Reconciled in Christ
In Colossians 1:20 you see the word "reconcile," and at the end of verse 21 you see it again in past tense, “reconciled.” This particular term, reconcile or reconciliation, is a very important term in Christianity. Outside of Christianity, I think of the term in accounting. We’d always have to reconcile our cash drawers at the end of the business day. It meant that we counted up all the money we had made and checked it against what the system said that we made and ensured that everything was correct. The idea was that of settling accounts. It's a good idea here at the end of a year to settle up accounts and to make reconciliation.
You might have heard the term thrown around in relation to divorce. There is usually some effort to try and bring about a reconciliation of the couple before the divorce hearing begins. They seek to put two warring parties back together again. This was also the way that it was used back in Greek times. In 1st Corinthians 7:10-11 it says, "If she depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. Let her husband not divorce her." But the word reconciliation goes far beyond economics or a relationship between two people. It is used in the Bible to speak of the restoration of the right relationship between a man and God.
The Greek word for reconciliation that is used here in Colossians 1. Is different than the normal word reconcile. It has a greater intensity. I think the reason for this is when Paul is writing in Romans or 2nd Corinthians about reconciliation, he is not fighting against anything. He is not arguing against a false teacher. He is merely making the point of reconciliation, that's all. But in Colossians, he is fighting against false teaching.
These false teachers who were saying that Rome was their great salvation and that syncretism (or the joining of many different religious traditions into one melting pot) is the correct way forward. They were saying that it’s not possible for a man to be reconciled to God by Jesus Christ alone. They would say that man had to ascend the spiritual ladder of works and religious activities to reach God, and the point that Paul is making here is this: that there is total and absolute and complete and full reconciliation through that one who is Jesus Christ. That's the reason he uses a much more intense word.
As we’ve seen in the last two weeks, Paul is showing that Jesus Christ is God. "For in Him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” And the goal of his creation and his church is to reconcile men to God. God is reconciling all things to Himself by Christ. So first of all, Paul answered their doubts about his deity, and he cleared that in verses 15 to 19, and now he's going to say not only is He God, but He is able to save, because that was the second point of attack. So, from verse 20 to verse 23 he establishes Christ's sufficiency to save, and to reconcile men to God.
Salvation in Five Words
Now I want to give you a quick 2-minute course on Soteriology (or the doctrine of salvation). Here are five terms that summarize our salvation. We will see these five terms in various ways throughout the New Testament. They're illustrated and explained to us many times.
Justification, Redemption, Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Adoption
In Justification, we stand before God as the accused and are declared righteous. In Redemption, we stand before God as a slave and are granted freedom by a ransom. In Forgiveness, we stand before God as a debtor and the debt, having been paid, is forgotten. In Reconciliation, we stand before God as an enemy and become a friend. Peace is made. In Adoption, we stand before God as a stranger and are made his children.
Think about that in your life. We stood before God as the accused and He declared us righteous. We stood before God as a slave and He granted us freedom. We stood before God as a debtor and He forgot our debt. We stood before God as an enemy and He made us a friend. We stood before God as a stranger and He called us a son. That sums up salvation.
Four Aspects of Reconciliation
Now out of those five glorious terms, we're going to pick one. We could take all five and study them, and we will in due time. But we’re going to look at one today because it's in our text. Reconciliation. From our text here we are going to see four aspects of reconciliation.
Colossians 1:19-23 - “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. 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, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”
The Plan of Reconciliation
The plan of reconciliation appears starting in verse 20. The key phrase is this; "...through him to reconcile all things unto Himself." Notice the “through him” and the “by Christ.” I think Paul was trying to emphasize who the agent of reconciliation is. God is reconciling all things to Himself by Christ. We'll get there in a minute.
But I want you to see that this is a big plan, to reconcile all things unto Himself. We can’t plumb the depths of all of this, but I’m going to pick out some major truths. Let's go back to the beginning. God made everything good, right? God created and He looked on it and said, it's good. He made it for His pleasure, He possessed it all, and it was not estranged from Him. Man and woman walked in the presence of the Lord. It was all very good. But sin entered the world and the universe was cursed and alienated from God. Now, we live in a cursed earth, and our earth occupies a place in a cursed universe. But God's going to clean it all up someday and that's why when the Bible talks about the restoration of everything it calls it a new heaven and new earth. It's got to all be redone. But the Bible says right here that God has the plan to reconcile everything back to Himself.
If you want the simplest explanation, the plan for redemption is that God is going to make friends with the universe again. God is going to end rebellion and make friends with the universe. It's going to come back into harmony. How's He going to do it? By Christ. Christ is the agent. He will carry out the reconciliation.
Now I want you to look for a minute at "all things." You gotta be kidding! You mean everything is coming back to God? That's right. And all of it by Christ, a totally redeemed universe. Read Romans 8:19-23. This helps us to see what he's talking about; "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God."
Did you know that all of the universe is waiting for us to be glorified because they're going to get in on it? The created world was made subject to vanity, not willingly. I mean, it wasn't any animal's fault. It was just man that fell and messed up everything, they were made subject to the curse unwillingly, But they're waiting because, verse 21 says, "the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God." When we get turned around and reconciled the whole creation's going with us, and the curse of the earth will be halted.
In Ephesians 1:10 it says: the "plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” It is because of Christ and it is by Christ that the whole universe comes back to God. The restoration of the entire universe. Now, there was something going on in the major beliefs of the day called dualism. The big idea of dualism is that the spirit is good and matter is evil, but Paul is saying, forget it. Jesus Christ is not only going to reconcile man but He is going to reconcile the material universe to God. Sin ruined this universe. It destroyed harmony between one creature and the other, between all creatures and God. But through Christ the universe is going to be brought back, it's going to be restored to the right relationship to God.
And you just need to read your Bible a little bit to find out what it's going to be like when there's a restored world. Isaiah 11 says, "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
There's going to be a total reverse of the curse. There's going to be a restoration of the animal world to the peace that existed in the Garden of Eden. When God makes friends with the universe again, things are going to happen like you never dreamed possible. It's going to be a world like it was before the Fall. It's going to be a world like it was before Adam sinned. The new Heaven and the new Earth.
Look at Colossians 1:21. Paul stops talking in generalities and he gets very specific, "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." We are starting to get into the difficulty of this plan. It is so difficult because of sin and the holiness of God. Something's going to have to happen with sin. In order for me to be reconciled to God, then I'm going to have to be transformed from being a sinner to being righteous. And in order for God to allow me to enter His presence His wrath toward sin is going to have to be appeased. So there are two obstacles to overcome in this plan for reconciliation. My sin and God's wrath.
I've got to be transformed first. You can't put new wine in old wineskins as Jesus says. That's why 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "if any man be in Christ he is a new creation, and the next verse: "in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” He has to make us new creatures before He can reconcile us. But God also has to have His wrath dealt with because God cannot look upon sin. Something has to modify God's wrath. The Old Testament shows an understanding that man could not be reconciled to God unless something is done to appease God's wrath. This is a tough problem. How can a holy God and a sinful man be reconciled? You've got to change the sinful man; you've got to appease the wrath of a holy God. You know, that's precisely what God did.
God appeased His wrath by pouring it out on Christ. God made us new creations by faith in Christ. If any man be in Christ he's a new creation. Then there in 2nd Corinthians 5:21 you have the other side of the coin. “He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.” Christ’s sacrifice appeases His wrath. What a fantastic thing occurred at the Cross. He bore our sins in His own body and the wrath of God is appeased and the power of His life and his mind and righteousness is poured into our lives and we're transformed. Both are taken care of.
We can’t say, well it’s New Years and my resolution for 2019 is to be reconciled to God. I'm going to go on a spiritual diet, and eat no sin, going to discipline myself to be righteous. Forget it, it will never happen. Because you can't save yourself. Look at Romans 5:6-10, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”
Now I want you to see, now there are three reasons here why you can't save yourself.
- Lack of strength. "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died" You're not strong enough. You are weak.
- Lack of righteousness. "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." and "while we were still sinners." You're ungodly. You're not good enough. You can't save yourself because you don't have any righteousness.
- Lack of access. You can't save yourself because you can't even get into God's presence on your own; you're an enemy. Verse 10. "While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”
Three reasons you can't save yourself: Lack of strength, lack of merit, lack of friendship with God.
So the plan of Reconciliation must have a component which allows for the removal of sin and the turning away of God’s wrath. We see shadows of all of this in the Old Testament on the Day of Atonement when the High Priest would enter the Most Holy Place and sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat to appease God’s wrath then the sins would be placed on the scapegoat and it would be sent away. That is ultimately fulfilled in the coming of the means of reconciliation.
The Means of Reconciliation
Stay right there in Romans 5:10 and you can see how this reconciliation comes about. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.” It was by the death of His son. If we look back in Colossians 1:20 we see, “making peace by the blood of his cross.” How did Christ take God and man who were enemies and make peace? He made peace between God and man through the Blood of His Cross, now go down to the end of verse 22, it says it another way: "he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death."
Two phrases. Number one, the Blood of His Cross; number two, the body of flesh by his death. These two phrases show how God dealt with sin.
First of all, through the Blood of His Cross. Blood is the metaphor for sacrifice. It is His death for sin that saves us. The reason the Bible talks about the blood of Christ is because that connects Christ's death with the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament and says He is the final sacrifice. He died a violent death, the death of a sacrifice. The blood was put on the doorposts and the lintels, the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat of God. But it was the death that was the atonement, the blood was the symbol of it. The reason the Bible speaks so often in the New Testament of Christ's blood is that he died as the fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrifice.
When we come down to verse 22 we read this, "in his body of flesh by his death.” Jesus' death as a man is the other half of the means of reconciliation. His death incarnate in human flesh, is the thing that reconciled us to God, for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Christ died not just as a sacrifice but a perfect substitution. He didn't die as an animal, nope. He didn't die as a spirit. He died as a man for men. He died as a sacrifice in verse 20. He died as a substitution in verse 22. All because of the Cross. Our reconciliation is possible only through the means of the death of Christ.
The Aim of Reconciliation
Why did He reconcile us? What purpose would a holy God have in bringing these sinful enemies back into fellowship? He gives us the answer right here in Colossians 1:22. "in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him." God said, "Look, if they're coming up here to be with Me, they've got to get cleaned up. They've got to be holy, blameless, and above reproach,"
You might ask, why those three words? Well, I’m glad you asked because that just happens to be the next thing in my notes. I think each of the three words relate to different parts of our lives and relationships. Holy has to do with our relationship to God, Blameless has to do with ourself and our character, and Above Reproach, or as some translations put it “unreproveable,” seems to extend to others. And when you are reconciled by Jesus Christ instantly at that very moment you become holy, blameless, and above reproach before him.
The aim is that you would be holy, blameless, and above reproach before him or in his sight. Now that little phrase at the end is an important modifier. We don't get saved, then immediately walk around town introducing ourselves as holy, blameless and above reproach. In this life, we've got some problems. But if you've been reconciled then you're in Christ. So when God sees you, he sees you in Christ. The moment you trusted Christ, you were holy and blameless and above reproach in the eyes of God. That's why He says in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation." And that's why He says in Romans 8:33 "Who shall bring a charge against God's elect, it is God who justifies." No one is left to condemn us.
I also think this aim has a future meaning. Someday, when we get to Heaven we're going to become in practice what we are in position. One day we're going to be able to get to Heaven and say, "Hi, I'm holy, blameless, and above reproach - finally!" There's going to be that aspect of it. That's what Paul means when he is writing to the Ephesian husbands admonishing them to “love your wives as Christ loved the Church" that He might present to himself a bride without spot or blemish. Some day we're going to be in reality what we are in reconciliation. That's why He reconciled us, to get us ready to meet HIm. That's the purpose of it, the aim of it.
The Evidence of Reconciliation
Lastly, you might say, this reconciliation sounds great. Who gets it? What's the catch? How do you know you've got it? How do you know you've been reconciled to God? Paul answers your questions in Colossians 1:23: "if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard."
You know how you can tell the true Christian? They continue. Who's reconciled? The people who continue. In Luke 8 we see the parable of the sower, I posted something last week on the Church website about the thorns choking out our fruitfulness and how to see those three things. But here, I think it is important to see the second category the seeds cast on the rocky soil. Jesus says, "And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away." These are never saved.
True Christians will continue. John 8:30: "Many believed on His name, but He said, if you continue in my Word than you are my real disciples." You can tell the true Christian he continues. True branches in John 15 abide in the vine. They continue. Listen to 1st John 2:19: "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us."
Who gets eternal life? Those who continue. And so He says to the Colossians. Jesus can reconcile you. And they might say, but how do we know He has? How do we know who are the reconciled ones, and He nails them down. The ones who continue. And it's like he’s warning them don't you mess around with this false teaching.
What should you continue in? The hope of the gospel, look at verse 23: "Not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.” Paul says, the apostolic Gospel, the declared Gospel, the one that I preach the one that made me a minister that's the one you want to continue in. And Paul said to the Galatians, if anybody preaches any other Gospel, let him be what? Accursed. That's how serious it is.
Now I want to close by having you look back at 2 Corinthians 5:17-21. Reconciliation Transforms Men - Verse 17: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." Reconciliation Appeases God’s Wrath - verse 21; "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." He bore our sins, and God could give us righteousness. It satisfies God. Reconciliation Comes Through Christ - verse 18. "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.", verse 19: "in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself." And finally, Reconciliation is our ministry. Paul said in verse 23 of Colossians 1 that he became a minister of this gospel of reconciliation. But he extends that in 2nd Corinthians 5:18 "he gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” Then again at the end of verse 19 into verse 20: "entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."
The story of reconciliation won't end until Jesus comes because you and I are carrying it out. We are sent into this world as ambassadors; we represent God in a foreign land, and what's our ministry? To beg people to come to Jesus Christ. To beg people to be reconciled to God. To tell them that Jesus Christ in His death satisfied God's wrath and can transform their lives. And to say that to the world because He did it for the world. That's the ministry of reconciliation. Listen, the doctrine of reconciliation doesn't end when you get saved; it just becomes yours to give away to somebody else. So continue in the gospel of reconciliation.