"The Gospel Of Reconciliation” Series

Charles Hodge lived between 1797 and 1878. He was a Presbyterian minister and head of Princeton Theological Seminary from 1851-1878. Concerning the Gospel, Hodge said this: “The Gospel is so simple that small children can understand it, and it is so profound that studies by the wisest theologians will never exhaust its riches.” - Charles Hodge

As we said in a previous message, “Christians will never outgrow the Gospel.” In our passage today, Paul returns us to the Gospel message as He speaks of how Christ, our Great Savior, came to reconciled us to Himself. (READ TEXT) This effort to reconcile us unto Himself, is something that was brought about at . . .

1. God’s pleasure - v. 19

Paul asserts here that Christ was fully God come fully in the form of man. Keep in mind that Paul was seeking to address the heretical teaching concerning the deity of Christ being propagated in Colossae by false teachers, specifically, the Gnostics (from Greek word, “gnosis,” which means “to know.”) They thought they had a corner on the truth, that they were the ones “in the know.”

The Gnostics taught that God was purely spiritual and could not remain holy if He were to come into contact with that which was material. Therefore, they denied the deity of Jesus by asserting that He was one of many emanations from the one true, spiritual, holy, God. In their minds, Jesus was one of many lesser gods.

No, Jesus was not a lesser God, He was fully God! As Paul later says:

“For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ.” - Colossians 2:9 (CSB)

This means we need look no further than to Jesus to learn what God is like. God came in His fullness to rescue us and make it possible for us to be reconciled to Himself; and it pleased God to do this.

God’s provision - v. 20

Why did God take on human form? Because of what was required in order to make reconciliation possible. And what was needed in order to make reconciliation possible? Forgiveness.

When two persons are estranged in their relationship, if reconciliation is to be possible, each must first choose to forgive the other of their offenses which caused the breach in the first place. When it comes to the reconciliation of two human beings, each has the responsibility to choose to forgive if reconciliation is to happen, because each will share some responsibility for the estrangement. It is rarely 100% one person’s fault. Often the fault line is 30% - 70% or 60% - 40%.

But in the estrangement between God and man, there is only one offended party - God. So god had to take the initiative to forgive, which was made possible by Him taking on human form to pay the penalty for our sin on our behalf. The cross was the only way for this to happen.

Man is sinful. Consequently, man is under the condemnation of a holy God, who can have nothing to do with sin; and, since God is perfectly just, it is required that the penalty for sin be fully paid.

But in order for the penalty for sin had to be fully paid, there needed to be found One uniquely qualified to represent the human race - a sinless man. But no such human being could be found.

That’s why God took on flesh in Christ. He came to do for us what we couldn’t do on our own. As a sinless, perfect, human being, He took on our guilt and our penalty to make possible God’s forgiveness for all; and He did this on the cross. And through His sacrifice, forgiveness has been provided so we might be reconciled to God.

“He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” - 1 John 2:2 (ESV)

Literally, the word, “propitiation” means “covering.” Jesus’ death fully covers the penalty for our sin. Jesus took God’s wrath against our sin in our place. And because God’s justice is now satisfied, He can now freely offer forgiveness. God has provided for the forgiveness, John says, of the whole world so that reconciliation might be possible.

“It would be hard to exaggerate the differences between the pagan and the Christian views of propitiation. In the pagan perspective, human beings try to placate their bad-tempered deities with their own paltry offerings. According to the Christian revelation, God’s own great love propitiated His own holy wrath through the gift of His own dear Son, who took our place, bore our sin and died our death. Thus God Himself gave Himself to save us from Himself.” - John Stott

That was God’s purpose in taking on flesh in Jesus. The cross was the only solution to what was a great and awful problem. And because of the forgiveness provided at God’s initiative by the cross Paul speaks of: