How Will Christ ‘Reconcile’ Unbelievers to Himself?
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00:00:04.440 | Colossians 1, 15-23 is a majestic text. In fact, it's my favorite text in the Bible.
00:00:10.880 | But Colossians 1, 20 is notoriously challenging and it has baffled and befuddled Bible interpreters
00:00:17.280 | and theologians for many centuries. The question comes in to us today from a listener named
00:00:22.320 | Heather. "Hello Pastor John, I have a question about Colossians 1, 20 about Christ reconciling
00:00:27.320 | to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his
00:00:32.520 | cross. For the unsaved and for the fallen angels, how are they reconciled to Christ?
00:00:41.120 | Pastor John, what would you say to Heather?"
00:00:42.880 | I just did a look at the book session on this very question recently. So let me see if I
00:00:52.480 | can sum up my argument for Heather here on APJ. It really matters because it's a question
00:01:03.000 | about what's commonly called universalism, or the teaching that in the end, everyone,
00:01:11.920 | even demons, will be saved. There's no hell, there's no eternal punishment. Sooner or later,
00:01:18.720 | even if it takes a thousand years through some kind of purgatorial discipline, everybody
00:01:23.600 | gets saved in the end. That's what some people say this text, this text, Colossians 1, 20,
00:01:32.200 | supports. And let me read it. "For in Christ, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell
00:01:40.480 | and through him to reconcile to himself all things, to reconcile to himself all things,
00:01:48.920 | whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." The question is,
00:01:56.360 | when Paul says, "All things, all things will be reconciled to God through Christ," does
00:02:03.960 | all things mean every unbeliever who has ever lived, including Satan? And my answer is no.
00:02:15.560 | But rather, all things is a comprehensive term referring to the new heavens and the
00:02:23.440 | new earth, where absolutely everything, all things that exist in the new heavens and the
00:02:30.880 | new earth will have been reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. But that there
00:02:37.880 | is over against that new heavens and new earth an outer darkness, an awayness, an other.
00:02:47.640 | There is a reality excluded from the new creation. There is hell that's outside God's new creation,
00:02:57.120 | where impenitent believers and demons suffer justly forever. Now, here are four passages
00:03:04.840 | that point me to this understanding of Colossians 1, 20. Number one, 2 Thessalonians 1, 7-9,
00:03:16.440 | and these teach me that Paul just doesn't believe in universalism. "At the second coming,
00:03:22.440 | the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting
00:03:28.200 | vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our
00:03:33.560 | Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence
00:03:43.440 | of the Lord and from the glory of his might." Now, that passage shows that Paul does not
00:03:51.800 | believe all will be saved. He believes that there will be an eternal destruction for those
00:04:00.080 | who disobey the gospel. Paul does not believe that everyone will be reconciled to God. Everyone
00:04:09.880 | will not be saved. And he says that they will suffer a punishment away, away from the presence
00:04:19.680 | of the Lord and of his glory. And that points, I think, to what I mean by outside of the
00:04:26.160 | new heavens and the new earth. Now, this next text, this is number two, supports that, I
00:04:30.640 | think. Matthew 8-11, Jesus says, "Many will come from east and west and recline at table
00:04:36.160 | with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will
00:04:41.880 | be thrown into outer darkness," outside the kingdom, away. "In that place there will be
00:04:52.440 | weeping and gnashing of teeth." So what Paul calls "away from the Lord's glory," Jesus
00:05:00.240 | describes as that place which will be outside of the established kingdom of God at the end,
00:05:09.360 | outside of God's saving rule, outside the place where all is reconciled, the place of
00:05:16.000 | outer darkness. Third, remember in Colossians 1-20 that these all things that are going
00:05:26.320 | to be reconciled are things on earth and things in heaven. Now, why doesn't Paul say all things
00:05:34.720 | under the earth, all things in heaven, all things on earth, all things under the earth?
00:05:39.120 | Because he uses those three in Philippians 2-10, where he says, "At the name of Jesus,
00:05:47.760 | every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth." And that phrase is not
00:05:56.160 | used in Colossians 1-20. Now, when he uses it in Philippians 2-10, he's not saying there's
00:06:04.080 | universal salvation, but universal submission. Willingly or unwillingly, every knee is going
00:06:10.640 | to bow, including the demons under the earth. Could it be, could it be that Paul did not
00:06:19.000 | use the phrase "under the earth" in Colossians 1-20 because those under the earth will not
00:06:26.320 | be reconciled to God? They're not part of the all things. They will have to submit,
00:06:32.480 | but they will not be reconciled. Now, here's my last text, and a very, very important observation,
00:06:40.160 | I think. This is a principled analogy. I'm thinking of Isaiah 66-24. Those are the very
00:06:49.320 | last verses of the prophet Isaiah. And the point of this text is simply to illustrate
00:06:54.760 | how careful one has to be in taking a phrase like "all things" and assuming it includes
00:07:04.320 | what it does not include. Here's what it says in verse 22. "As the new heavens and the new
00:07:10.680 | earth, as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the
00:07:17.880 | Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain," verse 23, "from new moon to new moon
00:07:26.960 | and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh," there's the phrase, "all flesh shall come to worship
00:07:36.680 | before me, declares the Lord." Now, if we stopped right there, after verse 23, we might
00:07:44.080 | say, "There it is! That's Colossians 1:20, right? All things are going to be reconciled.
00:07:48.200 | Everybody's worshiping. All flesh is worshiping." Here's the problem. The next verse goes like
00:07:54.640 | this, which is verse 24. "And they," that is the all flesh, "they shall go out and look
00:08:02.920 | on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die,
00:08:11.840 | their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh." Now,
00:08:20.200 | I think this is clear. And what is clear is that all flesh, like all things in Colossians
00:08:28.040 | 1:20, all flesh in the new creation does not include the flesh of those who have rebelled
00:08:35.360 | against God. What all flesh means in Isaiah 66, 23 is the totality of humanity in the
00:08:45.000 | new heavens and the new earth. There will be nothing and no one there who does not joyfully
00:08:52.400 | worship God. Rebels will be outside, away from the glory of the Lord, and that's what
00:08:59.600 | I think Colossians 1:20 means as well. That is a worthy stab at a very baffling text.
00:09:06.600 | Thank you, Pastor John. And thanks for the question, Heather. This podcast exists because
00:09:11.000 | you engage with us. We depend on your excellent questions like this one here from Heather.
00:09:16.440 | And I want to thank you for sending those in to us, tens of thousands of questions over
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00:09:58.160 | Wednesday, we return to talk about what happens to the believer shortly after death. Do we
00:10:03.520 | go to see Jesus immediately or does that happen only after the bodily resurrection? It's another
00:10:08.720 | perceptive question from a listener. And I'll ask Pastor John on Wednesday. I'm Tony Rehnke.
00:10:14.120 | We'll see you then.
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