The Cosmic Christ and an Ethic of Reconciliation

Since the scriptures state God is the Creator and the Lord of the world, Christians should be able to recognize what God is doing in the world. Of course, we often mistake providence with our own wants, hidden prejudices, political positions, and nationalistic assumptions. Even though Christianity claims that God has definitely revealed God’s being and will in history (for example, the giving of the Torah to Israel, the biblical prophets, Jesus Christ, and Pentecost), we must first admit that God is the unsurpassable being, whom we cannot fully conceive. God’s ways are not our ways. Thus, it takes much informed reflection and also deep humility to identify rightly divine providence. It’s risky. Nonetheless, we must try. Colossians 1:11-20 offers a good beginning in formulating an explanation of providence. In this poetic act of praise, the Apostle provocatively claims that Christ coheres all aspects of creation and by his salvific death reconciles heaven and earth to God.  The universe is not a meaningless collection of randomized atoms but the orderly expression of an underlying creative, good reality.  Christ is the Lord of the universe, the Cosmic Christ, who holds together every aspect of existence into a grand unified reality. The presence and reality of the Cosmic Christ creates and reconciles all things into a wonderful and beautiful cosmos.