#4 What's a Christian?
 

But now . . .
 

But now he reconciled you . . .
(Colossians 1:22)
 

    Suppose you lived years ago in a wild, sparsely populated portion of the old West. Suppose you had moved there with your family to transform the inhospitable countryside into lush, fertile farmland.
    Then imagine that one day, all four of your darling, lively, lovely children fell ill with raging temperatures. You try waiting out the fever, but it only gets worse. You and your spouse frantically do everything you can to save your children - you bathe them in cool water, you try coaxing liquids down their feverish throats, you even invoke the help of "spirits.@ Nothing helps.
    Finally night comes and you lie down with your mate to snatch a tiny bit of rest. You lean over to kiss your loved one's brow and are startled to find a fever raging there, too.
    Desperate, you load your ailing family into your horse-drawn wagon and race toward the nearest town - a good forty miles away.
    As morning breaks, you storm into town. You jump down off the wagon and bellow for a doctor. Soon a sleepy physician staggers out of his bedroom and makes his way toward you. You quickly escort him to your family and describe the sickness.
  "Yes, yes, I've seen this illness many times before,@ the doctor says. "It's responsible for half the graves you see in our cemetery over there. People just kept getting sick; wasn't nothing I could do for 'em.@
    Your heart sinks.
  "And, say - looks like you've got it now,@ he continues.
    You mop your brow. The telltale signs are there, all right. You look at your family. Death seems to hover over the wagon. How can it end like this? Your spirit screams.
  "I never could do nothin= for our people when they got sick like this,@ you hear the doctor sigh. "So many died.@
  He shakes his head and quickly rustless the contents of his black bag. You hardly notice that he takes out a syringe loaded with clear liquid.
  "But now . . .@ he says.
    What? Your mind shouts. You snap out of your daze, barely catching the doctor's next words, which sound like "But now, with this new drug here, we can save all of 'em. Let's hurry and get their sleeves rolled up. This'll make 'em better in no time.@
    But now - the two sweetest words in your universe at that moment. Death was inches away. But now. . .
    That's exactly the mood Paul sets in this passage. He has just told the Colossians that they were diseased, ill, as good as dead in their old life before Christ. Then he comes to verse 22: "But now he has reconciled you.@
    What is the significance of having the "medicine@ readily available to cure the "disease@ of separation from God?

Father, thank you so much for providing the remedy for our alienation from you, Amen.
 

~Stuart Briscoe~