Reconciler of All Things
Colossians 1:19-23
Message #3
We are holding the genuineness of Jesus Christ up and trying to show him to you so clearly that you’ll recognize a counterfeit instantly.
Last week we looked at the “Supreme Preeminence” of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is before ALL things, and he is above ALL things. Jesus Christ is fully “God in Expression” to Man, and we tried to make it clear that because of WHO Jesus Christ truly IS and WHAT Jesus Christ has truly done that his sacrifice alone was able to reconcile us to God.
To “Be Reconciled” is “to bring back to a former state of harmony.”
And I want you to know that God is the Author and the Finisher of us being reconciled to him, of us being brought back to a former state of harmony with him. We did nothing. We can’t earn it; we can’t deserve it; we can’t “get there from here.” Without Christ, we are hopeless and helpless to be reconciled to God. But God has made a way in Christ to bring us back to that former state of harmony.
2 Corinthians 5:18 (ESV)
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself . . .
Jesus Christ is the Reconciler of All Things.
Let’s start with a little review from last week.
Colossians 1:19 (NLT)
19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,
God in all his fullness . . . lived in Christ
The word “fullness” means “inherently and permanently filled.” All the fullness of God lives inherently and permanently IN Jesus Christ. It means the Father did not “give” the fullness of God to Jesus. But instead, God in all his fullness – inherently and permanently lives in Christ.
That is a huge deal when we’re talking about WHO Jesus Christ truly IS and WHAT Jesus Christ has truly done.
So, let’s read verses 19-20 together.
Colossians 1:19–20(a) (NLT)
19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,
20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself . . .
Jesus Christ is the fullness of God, reconciling all things BACK TO the FULLNESS of God.
Let me get to the root of this. This is saying that the fullness of God in Jesus Christ reconciled all things back to the fullness of God. I want you to see this “compound Unity.” ECHAD in the Hebrew. It’s “One made of Many.” When we talk about the fullness of God, we’re talking about the entire Godhead. And the role of Jesus Christ as that Godhead “Expressed to Us” in a “tent,” a “tabernacle of man.”
Why? Why is this such a big deal? Because there was no other way. Because no other philosophy, ideology, or religion can reconcile us back to the fullness of God. It took the fullness of God – in Christ – to reconcile all things – back to God.
Jesus reconciled all things “back to God” because God created Man and All Creation in perfect harmony with him. And then came sin and the Fall of Man and the curse of sin on this world, and the fullness of God in Jesus Christ has reconciled man and all of creation back to that former state of perfect harmony with God.
In a practical sense that reconciliation is still in the process of being accomplished. Practically it is still in process, but positionally (in a positional sense), IT IS FINISHED!!
Then, just as a side note to verse 20(a). When verse 20 says through Christ God reconciled everything to himself, this does not mean (unfortunately) that ALL people will be automatically reconciled to God. The offer to be reconciled to God is absolutely for all people, but the Bible is clear being reconciled to God comes through your faith in Jesus as your Savior.
John 3:16 says For God so loved the world that he gave his only son (that’s the offer to ALL people). But then the verse says that whosoever BELIEVES in him (the word whosoever means literally “each, every, any, or all” whether it’s one or whether it’s all of the world; believes means “puts their faith in him”) would NOT perish but HAVE everlasting life THAT is the condition to you receiving this reconciliation to God. Why? Because through your faith in Jesus, you are identified with (made one with) WHO Jesus IS and WHAT Jesus has DONE – on your behalf. And so, we understand that there is a need to receive (to appropriate, to step into) what Christ has done through faith. That’s being born again, and that is putting your faith in Jesus.
Romans 6 says when you do put your faith in Jesus, you are so identified with Christ that what he has done, you have done. And so, when he beat sin, he beat it in your place, and through faith, you being identified with him means that you beat sin. There’s no religion that can do that. (Remember, religion is man's attempt to reach God.) When he beat death – you beat death. When he rose again – you rose again in him. That’s what Romans Chapter 6 (and really, all of the New Testament) says.
Here’s my point in Colossians. There is nothing to compare to Jesus Christ. You just can’t. It sounds really “narrow-minded” because there is only one God. And there’s only one Savior. And there is only one way for our sin to be dealt with, and that’s by God dealing with it to reconcile us to himself. So, it is narrow-minded, but it’s not by choice. If I opened this two-thousand-year-old, supernatural, miraculously-proved book, and it said “All roads lead to Heaven,” I would say, “Well, God said all roads lead to Heaven.” But we’ve got an incredibly, miraculously living, supernatural, cannot be refuted Bible. God says this is how it works, and so you can believe it or reject it, but you can’t change it.
Jesus Christ came to earth to make peace between a fallen, sinful world and a holy and just God, as the second half of verse 20 in Colossians 1 says.
Colossians 1:20(b) (NLT)
20 . . . He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
When sin entered this world, all of creation was separated from God by the curse of sin. The Bible says, by our sin, we become hostile to God, and what Jesus Christ has done – in his life, death, and Resurrection is to make peace FOR US – with God. Not only between us and God, but also between this fallen world and God. ALL things (including creation) are reconciled back to God through the Person and the work of Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:19–21 (NLT)
19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.
20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope,
21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.
Jesus Christ is the reconciler of all things!!! And all of creation is waiting eagerly for the day when that reconciliation will be completely accomplished.
Again - Colossians 1:20 says – God made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s [sacrifice] on the cross but the real, personal Good News is in verse 21.
Colossians 1:21 (NLT)
21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.
The phrase “far away” is literally “alienated,” and it is in the perfect tense, meaning you were permanently alienated, permanently separated from God – because of your sin, and you had NO possible way to correct the sin problem.
And not only were you separated from God by your sin, but you were also his enemy.
Romans 8:7 (NLT)
7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God . . .
BY your fallen sin nature AND by your actions, you were permanently separated from God. But, in Jesus Christ, “the fullness of God” has reconciled you back to himself. He has brought you back to a former state of harmony that you were originally created for.
HOW has Jesus reconciled us? And WHAT is the result?
Colossians 1:22 (NLT)
22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body (that’s how). As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. (that’s the result)
Jesus Christ has reconciled us through his death in a physical body. Jesus had to come in a physical body in order to die in our place… there was no other way!
Romans 6:23 (NLT)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Because God is first perfectly holy, righteous, and just. The penalty for our sin had to be paid. It cannot be simply overlooked, and there was no one on earth who could pay that penalty on our behalf. And so, the fullness of God came in the Person of Jesus Christ to pay that full and complete penalty on our behalf and in our place.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT)
21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
The fullness of God came to take on our sin and to pay the full and complete penalty for it so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
And we are made right with God because the penalty for our sin has been paid in full – TELELESTAI – IT IS FINISHED.
Telelestai is a word that is stamped on a debt when it is paid in full. BAM! TELTELESTAI! Paid in full – you no longer owe the debt.
And because Jesus Christ has paid our full debt in our place – just as if we had paid it. (“Justified” is “Just as if I’d paid that debt myself.”) When God looks at us, he sees the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Guys, we don’t need “higher spiritual knowledge.” We need to be reconciled to a Holy God, and the fullness of God, in Jesus Christ, came to earth AS the Reconciler of All Things, and Jesus took our sin and died in our place to pay the full and complete penalty for our sin so that he could present us before God, holy, blameless and without a single fault.
Jesus Christ doesn’t just “get us in” to Heaven.
He presents us
HOLY before God
BLAMELESS before God
WITHOUT A SINGLE FAULT before God
And that phrase “without a single fault” means “not even able to be accused.” Jesus Christ is the Reconciler of All Things, and he is the only one who can reconcile us to God. That is what we really need – is to be made right, to be reconciled to God.
Don’t be duped into chasing after some other form of spirituality or religion because there is nothing else in all of creation that can compare to WHO Jesus Christ truly is and WHAT Jesus Christ has truly done. Put your faith in Jesus and hold on to him! Stand firmly in your faith, and don’t drift away from your assurance in Christ.
Because Colossians 1, verse 23(a) says,
Colossians 1:23(a) (NLT)
23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News . . .
Suddenly we have a warning here about our reconciliation in Christ? This is one of the “IF” verses in the New Testament that tends to shake people up (which might be the goal).
Most literal translations say if indeed you continue in the faith
The Wuest expanded Greek New Testament says assuming indeed that you are adhering to the Faith
The NLT’s “But you must continue” is true, but it doesn’t get across the full idea.
In the original, this is called a “First Class Condition,” which assumes that the premise is true for the sake of argument. In other words, Paul is assuming these Believers will “continue” and “stand firmly” and “not drift away.”
Please listen to me closely as I deal with this because a lot of people struggle with this. What we call the “assurance of salvation” we see very clearly in the Bible. Meaning that if you are truly saved, then you are permanently saved – but true faith includes permanence. Meaning if your faith is real, then then you will continue in it, or you will come back to it – if you have slipped away.
And so, in the Bible, there is both an assurance of your true salvation and a warning about superficial salvation because true faith is ultimately permanent faith. And so, again, Paul says in Colossians 1, verse 23,
Colossians 1:23(a) (NLT)
23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News . . .
Paul is not implying that we can have salvation one day and then lose it the next day, but the only one way for you to know if indeed you’ve been permanently reconciled to God through faith in Jesus is IF INDEED you continue to believe the truth of Jesus standing firm in it and not drifting away from the assurance you received through faith.
And what if you already have drifted away? Then thank the Lord today that you are still on this side of eternity because you can come back to faith in Jesus; you can repent and be forgiven.
And you can become one of those who continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel. (NKJV).
I say to you what God says to you in 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 5:19–20 (NLT)
19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”
Last week we looked at the “Supreme Preeminence” of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is before ALL things, and he is above ALL things. Jesus Christ is fully “God in Expression” to Man, and we tried to make it clear that because of WHO Jesus Christ truly IS and WHAT Jesus Christ has truly done that his sacrifice alone was able to reconcile us to God.
To “Be Reconciled” is “to bring back to a former state of harmony.”
And I want you to know that God is the Author and the Finisher of us being reconciled to him, of us being brought back to a former state of harmony with him. We did nothing. We can’t earn it; we can’t deserve it; we can’t “get there from here.” Without Christ, we are hopeless and helpless to be reconciled to God. But God has made a way in Christ to bring us back to that former state of harmony.
2 Corinthians 5:18 (ESV)
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself . . .
Jesus Christ is the Reconciler of All Things.
Let’s start with a little review from last week.
Colossians 1:19 (NLT)
19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,
God in all his fullness . . . lived in Christ
The word “fullness” means “inherently and permanently filled.” All the fullness of God lives inherently and permanently IN Jesus Christ. It means the Father did not “give” the fullness of God to Jesus. But instead, God in all his fullness – inherently and permanently lives in Christ.
That is a huge deal when we’re talking about WHO Jesus Christ truly IS and WHAT Jesus Christ has truly done.
So, let’s read verses 19-20 together.
Colossians 1:19–20(a) (NLT)
19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,
20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself . . .
Jesus Christ is the fullness of God, reconciling all things BACK TO the FULLNESS of God.
Let me get to the root of this. This is saying that the fullness of God in Jesus Christ reconciled all things back to the fullness of God. I want you to see this “compound Unity.” ECHAD in the Hebrew. It’s “One made of Many.” When we talk about the fullness of God, we’re talking about the entire Godhead. And the role of Jesus Christ as that Godhead “Expressed to Us” in a “tent,” a “tabernacle of man.”
Why? Why is this such a big deal? Because there was no other way. Because no other philosophy, ideology, or religion can reconcile us back to the fullness of God. It took the fullness of God – in Christ – to reconcile all things – back to God.
Jesus reconciled all things “back to God” because God created Man and All Creation in perfect harmony with him. And then came sin and the Fall of Man and the curse of sin on this world, and the fullness of God in Jesus Christ has reconciled man and all of creation back to that former state of perfect harmony with God.
In a practical sense that reconciliation is still in the process of being accomplished. Practically it is still in process, but positionally (in a positional sense), IT IS FINISHED!!
Then, just as a side note to verse 20(a). When verse 20 says through Christ God reconciled everything to himself, this does not mean (unfortunately) that ALL people will be automatically reconciled to God. The offer to be reconciled to God is absolutely for all people, but the Bible is clear being reconciled to God comes through your faith in Jesus as your Savior.
John 3:16 says For God so loved the world that he gave his only son (that’s the offer to ALL people). But then the verse says that whosoever BELIEVES in him (the word whosoever means literally “each, every, any, or all” whether it’s one or whether it’s all of the world; believes means “puts their faith in him”) would NOT perish but HAVE everlasting life THAT is the condition to you receiving this reconciliation to God. Why? Because through your faith in Jesus, you are identified with (made one with) WHO Jesus IS and WHAT Jesus has DONE – on your behalf. And so, we understand that there is a need to receive (to appropriate, to step into) what Christ has done through faith. That’s being born again, and that is putting your faith in Jesus.
Romans 6 says when you do put your faith in Jesus, you are so identified with Christ that what he has done, you have done. And so, when he beat sin, he beat it in your place, and through faith, you being identified with him means that you beat sin. There’s no religion that can do that. (Remember, religion is man's attempt to reach God.) When he beat death – you beat death. When he rose again – you rose again in him. That’s what Romans Chapter 6 (and really, all of the New Testament) says.
Here’s my point in Colossians. There is nothing to compare to Jesus Christ. You just can’t. It sounds really “narrow-minded” because there is only one God. And there’s only one Savior. And there is only one way for our sin to be dealt with, and that’s by God dealing with it to reconcile us to himself. So, it is narrow-minded, but it’s not by choice. If I opened this two-thousand-year-old, supernatural, miraculously-proved book, and it said “All roads lead to Heaven,” I would say, “Well, God said all roads lead to Heaven.” But we’ve got an incredibly, miraculously living, supernatural, cannot be refuted Bible. God says this is how it works, and so you can believe it or reject it, but you can’t change it.
Jesus Christ came to earth to make peace between a fallen, sinful world and a holy and just God, as the second half of verse 20 in Colossians 1 says.
Colossians 1:20(b) (NLT)
20 . . . He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
When sin entered this world, all of creation was separated from God by the curse of sin. The Bible says, by our sin, we become hostile to God, and what Jesus Christ has done – in his life, death, and Resurrection is to make peace FOR US – with God. Not only between us and God, but also between this fallen world and God. ALL things (including creation) are reconciled back to God through the Person and the work of Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:19–21 (NLT)
19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.
20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope,
21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.
Jesus Christ is the reconciler of all things!!! And all of creation is waiting eagerly for the day when that reconciliation will be completely accomplished.
Again - Colossians 1:20 says – God made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s [sacrifice] on the cross but the real, personal Good News is in verse 21.
Colossians 1:21 (NLT)
21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.
The phrase “far away” is literally “alienated,” and it is in the perfect tense, meaning you were permanently alienated, permanently separated from God – because of your sin, and you had NO possible way to correct the sin problem.
And not only were you separated from God by your sin, but you were also his enemy.
Romans 8:7 (NLT)
7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God . . .
BY your fallen sin nature AND by your actions, you were permanently separated from God. But, in Jesus Christ, “the fullness of God” has reconciled you back to himself. He has brought you back to a former state of harmony that you were originally created for.
HOW has Jesus reconciled us? And WHAT is the result?
Colossians 1:22 (NLT)
22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body (that’s how). As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. (that’s the result)
Jesus Christ has reconciled us through his death in a physical body. Jesus had to come in a physical body in order to die in our place… there was no other way!
Romans 6:23 (NLT)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Because God is first perfectly holy, righteous, and just. The penalty for our sin had to be paid. It cannot be simply overlooked, and there was no one on earth who could pay that penalty on our behalf. And so, the fullness of God came in the Person of Jesus Christ to pay that full and complete penalty on our behalf and in our place.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT)
21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
The fullness of God came to take on our sin and to pay the full and complete penalty for it so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
And we are made right with God because the penalty for our sin has been paid in full – TELELESTAI – IT IS FINISHED.
Telelestai is a word that is stamped on a debt when it is paid in full. BAM! TELTELESTAI! Paid in full – you no longer owe the debt.
And because Jesus Christ has paid our full debt in our place – just as if we had paid it. (“Justified” is “Just as if I’d paid that debt myself.”) When God looks at us, he sees the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Guys, we don’t need “higher spiritual knowledge.” We need to be reconciled to a Holy God, and the fullness of God, in Jesus Christ, came to earth AS the Reconciler of All Things, and Jesus took our sin and died in our place to pay the full and complete penalty for our sin so that he could present us before God, holy, blameless and without a single fault.
Jesus Christ doesn’t just “get us in” to Heaven.
He presents us
HOLY before God
BLAMELESS before God
WITHOUT A SINGLE FAULT before God
And that phrase “without a single fault” means “not even able to be accused.” Jesus Christ is the Reconciler of All Things, and he is the only one who can reconcile us to God. That is what we really need – is to be made right, to be reconciled to God.
Don’t be duped into chasing after some other form of spirituality or religion because there is nothing else in all of creation that can compare to WHO Jesus Christ truly is and WHAT Jesus Christ has truly done. Put your faith in Jesus and hold on to him! Stand firmly in your faith, and don’t drift away from your assurance in Christ.
Because Colossians 1, verse 23(a) says,
Colossians 1:23(a) (NLT)
23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News . . .
Suddenly we have a warning here about our reconciliation in Christ? This is one of the “IF” verses in the New Testament that tends to shake people up (which might be the goal).
Most literal translations say if indeed you continue in the faith
The Wuest expanded Greek New Testament says assuming indeed that you are adhering to the Faith
The NLT’s “But you must continue” is true, but it doesn’t get across the full idea.
In the original, this is called a “First Class Condition,” which assumes that the premise is true for the sake of argument. In other words, Paul is assuming these Believers will “continue” and “stand firmly” and “not drift away.”
Please listen to me closely as I deal with this because a lot of people struggle with this. What we call the “assurance of salvation” we see very clearly in the Bible. Meaning that if you are truly saved, then you are permanently saved – but true faith includes permanence. Meaning if your faith is real, then then you will continue in it, or you will come back to it – if you have slipped away.
And so, in the Bible, there is both an assurance of your true salvation and a warning about superficial salvation because true faith is ultimately permanent faith. And so, again, Paul says in Colossians 1, verse 23,
Colossians 1:23(a) (NLT)
23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News . . .
Paul is not implying that we can have salvation one day and then lose it the next day, but the only one way for you to know if indeed you’ve been permanently reconciled to God through faith in Jesus is IF INDEED you continue to believe the truth of Jesus standing firm in it and not drifting away from the assurance you received through faith.
And what if you already have drifted away? Then thank the Lord today that you are still on this side of eternity because you can come back to faith in Jesus; you can repent and be forgiven.
And you can become one of those who continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel. (NKJV).
I say to you what God says to you in 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 5:19–20 (NLT)
19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”