An exegetical validation paper I wrote for my New Testament 1 class on Colossians 1:20.
INTRODUCTION
“For God was pleased to have all his fulness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the Cross.” Questions have twirled around the meaning of “to reconcile to Himself all things” in Colossians 1:20 for centuries. Many have wondered—scholar, student, pastor, and parishioner, alike—what exactly Paul meant by the idea of God restoring everything to the way He intended them to be. This conversation has evolved into a heightened state given our increasing global connectedness. Thanks to the socio-political phenomenon of globalization, those within the Church—especially the Western Church—are more connected to those who would be deemed an “other” than ever before. This interconnectedness has brought about a renewed interest in what happens to these “others” post-death. Now that white Protestants are next door neighbors to brown Muslims, a conversation about the use of other faiths in God’s broad redemptive plan has been ignited, forcing a discussion on the potential or non-potential of a true universal restoration of all things.
At the heart of this discussion sits Colossians 1:20, which falls at the end of the famed Christological Hymn of Praise (1:15-20). The reason this verse, and the broader poem, is important to contemporary discussions on world faiths and universal salvation is because of the illusion to universal restoration. But does this verse support so-called Christocentric Universalism? If not, what might Paul have meant by the “reconcile to Himself all things”? How exactly should we understand this verse, especially in light of Paul’s broader Christology and soteriology? A survey of scholarship will reveal four views on this important verse: first, some interpret Colossians 1:20 to mean an ending of a grand cosmic conflict; second, the reconciliation of repentant sinners is thought to underly this verse’s meaning; third, others believe Paul is speaking about a universal human salvation, a salvation that will eventually extend to every human who has ever lived; finally, some insist that Paul writes about a reclaiming and restoration of the entire universe that is different than simply universal human salvation. What are to make of these wide-ranging views? This paper seeks to explain and assesses these views in light of the context of the Christological hymn of Colossians 1:15-20 and broader Scriptural narrative.
ENDING THE COSMIC CONFLICT
One of the first interpretations of the ending to the famed Hymn of Praise related to the ending of conflict between waring powers within the universe. It was thought that God in Christ brought an end to cosmic conflict. During the time of Paul, there was widespread assumption that the elements of the universe were in conflict with one another. As the Hymn of Praise presupposes, the universe has ruptured, leading to a sort of war between opposing elements and spiritual powers. The way things were intended to be under the Lordship of Christ has been disrupted. For these early interpreters who thought Paul had quoted a hymn reflecting Hellenistic-Jewish ideas, these disrupted cosmic elements were brought to peace through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. For this interpretation, the reconciliation accomplished in the event of the cross drama is other-worldly: the death of Christ isn’t so much accomplishing something within history, within time and space, but rather between the cosmic, unseen powers that exist outside and over history.
As O’Brien explains, the reconciliation wrought through Christ on the cross has to do with the subjection and pacification of the cosmic powers. Paul’s “all things” does not include the world of men but refers to the cosmic forces; the forces of good and evil are the objects of God’s reconciliation activity. Instead of Christ being celebrated as the bridge between Man and God, He is instead the pacifier and mediator between God and Evil Powers. Because all the powers that are not of God are evil, they need to be brought in subjection to Christ as the head and reconciled to God through that headship. Paralleling the rest of the Hymn, then, some claim the reconciliation of which Paul speaks is the dissolution of enmity between God and the Evil Powers that exist in the cosmos. The Hymn is a celebration of the a-historic peace made through Christ between God and the Powers of Evil. God in Christ has brought an end to this cosmic conflict, a conflict that was widely believed throughout the Hellenistic culture. By adding “through his blood, shed on the cross,” Paul Christianized this Hellenistic idea to explain this end of conflict and theistic reconciliation found in Colossians 1:20.
RECONCILING REPENTANT SINNERS
A more dominate, and less problematic, understanding of Colossians 1:20 says that reconciliation in this verse is restricted to human beings who respond in faith to the reconciliation offered in Christ. While the verb used here by Paul, apokatallassw, is used only three times in the New Testament, its other form, katallassw, is always used to indicate a restoration of relationship between rebellious humans and the one true holy God. Some believe that key to Paul’s Christology is that the relationship between humans and God has been disrupted, a disruption that is healed through Jesus Christ. In fact, some believe that is the only view. Moule insists that “to reconcile” is a verb which only relates to persons and the idea that everything—animate and inanimate alike—could be reconciled is difficult to believe. Such insistence usually relates to the way in which the entire Hymn of Praise is framed.
The great rupture that Paul describes in Romans 1:23 is thought to have framed the entire Hymn of Praise. According to Kehl, the Hymn of Praise is framed by the disunity between God and man; the disruption of which Christ has brought peace and reconciliation is thought only to have occurred in man, and not in creation. Therefore, because the Hymn is framed by a great disruption in mankind only, rather than the entire creation, the reconciliation God wrought in Christ through the cross is meant to extend only to mankind; “all things” refers only to repentant men, rather than the cosmos. “The apokatallassw of Colossians 1:20 is the reversal of the exchange of Romans 1:23.” Kehl claims the breach of which Romans 1:23 speaks—pagans exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images resembling moral man and animals—is healed through the event of the cross during which Christ bled and died. Creation itself was not breached, man was. Thus, the Colossians 1:20 interpretation has a decidedly anthropocentric limitation. “All things” only refers to human beings, particularly those who respond to the invitation to be reconciled.
UNIVERSAL SALVATION
Since the early church, scholars and students alike have found a universal reconciliation embedded within the text of God’s Holy Scripture. While not the dominant view, it has grown in popularity in recent years as the culture has shifted toward inclusivism through postmodern thought, embracement of multiple faiths through multiculturalism, and our collision with different people groups because of globalization. Foundational to the finding of a universal salvation Scriptural interpretation is Colossians 1:20. Origen, an Alexandrian church father and theologian, first offered the church Christian Universalism through his idea of apokatastasis, the idea of ultimate reconciliation. According to Origen, such texts as Colossians 1:20 and 1 Corinthians 15:28 imply an eventual perfection and blessedness of all creation that will rest in God without any hint of sin, evil, or temptation.
God will be ‘all,’ for there will no longer be any distinction between good and evil, seeing evil nowhere exists; for God is all things, and to Him no evil is near. So then, when the end has been restored to the beginning, and the termination of things compared with their commencement, that condition of things will be re-established in which rational nature was place, when it had no need to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He who alone is the one good God becomes to him ‘all,’ and that not in the case of a few individuals, or of a considerable number, but He Himself is ‘all in all.’ And when death shall no longer anywhere exist, nor the sting of death, nor evil at all, then verily God will be ‘all in all.’
For Origen, verses in Romans 5:18-19 and 11:32, 1 Corinthians 15:24-28, and Colossians 1:20 argue that in the end God will not allow anything to fall outside the scope of His saving love in Christ. Like Origen, contemporary philosopher and theologian Thomas Talbott insists that Colossians 1:20 is universally salvific. In the same way “all things in heaven and on earth…” are created in Christ, so also are they re-created in Him. For Talbott, Paul applies the concept of reconciliation, which is explicitly redemptive, to all of the spiritual principalities and dominions and all humans in Colossians 1:20. Likewise, biblical scholar Thomas Johnson insists that 1:20 is truly universal: “Christ’s sovereignty is for a purpose, the universal reconciliation of all things to God, which is accomplished in Christ.” For these theologians, Colossians 1:20 expresses the majestic reality that “all things”—human and non-human beings—will find ultimate restoration in Christ under the same sovereignty that brought them into existence in the first place. No greater theologian has argued for a universal salvation, however, than the twentieth-century Swiss theologian Karl Barth. Like Origen, Talbott, Johnson, and others, he insists that the final stanza to the Hymn of Praise forms the foundation to a broader universalist thread throughout the Holy Scriptures, the logic of his election especially implyinh universal salvation. Reflecting the supposed reconciliation of every human in Christ, Barth said that on the basis of God’s decree of election, the only truly rejected man is His own Son. “By permitting the life of a rejected man to be the life of His own Son, God has made such a life objectively impossible for all others.” Like others, Barth reasoned that God’s eternal decree had willed all to be reconciled in Christ.
Some argue on the basis of this passage that because God’s eternal plan and purpose was reconciliation then nothing in His creation would be lost; from the beginning of time God’s desire was to restore the cosmos, including all humans, to the way they were intended to be at the beginning. They believe that 1:20 can be taken to mean that Paul looked for ultimate reconciliation between God and all humans, indeed all hostile spiritual powers, too. In fact, it is this last point—the reconciliation of even hostile spiritual powers—that is particularly an innovative reading of 1:20. Like universal salvation for humans, Origen also posited that even the devil and his angels will be restored; peace between God and Satan has also occurred through the event of the cross. In other words, not only is the idea of universal reconciliation to God implied for all humanity, but Paul is said to have anticipated that fallen angels will benefit from the redemption which Christ accomplished on the cross. Thus, “all things” refers to everything that is hostile to God, both mankind and spiritual powers. This very point was made by a 19th century commentator. Eadie, the author of in an older commentary of Colossians from T & T Clark, declared:
The humanity of Jesus bringing all creatures around it, unites them to God in a bond which never before existed—a bond which has its origin in the mystery of redemption. Thus all things in heaven and earth feel the effect of man’s renovation; unnumbered worlds, so thickly strewn as to appear dim and nebulous masses, are pervaded by its harmonizing influence; a new attraction binds them to the throne.
Likewise, MacDonald, a pseudonymous author of a book on Evangelical Universalism, said that the same Christ by which “all things” are created in verse 16 are later reconciled in verse 20; they are without a doubt the same “all things.” We find in Colossians, then, a theology that places both creation and reconciliation in Christ; just as the good creation was crafted by the creator in Christ, so to will rebellious creatures find peace with God in Him. Everything, then, finds complete renewal and reconciliation to God through Christ. All of creation, to its farthest spot, could not but be affected by the grace and the death of Him who gave it its original life and being. Because Christ gave the universe and all therein its existence, many believe Colossians 1:20 reveals a re-creation that extends throughout the universe, too. The breadth and depth of this reconciliation is bigger than simply repentant sinners and cosmic forces. While it mirrors the fourth and final view—a view which does encompass the whole creation, too—it insists that all humans and even all spiritual powers will eventually be completely reconciled to their Creator. No ounce of God’s original creation will be left unreconciled.
RECLAIMING THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE
By far the dominant view is that of cosmic restoration. Not only are there conflicting powers and a disruption to humanity, creation itself has ruptured; creation is not the way it’s supposed to be. Through the work of Christ on the cross, however, God has brought the entire rebellious creation back under the rule of His sovereign power.
As the Greek apokatallassw word suggests, there was a state of estrangement and hostility, which is presumed between the two stanzas of this hymn. Though this estrangement is not explicitly mentioned, it is probable that the estrangement and fall of creation are presupposed throughout the broader Hymn of Praise. Between the two stanzas, and the two phases of Christ’s cosmic activity, there is an unmentioned event or state that relates to the falling of the entire universe. Because the wider creation in general suffers from the effects of human beings rebelling and falling into sin, God needed to make peace not only for them, but for all creation. The last line of the Hymn of Praise emphasizes the universal significance of the Christ-event by revealing its cosmic dimensions and by speaking of salvation for the whole world, including the whole creation. Therefore, most people have interpreted this passage as referring to the reclaiming and restoring of the entire universe.
Contrasting the cosmic conflict view, O’Brien says that Paul affirms that universal reconciliation has been brought about in history for all creation, not simply between waring powers in some other-worldly drama. Instead, the universe has been reconciled in that heaven and earth have been brought back into their divinely created and determined order; the universe is again under the head of Christ and cosmic peace has returned. Continuing this ‘peaceful’ line of thinking, Wilson explains that the whole universe has been at war with itself, and so Christ has brought peace into the life of humans because all things have been reconciled, destroying the forces which have created universal chaos. Through the event of the cross, the shed blood of Christ brought peace not only to lives of humans but to the entire universe, as well. Witherington echoes this point. Rather than “all” signifying all creatures of every kind will eventually be saved, he says the universe will one day be at peace. This verse also makes clear that redemption is not only for those who are on earth, but also for the cosmos. Commentators believe that this verse makes clear that through Christ, the divine purpose through the reconciling and peacemaking event of the cross was to restore the harmony of the original creation.
ASSESSING COLOSSIANS 1:20
It appears there are four views on one simple verse: God is making peace between two waring cosmic forces; God through Christ is reconciling repentant humans to himself; Christ provides universal reconciliation for all sinful humans and hostile powers, alike; and the event of the cross has brought about a restoration and re-creation of the entire universe through Christ. While I would consider myself a hopeful Christocentric Universalist–meaning I do believe it’s possible that all will be reconciled in the end, and hope toward that end at the Day of the Lord—it seems as though this verse does mean a reclaiming of the entire universe. Just as the first strophe of the Hymn of praise emphasized the universal significance of Christ and the creation event, so also does the hymn emphasize the universal significance of the cross event for the entire creation. “The hymn emphasizes the universal significance of the Christ-event by exhibiting its cosmic dimensions and by speaking of salvation for the whole world, including the whole creation.”
French lay theologian Jacques Ellul, in describing the state of creation post-Fall, called it “The Great Rupture.” He is right and the Hymn of Praise presupposes this rupture. Without specifically addressing the rebellion that plunged all of creation into disunity and disintegration, something happened between verses 16-17 and 18-20. That “something” required what is reported in 19-20: “For God was pleased to have all his fulness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the Cross.” While the first stanza explains how “all things” find their being in Christ, the second explains how “all things” find their restoration to unity integration in Him, as well. That “all things” seems to be none other than the entire universe.
While some may try to interpret this passage in reference to a Hellenistic idea of cosmic conflict—believing Paul simply Christianized an already present Hellenic hymn—such an interpretation fails to take into account the the entire creation over which Christ is both Head and Reconciler. Moreover, there is little to the broader context to suggest a conflict between created beings, spiritual or not, which this view supposes. Additionally, a cosmic conflict view seems too a-historic, failing to account for the time-space incarnation event of Christ to bring about the reconciliation of which Colossians 1:20 speaks.
An anthropocentric slant also will not due. While the previous perspective limits the meaning of “all things” to cosmic powers, an interpretation which says 1:20 refers to repentant sinners is also criticized for being too narrow. If the context of Christ’s headship and creative role includes “things in heaven and earth,” how could the following stanza simply mean all repentant humans? If the scope of the first half of the Hymn of Praise is cosmic, why wouldn’t it’s ending? Like the preceding interpretation, limiting the extent of the cross’ reconciling power to humans does not account for everything else that is encompassed in “all things” in verses 16 and 17. Both the cosmic power and anthropocentric views do not adequately explain the meaning of “all things.”
It seems a Christocentric Universalist view brings us closer to understanding 1:20, though may overshoot its meaning. This view posits that the entire universe is once again under its head, the creator Christ. Through His blood peace is made between God and everything within the universe, including unrepentant sinners and still-hostile powers. While this certainly could be the case—a larger, more nuanced understanding of the universalistic trends in the Scriptures could provide that picture—Paul relates the good news of this reconciliation to believers in Colossae, rather than the entire world.
Additionally, the news of reconciliation and peace in Christ seems to be connected to the Colossian believers continuing in their faith, established and firm, and not moving from the hope held out in the gospel. While 1:20 could be used to establish a broader pattern of universal redemption throughout the Holy Scriptures, it seems unlikely that a universal reconciliation is what Paul had in mind.
In light of these three other views, it seems only plausible that 1:20 means a cosmic restoration through Christ. As noted before, underlying 1:20 is the notion of rupture. Following rupture, however, is restoration on a cosmic level. Since “all things” refers to the whole of the universe in both stanza of this Hymn, we could conclude that the entire universe is reconciled in Christ. Therefore, it is likely that the reconciliation of which 1:20 speaks relates to the reclaiming of the entire universe, not simply the stilling of cosmic conflict, restoration of repentant sinners, or even universal salvation. A cosmic reconciliation appears to be Paul’s focus. Creation occurs through Christ and the broken harmony of the universe has been restored through Him: there has been a truly cosmic restoration!
CONCLUSION
In the majestic Hymn of Praise, Paul sketches for us a powerful portrait of Christ: He is both Creator and Reconciler. From ages past, all things–things in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible—sprang into existence in Christ Jesus. Christ crafted the creation. Unfortunately, that very good creation ruptured, creating division, hostility, disharmony, and enmity between God and the cosmos. Just as “all things” were created in Christ, so too “all things” were re-created: “For God was pleased to have all his fulness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the Cross.” God has brought his entire rebellious creation (“all things”) back under the rule of Creator Christ. While not a universal salvation, this verse and the broader passage certainly asserts a thoroughly biblical universalism: God’s work in Christ is reclaiming the entire universe, tainted as it is by the rebellion of all humans. While creation ruptured from deliberate human rebellion, it has and will be re-created a new through the rescue of Jesus Christ. Despite the sin of our great ancestors, Adam and Eve, the “It is finished!” cry of Christ’s completed work on the cross will one day lead to the hopeful words of King Christ upon His return: “Behold, I have come to make all things new!”
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