All Things Reconciled

There are, to be sure, many things of which I am uncertain.  I believe that I have a very sound theology but, at the same time, understand that my beliefs and the way I comprehend my God are probably not one hundred percent accurate.  When I find areas where my understanding of who the Creator really is, and how he relates to his creation need to be tweaked, or even completely restructured, my theology evolves to accommodate the new-found knowledge.  As a result, the way I perceive the Father today, is different from the way I perceived him thirty-five years ago. 

The point is, I readily acknowledge that there are many things of which I am not certain.  The one thing of which I am certain, however, is that God is going to complete what he has started.  When God spoke into existence this incomprehensibly vast universe, he had a plan.  The plan has not changed.  His blueprint has not been altered.  And God is going to finish what he has started.  I am equally as certain that when he does complete what he has ordained from eternity, and his blueprint becomes reality, I will blush with embarrassment for ever pretending to understand even a fraction of what he has purposed.  "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known."  (1 Corinthians 13:12)  I Have to admit that if Paul sees dimly, then I barely see at all.

The word of the week for me has been "reconcile."  Actually, reconcile, reconciled, reconciling, reconciliation....particularly as they relate to Colossians 1:20.  But, before I get to that scripture, I need to back up. 

In looking back on my life, in the light of my understanding of God's word, I realize that there was a time when the Spirit of the Creator breathed life into my spirit bringing the revelation that there was a God.  He brought the revelation that there was something greater than myself from which every portion of the universe, including the being that was me, drew it's existence.  Something came to life in my very core which convinced me that I was not a product of some spontaneous random act of nature, but rather a part of a deliberate, purpose driven action of a Creator God.

With the revelation that there was a God who gave me life, also came the revelation that there was something in me that was inherently hostile toward him.  That there was enmity between the Creator, and the part of his creation the world knew as Jim Laposky.  The Spirit that breathed life into my lifeless spirit gently whispered the words Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "....on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)

God's Spirit softly spoke those words to my inner man, and my spirit responded.  Through the work of that same Spirit, the ministry of God's word, and the leading of the people the Father surrounded me with, I grabbed hold of Christ's sacrifice and was truly reconciled to my Creator.  I learned the truth of Paul's words to the Romans:

".....but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

"For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,
much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."

Romans 5:8-11

There is so much that can be said of that scripture, but what I praise my Savior for today is that I have been reconciled to the Creator of all things through his shed blood.  I have received reconciliation through the life Christ lived, his sacrifice on the cross, and his ultimate victory over the grave and the power of death.  God's Spirit now bears witness with my spirit that I am one of God's kids.  I love the Message's paraphrase of Paul's words in Romans 8:16, "God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children."

That is wonderful news for a rebel like me.  The Greek word we translate as reconcile (apokatallassso) is bigger than just reconcile.  It is an intense reconciliation.  It is to reconcile completely and fully.  It pictures the total, complete and full restoration of relationship to the Father through which he becomes Abba (Daddy) to us.  It is great news for helpless, ungodly sinners like me, and I rejoice because I am no longer defined by the things I have done, but by to whom I belong.

So I understand, in part, the reconciliation that has taken place that allows me to be in relationship with my Father.  But what has been occupying my mind for the past week is the reconciliation that is to come.  The scripture that came to mind as I walked the dogs one morning last week was Colossians 1:20 which reads:

"For in him (Christ) 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)

It is an amazing thought.  Everything....on earth and in heaven....will be reconciled under Christ.  All things means, surprisingly, all things.  It encompasses every nook and cranny of the whole universe.  All things material, all things spiritual, and all things created will be reconciled completely and fully through him.  Every atom.  Every particle.  Every molecule.  Every action of man.  Everything will be intensely and perfectly reconciled under Christ. 

Again, Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of that passage in the Message is marvelous:

"So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding.

"Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the Cross.

I cannot picture what that will be like, but I long for it.  Come Lord Jesus!  As believers, God has reconciled us to himself through Christ, but he is not finished.  The day is coming when he will turn to Jesus and say, "Son, bring home your bride."  And the Messiah will.  In that instant, in a fraction of a blink of an eye, my reconciliation with the Father will be complete.  I will see with my eyes what I now know as truth in my spirit.  But, in the same breath, the reconciliation of all creation to the Creator will become a reality....all the dislocated pieces of the universe-people and things, animals and atoms-will get fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies....

I love the words, "vibrant harmony."  The image they paint is not one of God taking broken, jagged pieces of a fallen creation and fitting them together as best he can to make something functional.  Rather, it is a picture of a masterpiece, eternal in design, in which the great Designer majestically touches and weaves together every flaw, each imperfection, and all the imperfect blots into a tapestry containing the whole of his creation.  This universal tapestry, reconciled under Christ, will not only be perfect in it's perfection, but vibrant harmonies will spontaneously flow from it, singing for all eternity the beauty of all the glories of God.

Today, I find rest in the reconciliation of all things under Christ, and I pray with certain hope and expectancy with all of creation, "Come Lord Jesus!"