The Depth of Your Alienation: Why Your Salvation Is More Glorious Than You Know

Meta Description: Do you take your salvation for granted? Understanding how far we truly were from God transforms everything about how we experience his grace. URL Slug: depth-of-alienation-glory-of-salvation Featured Image: A lone figure floating in a vast, open ocean under a wide sky — small, isolated, but with a beam of light breaking through the clouds above them.

As I was preparing this week's message at the beach, a thought hit me that I couldn't shake: To better appreciate the glory of your salvation, you need to understand the depth of your alienation.

That statement shaped everything I wanted to share with you this past Sunday, and honestly, I've kept coming back to it all week.

The Rescue That Changes Everything

I want to start with a story that gripped me as I studied this passage. On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was struck by two Japanese torpedoes. Of the 1,195 crew members aboard, around 300 perished immediately. That left 900 sailors stranded in the Pacific Ocean — no fresh water, no food, no shelter — drifting for nearly five days.

By the time a routine aircraft finally spotted them, almost 600 more had died from dehydration, exhaustion, illness, and shark attacks. Only 316 survived to be rescued.

When those survivors were asked to describe what they felt when that aircraft appeared overhead, they were overwhelmed with gratitude. Not mild gratitude. Not polite thankfulness. Overwhelming, life-altering gratitude.

Here's the truth that story illustrates: no one rescued from certain death responds with mild gratitude. The greater the peril, the greater the appreciation for the rescue.

And I believe that's exactly why so many of us don't appreciate the glory of our salvation the way we should — because we don't truly understand the depth of our alienation.

Who We Were Before Christ

We're continuing our series Jesus Over Everything in the book of Colossians, and this week we landed on one of the richest passages in all of Scripture. In Colossians 1:21-22, Paul writes:

"And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him."

Paul doesn't sugarcoat this. He doesn't say we were confused, or misguided, or just making some unfortunate choices. He says we were alienated — completely foreign to God, cut off, excommunicated. He says we were hostile in mind — our very thoughts were violent toward God. And he says we were doing evil deeds — everything we did was moving us further away from him.

Many of us imagine our pre-conversion life as though we were simply walking in the wrong direction and Jesus came along to offer better directions. But Paul's language is far darker than that. The cross is not God helping struggling people find their way. The cross is God reconciling enemies to himself.

If you think you were merely inconvenienced by sin, then Jesus becomes nothing more than a helpful guide. But if you understand that you were alienated — that there was a chasm between you and a holy God that no amount of religion, morality, or sincerity could ever bridge — then Jesus becomes your rescuer.

What the Reconciliation Actually Cost

Back in Colossians 1:19-20, Paul writes:

"For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross."

Peace was not achieved through self-improvement, education, or religion. It was achieved one way and one way alone — through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. And like any peace treaty between nations, it cost something. It cost him his life.

But here's what that rescue produced for you and me. Paul says we are now presented before God as holy (set apart for him, purchased and placed aside for a purpose), blameless (without spot or defect, like the unblemished lamb of the Old Testament sacrifice), and above reproach (no accusation can stick against us).

Think about that. We went from alienated, hostile in mind, and doing evil deeds — to holy, blameless, and above reproach. Not because of anything we did, but because of what he did.

Standing Firm When the Ground Shakes

Paul closes this thought with a charge that carries remarkable weight when you understand its context. He urges the believers in Colossae to remain "stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel." Those words — stable, steadfast, unshifting — are the language of architecture and construction.

The church in Colossae lived in an earthquake-prone region. Their buildings would crumble and collapse every time the ground shook. Paul is essentially saying: don't let your faith be like those buildings. When life shakes your foundation — and it will — let your hope be rooted in something that cannot crumble.

My prayer for all of us is this: that we would stop living as though salvation was owed to us, and start living in overwhelming gratitude for what Christ actually did. Jesus didn't rescue you from ankle-deep water. He rescued you from eternal separation from God. That deserves more than mild thankfulness.

So wherever you find yourself this week — whether life feels stable or everything is shaking — come back to the gospel. Come back to the cross. Come back to the truth that you are holy, blameless, and above reproach because of him.

If you've never settled that relationship with Jesus, I want to invite you to do that today. He doesn't want you alienated from him any longer.

Watch the full message on our YouTube channel, and if this resonated with you, share it with someone who needs to hear it this week.

Social Media Excerpt (Facebook/Instagram): No one rescued from certain death responds with mild gratitude. So why do so many of us treat our salvation like it was no big deal? This week's message from Colossians will change the way you see the cross — and yourself. Read the full post at the link in bio.

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