and by him to reconcile all things to itself, having made peace by the blood of his cross -- by him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And you, who once were alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works, yet now has it reconciled
The letter has just spoken of God reconciling all things. Now it turns to the readers themselves and tells them what they used to be. Two questions follow. Where did the trouble lie — in God, or in us? And why does the verse say "once"?
The verse's phrases mark different parts of the problem. One writer asks where we stood, and then what we were doing there:
Alienation would be connected with our position as being removed from God. But what were we doing there? We were enemies in our minds by wicked works.
Another writer puts them in order. Alienation of heart comes after the wrongdoing, not before it:
We do not only have a wicked nature in us ("children of wrath"). More than this, we have done wrong, thought wrong, spoken wrong. And besides that, our hearts are alienated — the sure consequence of sin. Did you ever see a servant or a child do wrong, and be glad to meet his master or parent afterwards? Does not the sense of having done wrong keep them away from those they have sinned against? Yes. There is alienation of heart, because we do not want God to come and say to us, as He said to Adam, "Where are you?" First comes desire, then the act of sin, then the mind turned away and at enmity.
The verse puts the hostility in us: we were "hostile in mind." So who needed to be reconciled?
The testimony of Scripture is as distinct as possible. It never speaks of God being reconciled to us. "If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son" (Rom. 5:10). It does not say that God was reconciled to us. The death of Christ was essential to the reconciliation. But man was the enemy of God, and man was the one who needed to be reconciled.
That does not mean God was indifferent to how we lived. It means the estrangement never ran both ways:
On our side the alienation was not only in life but in heart also. On God's side, He felt the alienation in life far more sharply than we ever could, but there was no alienation in His heart. In other words, while we as sinners hated God, He never hated us. Had He hated us He could have simply damned us and left it at that. Instead He has Himself made the reconciliation available to us. It came at so great a cost as "the death of His Son."
Reconciliation is not the same as forgiveness. A hostile mind is not a debt God can simply cancel:
Reconciliation brings us out of the condition of enmity and distance that marks everyone by nature. In other words, reconciliation has not so much to do with what we have done, as with what we are. It follows that reconciliation is not a matter of forgiveness. There can be no forgiveness for a condition of enmity towards God. The only way God could take it up was by death. Through the Lord's death, He has taken us out of the place of enmity and brought us into the place of nearness and acceptance before God.
The next words say Christ reconciled us "in His body of flesh by His death." Was His coming to live among us not enough?
While He lived, this work was not yet done at all. The incarnation, blessed and precious as it is, never reconciled man to God. It showed us the Person of the One who was to reconcile. In itself it was an important step towards the reconciliation. But in fact there was no reconciliation yet for a single soul. The cross of Christ accomplished it all.
The reconciling of all things in heaven and earth is still ahead. So where does that leave believers, living in a world that is not yet reconciled?
All things are going to be reconciled in earth and in heaven. But we are already reconciled, in the middle of an unreconciled creation. God does not leave us as part of this unreconciled creation. It groans, and we groan too, but we are reconciled to God. So now we see why there is the patience and long-suffering, and the joyfulness too. These two things may seem very unsuited to each other, though the place we are in is very suited to glorify God. Reconciled is a strong, full word. It means everything is brought into God's presence as God would have it. And we are reconciled.
- Distance. "Alienated" names where we stood — removed from God. "Hostile in mind, doing evil deeds" names what we were doing there.
- Direction. The hostility ran one way. We hated God; He never hated us, and Scripture never says He was reconciled to us.
- Depth. Reconciliation deals with what we are, not only what we have done. A hostile mind cannot be forgiven, so God dealt with it by death.
- Death. Not His life among us, but "His body of flesh by His death." Christ's life showed us the Reconciler; the cross did the reconciling.
- Today. Believers are already reconciled, inside a creation that is still waiting. That is why patience and joy can sit together.