Friday, August 23, 2024
Reconciled – Colossians 1:17-23 Submitted by Kay Crumley
What comes to mind when you hear reconciled or reconciliation? I think about a relationship that was broken or hurt that has been mended. When friends have had an argument and have come to a resolution and now have peace. Sometimes things can be fully restored, and the relationship is like it was or even stronger. But more often the relationship is different, not as intimate as before the disagreement. The passage for today addresses reconciliation through Jesus.
Verses 17-19 establish the position of Jesus. He is from the beginning, meaning and God are one. He was before all things, so He is the creator of the universe. He is the head of the church, the body of believers or Christ followers. He is the first to be resurrected from death never to die again, He is immortal. He has supremacy or power over everything. He is superior to all others; He is in control of everything. The fullness, all of, God lives in Jesus. He is fully God and fully man.
I hope you’re able to comprehend that. It’s a lot to understand. I must go on faith in Him as my human mind has trouble grasping all the implications of that concept. Holy God walked this earth, in the form of a human with all the limitations that body has. Yet He had a single purpose, to reconcile Himself to all things. Reconcile is defined this way, cause to coexist in harmony. Verse 20 tells us that Jesus came to earth to bring harmony between God and all things. He brought peace by shedding His blood on the cross. Shalom is a Hebrew word used in the Psalms that I always thought of as being an affirmation, like saying amen. The full meaning of shalom is wholeness, harmony, flourishing, and delight. “Shalom is the way things ought to be” according to Cornelius Plantinga Jr. Reconciliation is shalom, bringing the relationship between God and man into what it should be.
17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
We might ask, why do we need our relationship with God restored? That is because of the sin in the Garden of Eden, the perfect relationship with God in the garden was broken by man when he chose to disobey God’s rules to live by. Verse 21 tells us that we are alienated from God, becoming enemies in our thinking because of our behavior. If we stop there, we might feel hopeless, defeated, and in despair.
You must keep reading! ‘But now’ is a great transition in scripture. We see how things would have been if God had not intervened. But now that He has turned things around, we have hope again. He has brought harmony, shalom into our lives because of His death on the cross that pays the penalty of our sin. We can be presented before God as perfect, free from blemish or guilt (accusation). That takes more than just believing that these promises are true. We cannot work for our salvation, but we do have to change our way of behaving and believing. We must live a life in obedience by continuing in our newfound faith in Him. We have turned from our sinful behaviors. We must grow into a mature believer who, like a deeply rooted tree, cannot be moved from our belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
Paul has made clear to us that we are separated from God. We don’t have to remain separated because Jesus has made a way for us to live in peace, harmony, and wholeness with God. That is a place of delight in which we flourish in His presence and eternal love. Perhaps 2 Corinthians is a good summation of the reconciliation we have in Christ.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
As those living in shalom with God through Christ Jesus, we are His ambassadors sharing the good news of restoration and hope to those we meet. Telling the Good News so others can be reconciled to Him.
