And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your minds as expressed through your evil deeds, but now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him.
Into the Text
In today’s paragraph, Paul shifts the focus from who Jesus is to the work He has accomplished.
Paul makes the stunning claim that before we came to Jesus, we were strangers from God, cut off from Him, and separated from His life. Most people will object that they were never an enemy of God and never had anything against Him.
However, the Bible makes it clear that by nature we all have a deep hostility toward God in us. This is expressed through evil deeds. We were strangers to God because we loved our sin, and we hated the God who rebuked our sin. We didn’t want to surrender to Him but instead cling on to our own plans and ideas.
Since sin was the root cause of the problem, a holy God not only had to deal with the punishment for sin but also with our hearts. We needed to be dramatically transformed with a new heart, which did not love sin and was not hostile to God anymore. Reconciliation was only possible if our sinful nature was changed, and God’s holy wrath was appeased.
And that’s exactly what God did. He appeased His wrath by pouring it out on Jesus, and He made us new creations by faith in Jesus. On the cross, Jesus bore our sins in His own body. When we believe in Him, He pours His transforming power into our lives.
When we trust Jesus for His redemptive work, we are declared righteous. And when we get to heaven, we will finally become in practice what we are now already in position: holy, without blemish, and blameless.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, even though I was your enemy, you found me and drew me to yourself by your great work on the cross. Thank you. Amen.