"It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, who were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight" (Col. 1:19-22).

Man, in his natural state, was utterly hostile, alienated from God, dead. No moral glory even of the Godhead in Christ could win him back. A deeper work was needed:"Having made peace by the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself." All creation was ruined in the fall; and here we have the vast plan of God first sketched before us, the reconciliation of all things, not of men but of things. It was the good pleasure of the Godhead to reconcile all things unto God. Even the Word made flesh, even all the fullness dwelling in Him, failed to reach the desperate case. There was rebellion, there was war. Peace must be made, and it could only be made by the blood of Christ’s cross. In a word, reconciliation is not the fruit of the Incarnation, most blessed as it is; the Incarnation by itself was altogether powerless, as far as reconciliation is concerned. The life of Christ on earth brings before us grace and truth in Christ_God Himself in the most precious display of holy love. Nothing is in itself more important than for a person who has found Christ to delight in and dwell upon Him and His moral ways here below. Everything was in exquisite harmony in Him; matchless grace shone out wherever He moved. All was perfect; yet it all would have been fruitless, for man was as the barren sand.

Therefore we have another and wholly distinct step:"By Him to reconcile all things unto Himself." It was the continual delight of the whole Godhead to dwell in Christ as Man. But so far gone was man that this could not deliver him; sin cannot be thus set aside or taken care of. Even God Himself coming down to earth in Christ’s Person, His unselfish goodness, His unwearied, patient love, could not dispel sin or righteously recover the sinner. Therefore it became manifestly a question of reconciliation "through the blood of His cross."

All things, then, are to be reconciled; peace has been made "by the blood of His cross." It is sweet and assuring to think that all has been done to secure the gathering of all things around Christ. It is merely now a question of the time suited in God’s wisdom for the manifestation of Christ at the head of all. As far as the efficacious work is concerned, nothing more is to be done. Meanwhile, God is calling in the saints who are to share all along with Christ. As it is said in Romans 8, all creation groans, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. They are the first fruits. All was subjected to vanity by sin; but now He who came down, God manifest in the flesh, has taken upon Himself the burden of sin, and has made peace by the blood of His cross. Thus He has done all that is needed for God and man. Morally, all is done, the price is paid, the work is accepted. God would be now justified in purging from the face of creation every trace of misery and decay; if He waits, it is but to save more souls. His longsuffering is salvation. The darkness and the weakness will disappear when our Lord comes with His saints. For the world, His appearing with them in glory is the critical time. The revelation of Christ and the Church from heaven is not the epoch of the rapture, which comes first. The revelation is the manifestation of the Bridegroom and the bride then glorified before the world.

Thus having brought in the universal reconciliation of created things, the apostle turns to that with which it was so intimately connected:"And you who were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled." I do not doubt there is an intended contrast. The reconciliation of all things is not yet accomplished. The foundation for all is laid, but it is not applied. But meanwhile it is applied to us who believe. Us who were in this fearful condition, "now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death." Again, observe, the body of His flesh, the incarnation in itself, did not, could not avail; nor could all the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in Him bodily. For guilty man it must be "through death." It was not through Christ’s birth or living energy, but "through death"_not by His doing, divinely blessed as it all was, but by His suffering. "The blood of His cross" brings in much more the idea of a price paid for peace. His "death" seems to be more suitable as the ground of our reconciliation. At any rate, "in the body of His flesh through death" contradicts the notion that incarnation was the means of reconciliation. This brings in moral considerations and shows the most solemn vindication of God, the righteous basis for our remission and peace, and clearance from all charge and consequence of sin.

(From Lectures on Colossians.)