Colossians 1:19-23
“For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.”
The first thing we see in verse 19 is that it “pleased the Father.” The word here in the original language means “to seem good to one” and “to do willingly” and the word for “fullness” is used to describe a ship manned with all things like sailors, rowers and soldiers, etc) and was used by the gnostic false teachers to describe the sum of all divinely attributes. Since Paul was refuting these teachers, it is significant that he was using this word.
So we can read this as follows: “It seemed good to God that His Son should contain the fullness of God and all things needed to reconcile man back to Him such that He was willing to send His Son to the cross and offer up His blood to make peace.”
The most important thing we have to realize as sinners is that we need to be reconciled to God. Sin separates us from God and we were born with a dead spirit that inhibits us to have a relationship with Him.
We can’t work for our salvation because the Bible does not tell us how many good things to do and I, for one, do not want to see God with a scale comparing my good deeds and bad deeds. We are saved by faith through grace (Eph 2:8) and now we have peace with God as exemplified in the following verses:
Romans 5:1
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”
Eph 2:14
“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation”
And another thing to note is that it is not just man who is reconciled, it is the entire universe (“things on earth or things in heaven”) and we see this in Revelation Chapter 5 when no one is worthy to open the seven sealed scroll except for “a Lamb as though it had been slain…” This lamb is Jesus Christ and the scroll is the title deed to creation. It was lost by Adam in the Fall and will be regained by Jesus Christ.
Verses 21-22 points out that we were “alienated” (means “to be shut out from one’s fellowship and intimacy”) and “enemies” (means “one who is hateful, despises God, the hostile one) to God but we have been reconciled through the death of Christ. Our ledger of bad deeds has been wiped clean.
I don’t think we can fully grasp the goodness of God’s love demonstrated to us while we were hateful, spiteful and enemies towards God.
Romans 5:8
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Verse 23 hints at losing your salvation and can be confusing if read superficially and not in context. The word “reconciled” in verse 21 is in the past tense and in the indicative mood. This means that it is a simple statement of fact that we have been reconciled. It is a past event that has occurred. Warren Wiersbe explains this pretty well so I wanted to include his comments on this:
“Paul used an architectural image in this verse—a house, firmly set on the foundation. The town of Colossae was located in a region known for earthquakes, and the word translated “moved away” can mean “earthquake stricken.” Paul was saying, “If you are truly saved, and built on the solid foundation, Jesus Christ, then you will continue in the faith and nothing will move you. You have heard the Gospel and trusted Jesus Christ, and He has saved you.”
In other words, we are not saved by continuing in the faith. But we continue in the faith and thus prove that we are saved. It behooves each professing Christian to test his own faith and examine his own heart to be sure he is a child of God” (Warren Wiersbe – The Bible Exposition Commentary)
The things we need to take away from these verses is that we have been reconciled through Christ and if we have truly been reconciled then our lives will show it. I close with the words of Jesus in John 15:5
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”