Reconciliation

Colossians 1:19-23

As we slowly walk through this section of Paul’s letter, we are trying to understand the separate parts of what God did for us through Christ.  Ultimately, Colossians 1:15-23 is the gospel message.  However, I feel that over time, as we continue to grow in faith, it is easy to gloss over the Christianese terminology and forget what it means.  In the spiritual practice of Lectio Divina, which is Latin for Spiritual Reading, we learn how to absorb what we are reading instead of just reading it for reading’s sake.  This is the process I use as I walk through the scriptures.  This blog is just my journal on what I see, what sticks out, and what I get out of it.  I publish them just in case it is helpful for someone else.  Thanks for joining me on my learning journey!

There are three other passages in other letters that Paul wrote to help us better understand what he is saying here about reconciliation through the cross:

2 Corinthians 5:18-19 

18 And all these things are from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Ephesians 1:10 

10 for the administration of the fullness of times, to bring together all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him 

Ephesians 2:13–16 

13 But now in Christ Jesus you, the ones who once were far away, have become near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition, the enmity, in his flesh, 15 invalidating the law of commandments in ordinances, in order that he might create the two in himself into one new man, thus making peace, 16 and might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, killing the enmity in himself.

In Isaiah 9:6 we get the term “Prince of Peace,” a passage usually referred to in Christmas services as this was the prophecy of who the Messiah would be.  In our sin, we could not live in relationship with God.  Sin cannot survive in the presence of a Holy God.  Sinful beings cannot coexist with a Perfect Creator.  This is why in the Old Testament law of the Torah, we see so many rules about cleanliness and sanctification by washing and avoiding “dirty” things.  Over time, it grew to be a rule of religiosity and pride, but Jesus exposed that in His ministry on earth before going to the cross by pointing out to the Pharisees that they were physically clean but spiritually impure.  They did “all the right things,” but still didn’t know God.  This was evident in that they didn’t even recognize that He was God in the flesh, the prophesied Messiah.

From a different angle we can understand this through the word peace.  Peace isn’t an outward expression, it is an internal state of being.  The original Hebrew word for peace is shalom.

Peace (שָׁלוֹם, shalom; εἰρήνη, eirēnē). A pervasive concept in the Bible that most commonly relates to a relationship of love and loyalty with God and one another.

The Greek word used and shown above is the same word translated into peace in these passages, representing the same concept of shalom in the Hebrew text.  The word that peace is the antithesis of is enmity, as we see in Ephesians 2:14.  This is hostility, a barrier, an unresolved conflict.  When the bible talks about us being separated from God it isn’t like we just went our own separate ways or we just are “taking a break.”  It literally means that we were at war with God.  The comparison between shalom and enmity is that shalom is when we are in perfect harmony and unity.  Enmity compares as a bitter hatred.  

I can already imagine what you are thinking because I am thinking it too: “but I wouldn’t say I ever hated God.” Most of us wouldn’t.  In fact, true agnostics don’t “hate” God; they can’t hate something they don’t think even exists.  Yet, when we consider that we were created for God’s pleasure and to glorify Him, living outside of that relationship might as well be the same thing.  Just like when Jesus said in Luke 14:26 that we cannot be His disciples unless we hate our parents and siblings, He is not saying we should actually hate them, rather that our love and obedience to Him should far outweigh the love we have for everyone and anything else.  So then, when we love anything else above Him, and in this example actually refuse to even live in relationship with Him, by comparison we are hating Him.

I understand this is some strong language, but it is necessary to understand how great the divide was between mankind and God that has now been broken.  This takes us back to Jesus’ human death, when the veil in the temple was torn (Luke 23:45).  That four-inch-thick barrier between all humans and the presence of God represented the divide and Jesus’ death tore it up!  This is the reconciliation Paul is writing about.  There is no longer a safety barrier needed between us and God because Jesus’ death has made us once again whole, holy, and in shalom with God our creator!  This is the good news!  

It is important for us to understand how this works so that we can appreciate what He did for us.  Secondly, if we understand it, we can also relate it to other people!  This is what Paul will explain in the next lines of his letter.