COLOSSIANS (8) The Reconciliation Ministry of Christ (Col. 1:19-20)

​“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Col 1:19-20)
 
Review
Last Sunday, we talked about the supremacy and superiority of Christ. In Colossians 1 verses 15-20, Paul explained how supreme Jesus is and thus how perfect and sufficient His work of salvation is.
 
First, Christ’s supremacy was revealed through the fact that He is the image of the invisible God. Jesus shares the same essence with God because He Himself is God. As the Son of God, Jesus has the closest relationship with the Father, so He could make the invisible God known to us.
 
Second, Paul used the word ‘firstborn’ to explain Jesus’ nature. Jesus is “the firstborn over all creation” (Col 1:15). It doesn’t mean that He was the first creation God created. What the word ‘firstborn’ implies is that Jesus is the heir of all things.
 
Paul said all things, things in heaven or on earth, even invisible things were created in Him, through Him, and for Him. As the gospel of John also testifies, “without him nothing was made that has been made” (Jn 1:3)
 
As the firstborn and the heir of all things, Jesus has the power and authority to rule over everything. That reveals His supremacy.
 
After that, Paul describes Jesus’ supremacy in the church. The church, which can be simply defined as the people of God, is God’s new creation through which He restores everything and builds His kingdom on earth.
 
The church carries out God’s mission to expand the kingdom of God by seeking His will everywhere. And this can only happen when we acknowledge Christ as the true head of our gathering.
 
As God’s church, we must depend on Jesus. We should be united under His will. Just as a body can’t live without its head, the church can’t exist without Jesus. The life of the church is solely dependent on Jesus. He must be the head of the church through which we receive the nutrients we need for spiritual life and growth.
 
And again, the purpose of God building His church on the firm foundation of the rock of Christ is to restore everything in accordance with His good will. For this purpose, Jesus is the head of every church.
 
I think this is what Paul meant when he said in Ephesians,
 
“And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” (Eph 1:22-23)
 
We’re to remember that as the church of God, the body of Christ, we should join in Jesus’ mission to “fill everything” with His fullness. That’s the point of today’s sermon. What does it mean for Jesus to fill everything with His fullness through His church?
 
The Fullness of God
In Colossians 1:19, Paul suggests another element that shows Jesus’ supremacy. He said,
 
“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him” (Col 1:19)
 
In the Old Testament, there was a special place where God’s presence was very concentrated. Even though God is omnipresent and is everywhere, He specified that He would dwell among His people in the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle.
 
But now, Paul said that we can find God’s fullness in Christ. Here, the word ‘fullness’ is important. That God has all His fullness dwell in Christ means that we find everything we need in Him. It also means that knowing Christ is enough for our salvation.
 
We don’t need to look for anything else other than Christ because the name of Jesus is enough. In other words, His work of salvation is sufficient to give salvation to anyone who believes in Him.
 
I said that Paul wrote to the Colossians because he had heard about their situation from Epaphras. It seemed to Paul that they had strong faith in Christ and were enthusiastic about growing spiritually.
 
But Paul also heard that some false teachers had come to the church and started teaching things other than Christ. And their teachings seemed attractive to Christians in the church. It’s also likely that they talked about ‘fullness.’
 
They might have told the believers that if they really wanted to grow to fullness, they needed various things other than Jesus. Then they brought philosophy, human tradition, and other spiritual forces into the church. Their teachings sounded ‘new’ and plausible. And many Christians in the church started to listen to them, instead of the gospel of Jesus.
 
So Paul said in chapter 2 verses 8-10,
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness” (Col 2:8-10)
 
In response to the false teachers , Paul emphasizes all the more that Christ is more than enough for our salvation because the fullness of God lives in Him. Paul said that because they’d already been brought to fullness in Christ, they didn’t have to look for other spiritual guidance.
 
In Paul’s mind, the role of teachers in the church is not to introduce ‘new’ things but to keep reminding people of the fullness of Christ and helping them reach their fullness in Christ. Because Jesus is the fullness of God, there’s nothing to be taught or proclaimed in the church except the name of Christ. Jesus is the only name we must rely on.
 
There may be times when we feel a sense of deficiency in our lives. Of course, we need many things to live. We have physical needs, emotional needs, spiritual needs, and more. And when we feel like something is lacking in our lives, we may start to find something to fill the vacancy. That’s a natural response.
 
But, when we think about it more deeply, we realize that we find everything we need in Christ—not only our spiritual needs, but every need we have in our lives.
 
Since the fullness of God dwells in Christ, and God knows all our needs even before we ask Him, Christ can be the absolute answer to every problem and need we have.
 
When we go through hard times, we may be tempted to look for something other than Christ, thinking that we may find something better outside of Him.
 
There’s nothing wrong with studying philosophy or other subjects. In fact, they can be useful tools in understanding God and human beings. But, we should keep in mind that nothing can surpass the name of Jesus because everything and every subject is imperfect except for Jesus.
 
So, rather than trying to find ‘new’ things—new knowledge, ideas, theories, or anything else—we should always go back to Christ in whom we can find every answer we need and can reach fullness.
 
Paul said in Ephesians 4:13,
 
“We all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” (Eph 4:13-14)
 
In order not to be swayed by false teachings, we should build our faith firmly on the rock of Jesus Christ. He must be the top priority over everything in our lives. We’re to remember that God has already “blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph 1:3)
 
God doesn’t need to give us anything more because the name of Jesus He gave us is more than sufficient.
 
The Reconciliation Ministry of Christ
Then, what does it mean for Jesus to fill everything with His fullness? Paul continues,
 
“[God was pleased] through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Col 1:20)
 
The fact that reconciliation is needed in the relationship between God and ‘all things’ on earth implies that there is conflict. And we know what severed our relationship with God—sin.
 
Because of sin, not only was our relationship with God severed, but all of creation also experienced the great fall. Paul said in Romans 8:22,
 
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” (Rom 8:22)
 
Paul also said,
“The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed” (Rm 8:19)
 
The reason all of creation is eager to see the children of God being revealed is because it ‘has been groaning in pain’ because of sin.
 
So, the reconciling ministry of Jesus Christ wasn’t only for people, but for every creation in the world. What Jesus reconciled to God were not only people, but also “all things” whether things on earth or in heaven.
 
Then, what Paul emphasizes in Colossians 1:20 is that nothing in the universe is outside of God’s reconciling ministry through Christ Jesus. In other words, Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation is sufficient to bring fullness to every creation.
 
In verse 20, we find some important facts about God’s ministry of reconciliation.
 
1) Reconciliation is God’s work
First, reconciliation is God’s work. The Bible is not a story about us seeking God, but about God seeking us. On every page, God takes the initiative. Because God created us, we are able to exist in the world. Because God first loved us and had decided to save us from our sin, we could be forgiven and reconciled to Him.
 
It means that we can only find true hope in God Himself, not anything else in the world. 
 
2) Reconciliation was fulfilled on the Cross
We also know that we don’t need to pursue anything else to be reconciled with God because it was already fulfilled through Jesus’ death on the cross.
 
Paul said that to make peace and reconcile all things with God, Jesus shed His precious blood on the cross. The gospel of Jesus Christ is all about what He did on the cross. There is nothing that needs to be added to that.
 
Paul said,
“When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1Co 2:1-2)
 
Even though Paul had studied the latest ideas and philosophies at that time, he decided not to use any of it because he realized that everything he had known before he met Christ was like garbage compared to the knowledge of Christ.
 
So, even though it might have looked foolish to other people, Paul proclaimed only the name of Jesus and His crucifixion because he believed that what Jesus achieved on the cross was already sufficient.
 
That’s where we must always return when we find ourselves wandering in our faith. We don’t have to listen to new sermons to recover our relationship with God because the answer is always there on the cross.
 
3) Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation was for all things
Lastly, we know that the range of Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation was universal. Again, nothing and no one is excluded from reconciliation with God.
 
The power of His blood covers everything. There’s no sin that Jesus’ blood can’t wash away. There’s nothing that His blood can’t restore. His ministry of salvation is sufficient to bring peace to all people and all things.
 
So, for two weeks, we’ve talked about how supreme Jesus is over everything and how sufficient His ministry of reconciliation is. The supremacy of Jesus Christ and the sufficiency of His salvation are closely related.
 
Because Jesus is the image of the invisible God in whom, through whom, and for whom all things were created, He is worthy to be supreme over all things. And because He is greater than everything, His ministry is sufficient and in effect in all things.
 
We can find everything we need in Jesus because the fullness of God dwells in Him. Jesus achieved true peace and reconciliation with God on the cross by His blood, and now He’s restoring everything with His fullness through His church.
 
So, we are to oppose every idea that claims we need anything other than Jesus. Rather, we’re to boldly proclaim, ‘Christ is enough,’ ‘He is the answer to every problem.’ Then, when we put our hope only in Jesus, we can grow until we reach the fullness of Christ. Let’s pray.
 
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we want to profess again, ‘Christ is enough for us.’ Let us not turn our eyes to anything else, but help us stay focused on Jesus.
 
Let us see Your fullness living in Jesus and help us  reach fullness in Him. Let us not rely on anything but Christ. Let us not proclaim anything but Christ crucified and His blood that has the power to recover everything on earth.
 
  Please open our eyes and give us Your wisdom and understanding that comes from the Holy Spirit so that we may know how supreme Jesus is. Please give us Your glorious might that raised Jesus from the dead so that we can boldly proclaim the good news of Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation.
 
We thank You and love You, Lord.
We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
 
Sharing Questions
Today we talked about the fullness of God and the sufficiency of Jesus’ work of salvation.
 
1) As the body of Christ, what are some ways that we as the church can join in Jesus’ work to fill everything with His fullness?
 
2) How has Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation affected your life? Do you want to reach the fullness of Christ? What does it mean to you personally and what are some practical ways to do so?