SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/29/2017
9:09 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Plan of Reconciliation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians
1:20-21
Message of the
verses: “20 and through him to
reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by
the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in
mind, doing evil deeds (ESV).”
We have been talking about Jesus Christ reconciling all
things to Himself, making things in the Millennial Kingdom similar to what they
were when the earth was created, including animals, and also the universe. We have also spoken about that everything
will be reconciled when the Lord creates the new heaven and the new earth,
along with the new Jerusalem which is talked about in Revelation 20:10-15. This all happens after the Great White Throne
judgments and the destruction or maybe better stated the un-creation of the
universe, including the earth. Satan was
also mentioned and John MacArthur has the following to say about him and the
reconciliation: “On the other hand,
there is a sense in which even fallen angels and unredeemed men will be
reconciled to God for judgment—but only in the sense of submitting to Him for
final sentencing. Their relationship to
Him will change from that of enemies to that of the judged. They will be stripped of their power and
forced to bow in submission to God. Paul
writes in Colossians 2:15 that after Christ ‘disarmed the rulers and authorities
[fallen angels], He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them.’ Because of Christ’s victory, ‘the God of
peace will soon crush Satan under your feet’ (Rom. 16:20). And ‘at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth’ (Phil
2:10). God has elevated Christ to a
position above all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven. Paul wrote to the Ephesians that God ‘raised
Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far
above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is
named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His
feet’ (Eph. 1:21-22).
“Through the sacrifice of Christ, God made provision for
the world (cf. John 3:16; 1 John 2:2), all persons will not be reconciled to
God in the saving sense of being redeemed.
The benefits of Christ’s atonement are applied only to the elect, who
alone come to saving faith in Him.”
I can honestly say that I did not realize the scope of
reconciliation extended to all these things that we have been looking at and am
thankful to learn it. All of these
things we have been looking at are what could be called God’s general plan to
reconcile all things to Him. We will see
that Paul is going to talk about specific reconciliation of believers like
those he is writing to, the Colossian church, as their reconciliation foreshadowed
the ultimate reconciliation of the
universe.
To accomplish this and to impress on them Christ’s power
to reconcile men to God we will see that Paul reminds the Colossians of what
they were before their reconciliation.
Every believer who is truly a born-again believer can take a moment to remember
what they were like before they came to know Christ as their Savior and
Lord. As for myself for many years
before the Lord saved me my mouth was a great problem as I could not hardly say
a sentence with using a cuss word, taking the Lord’s name in vain, but once I
was reconciled to God and He to me He took that away from me. Yes there are still other things I have to
trust the Lord to give me victory over, but once saved my mouth became clean
from taking the Lord’s name in vain.
Paul tells the Colossians that they were formerly
alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds. MacArthur writes “Apallotrioo (alienated) means ‘estranged, ‘cut off,’ or ‘separated.’” The Colossians like all believers before they
become saved were completely estranged from God, and a similar passage is seen
in Ephesians 2:12-13 “12 remember that
you were at that time
separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and
strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the
world. 13 But now in
Christ Jesus
you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” You either a born-again believer or not,
heading for heaven or heading for hell “"He who believes in the Son has
eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath
of God abides on him’ (John 3:36).”
I mentioned that this section was going to take a while
to get through, but hopefully we will gleam many truths from it and that will
draw us closer to the Lord and bring glory to His name.
1/29/2017 9:41 PM
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