RECONCILED!
Colossians 1:20-23
Colossians sets forth for us the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ and our completeness in Him. In Colossians 2:9-10 you have the heart and the center of what this particular book is trying to say to us. “For in him (Jesus) dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily, and you (believers) are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power.” Life works when you understand the fullness of Christ and you understand that you are complete in Him.
There are three great truths that are set forth in this little book. First of all, in chapter 1, there is set forth the sufficiency of Christ. In chapter 2, it sets forth the deficiency of cults. In chapters 3 and 4, we see the efficiency of Christianity.
Jesus Christ is set forth as the absolutely, totally sufficient One. When you come to know the Lord Jesus Christ you have in Him everything necessary to make your life what it really ought to be.
We begin in verse 15 of this chapter and we see the Lord Jesus Christ who is God in the flesh.
He is Christ, the One and Only above the creation. Further on we see He is Christ, the One and Only over the church. In verse 20 we see that Jesus Christ is the One and Only on the cross. Did you notice how quickly we get to the cross? See how soon the Scriptures bring us to the cross. It is at the cross where it all comes together. At the cross, holy God makes it possible for sinful man to know Him in a personal kind of way.
We can never get away from the centrality of the cross. The cross is at the very center of the Christian life. The ramifications of the cross are universal, eternal and deeply personal. We will never fully understand everything that took place at the cross until we are in the presence of God Himself. But at the cross, many things of eternal and universal and personal ramifications took place.
One of those is reconciliation. In verse 20 he says, “by the blood of his cross, he reconciles all things unto himself.” In verse 21 he says, “and you hath he reconciled.”
Reconciliation is one of the truths in the Bible which tell us just how very special the work of Christ on the cross is to you and to me.
Reconciliation has to do with the restoration of a broken relationship. Here are two friends who have had a little falling out. They are able to get back together and are now reconciled. A broken relationship is re-established.
Here’s a husband and a wife. Some breach has come between them. Yet, they are reconciled. That broken relationship is brought back together.
The Bible says because of what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary you and I who were enemies of God have now been reconciled.
That’s what these verses have to do with. In order to reconcile us look at--
I. The PRICE He PAID.
Verse 20, “Having made peace through the blood of his cross. Verse 21, “...Yet now has he reconciled in the body of his flesh.” He paid the price of His own body of flesh. He made it possible for you and me to be reconciled because He paid the price of His own body.
In that day there were false teachers who said that Jesus Christ was not really a person.
They said he was just a phantom person. In fact, some said when Jesus walked He didn’t even leave a footprint. He was not a real person. But the Scripture here says that Jesus Christ died in the body of His flesh. Jesus died in a real body.
I Peter 2:24 says, “He his own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.”
When Jesus Christ died on that cross he suffered in a real body. It was a body of flesh. When the nails were driven in His hands, they hurt because He had a real body. When the spear was thrust into His side it was painful because it was a real side. When the crown of thorns was pressed on his head, it was excruciatingly painful because He suffered for our sins “in his own body.”
He suffered in a real body of flesh. Not only that He also suffered and paid the price with His real blood, the “blood of His cross.”
There was only one ingredient that could pay the price for our sins and that was the blood of Jesus. The Bible says “without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.” That is an eternal principle in God’s moral universe. Without the shedding of blood sin could not be forgiven.
When Jesus went to that cross and when His blood was shed and poured down His body and congealed in pools in the dirt around the cross He was paying the price for our sins.
Revelation 1:5 says, “Unto him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.”
Ours were the sins, His was the blood. Jesus paid the price with His own blood. That’s why we like the songs about the blood. Aren’t you grateful we’re in a church that believes in the shed blood of Jesus? Aren’t you glad you’re in a church that sings songs about the blood of Jesus? Some people today are ashamed of the blood of Jesus Christ.
The price He paid was His own body and His own blood.
II. The PEACE He MADE.
Verse 20, “having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself.”
Restoration of broken relationships. He says he made peace by the blood of his cross to reconcile all things unto himself.
When sin entered the universe in the garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, the Bible says that the whole universe was thrown out of kilter. That’s why you see thorns and thistles in plant life.
That’s why you see claws and fangs and the fierceness and brutality of animals. That’s why you see the world wobbling on its axis. The whole universe was thrown out of kilter when sin entered the universe.
When Jesus died on that old cross He made possible a peace that would reconcile universally the very universe.
When Jesus made peace on the cross He made possible a universal reconciliation. There will be a day when Christ will restore the universe to its original harmony. That’s why the Bible tells us about a wonderful millennium reign of Jesus. One of the days, the Bible says, there will be no universe that has been shaken by sin. It will be a perfect universe.
So, Christ made peace universally. The question is raised--is everybody going to be saved? No. It does not mean that everybody is going to be saved.
Look at the rest of verse 20, “...by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.”
Many times when you see that kind of terminology used you find it like this. Just turn one book back to the book of Philippians 2:10. “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth.”
Look back at Colossians 1:20, “by him, I say whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.”
What doesn’t he mention? He doesn’t mention “under the earth.” Not everybody is going to be saved.
Now, there will be universal subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ, but there will not be universal conversion. Nobody comes to Christ apart from repentance of sin and faith in the Lord Jesus. There is universal redemption in that the possibility, the potentiality of salvation is there.
Verse 22, there you find personal reconciliation.
“And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.”
Who is he talking to? Saved people. He’s talking about people who have repented of their sins. He’s talking about people who have received Jesus Christ into their hearts and lives.
Who were we? He says “ye were sometime alienated...” That means someone who is out of fellowship and intimacy with another. Out of fellowship and intimacy with God. “and enemies in your mind by wicked works.”
That’s a statement of what it means to be lost. That’s a statement of man’s condition before he is saved, before he experiences this reconciliation.
Let me show you what God did. The Bible says “you who were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.”
How did He make peace? How did He make that reconciliation possible? He says here we were alienated in our minds. That’s the inward attitude. Then he says by wicked works. That’s the outward lifestyle.
We see sin in many, many places. Sin is presented in many places in Scripture. In the Garden of Eden you can see sin. There you see Abel lying in a pool of his own blood. Sin is to blame.
Or you go to the days of the flood. You see those floating, bloated bodies in the water. Sin is to blame. You go to Sodom and you see the smoke belching up from the ashes and ruins of Sodom. Sin is to blame.
If you really want to see your wicked works, if you really want to see where sin is sin, go to the cross of Calvary and see Jesus dying on that old cross. See Jesus suffering on that old cross. Jesus Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree. That’s what sin did. Sin put Jesus to the cross of Calvary.
When Jesus bore our sins on the cross, the Bible does not say He was made a sinner.
It’s even worse than that. Turn to II Corinthians 5. I want to show you what the
Bible says happened to Jesus on the cross.
Verse 21 says, “For he hath made him (God
made Jesus) to be sin for us, him who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
When Jesus died on the cross He was not just made a sinner. He was made SIN for us. Him who knew no sin made sin for us.
Get the picture. In the Garden of Eden when man rebelled against God he turned his back on God. God has continued to love us. God has continued to appeal to us. God has continued to call to us and urge us to be reconciled to Him.
In that moment when Jesus bore our sins on the cross, Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” In that moment, when Jesus was made sin, the Heavenly Father turned away from His own Son the Lord Jesus. Jesus died alone. Jesus died forsaken on that cross.
That’s the peace He made. The price He paid. He made peace by the blood of His cross and
“you hath he reconciled.”
The price He paid. The peace He made.
III. The PURPOSE He DISPLAYED.
Colossians 1:22
That’s the purpose He displayed.
He has a great purpose and that is to present you to the heavenly father.
The word, present, is used to describe the presentation of an enemy to the king who has conquered him. Imagine a loving king who has a rebellious servant. A rebel servant and a loving king. But this rebel servant doesn’t love the king. He doesn’t appreciate the love and the goodness of the king.
He does everything he can to shame the name of the king. He spews hatred all over the kingdom. He causes chaos all over the kingdom. Then, through his own doing, he is conquered. There he lies in front of the throne of the king, in the chains of his own making, utterly defeated, utterly beaten, utterly worthy of the sternest judgment.
Then, that loving king steps off the throne and with tears in his eye he comes down to that rebel servant and he stoops and embraces him and says, “O, won’t you be reconciled to me? If you will be reconciled to me I’ll sit you right on the throne with me. I’ll present you holy just like you’ve never done anything wrong. I’ll present you unblameable like there has never been a spot on your record.
I’ll present you unreproveable no accusation in my sight.” A man would be a fool not to accept the offer of a loving king like that.
Isn’t it wonderful to be saved? Isn’t it wonderful to be God’s friend? Isn’t it wonderful to be God’s child? Reconciled by the blood of the cross.
