How Did God Reconcile ‘All Things’ to Himself?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Happy Monday and welcome back to the podcast.

00:00:06.680 | Today I am, I'm gonna batch several questions together

00:00:10.600 | all on the same Bible text of Colossians 1:20,

00:00:12.840 | different themes, but same text of Colossians 1:20.

00:00:15.680 | Here's the first one from John,

00:00:17.260 | a listener to the podcast from Mullumbimby, Australia?

00:00:21.240 | Mullumbimby?

00:00:22.360 | I'm sure I butchered that.

00:00:23.920 | Somewhere in Australia, Pastor John, hello.

00:00:26.840 | What does it mean that God reconciled to himself

00:00:29.240 | all things, whether in heaven or on earth,

00:00:31.840 | and why did he need to reconcile all things to himself?

00:00:36.320 | A listener named Ryan writes in,

00:00:38.120 | Dear Pastor John, a friend of mine and I

00:00:39.640 | have been discussing Colossians 1:20

00:00:42.160 | and the reconciliation of all things in heaven and on earth

00:00:45.560 | making peace by the blood of the cross.

00:00:47.840 | What does this mean for those who are not elect?

00:00:50.760 | Does Colossians 1:19-20 allude to a reconciliation

00:00:54.800 | for both elect and non-elect alike?

00:00:57.720 | Many thanks from a longtime listener.

00:01:00.560 | And a listener named Lake writes in,

00:01:02.040 | Pastor John, I understand that the earth

00:01:03.800 | needs reconciliation, but what's in heaven

00:01:06.320 | needing reconciliation?

00:01:08.880 | So also asks Vicky in Dayton, Ohio,

00:01:11.720 | Pastor John, Colossians 1:20 seems to imply

00:01:13.840 | that not just earth, but also heaven

00:01:15.500 | has been reconciled to God.

00:01:17.580 | The ladies in my Bible study group can't agree here.

00:01:20.220 | Some think Paul means the general universe.

00:01:22.960 | Others think he means the actual heavenly abode of God.

00:01:27.320 | We are wondering which is correct.

00:01:29.920 | It would seem to me that when the devil originally sinned,

00:01:32.440 | he contaminated heaven.

00:01:34.660 | Therefore, part of Christ's atonement

00:01:36.160 | also cleansed the heavenly sanctuary.

00:01:38.580 | Maybe.

00:01:39.520 | Is that consistent with scripture?

00:01:41.680 | So a lot of questions on Colossians 1:20.

00:01:43.800 | - Yeah.

00:01:45.080 | Well, let's get the text in front of us.

00:01:47.160 | This is Colossians 1, 19 and 20.

00:01:52.160 | In Christ, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell

00:01:57.040 | and through him to reconcile to himself all things,

00:02:02.040 | whether on earth or in heaven,

00:02:06.520 | making peace by the blood of his cross.

00:02:09.280 | So the questions our listeners are raising

00:02:12.760 | revolve mainly around what it means that God,

00:02:17.120 | through the ministry of the divine Christ,

00:02:22.000 | will reconcile to himself all things.

00:02:25.960 | The phrase all things raises the question of universalism

00:02:30.760 | for a lot of people.

00:02:32.560 | That is, will every person, even the demons

00:02:36.040 | and Satan himself be reconciled to God?

00:02:39.320 | And there'll be no hell and there'll be no final judgment,

00:02:43.720 | no final destruction of anyone.

00:02:46.640 | That's the first question.

00:02:47.680 | Second question is raised by the phrase,

00:02:51.080 | whether on earth or in heaven,

00:02:53.520 | what would it mean to speak of reconciling anything

00:02:57.320 | or anyone being in heaven?

00:03:00.600 | What in heaven needs reconciling?

00:03:02.600 | And then the third question I hear would be,

00:03:06.160 | how does the blood of Jesus establish peace in heaven

00:03:11.160 | and on earth?

00:03:13.160 | So let's take these one at a time.

00:03:14.580 | First, through Christ, God reconciles all things to himself,

00:03:19.580 | whether in heaven or on earth.

00:03:23.120 | Does that mean that there is a universal salvation

00:03:27.840 | and that in the end, hell will not exist

00:03:31.680 | and that all unbelievers and all demons and Satan himself

00:03:35.960 | will be reconciled and saved?

00:03:39.560 | The first problem with that interpretation

00:03:42.680 | is that Paul himself, both in this letter of Colossians

00:03:47.000 | and elsewhere, teaches that there will be

00:03:50.200 | the final wrath of God that will last forever on people.

00:03:54.960 | It's not even that they would be put out of existence,

00:03:58.080 | called annihilationism.

00:03:59.820 | For example, in Colossians 3, 5, and 6, he says,

00:04:04.740 | "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you,

00:04:07.440 | "sexual immorality, impurity, passion,

00:04:10.240 | "evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry.

00:04:13.640 | "On account of these, the wrath of God is coming."

00:04:18.680 | Then if you ask, well, how long will that wrath last?

00:04:22.800 | What will that experience be like?

00:04:25.320 | And he says in 2 Thessalonians 1, 9,

00:04:28.180 | "Those who do not obey the gospel

00:04:30.220 | "will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction

00:04:34.540 | "away from the presence of the Lord

00:04:37.920 | "and from the glory of his might."

00:04:41.400 | And if we look for confirmation

00:04:43.360 | that we're on the right track here in understanding Paul,

00:04:47.160 | we find in the teachings of John

00:04:49.800 | and the teachings of Jesus the same kind of thing.

00:04:54.320 | For example, in Matthew 25, 46, Jesus says,

00:04:57.580 | "And these will go away into eternal punishment,

00:05:01.760 | "but the righteous into eternal life."

00:05:05.280 | And since eternal life is parallel with eternal punishment,

00:05:10.120 | then it seems clear that the eternal punishment

00:05:14.400 | will have the same duration as the eternal life.

00:05:19.240 | And then in Revelation 14, 11,

00:05:21.240 | John uses the strongest phrase possible in Greek

00:05:25.640 | to express eternity.

00:05:27.160 | He says, "The smoke of their torment goes up

00:05:31.100 | "forever and ever."

00:05:33.980 | The Greek phrase behind that,

00:05:35.560 | forever and ever is as strong as it can be.

00:05:40.120 | So we're talking everlasting duration of wrath.

00:05:45.120 | And therefore, the problem with thinking that Colossians 1, 20

00:05:51.300 | is teaching that all things will be reconciled

00:05:56.200 | and thus saved with no hell, no eternal punishment,

00:06:00.200 | no unbelievers or demons in existence.

00:06:04.360 | Paul says that's just not true.

00:06:07.400 | And so the question then, well, what does it mean?

00:06:11.240 | If it can't mean that, universalism or annihilationism,

00:06:16.240 | well then what does it mean?

00:06:18.120 | Through him to reconcile to himself all things,

00:06:22.440 | whether on earth or in heaven.

00:06:24.500 | So I would say to our readers,

00:06:26.880 | have you ever asked why it doesn't say

00:06:30.460 | to reconcile to himself all things,

00:06:32.900 | whether on earth or in heaven or under the earth?

00:06:37.160 | Why does Paul omit or under the earth?

00:06:41.040 | And I say that because he uses that phrase

00:06:42.960 | in Philippians 2, 10 when he says

00:06:45.520 | that every knee will bow to Jesus

00:06:50.640 | and confess that he's Lord,

00:06:52.320 | every knee in heaven, on earth and under the earth.

00:06:57.320 | Even the unsaved will grant that Jesus is Lord.

00:07:03.960 | But here in Colossians 1, 20,

00:07:06.480 | he doesn't mention under the earth

00:07:09.160 | as what will be reconciled.

00:07:12.640 | It only says that he will reconcile all things to himself

00:07:15.680 | in heaven and on earth.

00:07:17.020 | So here's my suggestion.

00:07:19.560 | Paul is not at all contradicting the fact

00:07:23.780 | that the Bible teaches eternal judgment on Satan

00:07:27.440 | and his angels and on humans who are unrepentant.

00:07:31.440 | But all of those persons will be consigned

00:07:36.440 | to a realm outside the new heavens and the new earth.

00:07:41.560 | In Matthew 22, 13, Jesus calls this outer darkness.

00:07:47.680 | They will be in a realm that is not part

00:07:52.920 | of the new heavens and the new earth.

00:07:56.560 | Everything in the new heavens and the new earth,

00:08:01.120 | that has been contaminated with sin in any way,

00:08:04.800 | will be reconciled, will be redeemed.

00:08:08.280 | So when Paul says that all things will be reconciled

00:08:12.540 | in heaven and on earth,

00:08:14.440 | he means that because of the work of Christ,

00:08:17.560 | there will be nothing unreconciled on earth,

00:08:21.320 | nothing unreconciled in heaven

00:08:24.920 | when God consummates his purposes.

00:08:28.280 | For demons and unbelievers,

00:08:29.880 | there will be another entirely different realm of existence,

00:08:34.880 | which we call under the earth or outer darkness,

00:08:40.480 | but it will not be part of the new creation.

00:08:44.320 | All things, all things will be reconciled

00:08:47.360 | in that earth and that heaven.

00:08:50.600 | So that's my answer to the first part of the question.

00:08:53.520 | So let's turn to the second question.

00:08:55.440 | What would it mean to speak of reconciling

00:08:59.660 | anything or any being in heaven?

00:09:03.840 | What in heaven needs reconciling?

00:09:07.800 | What would Paul mean when he says,

00:09:10.200 | "Through Christ, God reconciles to himself,

00:09:13.160 | "whether on earth or in heaven, all things."

00:09:17.020 | And one answer is implicit in what I've already said,

00:09:20.560 | namely, he may not be talking about reconciling

00:09:24.240 | what is in heaven now,

00:09:26.920 | but what will inhabit the new heavens

00:09:29.440 | and the new earth.

00:09:31.800 | And his point is, nothing contaminated by sin

00:09:35.040 | will inhabit the new heavens and the new earth.

00:09:37.760 | That's not reconciled to God.

00:09:39.640 | Everything will be reconciled that's there.

00:09:41.960 | But if someone pushes back and says,

00:09:44.280 | "Well, it looks, Piper, like it's referring

00:09:46.720 | "to the present heaven and earth,

00:09:50.200 | "not just the future heaven and earth,"

00:09:52.800 | then my suggestion would be, if they're right,

00:09:57.080 | and I'm mistaken in that first suggestion,

00:10:00.160 | Paul teaches in the next chapter, Colossians 3, 4,

00:10:03.960 | and in Philippians 1, 20, and in 2 Corinthians 5, 8,

00:10:08.520 | that Christians who have died are now in heaven,

00:10:13.120 | and Paul would then be saying,

00:10:15.400 | all of them are reconciled to God by the work of Christ.

00:10:20.400 | That's my suggested answer to the pushback

00:10:24.560 | and the suggestion that he may be referring

00:10:26.960 | to the present heaven, not just the future heaven.

00:10:30.340 | Christians are there, Christians are reconciled in heaven

00:10:33.900 | through the blood of Christ.

00:10:35.440 | One last question.

00:10:37.520 | How does the blood of Jesus establish peace

00:10:42.000 | in heaven and on earth?

00:10:43.760 | Paul says, "Making peace by the blood of his cross."

00:10:47.680 | And I had this question for two reasons.

00:10:50.320 | One, because we know that demonic beings

00:10:55.320 | not only inhabit the earth, but are referred to,

00:10:58.960 | for example, in Ephesians 6, 12,

00:11:00.440 | as being operative in the heavenly places.

00:11:04.000 | For example, Job teaches that Satan

00:11:06.220 | had some kind of access to God.

00:11:09.740 | And the other reason I ask this question

00:11:12.800 | is because Paul connects the blood of Christ

00:11:17.440 | with the defeat of the demonic rulers and authorities

00:11:20.480 | in Colossians 2, 15.

00:11:22.900 | So right after saying that the record of our sins,

00:11:27.020 | the record of our debts is nailed to the cross

00:11:29.840 | so that our guilt is removed and our forgiveness is secure,

00:11:33.860 | he says in Colossians 2, 15,

00:11:36.760 | that God, by this work of Christ,

00:11:40.280 | stripped or disarmed the demonic powers

00:11:44.020 | and shamed them and triumphed over them in him.

00:11:48.880 | And I take that to mean that the blood of Christ

00:11:52.280 | takes away the one damning weapon that Satan has,

00:11:57.280 | namely the power to accuse us for sin

00:12:01.860 | because they're all forgiven, our sins are all forgiven.

00:12:05.960 | He doesn't have that weapon because of the blood of Christ.

00:12:09.280 | He's stripped of it, he's disarmed.

00:12:12.260 | And with that triumph over Satan and his demonic forces,

00:12:16.600 | all demonic hopes of victory are shattered

00:12:20.280 | and Satan is finally consigned to outer darkness

00:12:23.660 | with his forces.

00:12:25.260 | And in that way, complete peace is established

00:12:30.260 | in the new heavens and the new earth.

00:12:33.520 | So when Paul says that God made peace

00:12:37.600 | through the blood of his son,

00:12:40.480 | he meant not only that Christians enjoy no condemnation

00:12:44.940 | and peace with God forever,

00:12:47.000 | but also that the marauding, tempting,

00:12:51.040 | destructive work of Satan and his forces

00:12:54.500 | is totally disempowered and consigned

00:12:58.280 | outside the new heavens and the new earth forever.

00:13:01.040 | There's only peace.

00:13:03.400 | - So good.

00:13:04.240 | And speaking of Satan being disarmed,

00:13:06.840 | that's a question coming up next week, I believe,

00:13:09.240 | next Monday.

00:13:10.720 | Satan has been disarmed.

00:13:12.040 | So which of his weapons are now gone?

00:13:15.080 | That's on February 28th.

00:13:16.360 | A lot more to say along these lines

00:13:17.920 | of what power Satan has lost on this side of the cross.

00:13:21.320 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:13:22.160 | And to all of you for joining us today,

00:13:24.140 | you can ask a Bible question of your own.

00:13:25.660 | Search our Growing Archive or subscribe to the podcast

00:13:27.880 | all at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:13:32.680 | Well, if you own an ESV Bible

00:13:36.440 | or any book published by Crossway Books,

00:13:38.620 | you have one couple to thank,

00:13:41.680 | Lane and Ebeth Dennis.

00:13:44.280 | You likely don't know who they are.

00:13:46.120 | You need to meet them.

00:13:47.200 | And Pastor John will introduce them to you next time.

00:13:50.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:13:51.160 | We'll see you back here on Wednesday

00:13:52.320 | for a special episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:13:54.840 | We'll see you then.

00:13:55.800 | (upbeat music)

00:13:58.380 | (upbeat music)

00:14:00.960 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

How Did God Reconcile ‘All Things’ to Himself?

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