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and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him,
Colossians 1:20-22 sits inside this longer paragraph.
For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him, if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a servant.
and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds,
yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him,
and by him to reconcile all thynge vnto him silfe and to set at peace by him thorow the bloud of his crosse both thynges in heven and thynges in erth.
And you (which were in tymes past straungers and enymes because youre myndes were set in evyll workes) hath he now reconcilied
in the body of his flesshe thorowe deeth to make you holy vnblameable and with out faut in his awne syght
And through peace made by that blood of that his crosse, to reconcile to himselfe through him, through him, I say, all thinges, both which are in earth, and which are in heauen.
And you which were in times past strangers and enemies, because your mindes were set in euill workes, hath he nowe also reconciled,
In that body of his flesh through death, to make you holy, and vnblameable and without fault in his sight,
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv20–22 20. And by him to reconcile all things to…
20. And by him to reconcile all things to himself. This, also, is a magnificent commendation of Christ, that we cannot be joined to God otherwise than through him. In the first place, let us consider that our happiness consists in our cleaving to God, and that, on the other hand, there is nothing more miserable than to be alienated from him. He declares, accordingly, that we are blessed through Christ alone, inasmuch as he is the bond of our connection with God, and, on the other hand, that, apart from him, we are most miserable, because we are shut out from God. Let us, however, bear in mind, that what he ascribes to Christ belongs peculiarly to him, that no portion of this praise may be transferred to any other. Hence we must consider the contrasts to these things to be understood — that if this is Christ’s prerogative, it does not belong to others. For of set purpose he disputes against those who imagined that the angels were pacificators, through whom access to God might be opened up.
Making peace through the blood of his cross. He speaks of the Father, — that he has been made propitious to his creatures by the blood of Christ. Now he calls it the blood of the cross, inasmuch as it was the pledge and price of the making up of our peace with God, because it was poured out upon the cross. For it was necessary that the Son of God should be an expiatory victim, and endure the punishment of sin, that we might be the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21.) The blood of the cross, therefore, means the blood of the sacrifice which was offered upon the cross for appeasing the anger of God.
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In adding by him, he did not mean to express anything new, but to express more distinctly what he had previously stated, and to impress it still more deeply on their minds — that Christ alone is the author of reconciliation, as to exclude all other means. For there is no other that has been crucified for us. Hence it is he alone, by whom and for whose sake we have God propitious to us.
Both upon earth and in heaven. If you are inclined to understand this as referring merely to rational creatures, it will mean, men and angels. There were, it is true, no absurdity in extending it to all without exception; but that I may not be under the necessity of philosophizing with too much subtlety, I prefer to understand it as referring to angels and men; and as to the latter, there is no difficulty as to their having need of a peace maker in the sight of God. As to angels, however, there is a question not easy of solution. For what occasion is there for reconciliation, where there is no discord or hatred? Many, influenced by this consideration, have explained the passage before us in this manner — that angels have been brought into agreement with men, and that by this means heavenly creatures have been restored to favor with earthly creatures. Another meaning, however, is conveyed by Paul’s words, that God hath reconciled to himself. That explanation, therefore, is forced.
It remains, that we see what is the reconciliation of angels and men. I say that men have been reconciled to God, because they were previously alienated from him by sin, and because they would have had him as a Judge to their ruin, had not the grace of the Mediator interposed for appeasing his anger. Hence the nature of the peace making between God and men was this, that enmities have been abolished through Christ, and thus God becomes a Father instead of a Judge.
Between God and angels the state of matters is very different, for there was there no revolt, no sin, and consequently no separation. It was, however, necessary that angels, also, should be made to be at peace with God, for, being creatures, they were not beyond the risk of falling, had they not been confirmed by the grace of Christ. This, however, is of no small importance for the perpetuity of peace with God, to have a fixed standing in righteousness, so as to have no longer any fear of fall or revolt. Farther, in that very obedience which they render to God, there is not such absolute perfection as to give satisfaction to God in every respect, and without the need of pardon. And this beyond all doubt is what is meant by that statement in Job 4:18, He will find iniquity in his angels. For if it is explained as referring to the devil, what mighty thing were it? But the Spirit declares there, that the greatest purity is vile, if it is brought into comparison with the righteousness of God. We must, therefore, conclude, that there is not on the part of angels so much of righteousness as would suffice for their being fully joined with God. They have, therefore, need of a peace maker, through whose grace they may wholly cleave to God. Hence it is with propriety that Paul declares, that the grace of Christ does not reside among mankind alone, and on the other hand makes it common also to angels. Nor is there any injustice done to angels, in sending them to a Mediator, that they may, through his kindness, have a well grounded peace with God.
Should any one, on the pretext of the universality of the expression, move a question in reference to devils, whether Christ be their peace maker also? I answer, No, not even of wicked men: though I confess that there is a difference, inasmuch as the benefit of redemption is offered to the latter, but not to the former. This, however, has nothing to do with Paul’s words, which include nothing else than this, that it is through Christ alone, that, all creatures, who have any connection at all with God, cleave to him.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv20–22 The whole Church.
The whole Church.
Now he teacheth how Christ executed that office which his Father joined him, to wit, by suffering the death of the cross (which was joined with the curse of God) according to his decree, that by this sacrifice he might reconcile his Father all men as well them which believed in him to come, and were already under this hope gathered into heaven, as them which should upon the earth believe in him afterwards. And thus is justification described of the Apostle, which is one and the chiefest part of the benefit of Christ.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv20–22 20 And, having made peace through the blood of…
20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
Ver. 20. To reconcile all things] That is, all the saints, who are worth all, better than all, more worth than a world of wicked men, Heb 11:38. The Jews have a saying, that those seventy souls that went with Jacob into Egypt, were as much as all the seventy nations in the world. What account God maketh of them in comparison to others, see Isa 43:3-4.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv20–22 Some, from the Greek, would (not have that clause…
Some, from the Greek, would (not have that clause we read in a parenthesis to come next the copulative and, but) have it: And by himself he should reconcile unto himself (in or to himself) all things, (having made or obtained peace through the blood of his cross), I say, &c. But the reading of that sentence in the parenthesis after, or before the reconciliation of all things, as we do, because of the next following distribution, is not very material as to the sense of the thing, redemption, Col 1:14, or rather, the manner or means of reconciliation unto God by Christ, in whom the fulness of all Divine and human perfections was sealed for the bringing of heaven and earth together.
Having made peace through the blood of his cross: God the Father, for bringing enemies nigh unto himself in the kingdom of his dear Son, Col 1:13,19,21, was in him, 2Co 5:18,19, who having took on him the seed of Abraham, Heb 2:16, and because without shedding of blood there could be no remission, or being brought nigh, Eph 2:13; Heb 9:12,22,23, according to his Father’s ordination and agreement with him for the expiation of sin, became obedient unto death, that cursed death of the cross, Isa 53:5; Gal 3:13; Phi 2:8; and by that bloody sacrifice of himself, there once perfected, Heb 9:14; 10:10,14, obtained peace: that by a figure being put to express his most perfect merit, as being the finishing of his obedience and passion, Col 2:14; Rom 3:25; 5:10; Eph 2:16; Heb 9:12.
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By him; which alone could satisfy his offended Father’s demands: angels could not shed blood which was necessary to make peace and reconcile enemies; and though some false apostles might seduce to the worshipping of them, their obedience could not be meritorious.
To reconcile all things unto himself; God designing an atonement to himself. i.e. God the Father, (and, by consequence, to the whole Trinity), did it by Christ, in whom all fulness dwelling there was a proper fitness upon his Father’s call, Isa 42:1,4,6, with Heb 9:1-28, for so perfect a work as to take away the enmity of those alienated from God, and to bring them into favour again. The great inquiry is about the extent of this reconciliation, because the apostle mentions all things (rather than all persons); and then, having emphatically repeated by him, viz. Christ as God-man, and none other, Act 4:12, he adds a distribution of all things, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. To answer which, all things may be understood, either:
1. Restrictively to the subject, the universal church of which Christ is the Head; so he doth not mean all things whatsoever, unlimitedly, but with respect to the subject matter, as, Col 1:21, all things which being alienated from God are reconciled to him; i.e. whatsoever things are reconciled are by him reconciled, all relating to the subject matter of reconciliation, (as all made to creation, Col 1:16), all the real subjects of his kingdom, whether gathered and gone to heaven before in hope of the Messiah to come, or now and hereafter shall be gathered, Act 15:11; Rom 3:25; Eph 3:15; Heb 11:39,40; 12:23; yet this doth not altogether satisfy some, by reason of the sublimity of the apostle’s word in the distribution; and ordinarily in Scripture, by things in heaven are meant the angels, whose natural seat it is, spirits of just men made perfect being advanced thither only by God’s gracious vouchsafement. Or:
2. Largely, as comprehending the good angels, especially if upon the foundation of reconciliation considered strictly, we take reconciliation here more generally, (as the apostle doth in his Epistle to the Ephesians, expatiating more upon this matter there than he doth here, writing more concisely and contractedly), for recapitulation, (or analogical reconciliation), bringing all under one head, the recomposing or reuniting of creatures terrestrial or celestial, upon the atonement for sinners by Christ; so that all his subjects, those that divide the state of his kingdom, are at an agreement amongst themselves and with each other; God did so by Christ conjoin miserable men with himself, that now also the holy angels are conjoined, they come under the same Head, Christ, Col 2:10; Eph 1:22, whom they worship as at his first, so second coming, Luk 2:13,14; Heb 1:6.
As men cleave to him by faith, so the angels by vision {1Ti 3:16} look upon him their Head; yet is he not their Redeemer, Col 1:14; Eph 1:3; not partaking of their nature, they are not his members as believers are (as God is the Head of Christ, yet is not he a member of God, 1Co 11:3); Christ beareth a more special relation to them, than he doth unto these principalities and powers, Eph 5:23,30,31; however, they, being under a hypothetical possibility of falling, should seem to have need of a preventive kind of reconciliation, upon that account, if their standing is otherwise secured to them, they abiding in their purity could not be friends to impure creatures, Gen 3:24; but upon the satisfaction of their Lord, their distaste and dissatisfaction is removed, they being reduced into a corporation, under Christ, with those whom he hath reconciled, Eph 1:10. As they, to the glory of the supreme Majesty, rejoiced when Christ came to seek these lost ones, so they are ministers to them that he hath made willing, Heb 1:14; they delight in the ministry of reconciliation, Eph 3:10; 1Pe 1:12, attend the service with their brethren, (in doing their office), Rev 19:10; 22:9, further the work, Act 8:26, rejoice when it takes effect, Luk 15:10, and carry those that are perfected to the place of their own residence, Luk 16:22, to their own innumerable assembly in the heavenly Jerusalem, Heb 12:22; waiting on Christ, (according to the typical representatives, Exo 25:19; 26:1; 1Ki 6:23,29), with those that are with him, and made like to him at his throne, Mat 22:30; Mar 12:25, where he sits as the Son of man, and the holy angels (as he saith) are continually ascending and descending upon him, Joh 1:51; he fills them, as the rest of his subjects,
all in all, Eph 1:21,23; they have grace by way of participation, having it from him their Head, who hath it of himself, Joh 5:26. So that upon the matter, this reconciliation of things in heaven, seems most to accord with Eph 1:9,10, and is not much unlike that in Eph 2:13,16; that which is separately said there by his blood, Col 1:13, and by the cross, Col 1:16, is here conjoined by
the blood of his cross. There is making peace in one simple word; here, (in the Greek), in a compounded one. There, that he might reconcile both unto God; here, that he might
reconcile all things unto himself, i.e. God. There he speaks only of men on earth being reconciled amongst themselves, because they had also been reconciled to God; if we take in angles also under those all, we have an allowance from that forecited Eph 1:10; yea, and in favour of the larger acceptation of reconciliation here, it may be considered that the whole creation which was put into disorder and subjected unto vanity, is in earnest expectation of the fruits of this gracious reconciliation, in being brought to a perfect harmony, to the glory of him who is all in all, Rom 8:19-23, with 1Co 15:58.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv20–21 Here one special reason is assigned why all fulness…
Here one special reason is assigned why all fulness dwelt in our Lord the Redeemer, namely, to fit him for the great work and office of a Mediator or Reconciler, that so he might happily make up that breach which sin had made between God and the world, having removed the enmity which was betwixt them by his death and sufferings, called here the blood of his cross, that is the blood which he freely and voluntarily shed upon the cross.
Note here, 1. That God and man were once friends, though soon by sin made enemies; reconciliation doth suppose an antecedent friendship.
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Note, 2. That though man was first in the breach yet God was first in the offer of reconciliation; It pleased the Father by him to reconcile all things to himself.
Note, 3. That as there was no possibility of ever making up this breach, but by a Mediator; so no person in heaven or earth was or could be found, in all things fitted or furnished for the work of a Mediator, but only Christ; By him to reconcile all things to himself.
Note, 4. The universality of the subject reconciled, all things both in heaven and in earth: By things in heaven,
1. Some understand the blessed angels; but there being no breach between God and them, Christ was not the author of reconciliation, though he was an head of confirmation to them. Others understand it of a reconciliation between the angels and man, thus: Whilst man continued in his obedience to God, angels and men were in a state of perfect friendship one with another; but when man rebelled against God, the angels became averse to man for that rebellion; but God being reconciled to man by the death of his son, the angels are become friends and ministering spirits to us, and both they and we constitute one church under Christ the head thereof; thus Christ reconciled all things in heaven and earth, that is, the angels in heaven he has reconciled to man on earth.
2. Other, by things in heaven, do not understand the angels, but the saints departed; the patriarchs, prophets, and all the faithful now in heaven, or here on earth, they were all reconciled, in order to their being saved; intimating, that the blood of Christ did expiate the guilt of those persons who lived before him, as well as of those that died after him: He reonciled all things in heaven and earth, capable of reconciliation, appointed to it, and that stood in need of it.
Note, lastly, The instrumental means by which all this was effected, namely, by the blood of the cross; to make up the breach betwixt God and the fallen creature, cost the Mediator no less than his precious blood.
Lord! Who can look upon sin as any other than an infinite and immense evil, which cost the Son of God his life to expiate the guilt of it? How can a little sin be committed against a great God?
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv20–22 And by him to reconcile all things to himself,....…
And by him to reconcile all things to himself,.... This depends upon the preceding verse, and is to be connected with that phrase in it, it pleased the Father, Col 1:19; and the sense is, that it was the good will and pleasure of God from all eternity, as to lay up all fulness in Christ for his chosen people, so to reconcile them to himself by him; and which is another reason why Christ is, and ought to be considered as the head of the church, whose reconciliation he has procured, and why he ought to have the chief place in all things, and among all persons. Reconciliation supposes a former state of amity and friendship, and in such an one man was originally with God; and a breach of that friendship, which was made and issued in real enmity in the heart of man; and also a restoration to friendship again: and it is to be understood not of a reconciliation of God to men, which the Scriptures nowhere speak of, but of men to God; and is a reconciliation of them, not to the love of God, which his elect always shared in, but to the justice of God, offended by the transgression of a righteous law; and is indeed properly a reconciliation, atonement, and satisfaction for their sins, and so of their persons, and whereby all the perfections of God are reconciled to and agree with each other in the salvation of such sinners: now this takes its first rise from God the Father; it is owing to his sovereign good will and pleasure; he took the first step towards it; he knew what a state of enmity and rebellion his people would fall into; his thoughts ran upon their peace and reconciliation from everlasting; he called a council of peace about it, and in it drew the model of it; he entered into a covenant of peace with his Son, and, in consequence of it, sent him in the fulness of time to effect it, laying on him the chastisement of their peace; it was his pleasure that this affair of reconciliation should be brought about, not by the means of angels, in whom he could put no such trust and confidence, and who, though they rejoice at peace being made on earth, could never have effected it; nor that it should be done by men, who have no knowledge of the way of it, no inclination to it, nor power to make it; but "by him", his Son Jesus Christ, whom he appointed and called to this work, and sent to do it; and who is therefore, in prophecy, before this reconciliation was actually made, styled "Shiloh", the Prince of peace, and the peace: and this, when made, was made "to himself"; meaning either to Christ, in whom all the elect were gathered together, as in one head, and were reconciled in one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, through him; or rather to God the Father, to whom they were enemies, yea, enmity itself, and to whom the satisfaction and atonement were made; it being his law that was broken, and his justice that was injured, and to whom they are always in Scripture said to be reconciled; though not to the exclusion of the Son and Spirit, the one God with the Father: moreover, the sense of this phrase may be, that the reconciliation of the elect made by Christ, in a way of full satisfaction to law and justice, is to the glory of God, the glory of all his perfections; as of his grace and mercy, wisdom, power, and faithfulness, so of his righteousness and holiness: the means by which Christ has enacted it are, his sacrifice, sufferings, and death, expressed in the following clause,
having made peace through the blood of his cross. This was what man could not do, what Christ was appointed and sent to do, and what he was every way qualified for as God and man; as man he had blood to shed, and could make reconciliation for sin in the nature which had sinned, and, as God, could draw nigh to his Father, and treat with him about terms of peace, and perform them; and so a fit daysman and Mediator between, God and man: this peace he has made by his "blood", that is, by the shedding of it, by his death as a sacrifice, which he underwent on the cross; partly to denote the shame, and chiefly to signify the curse he endured in the room of his people: all which shows the malignant nature of sin, the strictness of justice, and that peace is made in a way of full satisfaction, is upon honourable terms, will be lasting, as it is joyful, being attended with a train of blessings:
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by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven: by which are intended not the whole universe and fabric of the world, all creatures and things, animate and inanimate, rational and irrational, which have been cursed for the sin of man, and have proved unfriendly to him, but, in consequence of redemption and reconciliation by Christ, will, as some think, in the time of the restitution of all things, be restored to their former state, and to their friendly use to mankind; nor elect men and elect angels, and their reconciliation together, for the apostle is not speaking of the reconciling of these things together, but of the reconciling of them to God, which though it is true of elect men, is not of elect angels, who never fell, and though they have confirming grace, yet not reconciling grace from Christ, which they never needed; nor Jews and Gentiles, for though it is true that God was in Christ reconciling the world of the Gentiles, as well as of the Jews to himself, and the chosen of God among both are actually reconciled to God by the death of Christ, yet the one are never called things in heaven, or the other things on earth, in distinction from, and opposition to each other; but rather all the elect of God are here meant, the family of God in heaven and in earth; all the saints that were then in heaven, when actual reconciliation was made by the blood of Christ, and who went thither upon the foot of peace, reconciliation, and redemption, to be made by his sacrifice and death; and all the chosen ones that were or should be on the face of the earth, until the end of time; all these were reconciled to God by Christ: and then the apostle proceeds particularly to mention the Colossians, as also being instances of this grace, good will, and pleasure of God by Christ.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv20–22 Through the blood of the cross - The blood…
Through the blood of the cross - The blood shed thereon. Whether things on earth - Here the enmity began: therefore this is mentioned first. Or things in heaven - Those who are now in paradise; the saints who died before Christ came.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv20–22 Verse 20. And, having made peace through the blood…
Verse 20. And, having made peace through the blood of his cross] Peace between God and man; for man being in a sinful state, and there being no peace to the wicked, it required a reconciliation to be made to restore peace between heaven and earth; but peace could not be made without an atonement for sin, and the consequence shows that the blood of Christ shed on the cross was necessary to make this atonement.
To reconcile all things unto himself] The enmity was on the part of the creature; though God is angry with the wicked every day, yet he is never unwilling to be reconciled. But man, whose carnal mind is enmity to God, is naturally averse from this reconciliation; it requires, therefore, the blood of the cross to atone for the sin, and the influence of the Spirit to reconcile the transgressor to him against whom he has offended! 2Co 5:19, c.
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Things in earth, or things in heaven.] Much has been said on this very obscure clause but, as it is my object not to write dissertations but notes, I shall not introduce the opinions of learned men, which have as much ingenuity as variety to recommend them. If the phrase be not a kind of collective phrase to signify all the world, or all mankind, as Dr. Hammond supposed the things in heaven may refer, according to some, to those persons who died under the Old Testament dispensation, and who could not have a title to glory but through the sacrificial death of Christ: and the apostle may have intended these merely to show that without this sacrifice no human beings could be saved, not only those who were then on the earth, and to whom in their successive generations the Gospel should be preached, but even those who had died before the incarnation; and, as those of them that were faithful were now in a state of blessedness, they could not have arrived there but through the blood of the cross, for the blood of calves and goats could not take away sin. After all, the apostle probably means the Jews and the Gentiles; the state of the former being always considered a sort of Divine or celestial state, while that of the latter was reputed to be merely earthly, without any mixture of spiritual or heavenly good. It is certain that a grand part of our Lord's design, in his incarnation and death, was to reconcile the Jews and the Gentiles, and make them one fold under himself, the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls. That the enmity of the Jews was great against the Gentiles is well known, and that the Gentiles held them in supreme contempt is not less so. It was therefore an object worthy of the mercy of God to form a scheme that might reconcile these two grand divisions of mankind; and, as it was his purpose to reconcile and make them one, we learn from this circumstance, as well as from many others, that his design was to save the whole human race.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv20–21 Col 1:20. And having made peace through the blood…
Col 1:20. And having made peace through the blood of the cross — The blood shed thereon, by which the design of the ceremonial law having been answered, the obligations of it were abolished, and the wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles broken down, in order to their being united in one church; by which blood of the cross also, the sins of men being expiated, peace is made between God and man; by him to reconcile all things unto himself, whether things in earth — Here the enmity began, therefore this is mentioned first; or things in heaven — Those who are now in paradise; the saints who died before Christ came. See notes on Eph 2:15-16. Some commentators, under the expression things in heaven, suppose that the angels are included; therefore, instead of to reconcile all things to himself, Dr. Whitby reads, By him to make all things friendly in him, making peace between them by the blood of the cross; an interpretation which Doddridge thinks expresses “the true sense, and the only sense in which angels could be said to be reconciled; for if it were granted,” according to what some have maintained, “that the angels received confirming grace in Christ, they could not be said, upon that account, to be reconciled: but when a breach commenced between man and the blessed God, the angels, as faithful subjects, must join with him against the rebellious creature, and be ready to act as enemies to him, while he continued the enemy of God.” Macknight, who also thinks that the expression, things in heaven, includes angels, reads and paraphrases the clause, “By him to unite all things to him, whether they be men upon earth, or angels in heaven; that, being joined together in one body for the worship of God, they may be happy through all eternity by that union.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv20–22 And having made peace - Margin, “making.” The Greek…
And having made peace - Margin, “making.” The Greek will bear either. The meaning is, that by his atonement he produces reconciliation between those who were alienated from each other; see the notes at Eph 2:14. It does not mean here that he had actually effected peace by his death, but that he had laid the foundation for it; he had done that which would secure it.
By the blood of his cross - By his blood shed on the cross. That blood, making atonement for sin, was the means of making reconciliation between God and man. On the meaning of the word “blood,” as used in this connection, see the notes at Rom 3:25.
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By him to reconcile all things to himself - On the meaning of the word reconcile, see the Mat 5:24, note; Rom 5:10, note, and 2Co 5:18, note. When it is said that “it pleased the Father by Christ to reconcile all things to himself,” the declaration must be understood with some limitation.
(1) It relates only to those things which are in heaven and earth - for those only are specified. Nothing is said of the inhabitants of hell, whether fallen angels, or the spirits of wicked men who are there.
(2) It cannot mean that all things are actually reconciled - for that never has been true. Multitudes on earth have remained alienated from God, and have lived and died his enemies.
(3) It can mean then, only, that he had executed a plan that was adapted to this; that if fairly and properly applied, the blood of the cross was fitted to secure entire reconciliation between heaven and earth. There was no enemy which it was not fitted to reconcile to God; there was no guilt, now producing alienation, which it could not wash away.
Whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven - That is, to produce harmony between the things in heaven and in earth; so that all things shall be reconciled to him, or so that there shalt be harmony between heaven and earth. The meaning is not, that “the things in heaven” were alienated from God, but that there was alienation in the universe which affected heaven, and the object was to produce again universal concord and love. Substantially the same sentiment is found in Eph 1:10; see the notes at that verse. Much has been written on the meaning of this expression, and a great variety of opinions have been entertained of it. It is best, always, unless necessity require a different interpretation, to take words in their usual signification. If that rule be adopted here,” things in heaven” will refer to God and the angels, and perhaps may include the principles of the divine government, “Things on earth,” will embrace men, and the various things on earth which are now at variance with God and with heaven. Between these, it is designed to produce harmony by the blood of the cross, or by the atonement. As in heaven nothing is wrong; as it is not desirable that anything should he changed there, all the change that is to take place in order to produce reconciliation, is to be on the part of men and the things of this world. The only effect of the blood of the atonement on the “things” of heaven in effecting the reconciliation is, to render it consistent for God to be at peace with sinners. The effect on earth is, to dispose the sinner to a willingness to be reconciled; to lead him to lay aside his enmity; to change his heart, and to effect a change in the views and principles prevailing on earth which are now at variance with God and his government. When this shall be done there will be harmony between heaven and earth, and an alienated world will be brought into conformity with the laws and government of the Creator.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v20 To reconcile all things unto himself,...through the blood of…
To reconcile all things unto himself,...through the blood of his cross, (i.e. which Christ shed on the cross) both as to the things on earth, and....in heaven: not that Christ died for the Angels, but, says St. John Chrysostom, the Angels were in a manner at war with men, with sinners, as they stood for the cause and glory of God; but Christ put an end to this enmity, by restoring men to his favour. (Witham) --- In heaven. Not by pardoning the wicked angels did Christ reconcile the things in heaven, but by reconciling good Angels to man, who were enemies to him before the birth of Christ. (St. Augustine)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv20–22 The Greek order is, "And through Him (Christ) to…
The Greek order is, "And through Him (Christ) to reconcile again completely (see on Eph 2:16) all things (Greek, 'the whole universe of things') unto Himself (unto God the Father, Co2 5:19), having made peace (God the Father having made peace) through the blood of His (Christ's) cross," that is, shed by Christ on the cross: the price and pledge of our reconciliation with God. The Scripture phrase, "God reconciles man to Himself," implies that He takes away by the blood of Jesus the barrier which God's justice interposes against man's being in union with God (compare Note, see on Rom 5:10; Co2 5:18). So the Septuagint, Sa1 29:4, "Wherewith should he reconcile himself unto his master," that is, reconcile his master unto him by appeasing his wrath. So Mat 5:23-24.
by him--"through Him" (the instrumental agent in the new creation, as in the original creation): emphatically repeated, to bring the person of Christ, as the Head of both creations alike, into prominence.
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things in earth . . . in heaven--Good angels, in one sense, do not need reconciliation to God; fallen angels are excluded from it (Jde 1:6). But probably redemption has effects on the world of spirits unknown to us. Of course, His reconciling us, and His reconciling them, must be by a different process, as He took not on Him the nature of angels, so as to offer a propitiation for them. But the effect of redemption on them, as He is their Head as well as ours, is that they are thereby brought nearer God, and so gain an increase of blessedness [ALFORD], and larger views of the love and wisdom of God (Eph 3:10). All creation subsists in Christ, all creation is therefore affected by His propitiation: sinful creation is strictly "reconciled" from its enmity; sinless creation, comparatively distant from His unapproachable purity (Job 4:18; Job 15:15; Job 25:5), is lifted into nearer participation of Him, and in this wider sense is reconciled. Doubtless, too, man's fall, following on Satan's fall, is a segment of a larger circle of evil, so that the remedy of the former affects the standing of angels, from among whom Satan and his host fell. Angels thereby having seen the magnitude of sin, and the infinite cost of redemption, and the exclusion of the fallen angels from it, and the inability of any creature to stand morally in his own strength, are now put beyond the reach of falling. Thus BACON'S definition of Christ's Headship holds good: "The Head of redemption to man; the Head of preservation to angels." Some conjecture that Satan, when unfallen, ruled this earth and the pre-Adamic animal kingdom: hence his malice against man who succeeded to the lordship of this earth and its animals, and hence, too, his assumption of the form of a serpent, the subtlest of the animal tribes. Luk 19:38 states expressly "peace in heaven" as the result of finished redemption, as "peace on earth" was the result of its beginning at Jesus' birth (Luk 2:14). BENGEL explains the reconciliation to be that of not only God, but also angels, estranged from men because of man's enmity against God. Eph 1:10 accords with this: This is true, but only part of the truth: so ALFORD'S view also is but part of the truth. An actual reconciliation or restoration of peace in heaven, as well as on earth, is expressed by Paul. As long as that blood of reconciliation was not actually shed, which is opposed (Zac 3:8-9) to the accusations of Satan, but was only in promise, Satan could plead his right against men before God day and night (Job 1:6; Rev 12:10); hence he was in heaven till the ban on man was broken (compare Luk 10:18). So here; the world of earth and heaven owe to Christ alone the restoration of harmony after the conflict and the subjugation of all things under one Head (compare Heb 11:23). Sin introduced discord not only on earth, but also in heaven, by the fall of demons; it brought into the abodes of holy angels, though not positive, yet privative loss, a retardation of their highest and most perfect development, harmonious gradation, and perfect consummation. Angels were no more able than men by themselves to overcome the peace disturbers, and cast out the devils; it is only "by," or "through HIM," and "the blood of HIS cross," that peace was restored even in heaven; it is only after Christ has obtained the victory fully and legally, that Michael (Rev 12:7-10) and his angels can cast out of heaven Satan and his demons (compare Col 2:15). Thus the point of Paul's argument against angel-worship is, that angels themselves, like men, wholly depend on Christ, the sole and true object of worship [AUBERLEN].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv20–22 20. And—It also pleased God to make him, thus…
20. And—It also pleased God to make him, thus qualified, infinitely transcending in dignity and excellence all possible qualification of any creature, the medium of the reconciliation. This is the second fact in the great plan. “This indwelling,” says Bengel, “is the foundation of the reconciliation.” The Greek order is: And through him (Christ) to reconcile all things unto himself (God), having made peace through the blood of his cross. The emphatic point is, that it is through Christ that God planned and has undertaken the reconciliation of the universe to himself. The reconcile of this verse is parallel with the gather together of Eph_1:10, yet with a broader scope, by as much as Christ’s headship in the universe is broader than his headship in the Church. Yet here, as there, we must distinguish between the divine idea, as framed before the foundation of the world, and its actual realization at the final consummation. The sin which began with the angels has extended to men, and so affected the entire creation that the harmony of the universe is disturbed. Now it is God’s plan that the incarnate Son shall mediatorially restore this harmony of the universe with himself, laying the ground of it in the shedding of his blood on the cross. He is the Lamb of sacrifice foreordained from eternity, 1Pe_1:20. And lest there should be doubts as to how far-reaching the plan is, we are told that the all things embraces the things in earth, and the things in heaven, which terms are identical with those employed in Col_1:16 to designate the entire totality of created things, and can here mean no less. The glorious divine intention, then, was a reconciliation co-extensive with the same universe which the Son mediatorially created. Thus far the plan itself: in its execution the whole tendency is toward a glorious ultimate result. The Reconciler is exalted to the throne of the universe. Myriads upon myriads of men, saints rejoicing on high, and saints serving below, have found his peace. The sinless angels, who never saw God except through the Son, see him now in the glorified Christ, and are brought nearer to him. Of what the final realization will be, the passage does not speak. The resurrection will destroy death; redeemed men and blissful angels will people heaven; and the physical creation be freed from its subjection to vanity. But, reversely, it is in the power of wicked men, freely acting, to trample on the atonement and reject the proffers of peace, thus defeating in themselves the divine plan. Fallen angels, who would seem to have been included in the intended mercy, possibly in their refusal of honour to God’s Son, and their mad, persistent rebellion against him in their day of probation, have thrown themselves out from its benefits, so that they and their dark abode are not included in the reconciliation. Yet lost angels and men will finally be compelled to bow in unwilling subjection to the sceptre of Christ, so that the whole universe will confess him Lord. See note, Eph_1:10.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv20–22 20. having made peace] Between Himself, the Holy Judge…
20. having made peace] Between Himself, the Holy Judge and King, and His subjects. He is thus now “the God of Peace” (Rom_15:33; 1Th_5:23; Heb_13:20); and “we, justified by faith, have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom_5:1).
The Subject of the statement is, as before, the Father. While the Crucified Son is the immediate Agent, the Father “who spared not His own Son” (Rom_8:32), because He “loved the world” (Joh_3:16), is the remoter Agent, Eternal Source of all salvation.
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through the blood of his cross] The Cross of the Son. Here first the sacred Atoning Death is explicitly mentioned; its fact and its mode.
“The blood:”—i.e. the Death, viewed as the Ransom-price. Some expositors find in “the blood of Christ” (in the N.T. generally) a reference different from that of “the death of Christ,” connecting it rather with life than with death; with surrender to God, and impartation to man, of the Lord’s vivifying life rather than with the immolation of His life as (because of His undertaking for us) forfeited to the Law. But certainly in this passage, at least, the thought not of vivification but of propitiation is prominent. See the notes just below.—On the subject of “the Blood of Christ” generally the Editor may refer to his Outlines of Christian Doctrine, pp. 85, &c., and to The Blood of the New Covenant, by W. S. Smith, D.D., Bishop of Sydney.
by him] Christ. Lit., through Him.
to reconcile] The Greek verb here rendered “reconcile” occurs elsewhere (in exactly the same form) only in the next verse and Eph_2:16. Its form emphasizes the thought of conciliating back again, after breach of loyalty or amity. Ideally, the whole Church and each individual was (in Adam unfallen) originally at peace with God; then came revolt, and now re-conciliation. On such an ideal view (very different from that of personal conscious experience) see our note on Eph_2:12 (“being aliens.”)
A simpler form of the same verb occurs e.g. Rom_5:10; 1Co_7:11; 2Co_5:18-20. The main notion of both verbs is the propitiation of an alienated superior, so that he accepts offending inferiors, who are thus and then “reconciled” to him. And the superior “reconciles them” so far as he acts on the provided propitiation. Here the Father “reconciles” by constituting His Son the all-sufficient and all-acceptable Lord of Peace. See further our note on Eph_2:16.
all things] For similar language cp. Mat_17:11 (“Elias … restoreth all things;”) Act_3:21, (“the times of the restoration of all things which God spake by … His holy prophets;” i.e. the bringing back of Paradise, and of the Theocracy, in their heavenly and eternal reality). The word “all” is at once glorified and limited by the words, in apposition, just below, “whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens:” see note there. The human and angelic “worlds” are the objects of the “reconciliation” in view here; not “all things” apart from those limits, but “all things” within them. See the closely parallel passage, Eph_1:10.
unto himself] Lit., “unto Him.” But the reflexive English pronoun rightly represents the Greek non-reflexive, in the light of N.T. usage. See Lightfoot’s note.
Here the “reconciliation” of the “all things” is seen to be not (as some expositors, ancient and modern, take it) a reconciliation to one another, so that e.g. angels, alienated by man’s sin, shall again be perfectly harmonized with man. It is a reconciliation of the “all things” to God, in the way of propitiation.
by him, I say] An emphatic resumed reference to the Reconciling Son, standing alone and “preeminent” in His wonderful work.
whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven] Lit., “whether the things,” &c. He refers back to the “all things” just above; see note there.—It is significant that “the things under the earth” are not mentioned in this great phrase. It is surely revealed (1Co_15:28) that all created existence, in the amplest sense, shall in some supreme way be “subdued unto” the Son and unto the Father in Him; there shall be order before the Throne in all the depths as well as heights of being. See Php_2:11, and our note there. But this is another thing from “reconciliation” and “peace.” The universalism of this passage is no negation of the awful warnings of Scripture about the final and irremediable exclusion from “peace” of the impenitent creature.
What then do the words here actually import? We answer with Alford (see the whole of his careful note here): “No reconciliation [of angelic beings] must be thought of which should resemble ours in its process—for Christ … paid no propitiatory penalty [for angels] in the root of their nature, as including it in Himself. But, forasmuch as He is their Head as well as ours … it cannot be but that the great event in which He was glorified through suffering should also bring them nearer to God … That such increase [of blessedness] might be described as a reconciliation is manifest: we know from Job_15:15, that ‘the heavens are not clean in His sight,’ and ib. Col_4:18, ‘His angels He charged with folly.’ In fact every such nearer approach to Him may without violence to words be so described, in comparison with that previous greater distance which now seems like alienation; and in this case even more properly, as one of the consequences of that great propitiation whose first … effect was to reconcile to God, in the literal sense, the things upon earth, polluted and hostile in consequence of man’s sin. So that our interpretation may be thus summed up: all creation subsists in Christ: all creation therefore is affected by His act of propitiation: sinful creation is, in the strictest sense, reconciled, from being at enmity: sinless creation, ever at a distance from His unapproachable purity, is lifted into nearer participation … of Him, and is thus reconciled, though not in the strictest, yet in a very intelligible and allowable sense.”—The implied need, even in the angelic world, of the Son’s Work of peace, would have a special point for the Colossians.
Observe, in leaving Col_1:20, the order of the words in the Greek: And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, making peace through the blood of His cross—through Him, whether the things, &c.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv20–22 (20) Having made peace through the blood of his…
(20) Having made peace through the blood of his cross.—On this verse, where St. Paul returns to the subject of the Atonement, with which he began, comp. Eph_2:13-18, and Notes there. In the Ephesian Epistle the treatment of the subject is fuller, and in one point more comprehensive, viz., in bringing out emphatically the unity of all, Jews and Gentiles alike, with one another, as well as their unity with Christ. But, on the other hand, this passage involves deeper and more mysterious teaching in this—that it includes in the reconciliation by the blood of Christ, not merely all humanity, but “all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” This is, indeed, only a fuller exposition of the truth that “God was in Christ reconciling the world (the kosmos) to Himself” (2Co_5:19); and that “the whole creation waiteth,” “in constant expectation,” “for the manifestation of the sons of God,” and “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom_8:19-21). But it is couched in more distinct and striking terms, opening to us a glimpse of the infinite scope, not merely of our Lord’s Mediatorship, but of His Atonement, which, while it almost bewilders, yet satisfies the thoughtful understanding, and more than satisfies an adoring faith. As there seems to be a physical unity in the universe, if we may believe the guesses of science, so, says Holy Scripture, there is a moral and spiritual unity also in Jesus Christ.
Col_1:21-23 apply this truth of the Mediatorial work of the Lord Jesus Christ to the especial case of the Colossians. The subject here touched is more fully worked out in Eph_2:1-2; Eph_2:11-18; the alienation is there described as not only from God, but from His covenanted people; the reconciliation is with God and man in one great unity.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv20–22 And (was pleased) through him to reconcile all things…
And (was pleased) through him to reconcile all things unto him. (ver. 16; Eph_1:10; Heb_9:26 Heb_10:12, Heb_10:13; Psa_2:7, Psa_2:8) Not "through Christ unto the Father, as Meyer, Alford, Ellicott, Lightfoot contend. This involves reading "the Father" as subject of ver. 19 (see note). There is nothing in the grammar of this verse to suggest a reference of the same pronoun to two different persons. And the analogy of ver. 16 appears decisive (see note): "Through him and unto him all things were created and reconciled" (De Wette, Conybeare, Hofmann). So Chrysostom: "Lest thou shouldest think that he undertook the office of a minister only, he saith "unto himself." And yet he elsewhere says that he reconciled us "to God. English idiom prefers the reflexive "himself" in such a sentence (so in ver. 19); but it is not necessary in Greek (A. Buttmann, "N. T. Grammar," p. 111, English trans.). Elsewhere katallassw ("reconcile") is construed with prov or simple dative; here with eijv in correspondence with ver. 16, and implying, in contrast with dia ("through"), the end for which rather than the person to whom one is reconciled. (ver. 18 b; also Rom_14:9; 2Co_5:15; 1Co_3:23) Brought back again to peace with God, we are brought into the kingdom of his Son (vers. 13, 14). The rebels are made to "kiss the Son." He wins back his kingdom in them. And so the design of creation as his dominion is answered at last. "Reconcile" ("reconciliation") in New Testament usage implies previous resentment in him to whom the offender is reconciled. (see Cremer"s "Lexicon," and Meyer on Rom_5:10) For such resentment in Christ, comp. (Col_3:13; 1Co_8:12; Luk_19:27; Act_26:14; Rev_6:16; Psa_2:12. Katalla) is "to take into favour or allegiance," and, with ajpo, "to take back into favour." This reconciliation to Christ the King concerns the "all things" of ver. 10, restoring the broken unity of creation (see note on "the things in the heavens," below). And there is an actual reconciliation now being carried on by the Son from heaven (Php_3:20, 21; 1Co_15:25) resting upon the potential reconciliation effected on the cross (compare the same double sense in. (2Co_5:18-21) Having made peace through the blood of his cross (Col_2:13, Col_2:14; Eph_2:13-18; 2Co_5:18-21; 2Co_6:1; Rom_3:25 Rom_5:10; Heb_9:11 Rev_1:5 Rev_5:9; Mat_26:28) The apostle "glories" only "in the cross", (Gal_6:14) the sole means of salvation, viewed from whatever side. (1Co_1:23, 1Co_1:24) Peace is made for those who were "alienated and enemies in wicked works" (ver. 21), who were under the dominion of the enemy of God and his Christ (vers. 13, 14). It begins as the peace of forgiveness. (ver. 14; 2:13; 3:13; Rom_3:24-26 Rom_5:1) and continues as an abiding fellowship with God through the Spirit, in obedience to Christ, the one Lord. (ver. 13; Col_2:6; Rom_5:1, 2 8:5-9, 28; Gal_5:22; Php_4:7; 2Co_10:4, 2Co_10:5; Act_2:32-34) There can be peace only when he is Lord (1Co_15:25; Rev_19:11-16) In this all the present blessings of salvation are comprised (ver. 2). "The blood of the cross" is the one all sufficient atonement which brings men into peace with God, and so puts them back into the kingdom of Christ, who is "Prince and Saviour, Priest and King" (Rom_3:25, 26 14:9; 2Co_5:15; Tit_2:14) Faith, the subjective condition of peace, appears in ver. 23. (Rom_5:1 Rom_15:13) "Having made peace," as a single compound verb, occurs only here in the New Testament. (comp. Mat_5:10) The repeated through him is textually doubtful; copyists were more likely to omit than to insert it here. This emphatic repetition suitably introduces the bold and startling words, whether the things on the earth, or the things in the heavens (ver. 16). The things "in the heavens," as in ver. 16, include the whole creation, spiritual or material, other than "the things upon the earth." In Rom_8:19-21 we learned that the earthly creation shares man"s fall and his redemption. But "sin entered" (Rom_5:12) here from outside, and how far its influence extends beyond our planet we cannot tell. St. Paul does not positively affirm that the reconciliation of the cross embraces other worlds than ours. He speaks hypothetically. Christ"s death is in his eyes an event parallel only to creation in its magnitude, and he can set no limit to its potential efficacy. Its virtue is sufficient to" reconcile all things," wherever such reconciliation is needed and is possible. (yet see Heb_2:16) The difficulty is not to be evaded by putting a milder sense on "reconcile" as applied to "the things in the heavens" (so Alford and others, referring to; (Eph_3:10) "the blood of the cross" forbids any thought but that of the propitiatory atonement (see Meyer). Nor does the text say anything of a reconciliation between "earth and heaven" (Erasmus), "men and angels" (Chrysostom, Bengel), "Jews and Gentiles," "secular and spiritual affairs," etc.; such glosses are opposed to St. Paul"s strict use of the word "reconcile," and to the parallelism of ver. 16.
In vers. 21-23 the apostle descends, with characteristic boldness and suddenness, from the vast generalizations of vers. 15-20 to the closest personal application of his theme from "all things in earth and heaven" to "you". (comp. Eph_1:22-23; Eph_2:1, Eph_1:2) With Lightfoot, we place only a comma, or a colon at most, after ver. 20.
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The reconcilation effected by Christ.
having made peace through the blood of the cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself.
I THE NATURE OF THIS RECONCILIATION.
1. . It implies a prior estrangement. Man "departed from the living God". (Heb_3:12) He is "alienated" from God (ver. 21). "The carnal mind is enmity against God". (Rom_8:7) Even God himself was angry with man. (Psa_7:11) But this prior estrangement implies an antecedent friendship.
1. Though man was first in the breach of this friendship, God was first in the reconciliation. This blessed restoration of broken relations is traced to "the good pleasure" of the Father. It is a mistake to say that Christ is the cause of his Father making to us the offer of reconciliation. The atonement is not the cause, but the effect, of God"s love.
2. There was reconciliation on God"s side as well as man"s. There is a change in the Divine relation or mood of mind toward us; for he himself "made peace by the blood of the cross," and his reconciliation of all things to himself is represented as based upon the peace thus made. The death of Christ was a true satisfaction to Divine justice for sin, so that God could be "just and the Justifier of the ungodly.
II THE MEANS OF THIS RECONCILIATION. "Having made peace through the blood of the cross." The reconciliation was not absolute or without mediation. It was "through the blood of the cross the first term suggesting a comparison between Christ"s death and the Old Testament sacrifices; the second, the penal nature of the Redeemer"s death as that of a curse-bearing Substitute. The apostle emphasizes this aspect of truth, because the errorists of his time denied alike a real incarnation and a real atonement.
III THE UNIVERSALITY OF THIS RECONCILIATION. "By him to reconcile all things to himself; by him, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.
1. "Things in earth" may include more than man.
(1) It may include the whole visible creation, which is "groaning and travailing together in pain until now," and "waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God". (Rom_8:19-21) The curse passed to the ground through man"s sin; through man will the blessing reach it again. It is a significant fact that Christianity in its purest form brings a happy change over those portions of the earth where it prevails.
(2) But, definitely and primarily, "things in earth" refer to man. Man"s reconciliation to God is based upon God"s reconciliation to man. It was in virtue of Christ"s death that the Holy Spirit came to change the hearts, of men and bring them into harmony with God.
2. "Things in heaven. Not angels, as some suppose, for they were never estranged from God and Christ, and the Head of angels as well as men is never represented as the Mediator of angels. A mere increase of knowledge or blessedness on their part, or the confirmation of them in their heavenly obedience, can hardly be covered by the term "reconciliation." The word must be used in its ordinary sense. The apostle has described Christ"s mediatorial function as twofold: as exercised in the natural creation and in the spiritual creation in the universe and in the Church. His object is not to show the extent either of the creation or of the reconciliation, but, the person of the Creator and the Reconciler, and the Church marks the glorious sphere of the reconciliation as it is seen in its two great divisions of living and dead saints. The "things in heaven" seem, therefore, to apply to the saints in glory. T. C.
The great reconciliation.
The world wants not only education, improvement, and development; it has a sorer need the necessity of forgiveness, reconciliation to God, renewal, and restoration. It is the glory of the gospel that it recognizes this deep fact, too often ignored by philosophic schemes of life, and that it provides for it by offering the satisfaction of the world"s great need in reconciliation through Christ and his atonement.
I IT IS GOD WHO BRINGS ABOUT THE GREAT RECONCILIATION. Two errors in regard to this glorious truth are very prevalent.
1. The error of attempting to effect the reconciliation for ourselves. Costly sacrifices, hard penance, prayers, and almsgiving have been resorted to, but in vain. The work is God"s, not man"s. The first mistake is closely associated with another, viz.:
2. The error of supposing that God needs to be reconciled to us. It is commonly thought that the great work is to move God into a favourable consideration for us. But the first step in the reconciliation began with God. He desired it and prepared the way for it before men took any steps towards realizing it. For this reason he first of all sent his Son into the, (Joh_3:16) and is now sending ambassadors and beseeching us by them to be reconciled. We began the separation, for ours was the offence, but God begins the reconciliation. He does not need to be reconciled to us. He waits to be gracious. The necessary reconciliation is on our side. We need to be reconciled to God.
II ALL THINGS IN EARTH AND HEAVEN ARE THE SUBJECTS OF THE GREAT RECONCILIATION.
1. The reconciliation is to be universal. It is God"s good pleasure to reconcile all things. Nothing short of that complete restoration would satisfy him. If ninety and nine sheep are safe, the shepherd will not rest until he has found the hundredth. Nevertheless, though this universal restitution is God"s desire, there is a dark and difficult question as to how far the imperious will of man may stand out against it.
2. The reconciliation begins with things on earth. Here is the great wrong. In this life we become reconciled to God. The full success of Christ will involve the creation of a new earth. Though the laws of nature may not be altered, yet to us the wilderness will become a garden when we become reconciled to the God of nature.
3. The reconciliation reaches up to t/tings in heaven. It unites earth to heaven. Through union with God all beings and all things become united among themselves. Thus peace is established on earth, heavenly mindedness becomes a sympathetic link between the toilers and sufferers in this world and the angels and spirits of the just in the higher world.
III CHRIST AND HIS ATONEMENT ARE THE MEANS THROUGH WHICH THIS RECONCILIATION IS EFFECTED.
1. Christ is the Mediator in the quarrel between us and God, the Peacemaker, (Eph_2:14) the "Daysman" who lays his hand on God and on us. The angel mediators of Colossian Gnosticism could not do this, being neither Divine nor human. Because all fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, he brings God to us in merciful loving kindness; and because he is also" very Man," he, as our Representative, brings us back to God.
2. The sacrifice made by Christ in his death is the atonement which accomplishes our reconciliation. "The blood of his cross" signifies, not merely the fact that Christ died on the cross, but also the peculiar value of his death in the shedding of his precious blood, i.e. in the giving up of his life for us with all its wealth of purity and love. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v22 To present you holy and umblameable and unreproveable in…
Col_1:22-23
To present you holy and umblameable and unreproveable in His sight.
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The ultimate purpose of reconciliation
I. The ultimate purpose of God in the work of Christ.
1. In present there is possibly a sacrificial allusion (Rom_12:1), or the more eloquent metaphor of the bringing of the bride to the husband by the friend of the bridegroom (2Co_2:2; Eph_5:27), or perhaps it means simply to sit in the presence of. The reference is to the day of judgment (2Co_4:14). In the light of that revealing day His purpose is that we shall stand holy, i.e., devoted to God, and therefore pure, without blemish, as the offerings had to be, and unreproveable, against whom no charge can be brought. They must be spotless indeed who are without fault before the throne.
2. All the lines of thought in the preceding section lead up to this peak. The meaning of God in creation and redemption cannot be fathomed without taking into view the future perfecting of men. The Christian ideal of the possibilities for men is the noblest vision that can animate our hopes. Nothing short of this satisfies Gods heart, for it has to be connected with It pleased the Father. Nor will anything less exhaust the power of the reconciling Christ. His Cross and passion reach no adequate result short of the perfecting of the saints. We ought, then, to keep before us this as the crowning object of Christianity; not to make us happy except as a consequence of holiness. Nothing less should satisfy us.
II. The conditions on which the accomplishment of that purpose depends.
1. Generally speaking, a steadfast adherence to the gospel. If ye continue in the exercise of your faith. This continuance is explained--
(1) Positively, grounded, i.e., built into a foundation, and steadfast, as banded into the firm rock, and so partaking of its fixedness.
(2) Negatively, not moved away, a process that may be continually going on, and in which, by some force constantly acting from without, they may be imperceptibly pushed off from the foundation, i.e., the hope evoked or held out by the gospel.
2. Some plain lessons may be drawn from these words.
(1) There is an if. However great the powers of Christ, and deep the desire, and fixed the purpose of God, no fulfilment of these is possible except on the condition of our habitual exercise of faith. The gospel does not act on men by magic. He could not do because of their unbelief.
(2) It must be present faith that leads to present results. We cannot make an arrangement by which we exercise faith wholesale once for all, and secure a delivery of its blessings in small quantities for a time after.
(3) If our lives are to be firm we must have a foundation outside of ourselves. If my practical life be not built on Christ the blows of circumstance will make it reel and stagger.
(4) This Christ-derived steadfastness will make us able to resist influences that would move us away from the hope of the gospel. If we do not look to our moorings we shall drift away down stream and never know we are moving. Many a man is completely unaware how completely his Christian faith has gone till some crisis comes when he needs it.
III. A three-fold motive for adherence to the gospel.
1. The gospel which ye heard. Paul would have them recall what they heard at their conversion, and tamper with no teaching inconsistent with it. He also appeals to their experience. Have these truths become less precious? To us the same appeal comes. The word has been sounding in our ears since childhood. The one thing we know is not to be lightly abandoned.
2. This gospel was preached in all creation under heaven, whereas the heretical teachings only belonged to a class. All errors are transient and limited; but the gospel can go into any corner under heaven.
3. Whereof I Paul am made a minister.
(1) This is not merely an appeal to their affection, though that is perfectly legitimate.
(2) He puts stress upon the fact that he became a minister, as being an evidence of Christianity; which indeed it is. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Holiness through Christ
What are you doing here by yourself? asked a man of his neighbour one day. I am reading a book that has only two leaves, was the reply. Then it wont take you long to read it, said the other. Months passed away, and they met again. Well, what are you doing now? I am still reading my little book. What! and only two leaves in it? Yes; a white leaf and a red one. I dont understand you. Well, the white leaf is the holiness of God, and the red leaf is the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son. When I study the white leaf, and see my sin in the light of Gods holiness, I am glad to turn to the red leaf and rest my eye on the blood of Jesus. And when I realize the preciousness and efficacy of the Saviours blood, I feel a longing for holiness, and turn again to the white leaf. The little book will occupy me all my life, and I expect it will be my joyful meditation through eternity. (New Encyclopedia of Anecdotes.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v22 Chapter 1 Part 7
Chapter 1 Part 7
THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE OF RECONCILIATION AND ITS HUMAN CONDITIONS
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Col_1:22-23 (R.V.)
THE Apostle has been sketching in magnificent outline a vast system, which we may almost call the scheme of the universe. He has set forth Christ as its Lord and centre, through Whom all things at first came into being, and still continue to be. In parallel manner he has presented Christ as Lord and Centre of the Church, its life giving Head. And finally he has set forth Christ as the Reconciler of all discords in heaven and earth, and especially of that which parts sinful men from God.
And now he shows us here, in the first words of our text, the purpose of this whole manifestation of God in Christ to be the presenting of men perfect in purity, before the perfect judgment of God. He then appends the condition on which the accomplishment of this ultimate purpose in each man depends-namely, the mans continuance in the faith and hope of the Gospel. That leads him to gather up, in a series of clauses characterising the Gospel, certain aspects of it which constitute subordinate motives and encouragements to such steadfastness. That is, I think, the outline connection of the words before us, which at first sight seem somewhat tangled and difficult to unravel.
I. We have then, first, to consider the ultimate purpose of God in the work of Christ.
"To present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before Him." It may be a question whether these words should be connected with "now hath He reconciled," or whether we are to go farther back in the long paragraph, and make them dependent on "it was the good pleasure of the Father." The former seems the more natural-namely, to see here a statement of the great end contemplated in our reconciliation to God; which, indeed, whatever may be the grammatical construction preferred here, is also, of course, the ultimate object of the Fathers good pleasure. In the word "present" there is possibly a sacrificial allusion, as there is unquestionably in its use in Rom_12:1, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice"; or there may be another and even more eloquent metaphor implied, that of the bringing of the bride to the husband by the friend of the bridegroom. That lovely figure is found in two instances of the use of the word in Pauls epistle (2Co_2:2, "to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ," and Eph_5:27, "that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church"), and possibly in others. It certainly gives an appropriate and beautiful emblem here if we think of the presentation of the bride in virginal beauty and purity to her Lord at that last great day which is the bridal day of the perfected Church.
There is, however, no need to suppose any metaphor at all, nor any allusion beyond the general meaning of the word-to set in the presence of. The sacrificial reference is incongruous here, and the bridal one not indicated by anything in the context, as it is in the instances just quoted. One thing is clear, that the reference is to a future presentation in the day of judgment, as in another place, where Paul says, "He shall raise up us also and shall present us". {2Co_4:14} In the light of that revealing day, His purpose is that we shall stand "holy," that is, devoted to God and therefore pure-"without blemish," as the offerings had to be, and "unreprovable," against whom no charge can be brought. These three express a regular sequence; first, the inward principle of consecration and devotion to God, then its visible issue in stainless conduct and character, and then its last consequence, that in the judgment of God and of men we shall stand acquitted of blame, and every accusation drop away from our dazzling purity, like muddy water from the white wing of the sea bird as it soars. And all this moral perfectness and unblamableness is to be not merely in the judgment of men, but "before Him," the light of whose "pure eyes and perfect judgment" discovers all stains and evils. They must be spotless indeed who are "without fault before the throne of God."
Such, then, is the grand conception of the ultimate purpose and issue of Christs reconciling work. All the lines of thought in the preceding section lead up to and converge in this peak. The meaning of God in creation and redemption cannot be fully fathomed without taking into view the future perfecting of men. This Christian ideal of the possibilities for men is the noblest vision that can animate our hopes. Absolute moral purity which shall be recognised as perfect by the, perfect Judge, and a close approach to God, so as that we shall be "before Him" in a manner unknown here-are hopes as much brighter than those which any other systems of belief print on the dim canvas curtain of the future, as the Christian estimate of mans condition apart from Christ is sadder and darker than theirs. Christianity has a much more extended scale of colours than they have. It goes further down into blackness for the tints with which it paints man as he is, and further up into flashing glories of splendour for the gleaming hues with which it paints him as he may become. They move within narrow limits of neutral tints, The Gospel alone does not try to minimise mans evil, because it is triumphantly confident of its power to turn all that evil into good.
Nothing short of this complete purity and blamelessness satisfies Gods heart. We may travel back to the beginning of this section, and connect its first words with these, "It pleased the Father, to present us holy and spotless and blameless." It delights Him. thus to effect the purifying of sinful souls, and He is glad when He sees Himself surrounded by spirits thus echoing His will and reflecting His light. This is what He longs for. This is what He aims at in all His working-to make good and pure men. The moral interest is uppermost in His heart and in His doings. The physical universe is but the scaffolding by which the true house of God may be built. The work of Christ is the means to that end. and when God has got us, by such lavish expenditure, to be white like Himself, and can find nothing in us to condemn, then, and not till then, does He brood over us satisfied and glad at heart, resting in His love, and rejoicing over us with singing.
Nor will anything short of this complete purity exhaust the power of the Reconciling Christ. His work is like an unfinished column, or Giottos Campanile, all shining with marbles and alabasters and set about with fair figures, but waiting for centuries for the glittering apex to gather its glories into a heaven-piercing point. His cross and passion reach no adequate result, short of the perfecting of saints, nor was it worth Christs while to die for any less end. His cross and passion have evidently power to effect this perfect purity, and cannot be supposed to have done all that is in them to do, until they have done that with every Christian.
We ought then to keep very clear before us this as the crowning object of Christianity: not to make men happy, except as a consequence of holiness; not to deliver from penalty, except as a means to holiness; but to make them holy, and being holy, to set them close by the throne of God. No man understands the scope of Christianity, or judges it fairly, who does not give full weight to that as its own statement of its purpose. The more distinctly we, as Christians, keep that purpose prominent in our thoughts, the more shall we have our efforts stimulated and guided, and our hopes fed, even when we are saddened by a sense of failure. We have a power working in us which can make us white as the angels, pure as our Lord is pure. If it, being able to produce perfect results, has produced only such imperfect ones, we may well ask where the reason for the partial failure lies. If we believed more vividly that the real purpose and use of Christianity was to make us good men, we should surely labour more earnestly to secure that end, should take more to heart our own responsibility for the incompleteness with which it has been attained in us, and should submit ourselves more completely to the operation of the "might of the power" which worketh in us.
Nothing less than our absolute purity will satisfy God about us. Nothing less should satisfy ourselves. The only worthy end of Christs work for us is to present us holy, in complete consecration, and without blemish, in perfect homogeneousness and uniformity of white purity and unreproachable in manifest innocence in His sight. If we call ourselves Christians let us make it our lifes business to see that that end is being accomplished in us in some tolerable and growing measure.
II. We have next set forth the conditions on which the accomplishment of that purpose depends:
"If so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel."
The condition is, generally speaking, a steadfast adherence to the Gospel which the Colossians had received. "If ye continue in the faith," means, I suppose, if ye continue to live in the exercise of your faith. The word here has its ordinary subjective sense, expressing the act of the believing man, and there is no need to suppose that it has the later ecclesiastical objective sense, expressing the believers creed, a meaning in which it may be questioned whether the word is ever employed in the New Testament. Then this continuance in the faith is further explained as to its manner, and that first positively, and then negatively. They are to be grounded, or more picturesquely and accurately, "founded," that is, built into a foundation, and therefore "steadfast," as banded into the firm rock, and so partaking of its fixedness. Then, negatively, they are not to be "moved away"; the word by its form conveying the idea that this is a process which may be continually going on, and in which, by some force constantly acting from without, they may be gradually and imperceptibly pushed off from the foundation-that foundation is the hope evoked or held out by the Gospel, a representation which is less familiar than that which makes the Gospel itself the foundation, but is substantially equivalent to it, though with a different colour.
One or two plain lessons may be drawn from these words. There is an "if," then. However great the powers of Christ and of His work, however deep the desire and fixed the purpose of God, no fulfilment of these is possible except on condition of our habitual exercise of faith. The Gospel does not work on men by magic. Mind, heart, and will must be exercised on Christ, or all His power to purify and bless will be of no avail to us. We shall be like Gideons fleece, dry when the dew is falling thick, unless we are continually putting forth living faith. That attracts the blessing and fits the soul to receive it. There is nothing mystical about the matter. Common sense tells us, that if a man never thinks about any truth, that truth will do him no good in any way. If it does not find its road into his heart through his mind, and thence into his life, it is all one as if there were no such truth, or as if he did not believe it. If our creed is made up of truths which we do not think about, we may just as well have no creed. If we do not bring ourselves into contact with the motives which the Gospel brings to bear on character, the motives will not mould our character. If we do not, by faith and meditation, realise the principles which flow from the truth as it is in Jesus, and obtain the strength which is stored in Him, we shall not grow by Him or like Him. No matter how mighty be the renewing powers of the Gospel wielded by the Divine Spirit, they can only work on the nature that is brought into contact with and continues in contact with them by faith. The measure in which we trust Jesus Christ will be the measure in which He helps us. "He could do no mighty works because of their unbelief." He cannot do what He can do, if we thwart Him by our want of faith. God will present us holy before Him if we continue in the faith. And it must be present faith which leads to present results. We cannot make an arrangement by which we exercise faith wholesale once for all, and secure a delivery of its blessings in small quantities for a while after, as a buyer may do with goods. The moments act of faith will bring the moments blessings; but tomorrow will have to get its own grace by its own faith. We cannot lay up a stock for the future. There must be present drinking for present thirst; we cannot lay in a reserve of the water of life, as a camel can drink at a draught enough for a long desert march. The Rock follows us all through the wilderness, but we have to fill our pitchers day by day. Many Christians seem to think that they can live on past acts of faith. No wonder that their Christian character is stunted, and their growth stopped, and many a blemish visible, and many a "blame" to be brought against them. Nothing but continual exercise of faith, day by day, moment by moment, in every duty, and every temptation, will secure the continual entrance into our weakness of the strength which makes strong and the purity which makes pure. Then again, if we and our lives are to be firm and stable, we must have a foundation outside of ourselves on which to rest. That thought is involved in the word "grounded" or "founded." It is possible that this metaphor of the foundation is carried on into the next clause, in which case "the hope of the Gospel" would be the foundation. Strange to make a solid foundation out of so unsubstantial a thing as "hope"! That would be indeed to build a castle on the air, a palace on a soap bubble, would it not? Yes, it would, if this hope were not "the hope produced by the Gospel," and therefore as solid as the ever-enduring Word of the Lord on which it is founded. But, more probably, the ordinary application of the figure is preserved here, and Christ is the foundation, the Rock, on which builded, our fleeting lives and our fickle selves may become rock like too, and every impulsive and changeable Simon Bar Jonas rise to the mature steadfastness of a Peter, the pillar of the Church.
Translate that image of taking Christ for our foundation into plain English, and what does it come to? It means, let our minds find in Him, in His Word, and whole revealing life, the basis of our beliefs, the materials for thought; let our hearts find in Him their object, which brings calmness and unchangeableness into their love; let our practical energies take Him as their motive and pattern, their strength and their aim, their stimulus and their reward; let all hopes and joys, emotions and desires, fasten themselves on Him; let Him occupy and fill our whole nature, and mould and preside over all our actions. So shall we be "founded" on Christ.
And so "founded," we shall, as Paul here beautifully puts it, be "steadfast." Without that foundation to give stability and permanence, we never get down to what abides, but pass our lives amidst fleeting shadows, and are ourselves transient as they. The mind whose thoughts about God and the unseen world are not built on the personal revelation of God in. Christ will have no solid certainties which cannot be shaken, but, at the best, opinions which cannot have more fixedness than belongs to human thoughts upon the great problem. If my love does not rest on Christ, it will flicker and flutter; lighting now here and now there, and even where it rests most secure in. human love, sure to have to take wing some day, when Death with his woodmans axe fells the tree where it nestles. If my practical life is not built on Him, the blows of circumstance will make it reel and stagger. If we are not well joined to Jesus Christ, we shall be driven by gusts of passion and storms of trouble, or borne along on the surface of the slow stream of all-changing time like thistle down on the water. If we are to be stable, it must be because we are fastened to something outside of ourselves that is stable, just as they have to lash a man to the mast or other fixed things on deck, if he is not to be washed overboard in the gale. If we are lashed to the unchangeable Christ by the "cords of love" and faith, we too shall, in our degree, be steadfast. And, says Paul, that Christ-derived steadfastness will make us able to resist influences that would move us away from the hope of the Gospel. That process which their steadfastness would enable the Colossians successfully to resist is described by the language of the Apostle as continuous, and as one which acted on them from without. Intellectual dangers arose from false teachings. The ever-acting tendencies of worldliness pressed upon them, and they needed to make a distinct effort to keep themselves from being overcome by these.
If we do not take care that imperceptible, steady pressure of the all-surrounding worldliness, which is continually acting on us, will push us right off the foundation without our knowing that we have shifted at all. If we do not look well after our moorings we shall drift away down stream, and never know that we are moving, so smooth is the motion, till we wake up to see that everything round about is changed. Many a man is unaware how completely his Christian faith has gone till some crisis comes when he needs it, and when he opens the jar there is nothing. It has evaporated.
When white ants eat away all the inside of a piece of furniture, they leave the outside shell apparently solid, and it stands till some weight is laid upon it, and then goes down with a crash. Many people lose their Christianity in that fashion, by its being nibbled away in tiny flakes by a multitude of secretly working little jaws, and they never know that the pith is out of it till they want to lean on it, and then it gives under them.
The only way to keep firm hold of hope is to keep fast on the foundation. If we do not wish to slide imperceptibly away from Him who alone will make our lives steadfast and our hearts calm with the peacefulness of having found our All, we must continuously make an effort to tighten our grasp on Him, and to resist the subtle forces which, by silent pressure or by sudden blows, seek to get us off the one foundation.
III. Then lastly, we have a threefold motive for adherence to the Gospel.
The three clauses which close these verses seem to be appended as secondary and subordinate encouragements to steadfastness, which encouragements are drawn from. certain characteristics of the Gospel. Of course, the main reason for a mans sticking to the Gospel, or to anything else, is that it is true. And unless we are prepared to say that we believe it true, we have nothing to do with such subordinate motives for professing adherence to it, except to take care that they do not influence us. And that one sole reason is abundantly wrought out in this letter. But then, its truth being established, we may fairly bring in other subsidiary motives to reinforce this, seeing that there may be a certain coldness of belief which needs the warmth of such encouragements. The first of these lies in the words, "the Gospel, which ye heard." That is to say, the Apostle would have the Colossians, in the face of these heretical teachers, remember the beginning of their Christian life, and be consistent with that. They had heard it at their conversion. He would have them recall what they had heard then, and tamper with no teaching inconsistent with it. He also appeals to their experience. "Do you remember what the Gospel did for you? Do you remember the time when it first dawned upon your astonished hearts, all radiant with heavenly beauty, as the revelation of a Heart in heaven that cared for you, and of a Christ Who, on earth, had died for you? Did it not deliver you from your burden? Did it not set new hope before you? Did it not make earth as the very portals of heaven? And have these truths become less precious because familiar? Be not moved away from the Gospel which ye have heard."
To us the same appeal comes. This word has been sounding in our ears ever since childhood. It has done everything for some of us, something for all of us. Its truths have sometimes shone out for us like suns, in the dark, and brought us strength when nothing else could sustain us. If they are not truths, of course they will have to go. But they are not to be abandoned easily. They are interwoven with our very lives. To part with them is a resolution not to be lightly undertaken.
The argument of experience is of no avail to convince others, but is valid for ourselves. A man has a perfect right to say, "I have heard Him myself, and I know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." A Christian may wisely decline to enter on the consideration of many moot questions which he may feel himself incompetent to handle, and rest upon the fact that Christ has saved his soul. The blind man beat the Pharisees in logic when he sturdily took his stand on experience, and refused to be tempted to discuss subjects which he did not understand, or to allow his ignorance to slacken his grasp of what he did know. "Whether this man be a sinner or no, I know not one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." There was no answering that, so by excommunicating him they confessed themselves beaten.
A second encouragement to steadfast adherence to the Gospel lies in the fact that it "was preached in all creation under heaven." We need not be pedantic about literal accuracy, and may allow that the statement has a rhetorical colouring. But what the Apostle means is, that the gospel has spread so widely, through so many phases of civilisation, and has proved its power by touching men so unlike each other in mental furniture and habits, that it had showed itself to be a word for the whole race. It is the same thought as we have already found in Col_1:6. His implied exhortation is, "Be not moved away from what belongs to humanity by teachings which can only belong to a class." All errors are transient in duration and limited in area. One addresses itself to one class of men, another to another. Each false, or exaggerated, or partial representation of religious truth, is congenial to some group with idiosyncrasies of temperament or mind. Different tastes like different spiced meats, but the gospel, "human natures daily food," is the bread of God that everybody can relish, and which everybody must have for healthy life. What only a certain class or the men of one generation or of one stage of culture can find nourishment in, cannot be meant for all men. But the great message of Gods love in Jesus Christ commends itself to us because it can go into any corner of the world, and there, upon all sorts of people, work its wonders. So we will sit down with the women and children upon the green grass, and eat of it, however fastidious people whose appetites have been spoiled by high-spiced meat, may find it coarse and insipid. It would feed them too, if they would try-but whatever they may do, let us take it as more than our necessary food.
The last of these subsidiary encouragements to steadfastness lies in, "whereof I Paul was made a minister." This is not merely an appeal to their affection for him, though that is perfectly legitimate. Holy words may be holier because dear lips have taught them to us, and even the truth of God may allowably have a firmer hold upon our hearts because of our love for some who have ministered it to us. It is a poor commentary on a preachers work if, after long service to a congregation, his words do not come with power given to them by old affection and confidence. The humblest teacher who has done his Masters errand will have some to whom he can appeal as Paul did, and urge them to keep hold of the message which he has preached.
But there is more than that in the Apostles mind. He was accustomed to quote the fact that he, the persecutor, had been made the, messenger of Christ, as a living proof of the infinite mercy and power of that ascended Lord, whom his eyes saw on the road to Damascus. So here, he puts stress on the fact that he became a minister of the gospel, as being an "evidence of Christianity." The history of his conversion is one of the strongest proofs of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. You know, he seems to say, what turned me from being a persecutor into an apostle. It was because I saw the living Christ, and "heard the words of His mouth," and, I beseech you, listen to no words which make His dominion less sovereign, and His sole and all-sufficient work on the cross less mighty as the only power that knits earth to heaven.
So the sum of this whole matter is-abide in Christ. Let us root and ground our lives and characters in Him, and then Gods inmost desire will be gratified in regard to us, and He will bring even us stainless and blameless into the blaze of His presence. There we shall all have to stand, and let that all-penetrating light search us through and through. How do we expect to be then "found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless"? There is but one way-to live in constant exercise of faith in Christ, and grip Him so close and sure that the world, the flesh, and the devil cannot make us loosen our fingers. Then He will hold us up, and His great purpose, which brought Him to earth, and nailed Him to the cross, will be fulfilled in us, and at last we shall lift up voices of wondering praise "to Him who is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv20–22 20. Having made peace. See notes on Eph. 2:14,…
20. Having made peace. See notes on Eph. 2:14, 17. Christ came to make peace between Jew and Gentile, man and man, man and God. The means employed was the blood shed on the cross. Through it the law, the partition wall between Jew and Gentile, was removed, and both alike have access to God. By him to reconcile all things unto himself. “It pleased the Father” (verse 19) . . “by him (Christ) to reconcile all things to himself” (the Father). All who accept Christ, are reconciled to him, and found in him, are reconciled thus to God. Whether things in earth. Human beings. Things in heaven. Chrysostom explains: Christ not only reconciles man on the earth, but raises him, who had been an enemy to God, to heaven and gives him a place there at peace with God, so that in the heavens the fruits of reconciliation are seen forever.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v21 Col_1:21. You, that were sometime alienated.—Does not mean, of…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Col_1:21. You, that were sometime alienated.—Does not mean, of course, occasionally alienated, but as the R.V. gives it, “being in time past alienated”—up to the time of the reconciliation always estranged. Enemies in your mind by wicked works.—The most interesting question here is whether God is reconciled to the sinner or only the sinner to God. Is “enemies” to mean “hostile” or “hateful”? Lightfoot says, “It is the mind of man, not the mind of God, which must undergo a change that a reunion may be effected.”
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Col_1:22. In the body of His flesh through death.—When a teacher has to be explicit it may seem to those familiar with the subject as if he were verbose or tautological. So here the body is no phantasm, but fleshly and mortal. To present you holy.—They were professedly holy “saints” (Col_1:2), and the final purpose of their reconciliation is reproachless saintship (on this word, and “unblamable,” see Eph_1:4). Unreprovable in His sight.—It is a lofty eminence to which the holy apostle invites us to look in this word. The light in which we walk—fierce indeed towards sin—reveals no evil, so that the most captious critic has no objection (Tit_2:8).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Col_1:21-22
The Personal Blessings of Reconciliation.
Having shown the relation of Christ to God, to the whole creation, and to the Church, and His connection with all moral beings, the writer now proceeds to point out the relation of Christ to individual man in delivering him from the fetters of sin, and opening up the way of reconciliation with an outraged but loving Deity. In this passage we have a description of the attitude of sinful man towards God and the method of His restoration. We learn that:—
I. Sin has placed man in antagonism to God.—
1. Man is estranged from God. “And you that were sometime alienated” (Col_1:21). Sin severs the soul from God. The principle of cohesion—the consciousness of rectitude which God implanted in man in his sinless state—is weakened, and the sinner, breaking away from the centre of all goodness, drifts into an ever-widening and ever-darkening wilderness of alienation and evil. Sin places man at an infinite distance from God, leads him to shun the divine presence and disregard the divine overtures. A state of alienation is a state of danger; it is a state of spiritual death; and yet it is painful to observe how few in this state are conscious of their awful peril.
2. Man is hostile to God.—“Enemies in your mind” (Col_1:21). The enmity follows from the estrangement, and both have their seat in the mind—“in the original and inmost force of the mind which draws after it the other faculties.” The mind of man opposes the mind of God, sets up a rival kingdom, and organises an active rebellion against the divine Ruler. “The carnal mind is enmity against God” (Rom_8:7). If the hostility is not always flagrantly open, it is in the mind; the fountain of all sin is there. To be a stranger to God is to be an enemy of God: “He that is not with Me is against Me.” The sinner is his own greatest enemy. It is a vain thing to fight against God; terrible will be the vengeance He will ere long wreak upon His enemies.
3. Man’s estrangement and hostility are evident in his actions.—“By wicked works” (Col_1:21). Man is stimulated by his sinful mind to perpetrate the most outrageous acts of rebellion against God, and to indulge in the most fiendish cruelty towards his fellow-man. But there are “wicked works” that may not figure in the criminal columns of the newspapers, nor be detected by the most vigilant watcher. To cherish envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness is equally heinous in the sight of God, and an unmistakable evidence of hostility towards Him. Sin conceived in the mind will, sooner or later, manifest itself in action.
II. Man is reconciled to God in Christ.—
1. The distinguished blessing. “Yet now hath He reconciled” (Col_1:21). To effect this all that is necessary is to persuade the sinner to cease his rebellion and submit to God. In Christ God is reconciled to the sinner; there is no need to persuade Him. He is love; the sinner is enmity. He is light; the sinner is darkness. He is nigh unto the sinner, but the sinner is afar off. The great object is to destroy the sinner’s enmity, that he may have divine love; bring him from darkness into divine light, bring him from his evil works nigh unto God, and reconciliation is the result (Biblical Museum). The amity existing between the soul and God, and which sin had interrupted, is now restored. Dear as are the friendships of earth, none can equal friendship with God.
“He calls a worm His friend,
He calls Himself my God;
And He shall save me to the end
Through Jesu’s blood.”
The loftiest communion of the soul with God is renewed. In this the soul finds its strength, consolation, life, rapture. How much does that man lose whose heart is not reconciled to God?
2. The gracious medium of the blessing.—“In the body of His flesh through death” (Col_1:22). The apostle here refers in the most explicit terms to the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, and shows that the great work of reconciliation was effected in His body, and through death, for that body was crucified and actually died. The apostle perhaps aimed at correcting certain pseudo-spiritualistic notions regarding the person of Christ, busily propagated by the false teachers; some of whom held that Christ was an angelic emanation which animated the man Jesus for a time and withdrew from Him before He suffered. While maintaining the proper deity and glory of Christ’s nature, the apostle plainly indicates that the divine method of reconciliation was by the incarnation and sacrificial death of Christ. He thus exalts the significance and value of the death of Christ. Reconciliation was not accomplished by the faultless example of Christ’s life or the supernal wisdom of His teaching, but by His crucifixion and death. The cross, with its unfathomable mystery, is to them that perish foolishness; but to them that believe it is still the power and wisdom of God.
III. The divine purpose in reconciliation is to promote man’s highest blessedness.—The magnificence of the believer’s future career will be in marked contrast with the obscurity and imperfection of the present; but even in this life he is lifted by the reconciling grace of God to a high standard of moral excellence. The terms here employed, while referring to the same spiritual state, delineate its different aspects.
1. The highest blessedness of man consists in his moral purity.—“To present you holy” (Col_1:22). This shows the condition of the soul in relation to God; it is freely offered to Him as a living sacrifice; the inward consciousness is wholly consecrated to the permanent indwelling of the Holy One; every thought, affection, and aspiration of the soul is hallowed; the whole man is enriched, ennobled, and radiant with a holy character.
2. The highest blessedness of man consists in his personal blamelessness.—“Unblamable” (Col_1:22). This aspect of character has reference to one’s self; it is the development in the outward life of the purity and consecration of the heart; it is a sacrificial term, and means without blemish. The soul is inspired with a sense of integrity, and of always acting for the best. When Socrates was asked, just before his trial, why he did not prepare himself for his defence, he calmly answered, “I have been doing nothing else all my life.” A noble, blameless life is its own defence.
3. The highest blessedness of man consists in his freedom from censure.—“Unreprovable in His sight” (Col_1:22). This feature of a holy character has reference to others. If man thus purified and blessed can bear the piercing glance of Him whose scrutiny no defect can escape, his character is unchallengeable. To be accepted and approved of God places him beyond the accusations of man or demon; the subtle insinuations of the Great Accuser are powerless to hurt. “It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?” To be holy, unblamable, and unreprovable in the sight of God is to enjoy the highest honour and completest bliss. This is the ultimate result of reconciliation in Christ.
Lessons.—
1. Sin is the great foe of God and man.
2. The death of Christ is the means of reconciling sinful man to God.
3. The aim of reconciliation is to produce an irreproachable character.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Col_1:21. Reconciliation by Christ.
I. Estrangement.—
1. The cause—by wicked works.
2. The result—not merely that God is angry, but we have become enemies to God.
II. Reconciliation.—
1. Christ has reconciled man to God.
2. He hath reconciled man to man.
3. He hath reconciled man to himself.
4. He hath reconciled man to duty.—Robertson.
Col_1:22. Holiness the Supreme End of Reconciliation.
I. Holiness an inward state and an outward result.—“Holy, unblamable and unreprovable.”
II. Holiness alone can satisfy God.—“In His sight.”
III. Holiness is the final completion of the soul.—“To present you.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v22 22. “—To present you holy and blameless and unrebukable…
ARGUMENT 6
HOLINESS THE ULTIMATUM
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22. “—To present you holy and blameless and unrebukable in His presence.” Here Paul reaches the culmination of his prologue, running into a transcendent climax on holiness, the end of the apostolic ministry. No wonder he reaches this conclusion after the wonderful affirmations on the Christhood, leading human thought up to the highest pinnacle of the created universe, amid the splendors and glories of cherubim and seraphim, to gaze upon the unparalleled beauties of the glorified bridehood. No wonder he reminds us of the absolute necessity that we be holy and blameless and irreproachable in his presence. The slipshod theology that would satisfy carnal people short of entire sanctification will never get in a million miles of the glorified bridehood. It is a wholesale delusion and caprice of the devil.
23. “If ye abide, having been grounded in the faith, firm and immovable from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard.” The holiness which Paul preaches is no superficial affair; it goes down through all the mud, sand, and slate, and builds its superstructure on the everlasting Rock, destined to stand forever unshaken by cyclones, eternally towering, the admiration of angels and redeemed spirits. This experimental holiness gives you a permanent and abiding settlement in Christ, no longer the sport of the billow, the caprice of the storm. “Preached in all creation, which is under heaven;” not as E.V. reads, “to every creature,” as if the gospel had reached all people in Paul’s day; but it is for the whole world.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v21 Reconciliation. The Greek word signifies "to change thoroughly from,"…
reconciled
Reconciliation. The Greek word signifies "to change thoroughly from," and occurs, Rom 5:10; Rom 11:15; 1Co 7:11; 2Co 5:18; 2Co 5:19; 2Co 5:20. Reconciliation looks toward the effect of the death of christ upon man, as propitiation (See Scofield "Rom 3:25"), is the Godward aspect, and is that effect of the death of Christ upon the believing sinner which, through divine power, works in him a "thorough change" toward God from enmity and aversion to love and trust. It is never said that God is reconciled. God is propitiated, the sinner reconciled (cf) 2Co 5:18-21.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v21 The application of these truths to the Christians of…
The application of these truths to the Christians of Colossae:
v. 21. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
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v. 22. in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight,
v. 23. if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I, Paul, am made a minister.
All the blessed truths which he has discussed in the previous paragraph the apostle wants to apply to the Colossians, his aim being to make them conscious of the unspeakable glories which are the lot of the believers here and in the world to come: And you that were formerly strangers and enemies as to your mind in wicked works. The Colossian Christians, for the most part Gentiles by birth, had not merely been alienated, estranged, from God, as though they had at one time been in fellowship with Him, but they had been absolute strangers to Him, shut out entirely from His love and mercy; they had been His outspoken and inveterate enemies in their own nature. See Eph 2:1; Eph 2:12; Eph 4:18. They were in a state and condition of estrangement as to their affections, passions, desires, understanding. The sphere in which they were moving was that of wicked works, of deeds which increased the alienation between God and them day after day, Rom 8:7. They were thus under the wrath of God and doomed to the judgment of everlasting damnation.
But now the miracle of God’s mercy is brought out: But now has He reconciled (you) in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and unreprovable before Him. This characterizes the present state of the Colossians, the state into which they entered through faith in conversion. Now they have been reconciled, now they have become partakers of the reconciliation of Christ. By God they were reconciled to Himself, in the body of His flesh. The Son of the God of love, the only-begotten Son, the eternal Word, was made flesh, and earned and effected a full reconciliation between the righteous God and the sinful world, through His vicarious death. He bore the curse of being forsaken by God, of being condemned to the fires of eternal death; He paid the debt, He delivered mankind from sin, death, and the devil. This reconciliation is ours by faith, it is a gift of God’s free love, whose purpose was to set us forth, to present us before Himself and His judgment as holy, as people that have been cleansed from sin and consecrated to God, as blameless, free from the faults and stains of sin, as unreprovable, no one being able to fasten an accusation upon us. See 2Co 5:19-21.
How this condition may obtain and continue is shown in the next words: If, indeed, you remain firmly grounded through faith, and firm and not to be moved from the hope of the Gospel which you have heard, which was preached before every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Faith is a condition of salvation inasmuch as it is the instrument and means by which salvation is accepted. Paul writes in a very delicate way: Assuming that, by which he means to say that there could surely be no doubt as to their remaining in faith. With this faith in their hearts, faith in the redemption through the death of Christ, the Christians of Colossae and of all times are grounded, firmly established, they have the surest foundation, for their trust is grounded in Jesus, the Author and Finisher of their faith. It was not only thus in the past, it is thus in the present. And with the help of the Holy Spirit the Christians will not be moved away from the hope of the Gospel which they have heard. The Gospel holds out the aim and object of the believers’ faith, the salvation of their souls, the glory of heaven. No suggestions and persecutions from without, no foolish lusts and desires from within should make us deviate from the directness of our way to heaven. For the promises of the Gospel which have been given us are so sure and certain that no other certainty can compare with their simple assurance. Paul adds that this same Gospel which the Colossians had heard had been preached in the presence of every creature under heaven. Even then the Gospel had been carried forth into every part of the civilized world; it was being spoken of in all the earth, Rom 10:18. All men in search of the truth were being given an opportunity of hearing and learning the way of salvation, of becoming acquainted with the message of redemption, of which Paul had become a minister. The Gospel as preached by Paul is the only way to heaven.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v21 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul makes it clear that God has now revealed that Christ exchanges the sin of Gentile believers for his holiness.
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At one time, you also
"There was a time when you Colossian believers also"
were strangers to God
"were like people whom God did not know" or "had pushed God away"
to present you holy, blameless, and above reproach before him
Paul is describing the Colossians as though Jesus had physically cleaned them, put them in clean clothes, and brought them to stand before God the Father. (See: Metaphor)
blameless, and above reproach
Paul uses two words that mean almost the same thing to emphasize the idea of perfection. AT: "perfect" (See: Parallelism)
before him
This expression of location stands for "in God's view" or "in God's mind" (See: Metaphor)
that was proclaimed
that believers proclaimed (See: Active or Passive)
to every person created under heaven
"to every person in the world"
the gospel of which I, Paul, became a servant
Paul was actually a servant of God. AT: "the gospel that I, Paul, serve God by proclaiming" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
God
evil
reconcile
die
holy
blameless
faith
good news
preach
create
heaven
Paul
servant
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv20–22 1:20 Through Christ, God has reconciled everything to himself,…
1:20 Through Christ, God has reconciled everything to himself, reestablishing his rule over all creation, including both the spiritual and the earthly realms.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.