“Holy In His Sight”
Colossians 1:19-22

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Christ the King Sunday–Last Sunday of the Church Year—November 24, 2013

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Our text is today’s Epistle Reading from the first chapter of Colossians: “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.  But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”

Point #1)  Jesus is a Unique Person

“For God was pleased to have ALL his fullness dwell in him.”  That claim which St. Paul made was absolutely astounding in the world of the ancient Greeks and Romans, that ALL the fullness of God dwelt in the person of Jesus.  For, they believed in dozens, even hundreds of different gods and goddesses: Zeus, Jupiter, Neptune, Athena, Venus, Diana, Apollo, Hermes, Dionysus, and the list goes on and on. All of these were thought to legitimately represent different facets of the one divine godhead.  I recently saw a bumper sticker which said, “God is too big to fit into just one religion.”  I don’t know if they had bumper stickers on their chariots back then, but that was very much the attitude of the ancient Greeks and Romans.  They thought the divine godhead was much too big to fit into just one representation, and so they devised dozens, even hundreds of different pagan gods and goddesses.  As the book of Acts says, “While Paul was . . . in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.”

Our world today seems to be reverting back to that old pagan idolatry.  For, there is a growing sentiment, even among some who call themselves Christians, that the various world religions simply represent different facets of the one true God, that Jesus is really not unique, but only one among many famous teachers and religious figures throughout history.  As the bumper sticker says, “God is too big to fit into just one religion.”  The attitude represented by that bumper stickers is considered enlightened and tolerant, and anyone who claims otherwise is narrow-minded and offensive.

“For God was pleased to have ALL his fullness dwell in him.”  In the world of the ancient Greeks and Romans, that claim which St. Paul made about Jesus was absolutely astounding, and it is still absolutely astounding in our world today.  For, Jesus Christ is NOT just one among many famous teachers and religious figures, he does not just represent one facet of the true God.  As St. John says, “He IS the true God and eternal life.”  Jesus himself said, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. . .  I and the Father are one. . .  All should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. . . I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Jesus Christ is a totally unique person, with both human and divine natures in one person, 100% God and 100% man.  As St. Paul says, “Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body.”

Martin Luther describes the unique person of Jesus Christ in the Small Catechism: “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord.”

Jesus Christ is not just one among many famous teachers and religious figures, he does not just represent one facet of the true God.  As St. Paul says again a few verses after our text: “For in Christ ALL the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”

Point #2)  Jesus Has a Unique Mission and Message

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

Apart from Jesus, all the other famous teachers and religious figures throughout history have three things in common in their mission and the message they brought to the world:  They taught that humans are sinners; that God is angry; and that God has sent them to give humanity a list of obligations and commandments by which humans can appease the angry God and save themselves.

Jesus, however, has a unique mission and message that you won’t find in any other religion.  Jesus agrees with the first point, the diagnosis that all humans are sinners.  As St. Paul says in our text, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.”  But, Jesus has a radically different mission and message.  His mission to humanity is not to dictate rules and regs by which we should save ourselves, but to proclaim a radical Good News: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  . . .  Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

Jesus is God himself, in the flesh.  He came into the world to lay down his own life as payment for all your sins.  On his account, the sins of the world are all forgiven.  God is not angry with the world, God is not angry with you.  “Because I live,” Jesus says, “you also will live.”

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”  That unique mission and message is what sets Jesus totally apart from all the other famous teachers and religious figures throughout history, what sets Christianity totally apart from every other religion in the world.  Christ’s unique mission of reconciling God and the world through his own sacrificial death.  Christ’s unique message of God’s free forgiveness, grace, mercy, and love, on account of his sacrifice.

“Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as an offering and sacrifice to God.”  “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from every sin. . .  He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”  “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not counting men’s sins against them.”

As Martin Luther says in the Small Catechism, “[He] has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.”

Point #3)  Jesus Is Your Unique Savior

“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.  But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”

Through your Savior Jesus Christ, that is how God sees you right now: “holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”  Not maybe, not could be, not might be some day if you earn it, but right now you ARE “holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”

God placed all your sins upon his Son, as St. Peter says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.”  And in exchange for all your sins, in his sight God covers you with, and credits, and applies to you, all the perfect holiness of his own Son.  As Hebrews says, “We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”  Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you have been made “holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”

Jesus is a Unique Person:  “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.”

Jesus Has a Unique Mission and Message: “And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

Jesus Is Your Unique Savior: “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.  But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”

Amen.