Year 5, Day 216: Colossians 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

In a strange twist of fate, I am going to talk about the exact same topic as I talked about yesterday as we transition from Psalms to Colossians.  Forgiveness.  We all need it.  It’s how we move from wrath to grace.  It’s how we move from condemnation to righteous.  It’s how we move from damnation to eternal life.  Forgiveness.

But how is forgiveness genuinely obtained?  Yes, it is embraced.  Yes, it requires a repentant life.  But how is it genuinely obtained?

Only through Jesus Christ.  Through no other means does one come to forgiveness except through the death of Jesus Christ as He died upon the cross.  There is no way to the Father but through Christ.  There is no way to righteousness but through Christ.  There is no way to peace but through Christ.  There is no way out of darkness but through Christ.

That’s actually what the vast majority of this first chapter of Colossians is about.  Jesus Christ is the center of God’s work.  He is the one through whom we were all created; why shouldn’t he be the one through whom we are all saved?  He is before all things and He holds all things together; why shouldn’t He be the one through whom we are saved?

He is the head of the church because it is through His sacrificial servant nature that we are forgiven.  He reconciles all things.  He gives us peace on the cross.

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