Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him. – Col 1:21-22

The main thing that sticks out to me in this verse is “But Now.” But now is powerful because it transitions from what was to what is. Those in Christ used to be alienated but now they are not. They used to be far from God but now they are not. They used to be enemies with God but now they are not. The but now transitions and I love transitions. The problem is transitions are not always smooth and we have to remember that.

People coming to Christ, those who have recently come, and even those who are deepening their walk are transitioning. They are in the but now phase and honestly, we are all in the but now phase. The but now phase is where we spend our entire Christian walk because we are constantly in a place of growing and changing. We are, or at least we should be, constantly growing in Christ and learning what it means to walk in the new man. Because of this, we need to have grace for another and support each other.

As I have said before I love analogies so here is one comparing the life of a Christian to a child. When a baby is born, it can do nothing on its own. It needs constant support and nurturing from the parents. Everything is new and different so we don’t get mad when they cry or need feeding. Instead, we understand that are weak and fragile so we treat them accordingly. As they grow they start the but now process. They begin to speak and we expect them to learn to articulate their wants and needs. We do not expect full sentences or even proper words but attempts. As they become toddlers they should be better are communicating and becoming more independent but they are still learning. We expect more from them but only what is appropriate for their age and intelligence. This continues as a toddler moves into childhood and then teenage years. We have constant expectations and desires for growth but they are always in a but now transition.

You and I are always in a but now transition too. We do not reach full maturity on this side of heaven. Paul says that we press on towards the goal because we have not reached it yet (Phil 3:13-14). We are always in a but now transition moving towards Christlikeness. The beautiful part is that the Bible says that Jesus has reconciled us. This means we move from a position of acceptance and not to a place of acceptance. The starting point makes all the difference in the world. We start in Christ, move in Christ, and finish in Christ. We have acceptance and will be presented holy, faultless, and blameless to the Father in Christ, we just need to walk in it.

 

Just a thought,

Mike