by Pastor Rich Carlson

I love the places in God’s word where things are well defined. Here in Colossians, I find a definition of the Gospel, the very foundation of Christianity. It is not the only Bible definition of what the Gospel is, but it shows me another facet in my search to understand it.

Here’s how I break it down:
     • Once you were alienated from God, an enemy in your mind because of your evil practice (1:21).
     • But now He has reconciled you (brought you back as His friend) by Christ’s physical body through His death on the cross (1:22)
     • He brought you into the very presence of God and presented you
          o holy in His sight
          o without blemish
          o free from accusation (1:22)
     • If  you continue in your faith, believing this truth (1:23)
          o established and firm in your resolve for this truth
          o not moved from the hope held out to you in this Gospel

 This is the Gospel. I don’t deserve it but I get it as long as I hang on and continue believing it. The hanging on part, I think, is the hardest, because I can easily convince myself that I don’t deserve it, and let go. But that is the beauty of the Gospel—I cannot earn it! Instead I will be eternally thankful for such a gift. I will focus on the good it brings, not the bad I’m trying to get rid of. When I do this the bad takes care of itself.

Rich Carlson is campus chaplain at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska. “God Is Faithful” is adapted from the email devotionals he writes regularly for the Union College family. Rich enjoys filling his life with God, his family, and especially his five grandchildren.