What is broken in you that you long to have fixed? Here we are, on the backside of the Christmas holiday. For most of us, the family get-togethers have happened or are still in the process of happening. The meals have been had. The gifts have been given and received. The decorations are still up but will soon be taken down and put away as we prepare for the long cold winter ahead of us.
It doesn’t take long for the warmth of the Christmas season to give way to the cold harsh reality of the next three months of winter. Truth be told, the warmth and excitement and joy of the Christmas season can easily give way to nagging reminders of the broken, separated and lonely world we live in; a world in need of true reconciliation.
The Christmas holiday (while momentarily providing some joyful reprieve in this broken world) can also be a harsh reminder of the broken marriage, or the divided family, or the wayward kids, or the job-loss, or the nagging depression, or the ongoing struggle with addiction, or the lack of deep relationships because of the busyness of our lives, or the depravity of a political system that is enamored with power and prestige. This is all to say that the Christmas season, while beautiful and full of joy, does little to truly fix the brokenness we face each and every day; we still long for a true and lasting reconciliation or renewal of what’s been broken. What is broken in you that you long to have fixed?
The world is infected with a kind of brokenness that cannot be medicated or fixed with a flash-in-the-pan national holiday that comes around every year. Don’t hear me wrong, Christmas is beautiful (and we are privileged to celebrate it every year) but Christmas can only be as beautiful as its counterpart is ugly. In other words, Christmas is beautiful because the world we live in is ugly and infected with sin. The beauty of Christmas is amplified by our longing for true reconciliation and restoration of what’s been broken.
Fixing what is broken involves reconciliation, rescue and restoration. The work of reconciliation is inexplicably tied to the work of rescue and restoration. Without rescue, reconciliation cannot happen; without reconciliation, restoration is a doomed process. So, reconciliation, rescue and restoration are like an Oreo cookie; reconciliation is the sweet creamy center with rescue and restoration acting as the chocolaty outer layers. All three of these elements (chocolaty wafers and creamy center) are inexplicably tied together to produce the Oreo cookie and without one of them, the other two just seem to lack completeness.
The same is true with rescue, reconciliation and restoration. Reconciliation is at the center, sandwiched in between rescue and restoration; without reconciliation there is no true rescue and there is not lasting restoration. Unless an estranged husband and wife experience reconciliation there will never be a rescued or restored marriage; no holiday glitter will ever cover this kind of brokenness or produce that kind of transformation.
The same is true for all of us regardless of the kind of brokenness we are faced with; we all need the power of Christ who reigns supreme in reconciliation. Look at Colossians 1:19 – 23…
COLOSSIANS 1:19 – 23
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
What does reconciliation involve? What does it mean that Jesus came into this world to reconcile all things to himself? What does it mean that Jesus reigns supreme in reconciliation? Well, one way to explain this is to say that Jesus reigns supreme in the pleasure, method, purpose and condition of reconciliation.
#1: JESUS REIGNS SUPREME IN THE PLEASURE OF RECONCILIATION (VSS. 19 – 20)
We all take pleasure in something and most of us are pretty diverse in what our chosen pleasures are. Some of us find a lot of pleasure in watching a good movie, engaging in a great conversation, eating some well-made food, reading a good book, creating a work of art, etc. but at the end of the day we can all agree that when something broken gets fixed, it is a very pleasurable experience. We all enjoy seeing something broken getting fixed.
The pleasure that we feel, when something broken gets fixed, is an extension of the pleasure that God takes in reconciliation. This is why Paul says that in Christ “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:19 – 20). At the end of the day, God literally found some of his deepest joy in sending himself in the flesh to die in the place of sinful humanity so that by his broken body and shed blood, sinners could become sons and daughters.
When you think about God’s reconciling work in the cross of Christ you can see the utter one-sided work of reconciliation that has been done; not one of us can testify to a story that says that we were seeking God and found him hiding in the bushes.2 The truth is that God came in the flesh during the Christmas season to seek and to save those who were lost because we all like sheep have strayed away and were/are in need of reconciliation/salvation from the God who never stops chasing us and never stops looking in the bushes for us (Eph. 2:16; Rom. 5:10; 11:15; 2 Cor. 5:18 – 20). Jesus reigns supreme in the pleasure of reconciliation.
#2: JESUS REIGNS SUPREME IN THE METHOD OF RECONCILIATION (VSS. 20 & 22)
We all have our own methods for fixing what is broken. Some of us like to use super glue, others like to use nails and screws, some of us like to rely on other professionals to get the job done and some of us like to use duct tape to get things back on track. Whatever the method you chose, the reality is that we all love to fix broken things.
And the joy we feel when we find a method that works for fixing what is broken is a direct reflection of the image of God in each of us. This is to say that we all know that this world is not what it was meant to be. We know that we are not what we were meant to be. Therefore, there is a deep longing within each of us to see things made right; to find the method that fixes what is broken.
This is why Paul says that God the Father has a method for fixing what has been broken in the human race and his method, for fixing what has been broken, is the person and work of his Son Jesus Christ whereby God will “reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross… [through which] he has now reconciled [believers] in his body of flesh by his death” (Col. 1:20, 22). Simply stated, the method of God’s reconciliation is the broken body and the shed blood of his Son Jesus.
The reality here is that there is no other method by which man can be made right with God. There’s no super glue strong enough or duct tape sticky enough or nails and screws long enough or professionals smart enough that can fix what is broken inside of each of us; all of our methods for fixing ourselves are bankrupt because our methods come out of our own brokenness.
We need a better answer to the problem of evil and brokenness in this world, other than the common self-help answers of “just work harder” or “just work smarter”. Whatever the answer is to the problem of evil in this world, this much is true: God the Father determined to go all in on his supreme method of reconciliation when he took his own medicine in the death of his Son, Jesus at the cross of Calvary (2 Cor. 5:19 – 21).3 Jesus reigns supreme in the method of reconciliation.
#3: JESUS REIGNS SUPREME IN THE PURPOSE OF RECONCILIATION (VSS. 21 – 22)
All of us do what we do for a reason. We get married for a reason, we have kids for a reason, we pursue jobs for a reason, we look for a church home for a reason and we engage in social causes for a reason. At the end of the day we all have reasons for doing what we do, and we have very specific reasons why we attempt to fix what is broken in this world.
God has a very specific reason or purpose for his work in reconciling or fixing what is broken in us through the cross of Jesus Christ. Paul affirms this when he says that “you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him” (Col. 1:21 – 22). Simply stated, the Father’s reconciling purpose (the reason why he sent Jesus during the Christmas season) was to rescue, reconcile and restore fallen humanity to its intended perfect and holy state of being.4
Rescued, reconciled and restored is the new identity of every believer who once was alienated, separated and hostile towards God (Rom. 8:17).5 When you think about God’s reason or purpose in reconciliation you see that God wants to present every one of his enemies to himself as holy and blameless and perfect children and the reality is that through the gospel of the crucified, risen and returning Christ, God administers the medicine of the gospel that begins the work of His own declaration of complete holiness over his enemies who will become children of God at the very moment they receive it by grace through faith.6 This is why we say that Jesus reigns supreme in the purpose or reason of reconciliation.
#4: JESUS REIGNS SUPREME IN THE CONDITION OF RECONCILIATION (VS. 23)
We put conditions on many things if not everything. We get married to someone on the condition that they will be faithful to us. We chose a church family on the condition that it is a good fit and a faithful biblical expression of the church. We put in our time at work on the condition that our employers provide adequate salaries and benefits. We purchase things on the condition that what we are buying is worth the cost.
In the same way, the offer of reconciliation to God comes with some conditions. This doesn’t mean that God’s love or salvation over us can be earned but it does point us to the fact that there are some conditions or requirements to receiving and walking in the loving salvation of our Heavenly Father; lip service without skin in the game is unheard of in the historic Christian faith.
God didn’t say “I love you and I want to save you” and then sit back in his big comfy lounge chair while you did all the work. On the flip side, while God’s loving salvation cannot be earned by any good works on our part, it’s not like we get to just sit back and consume the beautiful product of God’s loving salvation without returning some kind of reciprocal, loving, faith-filled actions.
This is why Paul says that you can find assurance in the fact that though you once were an enemy of God, you are now a child of God “if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister” (Col. 1:23). The simple truth here is that God has set some supreme conditions in place for becoming blood-bought child of God and those conditions involve the transformation of the heart, mind and will of every believer.7
Without reconciliation, our hearts, our minds and our wills will remain adrift on the icy, cold sea of sin and rebellion and depravity, alienated from our Heavenly Father; on the contrary the heart, the mind and the will that grasps the Father’s loving work of reconciliation and restoration in the rescuing work of the cross of Christ will inevitably ask the Father for forgiveness.8 Asking for forgiveness is where the reception of God’s recue and restoration in reconciliation begins in the life of the believer. This is why we say that Jesus reigns supreme in the condition of reconciliation.
CONCLUSION…
As we come to the end of the Christmas season and we begin to look forward to the New Year, though we recognize that the world we live in is broken and that we are broken, we can rest assured that Jesus reigns supreme in the pleasure, the method, the purpose and the condition of reconciliation. The bloody cross, the empty tomb and the promise of eternity in Heaven is the promise of complete rescue and restoration in Christ’s reconciliation. God will make things right and he wants to make things right between you and him.
I think an illustration from the story of the Titanic is helpful here.9 When the Titanic sunk there were 1,600 passengers fighting to stay alive in the icy cold sea as 18 half empty rescue boats floated just 300 yards away, unwilling to return to lovingly save people from the mess they were drowning in as they faced the hopelessness of certain death, and yet, those half-full rescue boats found pleasure in self-preservation; they found a method that saved their own skin; they found a reason to stay on the sidelines while people were drowning helplessly; and they made consumption of their own safety the condition by which they wouldn’t reach out.10
The world we live in is just like that icy cold sea where 18 half empty rescue boats are floating aimlessly out of reach as 1,600 people drown. This is the picture of the brokenness of our world. But the Christmas season gives us so much hope because it reminds us that Jesus reigns supreme in reconciliation. Through Christ’s work at the bloody cross, through his victory in the empty tomb along with his faithful promise of returning to complete the work of restoration, we have a Savior who reigns supreme in the pleasure, the method, the purpose and the condition of reconciliation.
At the end of the day, Jesus loves you and I so much that he took his own medicine by taking on human flesh to swim out into the sea of our sin and depravity so that he could rescue, reconcile and restore us. Jesus is the one and only rescue boat that casts off all restraint and comes after the one drowning person who will get into the boat of God’s rescue and restoration in the reconciliation of the crucified, risen and returning Christ. The only question that remains is: Is Jesus reigning supreme in your life right now?
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 R. Kent Hughes, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon: The Fellowship of the Gospel and the Supremacy of Christ (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, ESV Edition, 2013), 239.
3 Ibid., 239 – 240.
4 Ibid., 241.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid., 242.
8 Ibid., 242 – 243.
9 Ibid., 237 – 238.
10 Ibid.