“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross."
Colossians 1:19-20
We touched on the subject of reconciliation very briefly in an earlier blog. Here we will take a closer look at what it means for God to reconcile all things to Himself by the death of Jesus and what that means for us.
The beginning of the Bible tells us that the world was formless and void, in Hebrew, Tohu va bohu. This is translated as "formless and empty," "waste and void," or "chaos and desolation" There was no order to it and then God begins to create or recreate the world and He calls it good.
It goes rather wrong again when Adam disobeys in the garden and chaos begins to reign again. None of this takes God by surprise because before the foundation of the world Jesus predetermined to come to die the horrific death on the cross in order to ‘reconcile’ all things to Himself.
When someone is reconciled to another, then restoration has taken place. Peace and harmony has been restored between parties that were once at odds. God in Jesus restores what was lost. He saves what was lost.
In our verse it says He makes peace through the blood of His cross. In the Hebrew, peace carries so much more meaning than we have in English. The Hebrew word for peace is shalom and can mean completeness, wholeness, welfare, well being, safety, prosperity. The whole concept of peace is closely related to the idea of reconciliation.
The amazing thing is that when God calls us into His community, He calls us to co work with Him in bringing peace/shalom to this world.
In case we are in any doubt about that, read the following…
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
2 Cor 5:17-20 ESV
In the midst of a chaotic and suffering world we, with God’s help and leading, can make a difference and bring about change.
Personally, I am very encouraged by that, for in our own situation of deep trauma and suffering, God can and will use that experience to bring shalom to someone else’s life. That’s one of the reasons we began our website Strength in Suffering, so that others who are suffering might find some hope, some peace, and ultimately find the God of peace, the God of Shalom. We still experience some dark and very difficult days and probably will continue to but no experience of trial is wasted with God. We have to believe that in order for us to see God use our situation to bring shalom to someone else life.
God has accomplished the miraculous through the life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. He graciously doesn’t just save us so that we can wait for Him to return, even though that is great in itself. No, He invests in us through the indwelling Holy Spirit to go and make disciples, to go into our small part of the world and make a difference. Whether we’re going through suffering or not we are all God’s ambassadors with a ministry of reconciliation.
The day is coming when we will see fully what it looks like to see all things reconciled to God when He creates or recreates a new heaven and a new earth and the whole creation will be filled with Shalom. All things will be restored to how God intended. Until then, reconciliation is our aim, is part of the job description.
Prayer: Dear Lord, We are so thankful that You are the God who is in the business of dealing with chaos. You’ve done it on the cross and You do it everyday when someone experiences Your love and grace. Help us to experience that more and more and help us to be Your ambassadors especially when we feel like we have little to give. Pour into us so that we can give of You. Amen
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