In the time before Christ, there was war between the angels of heaven. God was not angry. He reconciled all things to Himself by providing evidence through Christโs death; evidence which even heaven needed.
Summary
Colossians 1:20-22 can be analyzed into the following statements:
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- Before Christโs death, there was โwarโ between God and some of His intelligent creatures; both on earth and in heaven.
- That war was caused by the aggression of some of Godโs intelligent creatures against Him.
- God was not angry with His enemies.
- To bring an end to the war, by providing evidence through Christโs death, God reconciled His enemies with Himself.
- The intelligent beings in heaven also needed the evidence provided by the cross.
- God forgives completely.
1:20 and through Him
to reconcile all things to Himself,
having made peace through the blood of His cross;
through Him, I say,
whether things on earth or things in heaven.
1:21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,
1:22 yet He has now reconciled you
in His fleshly body through death,
in order to present you before Him
holy and blameless and beyond reproachโ
War in Heaven
Before Christโs death, there was โwarโ between God and some of His intelligent creatures; both on earth and in heaven.
โThrough Himโ the Father reconciled โall things to Himselfโ and also โmade peace through the blood of His cross; through Himโ (Col 1:20).ย To reconcile, therefore, means to make peace between God and His alienated intelligent creatures. This is also seen in Col 1:21-22, where it is stated that the Colossians previously were โhostile in mindโโwhich indicates a lack of peaceโbut now are โreconciled.โ Since God had to make โpeaceโ, there previously was war.
The blood of Christ not only reconciles humans to the Father; even the โthings in heavenโ are reconciled to the Father through His blood (Col 1:20). This means that there also was war in heaven. The Bible is generally silent on the war in heaven. With the exception of a few places (e.g., Job 1:6-; Eph 1:10; 3:10; Col 1:20-22) the Bible only describes events on earth. But right at the beginning of the Bible, we read that Satan came to deceive our first parents. Sin, therefore, did not originate on earth; the rebellion against God started elsewhere: in what we may call heaven. Revelation 12:7 describes that war as between two groups of angels:
โAnd there was war in heaven,
Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon.
The dragon and his angels waged warโ
This โdragonโ is a symbol for Satan (Rev 12:9). Satan and his angels are alienated from and hostile towards God, to quote from Colossians 1:21.
It is this war that spilled over to earth when Satan deceived our first parents, and which is continued today:
โFor our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly placesโ (Eph 6:12).
Cause of the War
That war was caused by the aggression of Godโs intelligent creatures against Him.
Notice the โbeforeโ and โafterโ conditions of the Colossians:
Before they were reconciled, they were โalienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deedsโ (Col 1:21).
After they were reconciled and at โpeaceโ with God, they were โholy and blameless and beyond reproachโ (Col 1:22), i.e. the absence of evil deeds.
It is not God that is described as โhostileโ, but His intelligent creatures.ย God is perfectly good.ย โEvil deedsโ are acts of aggression against God.
God is not angry.
God was not angry with His enemies.
Since โHimโ and โHisโ in the current verses refer to Christ, these are things that the Father did โthrough Himโ. It is important to note that it is God that made peace with His enemies; His enemies did not make peace with Him. The Father took the initiative and through Christ unilaterally acted to reconcile His enemies to Himself. This means that it is not the Father that is angry with His enemies; it is His enemies that are angry with God. They are trying to exclude Him from their lives in all possible ways. A common method is to insult God by using His name in vain and even to use His name as a swear word.
Some people conclude from the Bible that God is angry and that Christ died to pacify Him. The current verses present His enemies as angry, and God as the One that seeks reconciliation. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son (John 3:16).
The Cross – A Public Display
To bring an end to the war, God changed the minds of His enemies by providing evidence through Christโs death.
The previous verses explained who Christ is.ย By using the word โthroughโ four times, Col 1:20-22 shifts the focus to what God did through Christ, indicating that Christ was the Means of reconciliation:
The Father โthrough Him โฆ reconcile all things to Himself โฆ through the blood of His cross; through Himโ (Col 1:20).ย That includes the Colossian Christians, who were โreconciled โฆ in His fleshly body through deathโ (Col 1:22).
We should not think that His literal blood has any magical power.ย โThrough the blood of His crossโ (Col 1:20) means โin His fleshly body through deathโ (Col 1:22).ย โBloodโ is therefore a symbol of His death.
The question now is how Christโs death succeeded โto reconcile all things to Himselfโ (Col 1:20):
According to Colossians 2:15, the cross made a โpublic displayโ of the โrulers and authoritiesโ.ย These are supernatural beings. (See discussion of Col 2:10)
According to Romans 3:25-26 the cross made a โpublic displayโ of Christ to demonstrate His (the Fatherโs) righteousness; to show the Father as just in spite of the fact that He justifies (forgives) people.
In Revelation, the victory of โMichael and his angelsโ over โthe dragon and his angelsโ is expressed as that the โdragonโ and โhis angelsโ were โthrown downโ (Rev 12:9) from heaven (Rev 12:8) to earth (Rev 12:12).ย Since Satan is represented as accusing โour brethren โฆ before our God day and nightโ (Rev 12:10), his being โthrown downโ (v9) from heaven (v8) implies that the cross of Christ made it impossible for him to further accuse โour brethrenโ. The discussion of Revelation 12 concludes that this victory was won through โher childโ (Christ), when He โwas caught up to God and to His throneโ (Rev 12:5).
For the following reasons it is therefore proposed that God reconciled His enemies with Himself by changing the minds of His enemies by providing evidence:
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- Christโs death is said to be a โpublic displayโ (Col 2:15; Rom 3:25-26).
- Christโs death is said to be a demonstration of Godโs righteousness (Rom 3:25-26).
- Christโs death is said to have made an end to Satan’s ability to accuse โour brethrenโ (Rev 12:8-10). As stated by Colossians 2:15, the cross โdisarmed the rulers and authoritiesโ.
To combine these thoughts: by accusing โour brethrenโ, Satan was actually accusing God of injustice for forgiving (justifying) โour brethrenโ. Somehow the public display and demonstration of both Christ and the โrulers and authoritiesโ through the cross made it impossible for Satan to further accuse โour brethrenโ because it has been shown the justice of God.ย In other words, Satanโs arguments were proven false by the public demonstration of the cross.
To take this idea further, we need to ask what Christโs death revealed about Christ, about God, and about Satan. This will not be discussed now.
If the cross made peace, why are we still involved in the war?ย In the words of Revelation, peace came to heaven when Satan was cast out of heaven, but he was given more time on earth (Rev 12:9-12).ย Why?ย This issue is addressed in the discussion of the seven seals of Revelation.
Heaven Needs Evidence.
The intelligent beings in heaven also needed the evidence provided by the cross.
This brings us to the perhaps surprising conclusion that the intelligent beings in heaven also needed the evidence provided by the cross.ย The war that is started in heaven is ended on earth.ย The struggle that you and I are involved in, has cosmic implications.
God Forgives.
God forgives completely.
Lastly, the Colossian Christians were reconciled โto present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproachโ (Col 1:22).ย As Col 1:23 indicates, this must still happen.ย But the point here is that God will not hold the sins of His people against them.ย God is the great Physician.ย He wants to heal us from deadly cancer.ย Yes, our evil deeds are aggression against Him, but once we are healed from this cancer He will not hold it against us.
Atonement
Another way in which the Bible expresses the โreconcileโ-concept is โmake atonementโ, as indicated by the following definition of โatonementโ:
Atonement: reconciliation … specifically the reconciliation between God and humanity affected by the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.ย โฆ The New Testament rarely uses a word for atonement. The basic Greek word is katallasso, usually translated โto reconcileโ.ย The basic meaning is to establish friendship. (Holman Bible dictionary)
The original meaning of โatonementโ is โat-one-mentโ, which means to be โat-oneโ, which means to be reconciled. That is what โatonementโ meant when the Bible was first translated into English. In the Bible it is God, because He loves us, that sent His Son (โthe Lamb of Godโ – John 1:29) to bring His people back to Him (John 3:16). But the forensic doctrine of salvation caused the meaning of โatonementโ to change over the centuries. The forensic doctrine of salvation teaches that somebody must pay for sins committed. This doctrine presents God as angry and the death of Christ as a sacrifice to pacify God. Therefore โatonementโ has today come to mean โreparation for an offence or injuryโ (Merriam-Webster).
But that is not how we should understand the purpose of Christโs death.ย It is not God that must change.ย The blood of the Cross did not change how the Father feels about sinners.ย The opposite is rather true, namely that the blood of Christ was the means by which the Father changed the hearts and minds of His creatures; to be reconciled to Himself (Col 1:20).ย It is us that must change.ย It is not God that is angry; it is His creatures that are โhostile in mindโ (Col 1:21).ย In the Bible God is never reconciled to us.ย The current verses (Col 1:20-22) indicate that God, through Christ, reconciled all things โto Himselfโ (Col 1:20).ย And in Romans 5:10 we read:
โFor if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His lifeโ (Rom 5:10).
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