The Pulpit Commentary — Colossians — Section 43

Ver. 20.-.The reamciliation effeded by <Jhrist. "And, having made peace through the blood of tbe cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself." L Tm: NATURE OF THIS RECONCILIATION. 1. It implies a prior estrangement. Man "departed from the li\'ing God" (Heb. iii. 12). He is "alienated" from God (ver. 21). "The carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom. viii. 7). Even God himself was an~ry with man (Ps. vii. 11). But this prior estrangement implies an antecedent friendship. 2. ThO'Ugh man was first in the breruh of this friendship, God was first in the reccnciliation. 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 ma.king to us the offer of reconciliation. The atonement is not the cause, but the effect, of God's love. 3. There was reconciliation on God's side as well as fflll,n's. 'l'here 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 Cluist wa.s a true satisfaction to Divine justice for sin, so that God could be "just and the Justifier of the ungodly." II. THE llEANB OF THIS BEOONCILUTION. "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 'l'estament sacrifices; the second, the penal nature of the Redeemer's death as that of a cnrse-bea~ing Substitute. The apostle emphasizes this aspect of truth, because the errori.sts of his time denied alike a real incarnation and a real atonement. III. '.l'HE u:i.TVEBS.A.LITY oF TBIS BECONCILUTION. "By him to reconcile all things to b.imself; by him, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. 1. " Things ir. earth" may i11clude 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" (Hom. viii. 19-21). 'l'he curse passed to the ground through man's sin; through man will the blessing reach it again. It is a z:;ignificant fact that Christianity in its purest form brings a happy change over those JJOrtions of 1.hc 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 wan. It was iu virtue of Christ's death that the Holy Spirit came tu change the Ltans of wer, aud briua them into harmony with God. 2. " Things in heaven." l'i:ot aL;_.,c:,s, as ,-ome sup~usc, for they were never estranged from God and Christ, autl ll.e H~atl of augelc as well as men is never represented as the Modiator of angels. CII. I. 1-29.] nm EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSI ANS. 37