Colossians 1:20

having made peace Between Himself, the Holy Judge and King, and His subjects. He is thus now "the God of Peace" (Romans 15:33; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 13:20); and "we, justified by faith, have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).

The Subject of the statement is, as before, the Father. While the Crucified Son is the immediate Agent, the Father "who spared not His own Son" (Romans 8:32), because He "loved the world" (John 3:16), is the remoter Agent, Eternal Source of all salvation.

through the blood of his cross The Cross of the Son. Here first the sacred Atoning Death is explicitly mentioned; its fact and its mode.

" The blood:" i.e. the Death, viewed as the Ransom-price. Some expositors find in "the bloodof Christ" (in the N.T. generally) a reference different from that of "the deathof Christ," connecting it rather with life than with death; with surrender to God, and impartation to man, of the Lord's vivifying life rather than with the immolation of His life as (because of His undertaking for us) forfeited to the Law. But certainly in this passage, at least, the thought not of vivification but of propitiation is prominent. See the notes just below. On the subject of "the Blood of Christ" generally the Editor may refer to his Outlines of Christian Doctrine, pp. 85, &c., and to The Blood of the New Covenant, by W. S. Smith, D.D., Bishop of Sydney.

by him Christ. Lit., through Him.

to reconcile The Greek verb here rendered "reconcile" occurs elsewhere (in exactly the same form) only in the next verse and Ephesians 2:16. Its form emphasizes the thought of conciliating back again, after breach of loyalty or amity. Ideally, the whole Church and each individual was (in Adam unfallen) originally at peace with God; then came revolt, and now re-conciliation. On such an ideal view (very different from that of personal conscious experience) see our note on Ephesians 2:12 (" being aliens.")

A simpler form of the same verb occurs e.g. Romans 5:10; 1Co 7:11; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. The main notion of both verbs is the propitiation of an alienated superior, so that he accepts offending inferiors, who are thus and then "reconciled" to him. And the superior "reconciles them" so far as he acts on the provided propitiation. Here the Father "reconciles" by constituting His Son the all-sufficient and all-acceptable Lord of Peace. See further our note on Ephesians 2:16.

all things For similar language cp. Matthew 17:11 (" Elias … restoreth all things;") Acts 3:21, (" the times of the restoration of all things which God spake by … His holy prophets;" i.e. the bringing back of Paradise, and of the Theocracy, in their heavenly and eternal reality). The word "all" is at once glorified and limited by the words, in apposition, just below, "whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens:" see note there. The human and angelic "worlds" are the objects of the "reconciliation" in view here; not "all things" apart from those limits, but "all things" within them. See the closely parallel passage, Ephesians 1:10.

unto himself Lit., "unto Him." But the reflexive English pronoun rightly represents the Greek non-reflexive, in the light of N.T. usage. See Lightfoot's note.

Here the "reconciliation" of the "all things" is seen to be not (as some expositors, ancient and modern, take it) a reconciliation to one another, so that e.g. angels, alienated by man's sin, shall again be perfectly harmonized with man. It is a reconciliation of the "all things" to God, in the way of propitiation.

by him, I say] An emphatic resumed reference to the Reconciling Son, standing alone and "preeminent" in His wonderful work.

whetherthey be things in earth, orthings in heaven Lit., "whether the things," &c. He refers back to the "all things" just above; see note there. It is significant that "the things under the earth" are not mentioned in this great phrase. It is surely revealed (1 Corinthians 15:28) that all created existence, in the amplest sense, shall in some supreme way be "subduedunto" the Son and unto the Father in Him; there shall be orderbefore the Throne in all the depths as well as heights of being. See Philippians 2:11, and our note there. But this is another thing from "reconciliation" and "peace." The universalism of this passage is no negation of the awful warnings of Scripture about the final and irremediable exclusion from "peace" of the impenitent creature.

What then do the words here actually import? We answer with Alford (see the whole of his careful note here): "No reconciliation [of angelic beings] must be thought of which should resemble oursin its process for Christ … paid no propitiatory penalty [for angels] in the root of their nature, as including it in Himself. But, forasmuch as He is their Head as well as ours … it cannot be but that the great event in which He was glorified through suffering should also bring them nearer to God … That such increase [of blessedness] might be described as a reconciliationis manifest: we know from Job 15:15, that -the heavens are not clean in His sight," and ib. Colossians 4:18, -His angels He charged with folly." In fact every such nearer approach to Him may without violence to words be so described, in comparison with that previous greater distance which now seems like alienation; and in this case even more properly, as one of the consequences of that great propitiation whose first … effect was to reconcile to God, in the literal sense, the things upon earth, polluted and hostile in consequence of man's sin. So that our interpretation may be thus summed up: all creation subsists in Christ: all creation therefore is affected by His act of propitiation: sinful creation is, in the strictest sense, reconciled, from being at enmity: sinless creation, ever at a distance from His unapproachable purity, is lifted into nearer participation … of Him, and is thus reconciled, though not in the strictest, yet in a very intelligible and allowable sense." The implied need, even in the angelicworld, of the Son's Work of peace, would have a special point for the Colossians.

Observe, in leaving Colossians 1:20, the order of the words in the Greek: And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, making peace through the blood of His cross through Him, whether the things, &c.