Alienation, Reconciliation, and Perseverence in Colossians 1:21-23, Part 2

I would like to address each of these topics individually, pursue each a bit, and hopefully propose some meaningful conclusions. The first of these topics is, alienation. In the context of Col 1, the Colossians were at one time alienated from God. This is true of all those who are unregenerate. For everyone who is regenerate, there was a past period of time in which they were apart/estranged from the Creator. Not only were they estranged from him, they were at enmity with him. There is a bit of controversy as to whether the Greek term is adjectival ("hostile") or substantival ("enemies"). Either option does suggest the activity (hostility) and even grammarians are divided. I prefer "hostile" but I also recognize that "enemies" strongly suggests the activity of being hostile. Either way, what is communicated is that unregenerate persons rebel against the Creator because their hearts and minds are dark, and they are indeed his enemy. We must remember that alienation works both ways. We were alienated from God and he was alienated from us: the cause, of course, is sin. We are estranged from God because we hate him and display that in our evil deeds, and he is estranged from us because he is holy. What is it then that can reconcile the two parties? Col 1:22 provides the answer: it is the cross work of Christ. This is the solution to alienation: this is how the two parties could be reconciled. It was by Christ's real, physical body and his real, physical death that reconciliation could take place, and estrangement removed. Alienation and Reconciliation are closely tied together so please do not think that I have not considered one without the other. Reconciliation presupposes alienation. With that being said, I will attempt to address reconciliation in light of alienation in my next post (which I hope will be sooner than later :).