Colossians 1:9-23 - Reconciled by his blood

Posted by Brance on May 29th, 2008 filed in Colossians

This post is part of a teaching series on the book of Colossians. All of the lessons in this series can be found here. In the first lesson we outlined the book. In each subsequent lesson we look at one small section of the outline and seek to answer five questions concerning the text.

Last week we saw that Christ is supreme over all creation, and the head of the church. This week we see the why behind his preeminence and headship.

Verse 19 begins with the word “For” which ties these verses to the verses before as the explanation of what has gone before. Paul is giving us the “because” of his previous statements. Christ is preeminent because the fullness of God dwells in him.

V19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

This means that Jesus was not the end of a series of emanations from God (the Colossian/Gnostic error), he was completely God in every way. All that was God was in his physical form. Every aspect of God’s character, attributes and power was present completely in Jesus. God was pleased for this to be so. And this was a permanent situation, not a temporary filling of the Holy Spirit as some prophets and saints in the OT had experienced. The fullness of God resided permanently with Jesus. In other words, Jesus is God.

V20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

To reconcile means to “restore friendly relations between” or to settle you differences, make up, bury the hatchet, declare a truce. It is to implement a change that removes all hostility and results in peace. In human relations this often means compromise on the part of both parties involved, but not so here. We are reconciled to God, we are changed so that we are at peace with God. This is accomplished in one way, through the blood of Jesus. There is no other way to have peace with God.

In the next verse we’ll look more closely at why we need reconciliation to begin with, but think about this. We often talk about Jesus dying for us, and that’s true. He gave up his life to save us. In a way, it’s as if he pushed us out of the way of a train and took the hit himself, but it’s really much more serious than that. That would be love. God is love. Jesus dying for us was the ultimate act of love. But as Mark Dever says, that’s not the Gospel. It’s only part of the truth, not the whole story.

We are sinners. God is holy and just. Sin must be punished by death. Therefore, Jesus just didn’t die for us, he was sacrificed for us. He was offered up as a sacrifice to appease the wrath of a holy and just, angry God. That is love! And taken together, that is the gospel. The good news of the gospel is that God loved us enough to sacrifice his own son in our place to satisfy the just demands of his holy nature. It is only through Jesus’ sacrifice that we can be made right with God. Outside his blood, we have no reconciliation with God Almighty.

A question might arise because of a phrase in this verse. Paul says his design is “to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven.” Is he teaching that all men will be saved in the end (universal atonement)? NO!

That would contradict other Scripture so it can’t be so. Take for instance 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9.

…when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not oby the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the puishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

There is clearly no universal atonement in Paul’s teaching here. Look up Revelation 20:10-15 for another passage talking about eternal punishment for wrongdoers. These passages plainly tell us that non-believers will not be saved. The question then is, what does Paul mean by ‘all things’?

Let’s learn something from another part of Colossians. In chapter 3 verse 11 Paul says this.

Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

Surely Christ is not in all men. Look then at the first word of the verse, “here”. So we must look at the context and see where “here” is. Taken in context of the chapter (v1 those who have been raised with Christ, v9-10 those who have put off the old self and on the new self) “here” refers to those who have “been raised with Christ” and “put off the old self” and “put on the new self”, Christians. So when he says “Christ is all, and in all”, he’s talking about all Christians, not all men.

Now look back at chapter 1. In verse 15-17 Paul is talking about all of creation, but in verse 18 he starts talking about the church and continues to do so through the end of the chapter. So when he says in verse 20 “all things” it shouldn’t be taken to mean universal reconciliation of all men, but rather reconciliation of those who truly belong to the church.

John Piper puts it this way:

Christ created all things in the old creation and he is preeminent over all (that is the point of verses 15-17). And everything that belongs to the new creation he will reconcile to himself and be head over all (that is the point of verses 18-20)…Our Lord Jesus is the sovereign master over all creation, and he is the head over all the church. Nothing in heaven or on earth that God has appointed to be a part of the new creation in Christ will fail to be reconciled to him. The Lord reigns. And he will save his people and subdue his enemies.

Philippians 2:10 states that every knee will bow “in heaven and on earth and under the earth” indicating that those in the depths of hell will submit to Christ’s authority, but will remain where they are in condemnation, not reconciliation.

The puritan preach John Owen said this about the idea of universal reconciliation.

Redemption is the freeing of a man from misery by the intervention of a ransom. Now, when a ransom is paid for the liberty of a prisoner, does not justice demand that he should have and enjoy the liberty so purchased for him by a valuable consideration? If I should pay a thousand pounds for a man’s deliverance from bondage to him that retains him, who hath power to set him free, and is contented with the price I give, were it not injurious to me and the poor prisoner that his deliverance be not accomplished? Can it possibly be conceived that there should be a redemption of men, and those men not redeemed? That a price should be paid and the ransom not consummated? Yet all this must be made true, and innumerable other absurdities, if universal redemption be asserted. … If there be a universal redemption of all, then all men are redeemed. If they are redeemed, then are they delivered from all misery, virtually or actually, whereunto they were inthralled, and that by the intervention of a ransom. Why, then, are not all saved? In a word, the redemption wrought by Christ being the full deliverance of the persons redeemed from all misery, wherein they were inwrapped, by the price of his blood, it can not possibly be conceived to be universal unless all be saved: so that the opinion of the Universalists is unsuitable to redemption.

At the end of the verse, Paul says that he makes peace by his blood. In verse 21 he tells us why there was a need for reconciliation, or peace making.

V21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

To be alienated means to be isolated or estranged. You belong to a different family or tribe, one that is at war with the family of God. He says we were hostile. We were enemies of God. The Greek word used here is often translated as “Enemy” referring to Satan. Paul tells us in Romans 5:10-11 that God reconciled us by Jesus’ death, while we were enemies. In Romans 8:6-8 he tells us that when we are in that state of hostility toward God, it is impossible for us submit to God’s law. We cannot initiate a truce. Only God can initiate the reconciliation, and that reconciliation can only come about through the blood of Christ shed on the cross.

Paul also makes it clear that it was not just the flesh, but the mind, that was at war with God. The gnostic false teaching in Colossae was that matter is evil. But they thought they were enlightened in their thinking, in their minds. Paul disabuses them of this notion and makes it clear that their minds were evil as well.

V22 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.

In verse 22 Paul makes it clear that not only was Jesus fully God, he was also fully man. He had a physical body just like ours. Blood had to be shed to satisfy God’s justice. Jesus could not have accomplished our salvation had his body not been real.

To be holy, means to be separated. God is holy, holy, holy. He is very separated. He is separated from sin, because he has none. He is separated in the sense that he is in a class all his own, there is no one who comes close to him. When the bible talks about us being holy, it means we are to be separated from our sin and dedicated to God’s service.

“Blameless” might better be translated “without blemish”. This means no stains, spots, or other imperfections.

“Above reproach” simply means there is no wrong doing there to be accused of.

How many of us will live our lives in holiness, without blemish, and above reproach? Only one, Jesus. He lived and died so that he could present us to God in this way. When God looks at a Christian he does not see our sin and faults, he sees us as holy and clean from all imperfections because he sees Jesus.

V23 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 off which I, Paul, became a minister.

This does not mean you can loose your salvation. That would be contrary to other scripture. What it does mean is that we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling, and persevere to the end. If we continue in the faith, that is the proof that we were saved to begin with. There are many who think they are saved because they said a prayer, or went forward at a service, or were baptized. These things do not save you. If your life is not changed profoundly and forever, you have not been reconciled to God. This is not to say that you will not experience ups and downs in your Christian life. Paul himself did. So did king David, just read the Psalms. But they persisted and persevered in their faith. We should also. And if we do, then we are truly saved.

The good news is that Jesus is working in us to that end.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. - Philippians 1:6

So we should, in the grace of God, persist in the faith, grounded in the Gospel, immovable in our hope.

That hope is an eager expectation or confidence, anticipating with pleasure, the promises of the Gospel. The promises of forgiveness (V14), reconciliation (V20), holiness (V22), and the resurrection to come (V18).

And this Gospel is for all men everywhere. It is not some secret knowledge known only to a select few who have figured it out, as the gnostics supposed. It is proclaimed “in all creation” for all to hear. As we read in chapter 3, there are no boundaries. The gospel is for “every nation…all tribes and peoples and languages” (Revelation 7:9).

So if we believe the Gospel, we have faith, and that faith results in hope, and that hope results in love for, and joy in, God that overflows to all people everywhere.