Colossians 1 vv 19 20
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The document discusses how God reconciled all things to himself through Jesus Christ by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. It notes that all of God's fullness dwelt in Jesus, and that God was pleased with this. The document analyzes the Greek words and phrases used in Colossians 1:19-20 to explain how God reconciled everything to himself through Jesus.
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Colossians 1 vv 19 20
- 1. Welcome to Grace! “The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.” Zechariah 14:9
- 3. Colossians 1:19-20 • Introduction “He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. 29 To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”
- 4. Colossians 1:19-20 • Introduction “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
- 5. Colossians 1:19-20 • Introduction • All God’s fulness lived in Jesus, v. 19 ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ εὐδόκηςεν πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα κατοικῆςαι
- 6. Colossians 1:19-20 • Introduction • All God’s fulness lived in Jesus, v. 19 ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ εὐδόκηςεν πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα κατοικῆςαι – All God’s fulness …
- 7. Colossians 1:19-20 • Introduction • All God’s fulness lived in Jesus, v. 19 ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ εὐδόκηςεν πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα κατοικῆςαι – All God’s fulness … – Dwelt in Jesus
- 8. Colossians 1:19-20 • Introduction • All God’s fulness lived in Jesus, v. 19 ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ εὐδόκηςεν πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα κατοικῆςαι – All God’s fulness … – Dwelt in Jesus – God was pleased with that
- 9. Colossians 1:19-20 • Introduction • All God’s fulness lived in Jesus, v. 19 • God reconciled all things to Himself, v. 20 a
- 10. Colossians 1:19-20 • Introduction • All God’s fulness lived in Jesus, v. 19 • God reconciled all things to Himself, v. 20 a – All things
- 11. Colossians 1:19-20 • Introduction • All God’s fulness lived in Jesus, v. 19 • God reconciled all things to Himself, v. 20 a – All things καὶ δι’ αὐτοῦ ἀποκαταλλάξαι τὰ πάντα εἰσ αὐτόν
- 12. Colossians 1:19-20 • Introduction • All God’s fulness lived in Jesus, v. 19 • God reconciled all things to Himself, v. 20 a – All things – Reconciled ἀποκαταλλάξαι
- 13. Colossians 1:19-20 • Introduction • All God’s fulness lived in Jesus, v. 19 • God reconciled all things to Himself, v. 20 a – All things – Reconciled – Reconciled to Himself ἀποκαταλλάξαι … εἰσ αὐτόν
- 14. Colossians 1:19-20 • Introduction • All God’s fulness lived in Jesus, v. 19 • God reconciled all things to Himself, v. 20 a – All things – Reconciled – Reconciled to Himself – The terrible PROBLEM with that
- 15. Colossians 1:19-20 • Introduction • All God’s fulness lived in Jesus, v. 19 • Reconciled all things to Himself through Jesus, v. 20 a • Through His blood, v. 20b
- 16. Colossians 1:19-20 • Introduction • All God’s fulness lived in Jesus, v. 19 • Reconciled all things to Himself through Jesus, v. 20 a • Through His blood, v. 20b • Conclusion
Editor's Notes
- I’m sure that we are all suitably sensitive about sharing our faith with those who don’t embrace it yet …Or for that matter in encouraging faith in people whose trust in Christ is rather new and delicate and who have some rapid growth and development to do yet in order to come to maturity in ChristI’m sure we all properly wait for the conversational door to open and don’t go dropping our metaphorical shoulder, breaking hinges and bursting locks.But – and I’m sure we probably know this experience quite well – what do you do when suddenly and unexpectedly that door swings back and a question has been asked or openness is shown and we’re called upon to say something that will help them in their spiritual pilgrimage and walk towards the Lord?You see … quite often people who want to know more don’t really (our fault not theirs) know very much so they just don’t know what question to ask.The door has swung open, you’re being trustingly invited in ... But the area of discussion lies open.What do you say?Because we’re much more confident about answering specific questions than being ‘given the floor’ … as it were.Paul answers that issue in vv. 28-29.
- So what we do is – quite basically – we tell ‘em about Jesus.But which Jesus, and what about Jesus?I mean, there’s TV JesusThere’s ‘Socialist Hippy’ JesusThere’s ‘good moral teacher’ JesusThere’s ‘Jesus is yer best mate’ JesusThere’s dim, distant, far too complicated to understand but I do like the music in church’ Jesus …In fact, if you ever start to feel a bit sorry for yourself because you think you’re being misunderstood and misrepresented, you could do worse for yourself than sparing a thought for Jesus just to get some sense of balance and perspective back into the situation!So what sort of Jesus are we going to tell them about?
- Paul gives us a pretty fair clue in the verses in front of us today …Some big name on my Twitter feed came up with a short definition of the Christian message last week.It was, no doubt, a fairly valiant effort … but I’ve forgotten not only what it was but also who came up with it.But will you look at this one?!HERE is what God has done about the mess, pain and chaos that has historically and pervasively arisen in our world …{READ}So there is our text for this morning.In summary you might say …God is WITH us in Christ, v. 19God is FOR us in Christ, v. 20 (R T Lucas)And that’s what it’s really all about.Of course there is MORE to be said, but that is really the stuff at the heart of it.If you want to be able to present everyone mature in Christ, then this is the stuff you need to get over.Now, I don’t quite go for Dick Lucas’s two headings, because that’s not quite the sort of thing Paul is saying in the language he choses … but it’s a fair enough memorable summary of the basic systematic theological content of these two verses.They are about incarnation and the reconciliation that flows from it.So let’s get started, here’s the first thing …
- Ok.What on earth does this mean?A number of answers have been given, according to the setting in life people ascribe to this letter.Some understand this term against the background of a technical term in Gnosticism (dating from Valentinian, c. 100 – c. 160 A.D.)Gnostics referred to ‘the fullness’ as the fullness of the ‘emanations’ that came forth from God.The timing is wrong and the later Gnostic meaning of the word doesn’t fit with its use in this context … so we can scrap that.Neither does the background in popular Stoicism nor even the Hermitic literature match the use Paul makes of this word here.Three simple observations might be made here:This word gets used in the OT to describe ‘the sea and all its fulness’ (Ps. 96:11), ‘the earth and everything in it’ (Ps. 89:11) and so forth … its just referring to the sum and totality of contents … and there’s no technical meaning to the term there yet.The word group gets used (again in the OT) to recognise that God Himself (or His glory) fills the whole of creation, so Jeremiah 23:24: “’Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ says the Lord.” This draws attention to His immanence and His personal involvement in the world.There are links between this word and the word used for ‘to be pleased’ which link in with the notion of God having a dwelling place amongst men … particularly the thought is of Zion as the dwelling place God chose for Himself.These three lines converge at Col 1:19 in the Person of ChristO’ Brien “He is the ‘place’ in Whom God in all His fulness was pleased to take up His residence … All the attributes of God – His Spirit, word wisdom and glory – are perfectly displayed in Christ.”
- This is no temporary indwelling.There is a verb for that – it would be παροικέω … ‘ to sojourn’ (which refers to what you do at a B & B, perhaps?)Bu the verb that’s used here (in red) is κατοικεω … the verb for setting up home and taking residence.As Col 2:9’s present tense makes plain: “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form …”It’s not a temporary but a continuing residence.All the fulness of God is at home in Jesus … Jesus is God in the flesh.Is this matter an optional extra?It is not.Because what we have here is the essential and foundational teaching that the Bible says is necessary to present every man mature in Christ.
- Now that verb εὐδόκεω(‘to be pleased’) often appears in the LXX to depict God’s Old Testament pleasure.It’s particularly used of His choice and election – and there’s often a connection between His choosing and His dwelling place.You can follow that through in Ps. 131:13-14 , Isaiah 8:18 and Isaiah 49:20 where Zion is ‘the mountain on which it pleased God to dwell’.Now these are not matters of esoteric interest … this is the stuff it’s essential to tell if our aim is to present every man mature in Christ.And you begin to see why when you move on to consider the second major point Paul is making here …
- There’s an interesting myth going the rounds in our wilfully secular society that salvation is just about personal choices and tastes … just about your decision and your soul.It’s not an idea that finds much support in Biblical theology and eschatology.You read Genesis and you find that the while Creation comes to grief because of humanity’s fall into sin.You read Romans and you find that the trouble with this world is still that the whole creation is groaning in travail … as in the pains of labour … awaiting the revelation of the sons of God, and (Romans 8:20 ff.) that the Creation lies subjected to frustration “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[h] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”Christian salvation is not personal in the sense that it is divorced from the public square but in the sense that each person needs to do something about it and get back into a personal relationship with the living God!It is personal and public not personal and private, secret, without impact on the cosmos surrounding us.Sin’s impact is cosmic and so is redemption’s!See it like this:It does something dynamic in the fish tank we all live in … and there’s BOUND to be a change in the water!
- That one word ‘everything’ gets all the commentators either scurrying for cover or reaching for elaborate explanations.What on earth can that ‘everything’ include?You might think v. 20 b clears it up beautifully: “whether things on earth or things in heaven”But then … mebbe it doesn’t.You can take the view Jesus reconciles earthly humans and heavenly angels to God.But what about the fallen angels?Can they be saved or do they have the lake of fire reserved for them at last?Or you can take the view (with Kehl) that Jesus reconciles humans in heaven and humans on earth … but that over-limits the intentions of this text to mankind. It is after all stated here that τὰ πάντα is what gets reconciled to God!Or you can read ‘reconciliation’ as meaning ‘subjection’, so that all things become subjected to Himself … pacifying again the rebellious and dark cosmic powers … but that just isn’t the word that gets used here!There is a school of opinion that says we are asking the wrong question … that the emphasis is not on ‘what’s included in what’s reconciled’ but ‘Who is the author of reconciliation’. This would be a great solution of this problem … if it only fitted with the words of this text!Perhaps the majority view is that the death and resurrection of Christ has overthrown the forces of darkness and put the universe again in its proper place under its cosmic Head … Christ (so in that sense all things are now reconciled to God). It’s not that angels are reconciled to God in the same way that fallen but saveable mortals are … For us reconciliation comes about through His blood shed on the Cross, but the material and Heavenly creations ARE reconciled things that were done by His death on the Cross, but not in the same way that we are.We are reconciled through the Cross by way of substitutionary atonement … whereas nature and supernature are reconciled to Him by returning to the relationship with Him that they were initially carved out for.Bruce says that the peace which Christ has brought about may be “freely accepted, or … compulsorily imposed.”Whichever is the case all is pacified and returned to its rightful place and in that sense has been reconciled to God.I have a lot of non-Christian, sometimes outrightly atheist friends … and I’m persuaded that a minister SHOULD have.A good proportion of those people are mightily exercised but things that the Bible calls the frustration of Creation in birth pains.They are seriously motivated by world hunger, natural disaster relief, the sufferings of the world’s poorest peoples.They tend to be more than slightly scandalised by Christians who talkk about justice in Heaven, but don’t seem bothered anyone should have justice now!If we’re going to bring them to Christ and to maturity in Christ, we need to talk to them about issues like this one!Through Him, reconciling all things to Himself.Reconciling …
- What does this word used here mean?Naturally we’re going to focus primarily on what it means for mankind to be reconciled to God through salvation … assume that’s our emphasis as we look at the part of the ‘all’ which most closely impacts on humanity …The need for reconciliation, of course, means that there is an already existing state of strife and disharmony in existence between God and His Creation.R T Lucas: “A gigantic rupture has taken place, dislocating the relationship between God and man, and throwing into disarray the whole created order. The world knows no settled peace. Futility and decay are the hallmarks of creation (Rom. 8:18 f.); hostility and evil are the hallmarks of mankind (verse 21)”And these are VERY much the sorts of things we shall tell people.They think God is in the business of criticism … when He’s made His business going to huge lengths to bring about sinful humans’ reconciliation to Himself.
- Sin alienates.Sin separates.But sin primarily alienates humans from God.We seem to live in an age that is trying desperately to write the Creator out of the script in order to be able to behave as it feels like.But socially this isn’t too great, because we all know what happens to society if we all abandon any sense of right and wrong … it doesn’t make for a very nice place to live!So sin gets defined in terms of what is ‘sin’ against society … and now we’re on the high road to ‘if it doesn’t hurt anyone else’ or ‘my private life is my own’ or ‘it seems like the most loving thing’ and all kinds of STUFF of that sort.The fact that private sins colour the water in the tank of society is never recognised or acknowledged in these arguments.And now we live in a world where we are legally obliged to accepting immorality as acceptable or be stigmatised or even prosecuted as wrong doers ourselves.Society has proven singularly ineffective at regulating its members’ conduct purely in reference to itself … when reference to a Divine being outside the system is removed from the discussion of what constitutes acceptable conduct – but that may be the stuff of a philosophical or ethical argument for another day.For now, please notice from THIS text, that God’s analysis of our plight and our human condition is that we primarily need to be reconciled to Himself … so that everything else can then be brought into place!We do need to communicate that although the biggest issue on the screen of OUR mind might be the personal pain or relational dysfunctionality that sin has brought into our experience, the biggest issue in the cosmos is the root cause of what we’re experiencing.The biggest issue is that we have sinned against and been alienated from God … and that it is from the violation of the first tablet of the Law that the violations of the second tablet actually spring.Sort the relationship with GOD, and the other stuff starts coming back into place.We need to be reconciled to HIMSELF.
- Now, there’s a terrible problem with that proposition, because the One we need to be reconciled to has a constitutional aversion to injustice.He’s been wronged – absolutely, there’s no doubt.And it wouldn’t be just to shrug that off and make like you could simply forget it.The sin has been committed and absolute justice takes place only when its penalty is paid.So – OK – we’re happy with that.Humans are proud … come on … we’ll sort this one out for ourselves.What’s the fine?Now here’s where it gets REALLY problematic!There isn’t a fine for what we have done … or a few penalty points on your licence.The sin we have committed is a capital one, the verdict is guilty and the penalty’s death … and now we’re not SO keen to pay it!Now here comes the bit we’ve been waiting for …
- This all comes about through HIS blood.The pattern of thought in the world this book comes from is that the penalty of sin is death, and the life is in the blood, so shedding all your blood is laying down your life … particularly laying down your life in blood sacrifice.Two things to notice here in particular:Reconciliation is a work that’s been accomplishedWe don’t need to wait until the end of time, because peace HAS been made by the death of Christ.So reconciliation doesn’t wait for human achievement, but for human acceptance.God is reconciled to man because Christ’s blood shed on the Cross has (history) paid the price of the human sin that previously alienated Him … so the only change that’s needed to reconcile any human being to God takes place not within the heart of God but within the heart of man.2. Reconciliation is achieved at the CrossThat ‘blood’ of His Cross refers to Christ’s sacrificial death … and this is also the stuff we want to be telling to people who pen doors to us to talk about spiritual things.Since the principalities and powers in opposition to God know full well what brought about their defeat … and are equally aware of the central Christian truth that saves … it must be their over-riding concern to get the church to talk about anything but this!In the case of the Colossian heretics, it seems that this was not the central issue in their thinking and teaching – other teachings were of so much greater interest to them!For all of us it’s easy to get into a thought world where the main thing is no longer the main thing!Paul never locates Christianity in sideshows or distractions … lest the Cross of Christ should be emptied of its power.He’s turning our eyes back to the Cross for the place of reconciliation, and up to the throne to the Person Who reconciles … God in the flesh, the crucified Saviour … our Jesus.
- So when the conversation turns and a person opens their ears and sets out a conversational door for you to walk through … what are the things you will want to say to them?What need they to know if they’re going to come to know Jesus, and what are the headings we should speak to?They may raise specific questions that need courteous answer, but the points we need to move towards in talking are these ones:Jesus Christ is God in the flesh Who has come into the world to reconcile mankind to Himself.He will impact the world by restoring its right relationship to Himself, its Creator, Sustainer and LordAnd He’s done this supremely by the range of things He accomplished as He sacrificed His own life on the Cross.All God’s fulness set up house in the Lord Jesus, to reconcile us to Himself by Christ’s blood.And the more we get to be people who are about that, the more we’ll represent these truths faithfully, and the more our lives will glorify God.