From whales to waterfalls, the whole created order has in principle been reconciled to God. Like a sovereign making a proclamation and sending off his heralds to bear it to the distant corners of his empire, God has in Jesus Christ proclaimed once and for all that the world which he made has been reconciled to him. His heralds, scurrying off to the ends of the earth with the news, are simply agents, messengers, of this one antecedent authoritative proclamation.
N.T. Wright in TNTC: Colossians and Philemon (on Colossians 1:23), p 85.
09/09/2006
Steve McCoy
Jesus-follower, husband, father, pastor, photographer, writer
Great quotes! I am preaching Colossians 1:15-23 tomorrow and just might steal these. One of the commentaries (NAC I think) made the point that from this passage we see that Jesus has reconciled the angelic world, the human world, and the material world
Posted by: Chris Gonzalez | 09/09/2006 at 02:09 PM
Great quote, indeed. Thanks, Steve.
Posted by: GL | 09/12/2006 at 09:40 AM
Steve,
Awesome quotes from NT. The one about the whales and waterfalls raises a question though. If God has already reconciled himself to his world, and we are just messengers of that reality, then what is the role of personal faith on behalf of those who hear the message or those who do not hear? I imagine Wright would say that the message must be personally recieved, recognized or submitted to. Any help?
Thanks, Rick
Posted by: Rick Penney | 09/12/2006 at 11:46 AM
This is a great quote - I love how NT paints the picture of a big truimphant God. Thanks for sharing it.
Posted by: andre_y | 09/13/2006 at 11:29 PM