Contemplative Bible Reading

Colossians 1:22 (New Living Translation)

22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

The writer is contrasting life before Christ and after Christ. We are now reconciled to God. I looked it up and found many definitions for “reconcile.” I struggled to find a definition that applied well to these sentences. Instead, let’s allow the sentences to inform me.

After this reconciling (theologians like to use “reconciliation”), we are blameless before God. We are without a single fault.

Well, this must be a translation problem because God knows that I have … Nope. Not a single fault. How can that be? Not a single fault? I mean, my clothes probably don’t fit just right or… Nope. Not a single fault.

That is impossible. Anyone can understand that just by standing there I have collected dust and that has marred my appearance and all that. Faultless? Impossible.

And God does the impossible all the time. That is … uh, well, impossible. And God does the impossible all the time. Praise be to God. Please God, help me in my unbelief.