Peace Through The Blood Of The Cross, Part II

August 2026

“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, 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, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.”

—Colossians 1:20-22
 

As stated in an earlier article, the purpose of Paul’s epistle to the Colossians was to clearly state the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ as the head of the body, the church. As also stated, the church at Colossae was being infiltrated by three teachings: 

• asceticism, the practice of a strict self-denial of anything pleasurable as a measure of personal and spiritual discipline;

• legalism, man’s attempt to attain holiness and righteousness by obedience to man-made rules and regulations; and 

• Gnosticism, a movement of intellectualism, promoting the idea that one could obtain superior knowledge apart from the Word of God.

In these three verses, Paul presents one of the clearest descriptions of the doctrine of reconciliation through the death of Christ on the Cross. The word reconcile means “to restoreharmony between God and man,” “to remove hostility and restore peace between God and man due to the fall.” Because of the fall, man was alienated from God bringing enmity between God and man, which the cross was the only means whereby sinful man could reconcile back to God. 

In verse 20 we read, “And, having made peace,” which speaks of justifying peace. The Greek word for “to make peace” means “to bind together.” Because of the fall, there was a hostility between God and man, but Christ came to make peace—both judicial and spiritual peace.

How was this accomplished? The next part of the verse tells us: “through the blood of his cross.”This tells us that His blood was that which satisfied the just demands of the broken law. Never forget that in studying the life of Christ, even though he performed many wonderful works during His earthly ministry, His primary purpose in coming to earth was to bring salvation to the souls of men.

Myer Pearlman said, “The outstanding event and central doctrine of the New Testament may be summed up in the words, ‘Christ died (the event) for our sins (the doctrine).’ So the peace of God was not achieved by miracles, religion, law keeping, but the shedding of our Lord’s innocent blood. The shedding of His blood represents the payment for sin and the satisfaction of divine justice.”

Then the verse states, “to reconcile all things unto himself.” As I have already stated, reconcilemeans to restore harmony in place of hostility. 

Romans 5:10 states, “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” So we see that the death of Christ on the cross satisfied divine justice, the penalty of sin, and the demands of holiness.

Through the sacrifice of Christ, this condition of enmity can be changed into one of peace and fellowship. This new relationship magnifies the grace of God, for no man can reconcile himself to God.

Then Paul states, “by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven,” which refers to the following: first, it means that the whole universe, material and spiritual, will be once again restored to perfect harmony with God, and second, it refers to the believer being totally and fully reconciled back to God.

Verse 21 refers to man’s former condition before salvation when he states, “And you, that were sometime alienated.” In the Greek, alienated is apallotrioo, and it means “to estrange.” Everyone in their unsaved state is estranged from God.

The he said, “and enemies in your mind by wicked works,” which speaks of man’s depravity with their whole being given over to sin due to the sin nature. 

But then he says, “yet now hath he reconciled,” meaning that His work is complete, and nothing can be added to the atonement, for it is a “finished work.” God has done His part, and now man must do his part in accepting Him as Lord and Savior.

In verse 22, Paul begins with the phrase, “In the body of his flesh,” which presents the incarnation—God becoming flesh and blood. No doubt Paul was using this terminology to refute the false teaching of the Gnostics, who were denying that Christ became man. 

In this statement, Paul is proclaiming the following: Christ was born, Christ suffered, Christ bled, and He died physically.

The phrase, “through death,” stresses the fact that the act of reconciliation came about through His sacrifice and not just His incarnation.

Then Paul concludes the verse by stating, “to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.” Holy speaks of being free from sin. Unblameable means spotless, without blemish. And unreproveable means that we are not only free from blemish, but also from the charge of it. All of this gives us the purpose of reconciliation.

Thanks to Calvary, there is now peace and reconciliation for those who accept the Lord as their Savior.