GOD WAS PLEASED

Colossians 1:19-20

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.

Colossians 1:19-20

God was pleased to have His Fullness live and dwell in Christ, and by this, all things were reconciled to the Father. His blood shed on the cross made peace for everything in heaven and earth. So, anyone who was far away from God now has the opportunity to draw near and to know God. All of us were His enemies and now He can call us His friends.

All humanity were strangers and separated by sin from God the Father, but now through Christ's sacrifice, this torn relationship is mended, and we have newness of life in God. Our evil thoughts and actions separated us, but now we are reconciled. Christ's death on the cross was the incredible act that made all this possible: our salvation, our place in eternity, and our contentment here and now, all because of what Christ did as a result of His shed blood.

He has brought us into the presence of God, we who had no right or ability to come before Him can now approach God.

We are even holy and blameless because of Christ, so God now sees us as clean and pure and without fault. But, for this to happen, we have to receive His work, we have to believe who Christ is and what He did for us, and we must stand firmly in Him and never drift away from His good news.

Now we, as His servants, can preach this Good News and hope, heralding to all that Christ came to bring peace between God and mankind. What sin disrupted; Jesus restored. To do this, Christ entered into the world with the fullness of God dwelling permanently in Him as part of His nature, not as something that was given to Him to help Him accomplish this task.

He was fully God and yet willingly became fully man so He could usher in a contract of peace for us. He became a delegate for both parties, and the result was the reconciliation of all things, and a peace from God which passes all understanding to the man or woman who trusts God's Word and believes the simple gospel of grace!!!

Father, thank You for this day and for the atonement of the cross. Lord, pour out Your abundant blessings upon my friends and family today. Lord, thank You for Your simple, sublime Gospel of Grace, which has saved us from our sin and placed us in an eternally restored fellowship with God, who in You all fullness dwells. Lord, help us to understand more of Your Word and to develop a simple childlike faith, that is so pleasing to You. Lord, we praise You for bridging the distance we could not cover that our sin created between You and us. Lord, use my friends to be the light of Your Gospel to everyone today.

Father, we love You. Amen.