Alienated & Hostile In Mind

“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, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard…”

The transformation that takes place in a person who has become a Christian is marvelous. It is a divine transformation. God does something in us that we cannot do ourselves. Salvation is not self-reformation or self-transformation. We cannot save ourselves either by self-effort or doing good works. The Apostle Paul loved to speak of these truths to the people to whom he wrote. There was no such thing as a person being a Christian, who was not a changed person. Such a thing was not possible and is not possible.

Salvation is so glorious because it is a transformation described in terms of contrast. Salvation is the difference between night and day, life and death, or darkness and light. This contrast is radical and sharp. We are not confused about such things. For example, if it was dark, you would generally conclude that it was night, and if the sun was blazing down upon you, you would conclusively state that it was daytime. You would know the difference. This is what a Christian is. You would know and see the difference, and it would startling. Such differences do not come because we attend church or grow up in a church. They do not come because we decide to reform our lives. The only reason for the difference is the Holy Spirit and his work. And it is even more startling that there should be an increasing trend in the difference. There should be an ever-growing development in change or transformation.

According to Peter, we should be growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:18). It is not possible to grow in grace without knowledge, but we could learn a few things and make no progress in grace. This is why grace is always first. It is foundational and necessary. Knowledge is not necessarily evidence of being a Christian, but grace on display points to some display of fruit. But grace does not operate independently from knowledge. It is always seeking to know and grow.

In our verse, Paul shows us the contrast. He mentions that we once were alienated from God. We were hostile toward God. And then he says that we have been reconciled. This reconciliation is not because we have reconciled ourselves toward God, but rather, God has reconciled us to himself. This stresses the fact that reconciliation is not our work, but God’s. In fact, we would never reconcile ourselves with God because we were alienated and hostile. We were in the darkness. We were dead in our sins. Reconciliation is, therefore, an act of supreme grace because it is God who initiates it and maintains it. But God does not and cannot reconcile anyone to himself without satisfaction for sin. If we are sinners, then something has to happen for God to be at peace with us.

Reconciliation means to bring peace in the midst of mutual hostility. Paul tells us in Romans 5:10 that we were enemies of God. An enemy is someone who is actively engaged in enmity. An enemy of God actively seeks to revolt against God and his authority. This idea behind being an enemy is one of action and not passivity. We aggravate God by our sins and sinfulness. All of this points to the fact that God’s grace is totally out of our power. It is God alone who pours out his grace. His grace is a magnanimous action in the process of reconciliation. We were actively engaged in a war against God yet he displays grace. Only sinners are reconciled to God by his grace. This reconciling grace is, as Paul says in Romans 5:10, manifested in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Paul also says in Colossians 1:22: “we were reconciled in his body of flesh by his death.”

In order for God to deal with us in grace and reconcile us to himself, he has to be disposed toward us in justice. God’s justice must be satisfied and the only way is through Jesus’ death. Therefore, grace and reconciliation come to us through Christ. Without Christ, we would perish and must perish. This is why salvation is so magnificent. We deserve only wrath because of our sinful nature and actions. Original sin condemns us, and every single sin does the same. Any attempt to add our efforts or works or will to what God has done for us or to what our Lord Jesus has done for us reduces the work of God, and, in fact, nullifies it. This is what Paul told the Galatians in Galatians 5:2-6. If they accepted circumcision as necessary for salvation, Christ would be of no advantage to them and they would then be obligated to keep the whole law, and when that happens, they would be severed from Christ and would have fallen away from grace. In short, we can never be justified by the law because we cannot keep it, and we can never be justified by any work or effort of ourselves. This is why we need grace. Without God’s grace, we are lost.

This is what Paul is also referring to in Romans 3:21–28 when he says, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it: the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”

We must conclude from such a statement that the entire work of salvation is God’s. God’s righteousness does not come to us through the Law, but only by faith. This faith is given to us by God (Eph. 2:8, 9). Faith is God’s gift to us through which we believe. We cannot believe by or in ourselves. We cannot conjure up faith. Paul even states that any boasting is nullified and excluded because we are justified freely by God’s grace through faith and not through the works of the Law or by our efforts. I can never bring myself to think that I could be justified by God by my strength or character or works. I know I am a sinner and I know I am a sinner saved by grace alone. Yet I also know that indwelling corruption remains and sin is in me (1 John 1:8). Sin is all about self. When we claim that we have believed through our partial efforts or by our so-called free will, we magnify ourselves, whether we admit that or not.

But why has God done all of this for us? When we were hostile toward God, we did evil deeds (Col. 1:21). Paul says that the goal of reconciliation is that God would “present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him…” (Col 1:2). We are not saved to continue as we lived before, but now we are to live the life of Christ. Paul encourages us to be like this by adding a warning: “if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard” (Col 1:23). What a change salvation brings. What joy to be right with God and reconciled to God! We should give thanks and worship God for what he has done for us.