“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.” (Colossians 1:21)
For the first time this week, we take our eyes off of Jesus in his natural state as fully God and in his completely human state as the perfect sacrifice – and we take a good look at ourselves in our natural form. And what we see is ugly.
We were alienated from him. He created us, but we rejected him. Why? Because we wanted to do whatever we wanted to do whether he liked it or not. We chose sin. We chose self. We did evil and became his enemies. We were hopelessly lost, and we didn’t want his help.
Why didn’t he just let us get what we deserved, what we earned with our evil choices and arrogant thoughts? He had every right to give up on us. He didn’t owe us a thing. Why pour his only Son into a body and into time and into pain and suffering and heartbreak for us?
Thank God he did.
Think: If someone exploring Christianity asked you the questions above – why would God sacrifice Jesus to save people who were rejecting him? – how would you answer that question?
Pray: Thank God that he did. Ask him to help you to be honest with yourself about the fact that you did nothing to earn a moment of eternity in his presence.
Do: In your favorite dictionary, look up and personalize the words “alienated,” “enemy,” and “evil.”