And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled, in the body of His flesh, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight. Colossians 1:21-22
I have never been to Buckingham Palace to have tea with Her Majesty, but I am told that some careful preparation is required to make oneself presentable for such an appointment with the queen. Proper dress and deportment is also expected of those invited to a social function with the Governor-General at Rideau Hall. If such attention is made to preparing to enter the presence of such earthly regal and vice-regal personages, how much more attention must surely be paid to making oneself presentable to enter the presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Before Him, we must be absolutely assured that we are presentable. And yet there is not one of us capable of making such a preparation. So today, as we gather in His presence to do Him honour, how glorious to know that it is He Himself who has attended to the preparations!
Our text reminds us that He presents us holy. So often we don’t feel very holy as we mix and mingle with the world’s profane babblers, as we recount our slips and stumbles in our behaviour, as we let pass by opportunities to witness for our Lord. But He presents us today as His holy people.
He also presents us as unblameable. This can be accomplished only by the precious blood of His cross, which has washed us from our sins and cleansed us from all unrighteousness. The term ‘unreproveable’ speaks to us of His intercession on our behalf, drowning out the roars of the accuser who would remind God daily of our sins and failures. The value of Christ’s intercessionary work on the cross is enough to enable us to take our place in worship today as accepted in the Beloved.
How does the Lord Jesus so perfectly present us as fit for His presence? Through the body of His flesh, He bore our sins on the tree. If He bore all our sins there, none remain to disqualify us from entering His august and gracious presence today. -Jim MacIntosh