{"id":2055,"date":"2012-11-05T05:00:17","date_gmt":"2012-11-05T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=2055"},"modified":"2023-02-06T09:41:58","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T15:41:58","slug":"colossians-120-22-reconciled-to-god-through-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=2055","title":{"rendered":"Colossians 1:20-22 \u2014 Reconciled to God through Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

20<\/sup> and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

21<\/sup> And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

22<\/sup> in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight \u2014<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

reconcile (v.20) = to change (from enmity to friendship) \u2014 here “to change completely” \u2014 Grammatically connected to “for it pleased” in v.19<\/a><\/span> (parallel with “dwell” in v.19<\/span><\/a>).<\/h3>\n

Reconciliation in the case of God and man is twofold. A holy God is reconciled in that justice has been satisfied at the Cross, and sinful man is reconciled in that, in the case of the believing sinner, his attitude of enmity towards God is changed to one of friendship. The verb “reconcile” is apokatalasso<\/em>. The compounded preposition apo<\/em> gives the force of back<\/em>, hinting at a restoration to a primal unity. The whole universe of things, material as well as spiritual, shall be restored to harmony with God. We must be careful here to remember that when Paul wrote “the all things” he did not include the lost in eternity. Any portion of Scripture must be considered in the light of what the rest of Scripture teaches. \u2014 Wuest, page. 188<\/span><\/h3>\n

all things (v.20) \u2014 the universe (Romans 8:19-22<\/a><\/span>)<\/h3>\n

The Universalist reads the verse this way, “By Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, all things, I say” \u2014 but the apostle Paul does not say that here. He says, “By Him to reconcile all things to Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Colossians 1:20).<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

The thought here is that the only one through whom men can possibly be reconciled to God is the Lord Jesus Christ. And you’ll notice that those who were reconciled occupy earth and heaven, not Hades or the lake of fire. This is very important, for in Philippians 2 we have another subject, not universal reconciliation, but universal subjugation, and more than heaven and earth is involved here:<\/span><\/h3>\n

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

Here the celestial, the terrestrial and the infernal are included. <\/span><\/h3>\n

And that every tongue should<\/em> [will] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father (Philippians 2:9-11<\/a><\/span>).<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

But this is universal subjugation, not universal reconciliation. \u2014 Stam, pages 76-77.<\/span><\/h3>\n

by Him (v.20) \u2014 emphatic \u2014 “only by Him” \u2014 further emphasized by “by Him, I say.”<\/h3>\n

peace (v.20) = bound together \u2014 Peace is the action of the Father through the Son.<\/h3>\n

alienated (v.21) = transferred to another owner<\/h3>\n

enemies (v.21) \u2014 in their thoughts, attitudes, minds, outwardly expressed by wicked works \u2014 hostile, antagonistic<\/h3>\n

body of His flesh (v.22) \u2014 to counter the heresy that Christ’s body wasn’t real or that angels are involved<\/h3>\n

holy (v.22) \u2014 consecration, dedication<\/h3>\n

unblamable (v.22) = without blemish \u2014 a term used of sacrificing, used of an animal without flaw and worthy of being offered to God<\/h3>\n

unreprovable (v.22) \u2014 with no accusation or blame \u2014 a legal term<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colossians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2055"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7417,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055\/revisions\/7417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}