Christ Preeminent (Part Six): The Power of the Preposition

Transcript

JRNT 28
08/06/2023
Christ Preeminent (Part Six): The Power of the Preposition
Colossians 1:19-20
Jesse Randolph

Let's begin our time this morning by going back to grammar school, which was a name back in the day that was appropriate because there was this time in educational history in which, in those earliest years of education, the youngest of students were forced to learn and work through and understand various basic rules of grammar and syntax which included spotting and identifying various parts of the sentence. Nouns and verbs and objects, direct objects, indirect objects, participles, infinitives. Anybody getting cold sweats yet or chills or nightmares? Well, while we're taking this trip down memory lane, I'm going to bring up one more grammatical feature which you may or may not remember but surely you learned in those old days of grammar school. That is the preposition, the preposition. A preposition is a word which governs and usually precedes a noun or a pronoun in a sentence. What prepositions do is express how various words and elements of a sentence relate to each other. I was in my house. I was walking behind her. The cow jumped over the moon. Those prepositions—in, behind, over—those small and seemingly inconsequential, they truly are critical to develop an understanding of what is being communicated. I mean, think of if we had switched those prepositions out and it was, I was now behind my house, or I was walking over her, or the cow jumped on the moon. Totally different meaning now to those sentences based on the change of the preposition. The point is that prepositions are important. They control and they dictate the meaning of clauses and sentences and paragraphs.

There is no place where prepositions are more important and more critical than in the holy pages of Scripture. Just think of the power and the meaning that stands behind various divinely given prepositions in Scripture. “He who is not with me is against me.” “I am with you always,” the Lord says in Matthew 20:20. “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,” says Peter. “And He put all things in subjection under His feet,” Paul says in Ephesians 1. “You were baptized into Christ,” Galatians 3:26. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” Romans 8:1. Or “for by grace you have been saved through faith,” Ephesians 2:8.

Now we encountered a few more prepositions in our passage last week. You'll recall that in Colossians 1:16 in describing the power of Jesus Christ as Creator, Paul used three distinct prepositions. He says, “For by Him all things were created.” And then he goes on to say, “all things have been created through Him and for Him.” So, it's by Him, it's through Him, it's for Him, the Him of course being Jesus Christ. As we saw last week there are natural parallels between what Paul says there in Colossians 1:16 and what he exclaims in his powerful words of praise of Romans 11:38 where he says, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever, amen.”

The basic idea here is that there is power in the preposition. There is power in them because they express the scope and the extent in Scripture of Christ's power, of His majesty, of His transcendence, of His supremacy, of His preeminence over all things. In our text for today we're going to see Christ's preeminence over all things expressed powerfully through a few additional prepositions. As you have already heard, the title for this morning's sermon is The Power of the Preposition. Turn with me in your Bibles, if you are not there already, please, to Colossians 1. We're only going to get through two verses here this morning, specifically verses 19 and 20. Let's take a look at what those verses have to say. God's Word reads, “For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross. Through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” Did you catch the prepositions there? In Him, through Him, to Him. We can't lose sight of those as we work our way through this text, and that's because those prepositions factor in to these two additional aspects of preeminence that we are going to encounter today. We're going to see that Christ is preeminent, #1, in His deity. That's verse 19. “It was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.” And we're going to see that Christ is preeminent in the reconciliation He provides. That's verse 20, “He reconciled all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” We'll take these one by one, again not losing sight of those important prepositions which really serve as glue for this text.

Let's take a look at verse 19 again as we get rolling. It says, “For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.” That first word there in verse 19, for, is a transitionary term and with that word Paul is signaling that he is about to build upon what he said immediately prior. And what he said previously is what we looked at last week in verses 15-18. In fact, why don't we take a look at those verses again, just to give ourselves a running start for today. Colossians 1:15 says, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church, and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” You may recall that the title of last Sunday's sermon was “He Is,” which we framed up that way because of those four “He is” statements that we see in that text that I just read to you. “He is the image of the invisible God.” “He is before all things.” “He is the head of the body.” “He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.” The one Jesus Christ who said to the Pharisees in John 8:58, “Before Abraham was, I am,” Paul now says to the Colossians and to us, “He is.” He is preeminent in terms of His relationship to God the Father. He is preeminent in His rulership over all creation. He is preeminent over our world's sustained existence. He is preeminent in the church, He is preeminent in terms of those who have been resurrected back to life over the course of history. He is preeminent over everything. Which is why he says at the end of verse 18 there, “He has first place in everything.”

Next, we see, moving on in verse 19, that “it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.” Now there is so much to mention here which is why I opted to go with just two verses this week. We'll start at the end of the sentence here in verse 19 where we see those two words, “in Him.” Now who is the Him? The Him is very clearly a reference to Jesus Christ who is not only the focus of this section and not only the focus of this chapter, but as I've argued all along, He is the focus of this entire letter. What is in Him? Paul tells us, “All the fullness,” he says. “All the fullness is in Him.” Now before we go much further in determining the meaning of those words, all the fullness, we need to take off our 21st century hats for just a bit and transport ourselves back to Asia Minor in the 1st century A.D. We need to take ourselves back to that dusty little town known as Colossae which was not so much a city as it was a hamlet or a burg, if you prefer. You know I did some Monday morning cruising this past Monday out in central Nebraska and I saw a lot of these types of towns; towns where the railroad used to run through it. Towns that were once vibrant and once active. Towns that used to be on an upward arc but now have since withered to the point that just a handful of people live there. Now those central Nebraska towns shed some light, I think, on what Colossae must have been like during Paul's time. Its heyday had passed. Municipally speaking, better days were not ahead, rather those days were back in the rearview.

But despite the dark forecast, what Colossae had going for it was a church likely planted and pastored by Epaphras who we've seen a few different times now and who was given the Gospel by Paul during Paul's third missionary journey through Ephesus. The believers there in Colossae, notwithstanding the decline of their town, the decline of their physical surroundings, had a faith that was worthy of commendation. There was a church there that was worthy of commendation. Still there was this threat that was brewing in this city, in this town, in this church. There was a threat to the purity of the doctrine there that had been embraced early on by this faithful little church. That threat was not merely on the horizon, that threat was on the Colossian church's front porch. That threat, you've already heard me say a few times now, and we'll get into it in more detail in Colossians 2, is what we now know as the Colossian heresy, which was this devilish brew of philosophy and gnosticism and angel worship and asceticism and Jewish legalism. At its core what this heretical system of thinking and teaching taught was that Christ is not enough. Christ is not enough is what they were being told. Instead, what was being taught by the heretics that were promoting this heresy is that to have a full understanding of God, to have a full appreciation of the divine, to have a full experience (there's a 21st century word for you) with Christ a person needed more than Christ. Christ was sort of like a halfway house to God. Christ, according to these heretics, was a necessary link in the chain but you still needed other links to comprehend God or to get to God. Christ was not enough. To which Paul here says, time out, hold on a second, wait. In fact, he goes a step further as he co-opts this word fullness, a word that the purveyors of this heresy were so heavily reliant upon in saying that you needed more to have a full understanding of God. Paul here says, I'm going to use that word, that's my word; and he uses it against them. He says here in verse 19, “For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.”

Now as we've already seen a few sermons ago, that word “fullness” is a key word, a key term in the book of Colossians. It pops up in various other places in Colossians. In fact, you could look up the page at Colossians 1:9, we were there a few weeks ago. Colossians 1:9 says, “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled,” there is the verb form, “with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Or go down to Colossians 2:10. Colossians 2:10 says, “And in Him,” meaning in Christ, “you have been made complete.” That word complete there comes from the same word as fullness in our text for today. Now outside of Colossians that word, that family of words—fullness, filled, complete, completion—is used in various other contexts in Scripture describing a wide range of topics. For instance, back in the Old Testament, in Hebrew that term, the Hebrew counterpart, is used to describe God's creative power and His glory. Psalm 72:19 says, “And blessed be His glorious name forever and may the whole earth be filled with His glory.” Or think of that heavenly throne room scene in Isaiah 6:3 where you have the seraphim circling in the throne room and they say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is filled with His glory.” Then in the New Testament we see that same word—fullness or filled or complete—used in various references. Number one to God's being and what He has accomplished through Christ. Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “And He put all things in subjection under His feet,” preposition by the way, “and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” We see that word also used in reference to time, fullness. Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.” We see the word used in reference to the grace of Christ. John 1:16 says, “For of His fullness we have all received and grace upon grace.” Bringing it back to Colossians, look at Colossians 2:9, we're going to go back there a few times today, that same word is used to refer to the deity of Christ. “For in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.” That verse, Colossians 2:9, like our verse, Colossians 1:19, is one of the most powerful descriptions of Christ's deity in all the New Testament. “All the fullness of deity,” it said, “is to dwell.” That means to abide lastingly or permanently “in Christ.” All of God's fullness dwells in Christ.

Now note that that word fullness already by itself means complete or totality. So, when you tack on at the front of it, like he does here in verse 19, the word all as in “all the fullness,” you are being repetitious. Paul is being repetitious, and intentionally so. Paul here is saying that all the fullness dwells in Christ. What he is doing is he is intentionally underscoring the absolute and total measure of the divinity that is possessed by Christ. Now later in Colossians 2:9 which I just referenced, Paul will say that “In Him,” meaning in Christ, “all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.” That refers to the incarnation, that aspect of Him being in bodily form. But here in our text Paul isn't, I don't think, yet referring to the incarnation. Rather, he is still on this subject of exploring and describing Christ as He is, as He has been eternally. He is referring to Christ with an eye to the Son's eternal relationship to the Father. He is referring to Christ here, big theological term, ontologically. Not only who He became, not only what He may have divested Himself of, not only what He put on in His incarnation (he'll get to that in Colossians 2:9), not here in Colossians 1:19 Paul is describing the eternality of Christ's divine essence. When Paul said it is the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, he is using the word dwell there that means dwell permanently, not simply to visit temporarily.

Now we know from Scripture that God has dwelt eternally in heavenly realms. You could jot down Psalm 113:5 which says, “Who is like the Lord our God who is enthroned on high?” But we also know that God very much has a real presence here on earth because Psalm 113:6, the very next verse says, “Who humbles himself to behold the things,” speaking of God there, “that are in heaven and in the earth.” We also know that in the incarnation God the Son came to earth and dwelt among men. John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” But taking a step back and peeling the curtain back just a bit, as we wade into some very deep trinitarian waters, we also know from this very passage that all the fullness, meaning the fullness of deity, “Godness” (if we can say it that way), has eternally dwelt in Christ. As the eternal Son, Christ has eternally possessed all the divine fullness. True, He put on humanity in His incarnation, and when He became Man, He demonstrated that fullness in various ways here on earth. But note, the fullness that He demonstrated in His incarnation was already there. The fullness He demonstrated on earth was predated by the eternal fullness that has always existed in Him. Jesus didn't become God, He wasn't an emanation from God, He certainly wasn't created by God, the incarnation didn't cause Him to suddenly have all the fullness of God at that moment. No. He has eternally possessed all the fullness of God, all the fullness of God's glory and wisdom and goodness, all the fullness of God's grace and power and purposes. All of it has eternally dwelt in Christ.

This is strategic by Paul as he is getting ready to counter the heretics there at Colossae. He is leading up to the point where he is going to point out that human philosophy can never compete with a Christ like that. Worldly wisdom can never compete with Him. Spiritual mysticism can never compete with Him. Jewish legalism can never compete with Him. The angelic realm can never compete with Him. No. Each is entirely subordinate to Him; He outranks them all. He alone, Colossians 1:18, “has first place in everything.” He shares His fullness with no one. “It was the Father's good pleasure,” we see here in verse 19, it was His delight that this should be so.

Now speaking of the Father you'll note in your NAS translations here in verse 19, that the word Father, at least it is in mine, is in italics. Do you see that? That's because that word Father didn't originally appear in some of the early Greek manuscripts. Rather, that word has been supplied, and I'm going to make the case here just in a second, rightly by the translators to say that when it says, “all the fullness is dwelling in Him,” that is, dwelling in Christ, it is referring to the fullness of God and the Godhead. Now if we took the Father out here, deleted the word Father and just said, “All the fullness dwells in Him,” as it is rendered in some translations, that reading wouldn't really make sense, at least for a couple of reasons. First, it doesn't make logical sense. How could something inactive and inanimate and abstract like fullness be pleased with anything? How could a rock or a refrigerator or the concept of joy be pleased with anything? Same idea here. Further, if we get over that logical hump and say that it was fullness in and of itself for fullness' sake, that was pleased to dwell in Christ, we would still hit a snag when we get to verse 20 because there we have to, as the thought continues, also logically say that it was this abstract concept of fullness which was reconciling all things to itself, to fullness's self. What a comforting thought, right? Does that inflame your heart of worship to say a mighty fortress is our fullness? Or what a friend we have in fullness? No, I'm obviously speaking in jest and I'm doing so to highlight the fact that though the word Father here is missing from some of the original Greek manuscripts, the translators' inclusion of the word Father here both makes logical sense, and it is biblically supportable.

In fact, why don't you turn over with me to II Corinthians 5 as we make the biblical case as to why the word Father should appear here in Colossians 1:19. II Corinthians 5. This morning's Scripture reading was from II Corinthians 5:14-17 but pick it up with me at verse 18, and as you do so note who it is said who is doing the reconciling. Is it fullness that is reconciling itself or being reconciled to itself? Or is it something or someone else? II Corinthians 5:18 says, “Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” So here, II Corinthians 5:18-19, Paul makes clear that God is the author of reconciliation through Christ. We're going to get to that topic, reconciliation, in just a moment when we get to verse 20. So big idea, to insert the subject Father here, as in God the Father in Colossians 1:19, is appropriate not only because He is the One doing the reconciling, but also because God is the One whose good pleasure is being referred to here. It was the Father's good pleasure. In the eternal councils of the Godhead, it was the good pleasure of God the Father that God the Son, the One of whom God the Father would say of God the Son in His earthly ministry, this is My Son in whom I am well pleased, should share in the fullness of His deity. The point here, and I know we are wading deep here this morning, is that God saw fit, in fact God the Father was pleased, it says here in verse 19, to have His essence, His deity dwell equally and fully in the Son. So another aspect of Christ's preeminence, taking it back to the theme of this entire book, is that it was the good pleasure of God the Father, it was the eternal will of God the Father that in Him, meaning in Christ, not around Him, not upon Him, not through Him (again prepositions matter), but in Him, that in Him all the fullness, meaning all the fullness of deity, of wisdom, of His power should dwell in the Son.

Now as is always the case when we touch upon matters of the trinity, this section of Colossians is really holding these two truths in delicate balance. On the one hand is the truth that God the Father and God the Son are distinct persons within the Godhead. On the other hand, though, is the truth that God the Father and God the Son, like God the Spirit, share equally in a singular divine essence. God the Father is no more God than God the Son. God the Son is no less God than God the Father. Bringing it back to our text, contrary to what the promoters of the Colossian heresies were peddling, Christ wasn't, Christ isn't one of many gods. Christ wasn't a mere emanation from God. Christ isn't a marred or imperfect reflection of God. No, He is and was and forever will be God Himself.

Now I have a question for everyone here this morning. Knowing these truths that we've just encountered in verse 19 about Christ and His preeminence as the very God who created the world, who upholds the world and who gives and preserves your very life, where else would you seek fullness for anything? Where else would you seek fullness not only for your theological convictions, but in each and every aspect of your life? See, to the Colossian church, and it made no sense and Paul is gently pointing it out here, that they would seek fullness in tradition or philosophy or mysticism or asceticism or any other aspect of this Colossian heresy, and in our context these many years later it also makes no sense that we would pursue fullness in anything outside of Christ, namely the Christ that is revealed on the pages of Scripture. I mean seriously, does it make any sense that anyone of us would find fullness in trite three-minute theological takes on YouTube? Does it make any sense that we would seek fullness in the bottomless sea of data that we can scroll through on our phones hour after hours after hours all week long? Does it make sense that we would seek fullness in traditions that seek to add to the already completed work of Christ? Does it make any sense that we would seek fullness in relationships that seek to take our focus off Christ? All the fullness of God's deity exists in Christ and all the fullness that exists in Christ is all the fullness we will ever need in this life. It's all found in Him. May we never lose sight of that.

All right, we're one verse in. Now as we turn to verse 20 Paul is going to shift his focus away from describing Christ in His person to Christ in His purposes. Look at verse 20 as we make the turn into this verse. Note again how skillful Paul is in using prepositions in these strategic and intentional ways. Verse 20, it says, “And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross, through Him I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” Now as we get ready to do a deeper dive into this verse, we're going to be moving on from these more abstract statements that I've just worked through about Christ's exalted status; to Paul showing how Christ's exalted status is so practically relevant to people who were once alienated from God and to a world that remains alienated from God. As we piece verse 19 and 20 together, we're going to see that the Father's plan involving the Son had two aspects. First it pertained to sharing all the fullness of His deity with Him, which is what we just looked at in verse 19. Then the second piece of it pertains to the reconciliation which God the Father achieved through God the Son. And that's going to be our second major topic for this morning, reconciliation. As we're about to see in this passage, verse 20, there really are two aspects of reconciliation which are in view. First there is this reconciliation of things as He, meaning God through Christ, reconciled “all things,” it says, “to Himself.” Secondly, what is in view is this reconciliation of persons, as He, meaning Jesus Christ, “made peace,” it says, “through the blood of His cross.” As I'm going to lay out for you in just a moment, the first of those categories, the reconciliation of things, is yet future in its totality. The second category, the reconciliation of people, is both a past and a present truth for those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ.

Let's spend some time now delving into both, starting with these words here in verse 20 which continue the thought back in verse 19 of what brought good pleasure to God or what pleased God. It pleased God not only to have the fullness of His deity dwell in His Son eternally as we saw in verse 19, but as we get into verse 20 it also pleased God, we see, to “through Him,” again a preposition, through Christ “reconcile all things to Himself.” Now what does that mean? Well, preface before the preface before the preface. As we get started on this second verse we'll be covering today, we need to first note that something is missing here. Now I don't mean to say that Scripture is wrong, or Scripture is inadequate, or Scripture is incomplete when I say something is missing. Rather, something is missing in the sense that Paul has left something out here entirely from his discussion of reconciliation. Let me explain what I mean. Now, in our context today when we speak of reconciliation, we already have built into that an underlying presumption or presupposition, which is what? That something is wrong, that something is out of sorts, that something is unresolved, that there is some sort of conflict that is brewing or festering. A mediator seeks to reconcile the two parties. Why? Because there is conflict between them. The parties can't agree, they can't get along. A police officer reconciles statements given by two different witnesses. Why? Because their statements don't agree, they don't line up, they are out of sorts. That's the idea that Paul sort of leaps over here and just assumes here in verse 20 which is that there is something that is out of sorts in the created order. There is something that is very wrong with the world. Things aren't how they ought to be. We can't really fault Paul, can we, for taking this logical leap and just kind of assuming that to be the case as he launches into this topic of reconciliation? No, we can't fault Paul because we all know today, just as Paul knew in his day, that there is something terribly wrong with the world.

We live in a world in which weeds overtake our lawns and lawless criminals overtake once nice neighborhoods and sinful passions and lusts overtake our darkened hearts. We live in a world in which our organs can become diseased, and our immune systems can become compromised, and our bodies can be ravaged by cancer. We live in a world in which people lose friendships and parents lose children and people lose the will to live. We live in a world where the depravity of man seems to know no limit, a world in which children are trafficked for sexual exploits and purposes, a world in which bodies are being mutilated to match the gender that mentally ill people believe themselves to be, a world in which babies are being butchered in the wombs of their mothers at still alarming rates. I say all of this not to be needlessly provocative but instead to make a point, which is that we know, as Paul knew in his day, that something is very wrong in this world. This world is very broken, it's out of order, it is misaligned. That's not only verified by our experiences or observations, more importantly and most importantly it is exposed and revealed in Scripture. We know from Scripture that the carnal mind is at enmity with God. Romans 8:7 says, “The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God.” That's all because of the entrance of sin into the world, that first trespass, that first sin committed in the Garden of Eden. Romans 5:12, “Therefore just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sin.” When sin entered the world man became estranged from God. He adopted an attitude of hostility toward God and the result is that there is now enmity between he and God. In fact, look at Colossians 1:21, the very next verse that we will look at next week, speaking of man in his unregenerate state, his darkened state. It says, “They are alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds.” That's why it says in Isaiah 59:2 that “your iniquities,” if you are still in this state, “have made a separation between you and your God so that your sins have hidden His face from you, and He does not hear.”

Therefore, man has had, since the Garden, a desperate need to be reconciled. But it's not just man who needs reconciliation. No. Sin has affected all of creation. It has impacted the angelic realm; we'll look at that in just a moment. It has impacted animal life and the animal kingdom. We see that in Romans 8:19-22 where it says the “creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.” It groans today. Sin has affected the ground, the very earth. That's all part of the curse on Adam that God declared back in Genesis 3 where He says “because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you saying, you shall not eat from it, cursed is the ground because of you. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face, you will eat bread until you return to the ground.” One of the purposes of the death of Christ, then, was to make possible the reconciliation of not just people, but all things to God.

In other words, it was not only God's good pleasure that all the fullness should dwell in Christ as we've seen in verse 19, but also that Christ should reconcile all things to Himself. Now this topic of reconciliation is massive, theologically speaking, biblically speaking. We're going to get more into it next week, in fact look over at Colossians 1:22 for a preview of more on reconciliation where it says, “Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” Because this topic is so massive and because we're going to be in this topic next week, what I'm going to go ahead and do here this morning as we engage with verse 20 is not work strictly sequentially through the verse—unpack every comma and that kind of thing. Rather, I'm going to make several key observations about the reconciliation of which Paul speaks in Colossians 1:20. I have ten observations.

The first of these ten observations is that the verb reconcile here in verse 20 appears in an intensified form. The verb is intensified here, which speaks in the context here to the totality or the completeness of the reconciliation that has been brought about by Christ. That Greek verb reconcile normally means to change or to exchange, but here in this intensified form it means to change completely. It is being used in this way in this verse to refer to the total and complete reconciliation of believers and ultimately all things in the created universe. Before the entrance of sin into the world, we know God and humans had this period of unbroken fellowship, God and Adam. However, when there was sin there in the Garden that fellowship was broken, and people turned away from God and eventually turned their face from God and they wallowed in the sickness of sin and they were daring God to wield His divine hammer of justice. Through the reconciliation brought about by Christ's death those barriers have been removed so that people now have the ability to be restored to fellowship with God. For those who have trusted in Christ, those barriers have been totally and completely removed. Note there is nothing that a person can do to earn reconciliation or to merit reconciliation, or to become more reconciled than they already are. No, there is nothing to be done, there is nothing to be added. It is done, it has been done, it is finished. Reconciliation was purposed by God in Christ; reconciliation was achieved by God through Christ. There is no need for an assist from Mary or an assist from a sacrament or some other contribution from us. Reconciliation is done, and all because of Christ.

Second, reconciliation means that man is reconciled to God and not the other way around. The Bible never speaks of God needing to be reconciled to man, it only speaks the other way of man needing to be reconciled to God. Romans 5:10, “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.” II Corinthians 5:18, we looked at that earlier, “All these things are from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.” I've always enjoyed singing that hymn around Christmas time, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Sorry to be a wet blanket but some of its lyrics are inaccurate. Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. That actually doesn't give a perfectly accurate description of what happens in reconciliation because it makes it sound mutual or like there is a meeting halfway. That's not what happens in reconciliation. The reality is man has totally departed from God; he has gone his own way. God doesn't need to be reconciled in any way to sinful man because God has never departed from nor strayed from the path of perfect righteousness. There is no meeting of the minds in reconciliation, there is no meeting halfway. Rather, reconciliation is the result of one actor, God, rescuing one individual at a time, man.

Third, the basis of our reconciliation is the cross of Jesus Christ and specifically the blood of His cross, as it says here in verse 20. Going back to the Garden of Eden and the fall mankind has been in this state, this ongoing state of rebellion, this state of warfare against the God who created him. Man's sin has erected this barrier, this wall, between him and God. Christ, Ephesians 2:14, knocked it down. He broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. We were enemies of God, but Christ has reconciled us. That's again Romans 5:10, “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.” This reconciliation was brought about through the blood of His cross. The Lord Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb, the sinless One, the One in whom there was no guilt bore our sins in His body through His sacrificial atoning death on the cross. It was all a part of fulfilling this aspect of God the Father's good pleasure. To fulfill God's good pleasure Christ had to die. He had to die as a sacrifice, and He had to die on that Roman cross. Blood had to be shed. Romans 9:22 says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” It had to be shed by the ultimate scapegoat, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ who came to take away the sins of the world, and shed His precious blood, He did. Galatians 3:13 says, “He redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” Philippians 2:8 says, “Being found in appearance as a man He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Listen to how Charles Spurgeon once described this event, the events of Calvary. He says:

“The crucifixion of Christ was the crowning sin of our race. In His death we shall find all the sins of mankind uniting in foul conspiracy. Envy and pride and hate are there, with covetousness, falsehood, and blasphemy, eager to rush on to cruelty, revenge, and murder. As all the rivers run into the sea, and as all the clouds empty themselves upon the earth, so did all the crimes of man gather to the slaying of the Son of God. It seemed as if hell held an assembly, and all the various forms of sin came flocking to the rendezvous.”

Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, the One in whom all the fullness dwells endured all of this so that wretched rebels like you and me could experience reconciliation, to be reconciled to God. He did all that, He accomplished that so that as Paul says in Romans 3:25, “we who have been justified as a gift by His grace through redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.” Now we can, as the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 10:19, “with confidence enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus.” Here is Spurgeon again. He says, “No scene in sacred history ever gladdens the soul like the scene on Calvary. Nowhere does the soul find such consolation as on that very spot where misery reigned, where woe triumphed, where agony reached its climax.” Indeed. The cross is the pivotal moment in cosmic history. As horrific as those events were, they are at the same time the ultimate source of comfort and joy for the believer because Christ's death is the basis for our return to a position of fellowship and right standing with God, and not just fellowship, but peace.

That takes us to our fourth point. Reconciliation results in peace. That word peace can sort of get lost in the shuffle here in verse 20, but don't miss it. What has been made through the blood of Christ's cross? Peace. Peace between God and man. Men once at enmity with God, women once at enmity with God, once warring with God, now joyfully march under His banner. Men, women once kicking against the goads now proudly wear His gentle yoke. Because of the matchless love demonstrated by this matchlessly Holy God and because of the death that Christ died at Calvary, because of the shedding of His precious blood, we now have peace with God. Romans 5:1 sums it up, “Therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Fifth, Christ's death on the cross brought about the possibility of reconciliation to mankind but not only to mankind. Look at the text of verse 20 once again. “It was the Father's good pleasure,” using the words from verse 19 there, “through Christ,” then verse 20, “to reconcile all things to Himself.” The all things that we see at the end of verse 20 includes, you see it there, “things on earth and things in heaven.” In other words, Christ's atoning death offers reconciliation not only to men, but to the entire created order. God offers not only sinful man reconciliation through Christ, but creation itself, the very creation that has been subjected to, Romans 8:20, futility. Christ died not only for you and me, but He truly did die for the world. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” He gave His life so that all things, it says, “whether things on earth or things in heaven” would be restored, would be reconciled to God the Father.

Sixth, Christ's death on the cross brought reconciliation not only to all things on earth but to things in heaven. Now at first glance we look at that and we might find that language odd. We might think it strange that Paul would speak here of there being some aspect of heaven as in the eternal dwelling place in the abode of God that requires reconciliation. Isn't heaven, the throne room of God, absolutely spotless and pure? Now some have attempted to argue that even heaven requires reconciliation because it was, after all, from heaven that Satan fell and there still is some cleanup on aisle 9 that needs to happen up in heaven from what happened all those years before. I understand the argument, I understand why people make it, but I take this phrase, “things on earth or things in heaven,” especially in the context of this passage and this text and this section and this book which is describing the absolute superiority and supremacy and preeminence of Jesus Christ over everything, to mean the totality and the comprehensiveness of Christ's reconciling power over all things in the heaven and on the earth. It is speaking comprehensively here. Just as He made the heavens and the earth, Christ did, He has through His atoning death on the cross made provision for the reconciliation of all things in the heavens and the earth. Sin has defaced Christ's work in creation, but He came into His creation to undo the consequences of mankind's sin and to bring reconciliation to the very universe that He made, in totality, and then square up and reconcile all things.

Seventh, there are limitations to Christ's reconciling work. Now the text of verse 20 again says that it is through Christ that God has reconciled all things to Himself. Now various false teachers and false teaching groups will take those words, all things, and they'll just run with it. They'll say, it says right there all things and all things means all things. Therefore, even Satan could conceivably get saved and even the evil angels could conceivably get saved and even the unbeliever. They don't need to trust in Christ, universalism reigns. Everything will be okay. In other words, they are teaching that all things here means all people. All principalities will ultimately be reconciled to God in the salvific sense. Well, this passage does not refer to Satan or to other fallen angels or to unbelievers or the unbelieving world ultimately being reconciled in the salvific sense to God through Christ. It can't mean that because the eternal doom of all three of those groups is clearly outlined in the pages of Scripture and Scripture does not contradict Scripture. For instance, we know from Revelation 20:10 that Satan's ultimate destination is the lake of fire. That passage says, “And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire with brimstone.” It goes on to say that he, meaning Satan, “will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” That doesn't sound like reconciliation to me. Or what about the evil angels, Satan's minions, the dark side of the angelic realm? Well, their fate is likewise sealed. Jude 6 says, “And angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper abode, He had kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.” Eternal bonds. That sounds a lot like permanence to me, not reconciliation. No hope of reconciliation. Then some might say, what about Philippians 2:10? Because that passage tells us that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those in the heavens and those on the earth and also those under the earth. So, it says right there that those under the earth will one day bow to Jesus, that must mean that they will finally acknowledge their sin and be reconciled to Jesus, to God through Christ, in a salvific way. Right? Wrong. As we have already seen the Scriptures teach that Satan and the fallen angels have no hope of reconciliation. Their fate is sealed. Philippians 2:10 doesn't change that. How do we know that? Well, we know that there is a difference, a distinction to be drawn between reconciliation and subjugation. Philippians 2:10 teaches subjugation. It is teaching the fact that all created beings, including the fallen angels, will eventually be compelled to bow their knee to the Lord Jesus. It is not teaching that they will believe. Reconciliation versus subjugation. Philippians 2:10 does not teach universalism or universal salvation. It doesn't teach that all will ultimately believe or be reconciled, but it does teach that all, in the heavens, on the earth and under the earth will be forced to submit. So that handles the question Satan and the evil angels, but what about those humans who ultimately reject Christ? In other words, those who are unbelieving image bearers, will they be saved because Paul here says in verse 20 that all things will ultimately be reconciled to God through Christ? Does this passage mean, aha, we can believe whatever we want to believe and just sort of hang out in the world and we're all going to be okay because all things will one day be reconciled to God through Christ. Most certainly not. You can jot down John 3:18 where the Lord Himself says, “he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” No belief, no reconciliation. Only judgment comes to those who do not believe in the name of Jesus, the eternal Son of God.

Eighth, Christ's reconciling power is rooted in His person. The fundamental disharmony in the universe that we have looked at already today, the dissonance and the totality of all things here on planet earth and in the heavens, it has been mended, it has been put right. How? Through the blood of His cross. The rebellion has been put down, the hostilities have been brought to an end, peace has been made. How? Through the blood of His cross. To which we find ourselves asking maybe internally or when we face objections from the doubters or the scoffers, how? How does that work? How can a few hours on a wooden torture device on a hill all those years ago bring about such cosmic and eternal consequences? How does that work? How is that equitable? How is that right? Well, it all goes back to who Jesus Christ is in His person, which is what Paul has been laying the foundation for throughout this text, throughout this whole section of Colossians, going back to Colossians 1:15. Because Christ is the image of the invisible God, because Christ is the firstborn of all creation, because He is the One who created all things, because He is before all things, because in Him all things hold together, because He has first place in everything, He is a more than capable agent of atonement. He is more than able to bring about reconciliation not only to man but to the entire world.

That's right where we are today, right? A totally peaceful utopian environment? Not quite. Which takes us to our ninth point about reconciliation which is that Christ's reconciliation of all things on earth and in heaven is yet future. We know that Jesus Christ shed His blood on that cross a long time ago, nearly 2000 years ago now. It would seem in our limited wisdom as human beings that since He bled and since He died two millennia ago that the creation would already have had to have been reconciled to God. He did the work on the cross so reconciliation should take place. What we are promised here should be right in front of our eyes today. But that's not the reality, is it. No. We know from Romans 8:20-22 that the creation is still subject to futility, that the creation still groans, that the creation still suffers the pain of childbirth until now. So, what gives? Has Christ reconciled all things? Or hasn't He? Yes, He has but there is plainly a future aspect of His reconciliation which is yet to come, a day in which all things will be made new, a day in which there will be no more sin or curse or death or other effects of sin. That future day of reconciliation is what we know as the eternal state, that place in which we will forever dwell in the new heavens and the new earth. In fact, flip over with me to Revelation 21 where we see this eternal state of existence for the believer described. Revelation 21:1 says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold the tabernacle of God is among men and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people and God Himself will be among them. And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will no longer be any death, there will no longer be any mourning, or crying or pain. The first things have passed away. And He who sits on the throne,” verse 5, “said, behold I am making all things new.” This in Revelation 21 is describing when all things will ultimately be reconciled to God, by God, through Christ. Just as Paul back in Colossians 1:13 spoke of the kingdom, the future kingdom as though it is already here, in Colossians 1:20 he is referring to that ultimate day of reconciliation, the future eternal state as though it has already arrived. In the beginning God created all things through Christ. In the end God will reconcile all things through Christ. He created all things, and He will ultimately restore all things.

Tenth, last, the reconciling work of God through Christ ought to have an impact on us as His followers. Just a sprinkling of reminders from Scripture for you. We've already gone through all these, actually. II Corinthians 5:18, we have to remember that God reconciled us to Himself through Christ. We have to remember what II Corinthians 5:18-19 says, that having done so He has given us “a ministry of reconciliation.” We have to remember II Corinthians 5:20 says we are now “ambassadors for Christ as though God was making an appeal through us.” We have to remember what II Corinthians 5:20 also says that we are now called as reconciled believers to make an appeal to the unbeliever, saying, “we implore you, be reconciled to God.” See, the death of this Jewish Galilean in some backwater region of the Roman Empire might in man's wisdom have seemed inconsequential on the broader historical scale. But it wasn't inconsequential at all, rather this event, the crucifixion of Christ, the death of Christ was the event that made reconciliation possible for those who, like you and me, once reveled in our sin against God. It was the event that will one day reconcile heaven and earth.

Events at Calvary no doubt took place in the past. The blood that Christ shed has long since coagulated and mixed with and dried among the rocks on that fateful hill. The means of reconciliation were long ago fully accomplished when our Lord breathed His last and declared tetelestai, it is finished. If we believed upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, if we've put our trust in His finished work on the cross, it is through those past events that we have been reconciled to God, the God we once opposed. Praise God for that. But it is not as though now in the present without those truths about reconciliation having occurred that we now get to sort of punch out and clock out because we have our golden ticket to heaven. No, as we just saw from II Corinthians 5, we have, as those who have been reconciled, been given a ministry of reconciliation as we appeal to others, as we beg others, as we implore others to be reconciled to God. So, we need to be sure we are doing that, sharing the hope that lies within us. And as we do so, we do it with one eye toward the future, to that glorious day, to that glorious phase of history, of redemptive history where God will reconcile all things, things in heaven and things on earth, unto Himself.

Ten points about reconciliation. We'll get into more of this next week when we get to Colossians 1:21-23, but we need to close.

Let's pray. God, thank You so much for sending Your Son the Lord Jesus into the world. Thank You so much that in Your eternal plans through Your eternal decree You saw fit to reconcile undeserving, hopeless sinners like us. That You saw fit to send Your Son, the eternal Son of God, the One in whom You were pleased to have the fullness of deity dwell, into this world to suffer, to bleed, to die so that we, rebels though we were, could have a restored fellowship with You and once again have peace with You and be reconciled to You. God, I pray that these truths, deep as they are, would move in our hearts, that they would change us, that we would come away from this place grateful for Your reconciling work through Jesus Christ. And God, if there is anyone here this morning who has not been reconciled to You though they think they are right with You, though they think they are on Your team or on Your side but they are still enemies of You, I pray that today they would come to realize that it is not through works, it's not through improved behavior, it's not through just living a better life that a person becomes reconciled, but rather through trusting in the finished work of Christ to forgive their sin and to grant them eternal life. God, I pray that You would go before us today, that You would motivate us to live faithfully for You all because of what You have accomplished through Your Son. It's in His name we pray, amen.