FIRST RELATIONSHIP, THEN DEEDS
Formerly you were yourselves estranged from God, you were his enemies in heart and mind, and your deeds were evil. But now by Christ's death...God has reconciled you to himself. Col. 1:21, 22, N.E.B.
There is a vital one-two-three sequence in this text. Seldom has Paul spoken more clearly about the real nature of the sin problem. Notice how it happens" (1) you were estranged from God; (2) you were enemies in heart and mind, and then (3) your deeds were evil.
We can hardly say it too often: Sin is a relationship word. I cannot talk about sin without talking about God--about the alienated relationship between myself and God. Having chosen a life apart from Him, all my values become distorted. Being estranged from the lover of my soul, I become insecure and defensive. And that insecurity so readily finds its expression in hostility.
What, then, can result except evil deeds? Since we have been created for fellowship with a loving and personable God, the absence of that friendship is devastating. It is fair to say that virtually everything we do that is unkind, immoral, immature, and otherwise sinful, we do in a frantic attempt to fill that resulting ugly emptiness
Of course, our God knows that this is exactly what happens. He knows that just as sin is a relationship word, salvation is also a relationship word. If we do sinful deeds because we are estranged from Him, then His first step is to win us back into that healing friendship with Himself.
Satan is also very interested in spelling out a path to God's friendship. He says that if we will do enough good deeds, God will reward us with His friendship. God, however, offers His friendship, not as a reward for our good deeds, but out of the sure conviction that his is the only means than can ever produce good deeds. Only those who are loved can be truly loving.
How much we need to remember that we are not trying to reconcile God to us, but that God is reconciling us to Himself. The hostilities never were His in the first place; they are not His to drop. We are the estranged ones. The cross of Christ is God's act to win us, not Christ's act to placate God.
And God is confident that, having won us to Himself, He can do great things in us, even removing every last blemish that the broken relationship has caused.
Formerly you were yourselves estranged from God, you were his enemies in heart and mind, and your deeds were evil. But now by Christ's death...God has reconciled you to himself. Col. 1:21, 22, N.E.B.
There is a vital one-two-three sequence in this text. Seldom has Paul spoken more clearly about the real nature of the sin problem. Notice how it happens" (1) you were estranged from God; (2) you were enemies in heart and mind, and then (3) your deeds were evil.
We can hardly say it too often: Sin is a relationship word. I cannot talk about sin without talking about God--about the alienated relationship between myself and God. Having chosen a life apart from Him, all my values become distorted. Being estranged from the lover of my soul, I become insecure and defensive. And that insecurity so readily finds its expression in hostility.
What, then, can result except evil deeds? Since we have been created for fellowship with a loving and personable God, the absence of that friendship is devastating. It is fair to say that virtually everything we do that is unkind, immoral, immature, and otherwise sinful, we do in a frantic attempt to fill that resulting ugly emptiness
Of course, our God knows that this is exactly what happens. He knows that just as sin is a relationship word, salvation is also a relationship word. If we do sinful deeds because we are estranged from Him, then His first step is to win us back into that healing friendship with Himself.
Satan is also very interested in spelling out a path to God's friendship. He says that if we will do enough good deeds, God will reward us with His friendship. God, however, offers His friendship, not as a reward for our good deeds, but out of the sure conviction that his is the only means than can ever produce good deeds. Only those who are loved can be truly loving.
How much we need to remember that we are not trying to reconcile God to us, but that God is reconciling us to Himself. The hostilities never were His in the first place; they are not His to drop. We are the estranged ones. The cross of Christ is God's act to win us, not Christ's act to placate God.
And God is confident that, having won us to Himself, He can do great things in us, even removing every last blemish that the broken relationship has caused.
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