Continuing
with the Seven-Fold Prayer of
Paul for Us of
Colossians
Jesus
Christ the Creator God Who is Incomparable
Colossians
1:20
"And
having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him (the
One Who finished His work and ours by faith on the cross through which we are)
to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be
things in earth, or things in heaven."
In
other words again, where does that put Christ? In the preeminence.
Everything is under His control. Everything as we saw back in one of
these earlier verses were created for His pleasure. You and I were
created for His pleasure by Him. So the whole idea of the work of the
cross was to grant us justification to give, establish us in peace
with God, and to reconcile us to Him, and we call that
reconciliation. Reconciliation
is not Salvation but is Redemption. Because Redemption in reconcile,
is what draws us near, this being “off”
or “away from”,
reversal, separation from
a thing, departure, cessation, to compound a difference. This is the work of Redemption and the sole purpose of what the Holy Spirit as our trainer, teacher and tutor prepares us to receive by way of divine illumination or revelation upon which Jesus said that His Church and Body would be built.
The
true Greek meaning for reconciliation: is to turn from something
totally in the opposite direction. A lot of times we speak of
reconciliation in married couples who may have marriages simply on
the rocks. But hopefully if they can bring that estranged husband or
wife back together, we call that reconciliation. They’ve turned
from their self direction in going apart from each other and have
turned 180 degrees and come back together. Well that is exactly what
God has done with us. Everyone of us as a believer have been
reconciled to God. We were going away from Him, we had no thought for
Him or no love for Him, but there came a time when all of a sudden
the power of God just literally hooked us didn’t it? He brought us
to Himself, and in the process of that He reconciled us to Himself.
The best portion of Scripture to define that is found in 2Corinthians
chapter 5, beginning with verse 17.
Before I do lets look at the little clause “or things in
heaven” as
some practical, earthy people have read this to mean that Christ took
His Blood into the heavens to cleans them of the residue of sin or
dust from the earth caused when Satan hit it. When in the time of his being
thrown out, cast down, of heaven itself. I
did not say this in a manor to disparage or demean any one because for
a short time I to believed that way also. Spiritually speaking this could only
mean the ones who in the past had died and were now in the
heavenliest. These souls required the sprinkling of the Lord's Blood
to cleans them.
This
He did while in the bowls of the earth during the day and night that
He was there in Abraham's bosom. As few of them were of Hebrew origin, they were composed mostly
Gentiles for all mankind is born in sin. They too needed gown's made
white by the Blood of the Lamb. For in Revelation chapter 7 the souls
here spoken of are washed in the blood of Christ and not by the
righteousness of Christ which is what we are washed in. It might be
added that “the
great tribulation”
there mentioned is both that which we're born into and that which
will yet be. 2Corinthians chapter 5 dropping down to verse 17.
2Corinthians
5:17
"Therefore
if any man be in Christ,
(he’s in the Body of Christ, the True Church) he
is a new creature: (creation,
he's now the righteousness of Christ) old
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
This does not
need any comment it is self explanatory.
"And
all things are of God,…"
Why?
Because He is the Creator of everything. You know we’ve studied
about Joseph in Egypt it never struck us quite so hard as it has this
time, that all those bad things that happened to young Joseph. What
did Joseph tell those brothers over and over. "God was in it!"
See! this is what we have to realize even for us as believers today,
not one moment of our life is without God’s awareness and control.
Especially when we have become His again. We’re in His control. God
is above everything and this is what we have to understand. Even the
bad things, God is in it, to fulfill His own purposes. And to
renounce His workings is to make light of both our redemption and
the salvation into which He wants us to come.
In
the story of Joseph of course, it was so evident. Had Joseph not been
sold into slavery, had he could not have ended up the second man in
Egypt. Jacob and the other sons wouldn’t have had the opportunity
to go and cash in on the granaries of Egypt. But since Joseph was
there and had the grain, the family survived. And that’s why Joseph
said, "You didn’t do it. God did it!" Now that’s hard
for us to comprehend isn’t it? You’ve heard me say before that
one of the hardest things to comprehend is that when God began this
whole system of the human race, and He set Adam as a free moral agent
and then woman who became Eve only after the fall. When they were sent out of the garden
they had free will, and He did the same thing with the nations
through them. And so men and nations have been coming through human
history through great tribulations and the making their own decisions
pretty much. There is no puppet on a string involved whatsoever. And
yet, here we are 6,000 years removed and where are we in God’s
timetable? Right on the minute! The whole world, after 6,000 years is
exactly where God blueprinted it. And yet He never took away the
freedom from men and nations to pretty much do as they thought they
wanted to do. It’s amazing isn’t it? It's the same way
here.
2Corinthians
5:18a
"And
all things are of God,…."
Don’t
ever stop and try to tell me, "Oh, there’s to many people for
God to keep track of." Listen, there are more stars out there,
as I mentioned, and none of them ever bump into each other. There are
far more stars to keep track of than there are people. And that’s
why the Scripture can even bring it on down that he knows the number
of hairs on the head of every individual. So don’t ever limit God.
Don’t ever say, "Well He doesn’t know about me." Oh,
yes! He does.
2Corinthians
5:18
"And
all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by (through
or in) Jesus Christ, and hath given us the
ministry of reconciliation."
In
other words as we were going away from God, He in His Mercy and Grace
just literally brought us back to Himself.
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