Reconciling the Spiritual Powers of Evil (1)

Sometimes, if you ask a different question, it leads you down an amazing path. That happened a few weeks ago, when I was reading Colossians, I was struck by something that I had not noticed before. It really set me thinking. Paul wrote these words.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus, 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 (Col 1:19-20).

Paul explains that God has reconciled all things on earth and in heaven to himself through the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. I have always known that Jesus blood reconciled people living on earth to God, but I began to wonder what things in the heavens or spiritual realms needed to be reconciled to him. Clearly, the angels do not need to be reconciled to God, because they have been his faithful servants. That leaves the spiritual powers of evil as the only beings in the spiritual realms that need to be reconciled with God.

I began to wonder how the spiritual powers of evil could be reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus. I had not thought about that before. I just assumed that they were irretrievably lost and would be destroyed at the end of the age. However, Paul seems to be suggesting that they could be reconciled with God. That possibility set me thinking.

I discovered that the spiritual powers of evil will shift their allegiance and go back to serving God, when they hear the truth proclaimed by Jesus. I will explain what I found in the next few posts.