What does it mean that all things are of God (2 Corinthians 5:18)?

This is a work of God in which man can have no share. There is no human material to enter into it, for that had all gone in death before this work was wrought. Justification has here no place, for it is a living man, not a dead man, who needs to be justified. The whole question of responsibility as children of Adam is at an end, for Christ having gone into death for the very purpose of meeting our responsibility, and having settled that question for all that are His, has been raised from the dead in a new character of life (in resurrection), to which responsibility does not belong. He is in a sphere into which responsibility never shall enter, and we are there in Him. It is a work absolutely and entirely of God, a new creation, the character of which is that "all things are of God." (2 Cor. 5:18) The old things are passed away, gone in death never to return; the things that we have now are all new — new, not in the sense of being fresh merely, but as never having existed before. The great thought in the passage is that all that is of man has entirely disappeared from view, and what is of God alone is now seen. The day is coming when this will be true actually, when all within and around will be characterised by being of God, but in the meantime this is true of believers, of all who are in Christ, "if any man be in Christ there is a new creation."

"All things are of God." The first creation was corrupted by the introduction of Satan's lie and man's disobedience. But nothing can possibly mar the perfection of the new creation: nothing is conditional, as it was in the garden of Eden: all is the work of God alone, involving the complete settlement of the sin Adam introduced, and the marvellous reconciliation of those once enemies, by means of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, reconciliation "to Himself," the God of infinite grace.

And by grace too He has committed to His servants "the ministry of reconciliation." Marvellous is the reality and power of this, "that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." Adam was responsible for the guilt that has estranged man from God. We may say then that man was responsible to remedy this. But he could not: sin's enmity is too much for him. But God, who was not in any way responsible to do so, has in pure love and grace laid the perfect foundation of reconciliation for all the world, by the gift of His own Son. The only way by which our trespasses could be "not imputed" to us, was by means of the blessed sacrifice of Calvary, where they were imputed to Christ instead. Blessed basis for taking away man's enmity toward God! Indeed, in this we see how wrong we were in ever having been antagonistic to Him.

Therefore if any one is in Christ, he belongs to this new creation, he is of the new creation. He belongs no more at all to the former; the old things have passed away; all things are I become new. The system is not the fruit of human nature and of sin, like all that surrounds us here below, according to the flesh. Already, looked at as a system existing morally before God, in this new creation, all things are of God. All that is found in it is of God, of Him who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. We live in an order of things, a world, a new creation, entirely of God. We are there in peace, because God, who is its centre and its source, has reconciled us to Himself. We enjoy it, because we are new creatures in Christ; and everything in this new world is of Him, and corresponds with that new nature. He had also committed to the apostle a ministry of reconciliation, according to the order of things into which he had been himself introduced. Being reconciled, and knowing it by the revelation of God who had accomplished it for him, he proclaimed a reconciliation, the effect of which he was enjoying .

Nothing can be more explicit, nothing more conclusive than the last quoted passage from 2 Corinthians 5. “Old things,” of whatever kind, “are passed away.” They are not recognized as having any existence in the new creation wherein “all things are of God.” The old foundation has been completely removed and new foundations laid in redemption. Nor is there so much as a single particle of the old material worked up into the new. “All things are become new”, “All things are of God.” The old creation “bottles” have been flung aside and redemption-bottles set in their stead. The old creation “garment” has been cast away and the new, the spotless robe of redemption, substituted. In this fair robe, man's hand never wove a thread nor set a stitch. How do we know? How can we speak with such confidence and authority? For the best of all reasons, because the divinely authoritative and therefore absolutely conclusive voice of Holy Scripture declares that in the new creation, “All things are of God.” The Lord be praised that it is so! It is this that makes all so secure, that places all so entirely beyond the reach of the enemy's power. He cannot touch anything or anyone in the new creation.

Turning, first of all, to 2 Cor. 5, we shall perceive that the Holy Spirit is careful to remind us, what has already been insisted on, that God Himself is the source of reconciliation. "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ," etc. (v. 18.) Of necessity it was so; for how could man make approaches to God when he was already not only a poor, lost sinner, but also his mind was enmity against God, and when there was no foundation laid on which a righteous reconciliation could be effected? No; man was helpless, and could never, even if he had the desire, have bridged over the chasm that separated him from God. God alone could undertake this mighty work. And this expression — "All things are of God" — tells the blessed tale of grace which flowed out from His heart towards poor guilty man, and made provision for his eternal reconciliation. And the passage in Romans, already cited, teaches us, furthermore, that the motive for the action on God's part was in Himself alone: it was when we were enemies — when our backs were turned to Him in our hatred, that was the moment when God unfolded the depths of His own heart in the gift of His beloved Son. (Rom. 5:8-10.)

All this makes "the world to come," or this inheritance of Christ, a new creation, that is, creation under new conditions. In the old creation, all things were "of God," it is true; but they were of God who created them. But in the new, all things are "of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ." (2 Cor. 5) All these will witness redemption; the blood of the Lamb of God, and not simply the power of the hand of God, will be traced there.

366 "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ." A blessed word! It is the very ground of blessing! Here God fully reveals all His holiness - all His hatred of sin. If His own Son go to the cross He must bear the consequences. All is righteousness. We are now "after God created in righteousness and true holiness"; our sins for ever gone, entirely gone, and we brought to God in the full revelation of Him as He is - "in righteousness and true holiness" - and knowing Him as thus revealed in Christ. We, as in Christ, are brought to God now according to what God is as perfectly revealed. He will "reconcile all things unto himself - whether things in earth, or things in heaven"; the whole state of things will be reconciled to Him. "And you, that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death." "He hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ." Could you say that there, where there was a full revelation of what God is, you see Him as one who has given His Son for you, so that you might be brought back to Himself without a single doubt, without a single question left to settle between your soul and Himself?

Wherefore, then, as might be expected, Scripture never speaks of reconciling God to man. There is no such expression to be found within the covers of the New Testament. "God was in Christ reconciling the world [in its broad aspect — men and things] to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them." And again, "All things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ." In a word, it is God, in His infinite mercy and grace, through the atoning death of Christ, bringing us back to Himself, and placing us not merely in the original place, or on the original footing, or in the original relationship; but, as was due to the work of Christ, giving us back far more than we had lost, and introducing us into the marvellous relationship of sons, and setting us in His presence, in divine and eternal righteousness, and in the infinite favour and acceptableness of His own Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Nor is it a question of new creation alone, great as is the power requisite for it, and precious as its exercise is in presence of death and ruin. Man can avail nothing. It is a question therefore of God; and love and righteousness would reconcile the lost and guilty foes to God, without which His glory must be compromised. Hence it is written, after "all things [or, they] are become now," "And they all [are] of God that reconciled us to himself by Christ and gave to us the ministry of the reconciliation: how that it was God in Christ reconciling [the] world to himself, not reckoning to them their offences, and putting in us the word of the reconciliation. For Christ then we are ambassadors, God as it were beseeching by us, we entreat for Christ, Be reconciled to God: him† that knew not sin he made sin for us, that we might become‡ God's righteousness in him." (Vers. 18-21.)

In the first creation we see man and his responsibility. In the new creation, all things are of God, and man is reconciled by Jesus Christ unto Himself. We want to have the power of this in our souls, to live as belonging to the new creation, as reconciled by God to Himself, all that belonged to the old creation for ever gone to faith, "old things are passed away, behold all things are become new."