Reconciliation in Colossians 1:20-22

Colossians 1:18 Furthermore, He Himself is the head over His body, namely His church who is the founder that is the firstborn from the dead ones. The divine purpose was accomplished so that He alone became the Preeminent One among each person with no exceptions 19 because He was very pleased to have all His fullness dwell permanently in Him 20 so as to reconcile through Him alone each and every thing for Himself. Specifically, by making peace by means of His blood, namely His cross-through Him alone, whether each and every thing on the earth or each and every thing located in the heavens. (Lecturer’s translation)

In Colossians 1:20, the apostle Paul presents the result of all the Father’s fullness dwelling permanently in His Son Jesus Christ.

In other words, as a result of being the full or perfect embodiment of the Father’s redemptive power and love, Jesus Christ reconciled all of fallen creation to the Father by means of His substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross.

The Father reconciled each and every inanimate and animate object on earth and in the first, second and third heavens through His Son Jesus Christ’s substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross.

The cross of Jesus Christ restored the broken relationship between creation and the Father who is holy.

His cross restored this broken relationship between a holy God and His creation to its former peaceful state and this relationship between God and His creation was the result of Satan’s rebellion as well as Adam’s rebellion.

Both were the heads of their respective races and the former was the head of the angelic race in eternity past and the latter the head of the human race.

The sin of both disrupted the former peaceful relations that existed between God and their races before their sins (Gen. 3:17-19; cf. Rom. 8:19-23).

“Each and every thing” refers to the totality of inanimate and animate objects that are contained in the first, second and third heavens and the earth or in other words, which are contained in creation.

These would include: (1) Stars, satellites, and planets that compose the stellar universe. (2) Earth’s sun and moon. (3) Vegetation on the earth (4) Marine life (5) Bird life (6) Terrestrial life. (7) Human beings (8) Angels.

It would also include the orderly arrangement of the heavens and the earth and all things in their complex order and composition as created by God, created in perfect order and subject to the laws God established to govern its operation (Matt. 13:35; John 21:25; Acts 17:24).

This interpretation is indicated by the expression εἴτε τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς εἴτε τὰ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, “whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

So Paul is making clear that the angels needed reconciliation and this would serve to refute the false teachers in Colossae who were involved in the worship of angels (Colossians 2:18).

Therefore, Paul is teaching in Colossians 1:20 that Jesus Christ’s substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross were the means by which the Father affected a reconciliation with Himself and His sinful creatures, both men and angels.

In Colossians 1:20, “His blood” is used in a figurative sense as part of a representative analogy between the physical death of the animal sacrifice in the Mosaic Law and the spiritual and physical deaths of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Jesus Christ’s spiritual and physical deaths on the cross were unique in that He suffered them as a sinless person which stands in stark contrast to sinful humanity who suffer spiritual and physical death because of sin.

Jesus Christ suffered them as a substitute for sinners in order to reconcile them to God and His spiritual and physical deaths on the cross, were the means by which the Father reconciled each and every thing in creation for Himself through His Son.

Colossians 1:20 ends with an emphatic repetition to the previous statement that through Jesus Christ alone the Father reconciled all things to Himself by means of His Son’s spiritual and physical deaths on the cross.

Paul is emphasizing that Jesus Christ is the intermediate personal agency whom the Father used to reconcile each and every inanimate and animate object to Himself.

These animate objects would include human beings, the animal, insect and bird kingdom on earth and the inanimate objects would include such things as the seven continents and every type of body of water such as oceans, rivers, lakes, ponds, and streams.

These animate objects located in the first, second and third heavens would include of course angels and the bird and insect kingdom on earth and the inanimate objects would include such things as planets, moons, stars and suns.

The reason why these inanimate objects on earth and in the first heaven, i.e. the earth’s atmosphere would need to be reconciled is that they are under the headship of Adam.

The sin of Adam and Eve brought a curse upon the earth and thus all the creatures living on the earth suffered because of their sin (cf. Gen. 3:17-19; Rom. 8:19-23).

The reason why these inanimate objects in the second and third heavens would need to be reconciled is that they are under the headship of Satan whose rebellion brought a curse to these two regions of heaven just as Adam’s sin brought a curse upon everything on the earth and in the earth’s atmosphere.

Colossians 1:21 Indeed, because each and every one of you at one time existed in the state of being alienated, specifically enemies because of your attitude, because of your evil actions. (Lecturer’s translation)

In Colossians 1:21, Paul is describing the unregenerate state of these faithful Christians in Colossae prior to their conversion to Christianity which serves to highlight the Father’s great love which He demonstrated toward them.

Paul’s statement in Colossians 1:21 identifies for his readers specifically why there was a need for their being reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:22 He has now in fact reconciled each and every one of you by means of His body composed of human flesh by means of His death. The purpose of which is to present each and every one of you as holy, uncensurable and unaccusable in His presence. (Lecturer’s translation)

In Colossians 1:22, Paul is emphasizing with the Colossians that the sufficiency of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross to reconcile unregenerate humanity to a holy God.

“Now” is speaking of the state of these faithful Christians in Colossae as reconciled to God when Paul penned this epistle or in other words, it speaks of their present state of being reconciled to the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

Paul is teaching in Colossians 1:22 that the Father reconciled them to Himself through His Son Jesus Christ’s substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross.

He is teaching that the cross of Jesus Christ restored the broken relationship between unregenerate humanity and the Father who is holy.

His cross restored this broken relationship between a holy God and fallen unregenerate humanity to its former peaceful state prior to the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden.

This broken relationship between God and unregenerate humanity was the direct result of Satan’s rebellion against God as well as Adam’s rebellion.

Satan deceived Adam’s wife into disobeying the Lord’s command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Adam was not deceived but did go along with his wife’s disobedience and disobeyed Himself since he valued his relationship to her more than his obedience to the Lord who gave her to him.

Paul is emphasizing with the Colossians in verse 22 that the human body of Jesus Christ was the means by which the Father reconciled these faithful Christians in Colossae when they were in their unregenerate state prior to their conversion.

This verse is emphasizing the fact that the Son did in fact have a human body which made Him susceptible to physical suffering such as the torture of the cross.

The reason for this emphasis is that Paul is attempting to refute the false teachers in Colossae who belong to the Essene branch of Judaism which also adhered to an incipient form of Gnosticism.

Now, in Colossians 1:22 “death” refers to both the spiritual and physical deaths of Jesus Christ on the cross which He experienced on the cross in His human body because it contains the figure of heterosis of number which means that the singular form of a word is put for the plural form of the word.

Here the noun thanatos is in the singular but refers to both the spiritual and physical deaths of Jesus Christ on the cross and the design of this figure here is to make emphatic that the Father reconciled sinful humanity to Himself through His Son sacrifice on the cross as a human being.

That the figure of heterosis is being employed with this noun is indicated by the fact that both of the spiritual and physical deaths of Jesus Christ reconciled the entire human race to a holy God.

Adam died first spiritually as a result of his disobedience in the Garden of Eden and then physically and so therefore, the Last Adam, Jesus Christ had to die spiritually first and then physically to negate the fall of Adam and to reconcile the first Adam and his progeny, i.e. the human race to a holy God.

So therefore Colossians 1:22 teaches that the Lord Jesus Christ’s spiritual and physical deaths on the cross were the means by which sinful humanity was reconciled to God the Father.

His spiritual death was “unique” in that He suffered spiritual death as a “sinless” human being whereas every member of the human race suffers spiritual death the moment they are born into the world and His physical death was “unique” in that He died physically of His own volition (cf. John 10:18).

The apostle Paul is teaching in Colossians 1:21-22 that Jesus Christ is the Mediator between a holy God and sinful humanity since these verses teach that He is both God and man and that His death on the cross reconciled all of sinful humanity to a holy God (cf. 1 Tim. 2:5).