Thursday, February 26, 2009

Holy, Blameless, and Above Reproach

Col. 1:21-23 (ESV)
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, [22] he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, [23] if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.
This verse grabs me. Paul wrote this in about A.D 60, almost two thousand years later my dad was sent as a missionary to the deepest darkest Africa because evidently the Gospel had not been proclaimed there yet. And it hadn’t. Well missionary work had been going on there before my dad got there but you get the picture. I just bring this up, because I run into these millenialists, pre or post who think Christ can’t come back yet because the gospel has not been proclaimed to the ends of the earth yet. But the Holy Spirit says otherwise, in Acts 2, and here. As far as the prophecies are concerned this has been fulfilled, and the fact that there might be some tribe in the darkest reaches of the Amazon that has not yet heard this should not give you any reason to think Christ couldn’t come back later on this afternoon. However, it might give you reason to send a missionary to the darkest reaches of the Amazon so that a few more of your brothers and sisters might here the wonderful gospel you heard and share in your hope who is Jesus Christ who has reconciled you in his body of flesh by his death so that you might be presented holy, and blameless, and above reproach before him. Isn’t forgiveness great. You yes you, are holy, blames and above reproach, because Christ has forgiven you.

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