obedience—then you’re lost. And then you’ve gone a step too far.
So for example, 1 John 2:19 that Steve read for us earlier, “if they were really of us, they wouldn’t have left us.” We can’t say that everyone who has left Reformed Baptist Church is an unbeliever. That’s not what that’s saying. What he’s saying is they’ve left the faith. They’ve left the community of faith. They’re not believing. It’s the sad reality that people can get miffed, rightly or wrongly, and leave the fellowship that we have here particularly. But that’s not what it’s talking about. Yes? Is that enough, Ian? I think that, yeah. OK.
All right. Maybe one way we could define the difference is to say: it’s not faith generated by the preacher, but faith that comes from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. And that’s the Jeremiah 32, verse 40 passage, that part of regeneration is to give you a heart to follow him so you will not go away. I remember Asahel Nettleton, when he would preach and people would become enormously convicted of it—no, wait, just let me interrupt for a second. You remember Asahel Nettleton? I believe it. I didn’t realize you were quite that old. I don’t know what it is about me that—by the way, instead of him dealing more with them, he would tell them, “this is between you and God, and you need to go off before God alone and deal with this matter.” I think the thing he was trying to say was, it doesn’t matter so much what I convince you of as what God does in your heart.
And I remember we did that with our own children. When they would come to us and they would be all distressed about their sins and so on, we sent them to deal with the matter before God. Now, we gave them instruction in terms of what the Scriptures taught. But ultimately, that matter is not between preacher and congregation. Yeah, that’s right. In fact, with Asahel Nettleton, by the way—he was an early 19th-century evangelist. This is 1830s, 20s, 30s, early 40s, maybe. In the background to that was Charles Finney, who said, believe it or not, that he carried revival in his briefcase. He could come, and if you do one, two, three, four, according to the plan—just follow the method—and you can produce revival. And there’d be all kinds of excitements and all kinds of external responses. And of course, they wouldn’t last.
And it was a dreadful thing that 10, 20, 30 years later, these areas where Charles Finney had come in and created great excitement—faithful ministers complained that in those areas, they described it as “burnt ground.” The gospel had come and had been so misunderstood that there’s just no ministering here today at all because there’s so much misunderstanding. People are sick of what it did. The responses were a fleshly, carnal kind of response. And it gave a wrong impression of the gospel altogether. But that’s what Charles Finney would try to generate, and that’s what he called revival.
In contrast to that, Asahel Nettleton, who was a very popular, very successful in that sense, evangelist as well—when he would go to a place, there were, again, this is a period of the Second Great Awakening. He would preach, many were saved. But when he began to sense that there was too much excitement about him, in contrast to Finney, he would leave. He would pack up and go. And he didn’t want any confusion that faith should be somehow focused on him. So two church history lessons today. All right. Any other questions?
All right. Pastor Greg, would you pray for us, please? “Our Lord, we thank you for the wonderful truth of the gospel that you have covered and opened up here today. That of reconciliation, you have made peace through your blood and physical body on the cross for all who come to you as their Savior and Lord. What a wonderful free offer still stands today, but also that you will preserve those who have come by changing their nature, giving them a new heart that they will want to continue in that belief. And that you will uphold them day by day through many trials and doubts. We thank you that we are numbered among that blessed community, those of us who have put our trust in Christ. We pray that any here today who have heard this truth will become a part of this blessed body of Christ for whom there is such a wonderful future. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.”
And I remember you were sitting out there listening. Thank you, sir. Do you have a spare 8-inch jack to play something from here through the system? Or is it being used there? If it’s being used there, it’s very good. Does this have this song? No, don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it. I wanted to share something with you