Col. i. 21 — 23. You, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by tvicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his Jlesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight : if ye con- tinue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved aivay from the hope of the Gospel.
OF all the subjects that can occupy the human mind, there is not one so great and glorious as that of redemption through the incarnation and death of God's only-begotten Son. It is that which occupies incessantly the heavenly hosts; and which the Apostle Paul, whatever be his more immediate subject of discourse, reverts to on every occasion : and when he has, however incidentally, touched upon it, he scarcely knows how, or when, to leave it. This very strongly appears in the passage now before us. Having in the beginning of this chapter thanked God for bringing the Colossians to the knowledge of his Gospel, and informed them what were the peculiar blessings which in his daily prayers he sought for in their behalf, and what thanksgivings he constantly offered up, especially for that which they had expe- rienced in being " translated from the power of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son," he launches forth into the praises of the Lord Jesus Christ for all that he had done in the creation, pre- servation, and redemption of the world, and par- ticularly for his redeeming love, as manifested to, and exercised upon, the Colossian converts. But, as they were converts from the Gentile world, we may fitly consider his address to them as delivered also to us ; and may take occasion from it to shew,
I. What the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us —
1. Our state was awful in the extreme —
[" We were alienated from God, and enemies to him in our mind by wicked works." This is no less true of us than of the idolatrous Gentiles : for though by calling ourselves Christians we have professed a regard for God and his Christ, we have not really sought our happiness in God : we have not even desired his favour, or used any means to obtain it. We have been contented to live at a distance from him, to put the very remembrance of him far from us, and to seek our happi- ness in things which had no proper tendency to endear either him to us, or us to him. However observant we may have been of outward forms, we have had no pleasure in communion with him. The exercises of prayer and praise have rather been an irksome task, than occupations in which we found our chief delight. And if at any time we have had opportunities