The Pulpit Commentary — Colossians — Section 44

A mere increaso of knowledge or blessedness on their part, or the confirmation of them in their heavenly obedience, can hardly be covered by the term "reconcilif\tion. n The word must be used in its ordinary sense. The apostle has described 01,rist's mediatoria.l function as twofold: ns exercised in the natural creation and in the spiritual creation- in the universe nnd 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, arnl 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. Vers. 21-23.-Application of the reconci?iation to the spedal case of the Colos- sians. I. THE NATURAL STATE OF THE COLOSSIANS. "And you, being in time past cstranaed and enemies in your mind in evil works, . . . bath lie reconciled." 1. They were ;stranged from God. The original term denotes that they had fallen from f\ prior relationship of amity. It points suggestively to the original innocence of nun in Eden, and to the deplorable effects of the Fall, as separating between God anci man (Isa. lix. 2). '!'hey had become strangers to God, (1) because strangers to the life of God (Eph. iv. 17); (2) because they followed strange gods (Deut. xxxii. 16; Rom. i. 25); (3) because they were "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel" (Eph. ii. 12). 2. They were hostile to God both in thought and deed. A strange thought that man should cherish a living enmity in a dead heart! It is enmity to God as Lawgiver and Punisher of sin. (1) Mark the reality of this enmity. (a) The threatening of the second command asserts it: "Them that hate me" (Ex:od. x.x. 5). (b) The friendship of the world involves it: "\Vhosoever will be a friend of the world will be an enemy of God" (Jas. iv. 4). (c) The carnal mind is full of it (Rom. viii. 7). (a) All scoffs and blasphemies manifest it (Ps. lxxiv. 18). (2) The seat of this enmity. "In your mind." It is an essentially carnal mind. The enmity lies deep down in the heart, which is a "chamber of imagery," full of all shapes of hatred to God and man. Strange that there should be hatred to him who is Author of our being and Fountain of our happiness I We need, indeed, in regeneration to be "renewed in our mind" (Eph. iv. ~3), that we may exchange our hatred for love. (3) The practical sphere of this enmity. "In evil works." The enmity is not caused by evil works, but is mani- fested through them (Matt. xv. 19). They whose "mind and conscience nre defiled" are "unto all good works reprobate" (Titus i. 16). II. THE RECONCILIATION OF TIIE CoLoss1ANs. "Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death." The reconciliation has been already explained. The means of it are here expressively set forth by the apostle. The passage su~gests: 1. That the atonement was a great liistoricfact; so that no person might conclllde that the reconciliation was effected apart from the person of the incarnate Son or after his return to glory. 2. That he was a real man in a human body, as if to refute Gnostic theories as to a phantom body or as to the bouy being essentially evil. It was a heresy to say that "Jesus Christ had not come in the flesh" (1 John iv. 2, 3). 3. That he carried about with him on earth a sin-bearing humanity. It was, therefore, a "weak, abased, and suffering humanity" (Rom. viii. 3). 4. Tltat his life was consummated by rkath, as the completion of his atoning sacrifice for sin. III. THE FRUIT OB EFFECT OF THE RECONCILIATION. "To preEent you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him." 1. We see that sanctification follows reconciliation and does not precede it. It confounds the relations of things and perverts Christian doctrine to reverse the order. 2. The atonement provides for our sanctification. It purchased for us all the communications of Divine life. Christ is made to us at once "Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption" (1 Cor. i. 30). 3. The nature of tliis sanctification. "Holy and without blemish and unreprov- able." The words point, not to the relative standic.g before God, but to the externally observable advances in spiritual life. 'l'hese are ieprescnted, first-, positively-" holy;" nnd then negatively-" without blemish and unreprovable." 4. The end of this sanctijication. "'l'o present you holy nnd without blemish nnd unreprovable before him." Not, as somo allege, nt the day of judgment., but for his personal approbation, implying (1) that nll we do is in God's presence (Luke ii. 18; xiii. 26; Acts x. 33); l2) that Ood is the Witness cf nil our nets (Luke viii. 47; 2 Cor. vii. 12; Gal. i. 20); (3) that  38 'l'HE EPISTLE TO 'l'RE COLOSSIANS. [cu. 1. 1-29.