The Work of Christ: Its Description
Colossians 1:19-20 · Bob Eckel · Mar 31, 2019
Colossians (2019), No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261914244491

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, let's start with verse 15, Colossians 1, and we'll read down from there. Who'd like to read this morning? We're going to read 15 through 20, and we're going to cover 19 and 20 today. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation?

For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible. Whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. For He is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might be the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. How's that for meat?

I'm overwhelmed by evolution day in and day out in the scientific world. I constantly remind myself, for by him were all things created in heaven and on earth. The more that we learn about things, the more we realize we don't know. It's just amazing.

We're going to focus in on two verses, and two verses doesn't seem like very much. We could probably spend two weeks on these two verses, but let's begin. the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell. For, what's it there for? Very good, I think we've learned the lesson, haven't we? We're there for whatever. All right, good. Looking back, and where would we look back to? Well, we look back to the verses we just read, really. That sets the stage for this verse. What enters your mind when you think of the Heavenly Father being pleased?

Walking in his will? Well, that's to the believer, yes. Walking in his will, which is of course the identification truth led by the Spirit. Yes, Patty? I think of two of the verses after Jesus was baptized. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

You're looking ahead in the handout, I can tell. Roger, you're going to say something. It's just the emotion, you know, that God is not a robot. There's emotion, there's care. He's pleased and he's sorrowful and he just, he's surprised in that moment, you know.

So anyway, it brings to mind we still remember how personal God is. It relates to God as a personality, right? And J. Bernard McGee often brings up his sense of humor. I mean, you know, the donkey talking is an example of that and many other things in scripture that relate to his emotion. Now, emotion can be very negative from a human perspective, but we're talking about God as well.

What's he well pleased by? I think David clearly said he's pleased when we walk by faith and the glory goes to him. What else pleases God? Well, His Son doing His will as they agreed upon in eternity past. Alright, so that's kind of where we're at here. So He's ultimately pleased with His Son.

And by the way, just in terms of the translation that you have, the father of that is one word in the Greek, oti, and it's a conjunction that simply means that. So the concept here is that the Father is not in the original translation and most translations don't have the Father here. So it would read, for it pleased that in him all the fullness should dwell. So the concept is the Father's ultimately working in him to bring his own fullness to the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Father is not in the Interlinear Greek and ultimately probably should be omitted from our translations, although I use the New King James and that's what's there. But I think the intent is the same, for it pleased that in him all the fullness should dwell, the fullness of the Godhead. Alright, let's turn to a couple examples where God's pleased.

First Chronicles 28.4 I found kind of interesting. How do we best interpret this passage? Is this simply David belating only to himself, do you think? Or does it go beyond that? The father was pleased to make David king over Israel. What else do we see in the verse? King over Israel forever? How about the house of Judah? I mean, where's Christ come from? From the line of Judah, right? And I think the implications here is this has prophetic value. That yes, the earthly king is the son of David, if you will, multiple generations subsequent to this. All right, back to, oops, I missed a section here. All right, so.

So in Matthew 3.17, and this is really what Patti was saying, and suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, this is my beloved son whom I'm well pleased.

And by the way, this occurred immediately after Jesus was baptized. So what, just looking back, you know, for a minute or two, the baptism was the beginning of what? Christ's resurrection. Does that mean there was no ministry before the baptism? He had to have that pre-incarnate appearance. His public ministry. Alright, Marilyn, public ministry. Okay, but we see him growing up, very little scripture about his childhood, right? This is the God-man, right? Presumably as a child or as an adolescent there was no sin in the Lord Jesus Christ. I guess the Lord just hasn't given us any details. but he's pleased at the time that his ministry began because the spirit was indwelling and now he had three years of an active and internal ministry that began.

And Peter states this again in 2nd Peter 1.17, for he received from God the Father honor and glory. When such a voice came to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I well please." So these are the circumstances of the verses in the Bible that says that God is well pleased. with David as king of Israel forever which I think relates to the Lord Jesus Christ and also the passages after his baptism and what Peter reflects again about the baptism and his Holy Spirit. So the Colossians passage and these several other ones relate to the baptism, the beginning of his ministry and David being or the son of David being the king forever.

You know it made me think of Jesus as a child and like you look at that say Jesus and Christ This was as a child that he increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God. It's kind of interesting. It's three in one, right? And eternally God and the Son and the Spirit are together. that ultimately his being pleased with his son relates to the beginning of his earthly ministry.

Remember the sacrifice of him leaving his throne and coming as the truly God-man to earth to fulfill the ministry that God had for all of us in this room and beyond. Alright, that in him all the fullness should dwell. Fullness, or pluroma in the Greek, denotes the totality of the divine powers and attributes. Now fullness can be interpreted independent of simply that, but the theological interpretation relates to all the fullness of the Godhead, meaning the divine powers and the Lord God's attributes.

The Gnostics at the time really kind of felt that this was just one of the many manifestations of God. For instance, creation as another example of the Godhead, that ultimately this had no special significance or relevance. The fact that the fullness of God would be manifested in the Lord Jesus Christ was just another kind of manifestation of the Godhead and had no relevance or special importance. I think it was Wiest or maybe it was Constable, there's a long section on the Gnostics in their view. I condensed it with a one-liner here.

Okay, to dwell in the Greek is very clearly to be at home permanently or to make abode. I mean, it's kind of a constant and persistent existence. Therefore, Christ is the eternal manifestation and home for all of God's fullness or attributes. A permanent relationship, this indwelling of the fullness of the Godhead. It's something you lose. You're not moving from Westminster to Broomfield here. We're talking about living in him in his fullness, the Godhead in his fullness in the sun. So what about his earthly dwelling? Is the Godhead fully manifested?

Luis says, and I quote him here, at home, in the sense that this divine fullness was not something added to him or his being that was not natural to him, but that it was part of his essential being, as part of his very constitution, and that permanently. So in a sense, it's kind of This is who you are, but now it's evident for who you are, right? I mean, God's nature in the Lord Jesus Christ existed eternally, but now in the earthly existence, this is a home that now is relevant to his ministry. Well, I notice and listen to people talk about this.

There's some discussion about, well, does he already have the fullness? Why does he have to be... grand the fullness in a sense. It seems like while the Son of the Holy Spirit have the fullness, they're God, so why does he not? Well, what are your thoughts based on our previous conversation about that? It's an interesting thought.

Well, if he had the fullness and now he's God is well pleased after the baptism, what does this kind of represent? Continued mission success and there's more to follow. This is just a commentary by the Father. All right, good. And the fact that before the baptism of the River Jordan was not the fullness in him at that point? No. It was, but now it's being publicly declared, right? I am well pleased because now what I've come to accomplish is going to be fulfilled. Well, because this was all being recorded, the Lord knew. I mean, here we are, we're reading it.

And if this hadn't been expounded upon at the time, you know, where would the record be for us to know about it and to understand? what the Lord had said about it. Well, let's chew on some meat here a little bit. In a mainline church, you know, they focus a lot on the boy Jesus, right? I mean, we always ask, why don't we have more details about this? Well, because this is where the details needed, right?

The indwelling fullness of the Godhead being revealed and declared. Now Christ has come to do what he came to do, not to be a carpenter's son, right? He's a God-man, Jesus, and the fullness of the God-head dwells in him permanently. Any other thoughts on dwelling, this fullness dwelling in the Lord Jesus Christ? Now he's proving who he really is, right?

Well, also, you know, there's a point at which the apostles don't call him Jesus anymore. They call him Christ or the Lord or something else, which I think also represents that he's moved from Jesus into this different sphere. And now his teaching and everything is being matched.

But they still fell short, didn't they? And as if he returned today and started doing miracles, how many people would believe, right? Let's continue then. Did Christ's divine power exist before his resurrection? for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell."

Look at verse 18. We read that this morning. In fact, Roy did. And he is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead that in all things he might have the preeminence. The firstborn from the dead. Roger, you taught this last week. Can you summarize what you taught the class last week? Because he was raised, he showed that man can't live again. That's the whole point. He's the first of a new kind of man. A man that would live eternally. Think about this a little bit.

If there is no resurrection, our faith is dead. Think about everything in the Old Testament that was prophetic in the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ's coming to save all men from their sin. And if he just died and went to the grave and claimed to be paying the price that God required and was not resurrected, we're here for no good reason this morning. So the firstborn from the dead.

We're privileged to be part of this whole story and so the answer is yes, his divine power existed before his resurrection, although verse 18 I think allowed that to be declared that our faith may be made real. Let's look at three verses that I think point to this. Ephesians 1, 22, and 23. And he put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. We're part of that fullness. His resurrection gave him to be head over all things. Head of the church required the resurrection. He can't be head of the church if he's still dead in the grave.

Second verse, 1 Timothy 2.5, For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, earthly, but the mediation really relates to the resurrection.

John 5.20 which I love, for the father loves the son and shows him all things that he himself does and he will show him greater works than these that you may marvel.

Okay, again. Isn't that kind of mind boggling that the father is showing the son, I mean they're co-equal but there's just some language in there that's just kind of So how does the Father show the Lord Jesus Christ all things that he is in himself? Thomas? Never in eternity past was Christ flesh and blood. Alright. This is a new sphere and yet the Father loves his Son and will go on ahead and continue to fellowship. And when did that begin? Eternity past? No, okay, that was the eternal covenant.

But when did it begin when God was well pleased? when he was baptized and the Holy Spirit entered him. Now the question comes up, if the Spirit was entering him, was the Spirit simply entering him for his ministry, or was the Spirit in him already before he was baptized? I think we'll have to ask the Lord in heavenly places about that. Christ was in flesh and blood back then, and this is a special interview, so I guess it was according to God's will, it's time to be reunited with the Spirit, and then we can go ahead. Why don't it be neat when you're in heavenly places that you won't have this tablet where you have all these questions kind of sitting there to bring forth to the Lord.

Anyway, fully the true God-man. And we're identified with his fullness. John 1.16, and his fullness we have all received in grace for grace. Isn't that great? Whether you think so or not, we have that fullness involved within us. It seems like I stopped short so many times here. Where is this fullness anyway? Sometimes I feel pretty empty, like I need to fill up the gas tank here. But anyway, we have this fullness biblically.

You know, John 1 is a tremendous section of scripture. I told Paul the other day, he said, well where should I start reading the Bible if I want to? I said, well let's jump a couple of Gospels ahead there. Why don't you start with the Gospel of John.

Of course we all know, what's the foundation of our faith in the church? What book? I think Romans is the back. If you were just wanting to read the Bible for the first time and you went to Romans, what would you think? If you start with John and you don't know Romans, you're really going to be confused. How many votes did John be the first book to start in? And how many vote for Romans?

Now, the class may think she lost, but she doesn't. She's laughing. Alright, let's continue here. What do you think about when you're told that we're so identified, that we have all the fullness? What thoughts enter your mind? I mean, I just kind of related that a little bit personally. I mean, do you wake up every day thanking God that you have the fullness of the Godhead in your earthly temples?

Well, positionally we do. And I think that's where we have to realize, positionally we do have the fullness. But, you know, it takes a lifetime and then some to really understand all this. I think this is Constable, I should have quoted where I got this from, but either Constable or Macaulay said this is righteousness, wisdom, power, and every blessing. And I put a question mark. Are you sensing this? Righteousness we clearly know biblically. Wisdom? What's wisdom? Define wisdom. Tom, define wisdom for us. Not in bow-winkle terms, okay? From insight through God's Word, knowing what's best. Yes, okay, go ahead. You were going to make a point. That sounds good. Okay.

Well, Bobby, what we're dealing with here is like what Mike Doyle talked all the time about grace. We have to be taught this because you don't feel the fullness. That's not something you feel. You're told that and the Spirit helps you to understand that the grace is. Grace upon grace. We have to be taught that. There's no other way. You don't go, I'm going to feel that I have the fullness.

You know if you think about it, how many times can you remember in the Gospel of John the term grace gets raised? I mean I was kind of, not very often I don't think, I didn't do a word search, but in verse 16 the fullness relates to grace on grace. So Dave's got to look up in his back of his Bible how many times John uses the term grace.

So you know the fact that this fullness does serrate, first of all we know we have his righteousness, that's the last verse you're going to see in this morning's lesson, 2 Corinthians 5.21.

Wisdom is going beyond simply knowledge. It's the application of that knowledge to day-to-day existence. Tom stated it well. Power. What kind of power do we have when we have this fullness demonstrated in our life? The power over sin. There you go. Remember Christ when he said, I'm going to make you free. I'm going to make you free indeed. What did Christ mean when he said I'm going to make you free indeed? Free from the power of sin. Okay, free from the law. Because the law, when we're under law, we're sinning all the time. So free from the power of sin.

And boy, experientially, I feel defeated sometimes. Gary? You bring a new believer in to the Lord and it starts to grow. What verse would you take him to? A specific verse. For him to grow? Yes, for him to see the reality of the Christian life. Well, I think it has to begin with the truth of who he or she is.

So I always start with 2 Corinthians 5.21.

Chadwick started with Galatians 5.17. For the flesh that has sensed its desire against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another. so that you may not do the things that you please.

So as a new believer, we have this rosy concept of what Christianity is. But this particular verse shows you the reality that you're in warfare. It's the reality for sure. The question is, is the new believer ready to enter that reality before he knows who he is in Christ Jesus? He needs to know what that is there. It's constantly a battleground for sure. And it all starts John 17, Christ is praying that we would be in Him as He is in the Father. That's a huge relationship.

And even though we're going to end with this verse today if we get there, 2 Corinthians 5.21 is just incredibly powerful. For He hath made Him who knew no sin to be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's in concrete and gold and solidly placed. We're righteous.

And I think Gary, not to be critical of what you're saying, that's a great verse, this power struggle we have, but until you see yourself made righteous from the heavenly perspective, that's when the beginning of that walk by faith begins, I think. Well, mine was just about what you think when you're told about his boldness. In Ephesians 3 where Paul is praying for the believers. Part of the prayer is that we may be able to comprehend with all things.

What is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passes no. further down to know, let's see, well, now to him that's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we have to think according to the power that works in us. So that's talking about the power.

That's good. Okay. That came to mind. Nice. Understanding. I wish you would have called me yesterday. I would have put that verse in there. David, how many times has John used grace in the book of John? It only shows once. I feel like Virginia last night.

It only shows John 1.14. 114 says it also. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. 114, yeah that is another good example. Alright, let's keep moving here. And by the way, this fullness, we're the temple, and the temple is not a structure, we are.

1 Corinthians 6.19. Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own?

So that's that fullness that he places in each one of us. How's that fullness manifested in our day-to-day walk? Macaulay's going to come to this in a second. We're going to review his kind of comments on reconciliation in a few minutes, but by faith, isn't it? We've been made righteous. Do we walk by that righteousness in whom we're made? And I suspect that, I'll speak for myself, many times I fall short of walking in that truth. All right, any other thoughts on verse 19 before we transition to verse 20?

I don't know. Yes, Roy, please. You talked a little bit about grace here. You have John 1.16 up there. Of His fullness, we have received grace for grace. In verse 17, the very next verse, it says, For the law was given by Moses It's like grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. David left a short here. You get a B for your homework.

I'm not so much interested in counting the grace, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. of reality or what is real came by Christ. Everything else before that was not. It was a part of reality but not the fullness which we are talking about here. The fullness of God is reality, is what's real, what's true.

Alright, let's go ahead to verse 20 then. By him, by the way this is an interesting verse because depending on which version you read, it's switched around. We'll come to that in a second. And by him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross. Now in some translations, having made peace precedes and by him. How many people in their versions have having made peace as first? Most of you don't have that, but a few of you do.

Anyway, I think the verse is just simply translated the same, no matter what. I kind of like it better the other way, having made peace with the blood of his cross going first. But nevertheless, I think it's similarly interpretably the way. Roger? I was just thinking, here's where subject, verb, and modifier, so how would, if we had Hal is perfectly interpreting it upstairs right now.

Well, remember, Hal spent, what, three years on Galatians 2.20 anyway, but I'm not Hal, for sure. Aren't you glad? So is this important? Do you think which way this goes? And I just kind of stated my own opinion. Which do you prefer?

Being reconciled first and whether it relates to things on earth or things in heaven, that's more a broad interpretation of reconciliation. I don't know, it seems to me that the peace that was made through the blood of the cross seems to be best first. But I don't know, you make your own choice. You try to find each pastor, you find the subject, you find modifiers, and that's what I'm saying, these prepositional by him, to by him's.

Arrange it in subject verb. That does help a little bit in that question. Now Roger, the question here to the class and to you personally is which do you prefer? We're not in Athens taking Greek 101 here. Tom, which do you prefer? I'll take peace. You'll take what? Peace. I'll take peace. Dale, your preference. I like it the way it is. Marilyn, how about you? I think peace. Marla, how about you? I like the way it is in King James.

So this wins, the current version. Does Christ reconcile all things to himself or to the Father? Yes, for both. I'm going to disagree with you, so let's go forward. That's what the verse says, but in a sense he does, but in a sense he doesn't. We'll come back to that in a second. What does it mean to reconcile? Well, it's to bring back a state of harmony. That's kind of the simplest and most straightforward definition.

And Wiest, I quote him again, a holy God is reconciled in that justice has been satisfied at the cross, which is true of the verse, right? And sinful man is reconciled in that, in the case of the believing sinner, his attitude of enmity towards God is changed to one of friendship. Wow, that's kind of an interesting statement, isn't it? Now notice, Weiss quote relates to my question as to whether all things have been reconciled.

And we're going to come back, what about the unsaved? Well, in a sense he's going to reconcile it but in a different way than he does with a believer. So let's think about that. So let's look at Macaulay's view of reconciliation and I have these stated one by one as Macaulay states them. So we'll give him credit for this and I think it's pretty straightforward and pretty reasonable. First is the need. The need to be reconciled or made in harmony again is that man is a sinner. generic man, men and women both.

The standard for reconciliation is God himself. The means is the cross of Jesus Christ made evident in this verse. The basis is Christ is identified with sinners taking our place. The change is a new position before God. We're made righteous. The condition is our faith. We don't live by faith, this reconciliation gets pale. I mean it's still there, but our faith is what makes this reality. The responsibility is our witness. I'm not sure exactly where he's going with that. He didn't really, Macaulay didn't say much more about that, but I mean our witness is really our life bringing glory to God, right?

As Hal said so many times, you may be the only Bible people ever see. The way you walk. Now, Paul in this long Uber drive the other day really was works-based entirely. Doing good things. He's very Old Testament, very legal in his view. And again, in terms of the cross and what it's done for him personally, I think he's not saved. Doing good things, I pointed out to him, doesn't get you into heavenly places. Good things are important. But then he kind of questioned like a lot of skeptical unbelievers would skeptic. Why don't Christians always do good works, right? In other words, it's a reasonable question from a skeptical world view.

Your brother had that theory. Yeah, he said, I think I've lived a good life. I've done a lot of good things as a teacher and a principal. I'm saying, man, I do better things than you do. I give more. I can help. Unbelievers can out-give and out-do things more than believers can minimize. Roger, in the fact you said this, think about horizontal vision and how damaging it potentially is when we judge others. By the way, I know some unbelievers who seem to live a more righteous life than maybe unbelievers, but my job is not to look horizontally and pass judgment. My job is to live by faith and have the Spirit ultimately lead me. Anyway, our witness, I think, is our walk, right?

And in summary, 2 Corinthians 15 and 18 uses the term reconciliation to reconcile four times. Now all things are of God, we would agree with that, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, again very true of verse 20 in Colossians 1, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses to them or to us, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. of himself toward the world, toward us, by not imputing our sins to us anymore.

He imputed those sins to the Son. And so he took the barrier between the world and himself and put that barrier on Christ so that he could offer word of a new relationship now exists between us and God. Through His Son we have a relationship with God we didn't have before.

And the other thing here, I think the basis implied but not detailed by Macaulay is that Jesus Christ identified with sinners and took our place. What happened at the cross other than our sins being forgiven? We were co-crucified. Well, it wouldn't have been effective unless Christ had to feel, as a man, the effect of sins took our health for us and made it work. He hath made Him sin to be sin for us, right?

So the word peace here, having made peace in the past, refers to the cross. It was through the cross that that peace was generated. I ran into a fellow scientist from from Virginia that the African meeting a week ago and he. had remembered this time where we were with a lesbian woman who really thought we hated her because we were born-again believers. Anyway, I'm not going to go there, but he'd remind me of that, that he'd been with her again, and she brings up that relationship we had with her to think that we had maybe a different view. condoning her sin, we were simply saying, you know, my vanity, all the things we do, all the things we are is sinful before God, right? But anyway, he reminded me of that, and we got talking about the fact that we all fall short of God's glory, and the only thing that's going to remove bias in this world system is the cross.

There's nothing else that makes everybody equal. At the foot of the cross, we're all equal. Absolutely. Well the skeptic is never going to believe that, right? And if you don't believe that, you think that politically people can legislate all those things and make people change their mind, but nothing makes you change your mind, only the Lord. And believing that helps you understand that we are all equal at the cross. And let's apply it here. We have a responsibility to abide.

2 Corinthians 5.20, now then, we're ambassadors for Christ. As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God.

And that's an active process. It's just like being saved. I was saved on July 21, 1978. I'm being saved today. And I'm going to be eternally saved, the hope that we all have of being with the Lord when we leave these earthly bodies. So reconciliation is that same kind of process. We've been reconciled, but it's an ongoing act of us, by faith, appreciating the reconciliation that God has done on our behalf. And things whether on earth or heaven, how about this, this is where I'm going to come back to what we talked about five minutes ago, all things?

What about those who are lost in eternity? Is he reconciling that unto himself? Let's look at this. No, I don't think he reconciles that to himself other than he brings them into the subjection to his own will. In other words, if you die without the Lord, ultimately the eternity is subject to his own will. So in a sense he's reconciling through that process the lost, the unsaved.

Seems pretty punitive, doesn't it? But that's biblical. Roy? You look like you're a man of great thought back there. I don't know how to say this, but in the Old Testament man offered sacrifices that he would come to reconcile them to himself. And so they had faith in the work of God in the future. We have faith in the work of God in the past. But it is the same work on the cross that has reconciled us to God. The unbeliever didn't participate in those sacrifices, didn't go to that in the Old Testament. So looking backwards and looking forwards, God always focuses on the work on the cross as the actor that brings peace. where it changed between us.

Other thoughts on this? That the all things would be, we're talking about the world, aren't we? There's a lot of things in the world that have been changed by that work on the cross. Because he was angry with the entire world. Yet, in spite of that, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. What a summary that is of reconciliation.

So this concept of all things, I mean all things relates to many things that are not of the Lord, right? Including people and their lack of belief. And what's the blasphemous sin? Not believing, right? The sin that's not forgiven. So let's look at this a little bit more in detail.

Ephesians 1.10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, and that's in him. So again, back to the unsaved. He's gathering all things together in Christ Jesus. We've talked about Christ Jesus and what He's done, we know that well. Good angels too, according to the commentaries, are with us.

His death on the cross wasn't for the angels, but in a sense it's for man. But nevertheless, the good angels, not the fallen. Jude 1.6 clearly states what happens to the fallen angels. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. So the fallen angels are just like fallen man in terms of their future. So in a sense he's reconciled all things to himself and Roy stated it's based on the Old Testament history but also related to the cross and what's been accomplished there. The cross reconciled us to him and the unbelievers not to be with him.

And that's true eternally. I mean, that's not a predetermined fate. He calls all to come to salvation, right? I mean, we're not talking about written in the book of life or the book of death before the beginning of time. He calls all to himself, right? I was just wondering if he's referring to the odd things of the future, when the animals will indeed be changed. in their relationship to one another and this world will be new, a new heaven, a new earth.

The earthly existence, yes. Everything that is a thing will be changed. That's an interesting additional thought here. I'd certainly not thought of that, but that's true too. Alright, having made peace through the blood of his cross. I like that first, most of you don't. And it must be the cross, mustn't it?

Hebrews 9.12, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood. He entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. Love that verse. And when, you know, in communion, when we take the cup and the bread, I mean, it's not for the blood of bulls and goats here. We're talking about his blood, the perfect sacrifice for eternity.

Making peace, or Ero in the Greek, eros active participle, means it's being done, it's actively being done and has ongoing relationships. And that means to bind, making peace is binding things together. It's a relationship that is really dependent on the cross and process of reconciliation. Here, sinful man and a holy God, there's been peace made between sinful man and a holy God.

And here's what I promised at the beginning. Again, we've stated that once already today, but we'll state it again. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. Notice it doesn't say forgive our sins, it says to be sin for us. that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Boy, I think that's positional backbone. Gary, again, I think, not to be contrary, but that's a great place to start. Obviously you start with grace and dedication. The battleground is there for us every day, isn't it? I'm sure you're speaking for the entire class here.

Any other thoughts about our verses today? Colossians 1, 19 and 20. Tom, closest in prayer, would you please? us through Jesus Christ in ostrous detail that is of worth to us who are saved. Lord just give us the input necessary to make these lessons stick where it's your grace at work and through your word. Amen.