Anyone who has studied the ministry of Jesus knows He came to reconcile mankind with their Father. It’s a powerful that God the Father would send His own Son to pay for sins He did not commit in order to reconcile or bring us into agreement with Himself. As powerful as that is, Jesus did more than reconcile heaven with humanity when He went to the cross. The Bible teaches He also reconciled heaven with itself.
I know you are probably thinking, “Huh? Why did heaven need to be reconciled? What was wrong there? Isn’t heaven the template for what God wants our world to be like? Didn’t Jesus teach us to pray your will be done on earth as it is in heaven?”
I had all those thoughts to the first time the Holy Spirit opened my eyes up to Colossians 1:19-20:
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
These verses say Jesus came to reconcile things on earth and things in heaven. This leads to a question. What on earth needed to reconciled in heaven? The first time I saw this passage, I immediately dove into dozens of commentaries searching for the answer. All of the commentaries I read on these verses acknowledged Adam’s sin had an impact on heaven, but none of them described what that impact was. Not very helpful!
As I kept studying, I came across a cross-reference, which is Hebrews 9:22-26:
22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.
23 Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—
26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
This passage says the Old Testament law required the articles in the tabernacle to be purified by blood. This cleansed them from their impurity. They go on to say Jesus enteted into heavens and applied His blood there (most probably to the mercy seat). The fact Jesus had to cleanse the heavens with His blood further illustates Adam’s sin had an impact on heaven, but it doesn’t say what the impact was.
After I read the passage in Hebrews, I prayed and then I had a thought, “What happened when Jesus went to the cross. According to Revelation 12:9-10 Satan was cast out.”
9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
Adam and Eve’ sin gave Satan legal access to appear before God in heaven and accuse people. We see this illustrated in Job 1-2 as Satan appeared before God and accused Job.
When Jesus entered the heavenly realm and applied His blood to the mercy seat after the resurrection, Satan was cast out and the damage that was done to the heavenly realm was repaired. In my mind, I see Jesus sealing the crack in the heavens Adam and Eve’s sin opened up and Satan used to crawl through to accuse people. After Jesus finished the repair, Satan’s access was denied!
This means Satan can no longer accuse you to your Father when you mess up. All he can do now is accuse you to you, but this is where you must remember what 2 Corinthians 5:19-20 say:
19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
God has reconciled the world to Himself, now He wants you to reconcile or come into agreement with Him. This means He isn’t hearing the voice of the accuser so you shouldn’t listen to Satan’s voice either. When Satan talks to you, remind him of the blood and cast him out of your presence! You are forgiven and right with God!
Before I close I want to make one additional point that even if you think you have sinned so bad you are sure God can’t forgive you, you’ve probably never messed up so bad you jacked up the heavenly realm like Adam and Eve did. This should be an encouragement that no matter what you’ve done, the blood of Jesus can make it right! I hope this article encouraged you! If you’d like to learn more, check out this message I taught at Grace Life Church.
