We've looked at probably the two most important topics in Colossians - Christ first and then salvation - but now we're going to look at maybe not the most fun topic, but certainly one of great importance - sin. Colossians reveals many painful, yet redemptive, truths about this deadly parasite called sin and here I've outlined just four of them for you.
- Sin alienates us from God. "Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions ..." (Colossians 1:21) "Your evil actions." Ouch. This first thing Colossians reveals about sin is that it alienates us from God. Because of evil - sin - we are separated and hostile towards God. Before we were saved, sin stood like a stone wall separating us from God. Because our God is holy, He can not be in the presence of sin. So when we sin and we revel and dwell in that sin and do not repent, we're alienating ourselves from our Maker. We don't think about that too often, do we? No, we think of sin as momentary pleasure, fun that will last for a while. We think of it as being enjoyable, not realizing with every step towards sin, we're laying a brick in that wall in front of God. Sin corrupts our relationship with God. Fortunately, there's good news for us. Even though our sin alienates us from God, "now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death." (Colosians 1:22) Through Christ's redemptive death, we can repent and be reconciled to God! How awesome is that!
- Sin destroys us. "And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh ..." (Colossians 2:13a) I've already talked about this in my posts on salvation, but, I'll just briefly say again, sin kills us. It destroys us. Before we were in the light, we were in the darkness, the suffocating, deadly darkness. We were dead people. Dead in our trespasses, our sin. Only the light of the gospel, the light of Christ can stop sin from destroying us.
- Sin puts us in bondage. "He erased the certificate of debt ..." (Colossians 2:14a) You may not have realized it, but before we were Christians, we were enslaved to sin, indebted to it. Most non-Christians think that even though they don't serve Christ, they can be just neutral. They think that they don't serve anyone. But, sadly, that's just not true. If you don't serve God, you serve sin. And sin is a harsh, evil master, who does not want your good. It wants your harm. Sin puts us in bondage.
- Sin incites God's wrath. "Therefore put to death what belongs to your worldly nature. ... Because of these God's wrath comes on the disobedient." (Colossians 3:5-6) Because God is a holy, just God, He must punish the guilty. He must pour out His wrath, His judgment, on the unrepentant sinners. Many people don't like to hear this, but as Christians, it should spurn us on to tell everyone we know about the gospel, warning them of the coming wrath of God and of the good news of Jesus.