Colossians 1: 20 – Why ‘reconciliation’?

…and through Him to reconcile all to Him (making peace through the blood of His cross), through Him, whether those on the earth or those in the heavens.

Colossians 1:20 is the culmination of this passage in which Paul displays the glory of “the Son of God’s love” (1:13). We have already established that reconciliation means: making peace. Turning enmity into friendship. We also saw that the scope of this reconciliation is undeniably universal.

Before we deal with the question of how God reconciles ‘all’ to Himself, we must first face why the world is hostile to God and estranged from Him. That fact dates back to the Garden of Eden where “the old serpent” made people doubt God’s goodness. Then the tone was set and since then every generation has wondered (reproachfully or not) how God can be good in a world where so much disaster, suffering and misery is happening. That is why humanity distrusts God, although at the same time it fears Him. That explains why man is stubbornly religious: God must be appeased by our sacrifices.

If God wants to reconcile the world to Himself, He will have to provide it with convincing evidence that He is truly good…

Delen: