How Will Christ ‘Reconcile’ Unbelievers to Himself?

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

Ask, John Piper, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Questions, Theology, Pastor, 163859, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2018

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Colossians 1:20 says that Christ will reconcile “all things” to himself. Does that include demons and unbelievers?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Colossians 1, 15-23, is a majestic text, in fact, is my favorite text in the Bible.
0:11.0	But Colossians 120 is notoriously challenging, and it has baffled and befuddled Bible interpreters
0:17.2	and theologians for many centuries. The question comes into us today from a listener named Heather.
0:22.8	Hello, Pastor John. I have a question about Colossians 120, about Christ,
0:26.4	reconciling to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his
0:32.4	cross. For the unsaved and for the fallen angels, how are they reconciled to Christ? Pastor John,
0:41.4	what would you say to Heather? I just did a look at the book session on this very question recently.
0:49.8	So let me see if I can sum up my argument for Heather here on APJ. It really matters because
1:01.8	it's a question about what's commonly called universalism or the teaching that in the end,
1:10.1	everyone, even demons, will be saved. There's no hell, there's no eternal punishment,
1:17.5	sooner or later, even if it takes a thousand years to some kind of purgatorial discipline,
1:23.0	everybody gets saved in the end. That's what some people say. This text, this text, Colossians 120,
1:31.2	supports, and let me read it. For in Christ, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
1:40.3	and through him to reconcile to himself all things, to reconcile to himself all things, whether
1:49.5	on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. The question is, when Paul says
1:57.5	all things, all things will be reconciled to God through Christ. Does all things mean every
2:06.4	unbeliever who has ever lived, including Satan? My answer is no, but rather, all things is a
2:17.9	comprehensive term referring to the new heavens and the new earth, where absolutely everything,
2:27.2	all things that exist in the new heavens and the new earth will have been reconciled to God
2:35.3	through the blood of Christ, but that there is over against that new heavens and new earth,
2:41.3	an outer darkness, an awareness, an other, there is a reality excluded from the new creation.
2:52.6	There's hell that's outside God's new creation, where impenitent believers and demons suffer
	...

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