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original meaning of reconciling, or making "at one", and is now understood as making a
propitiation. It is therefore better in Rom. 5: 11 to translate the word "reconciliation",
and thus avoid the thought that we have ever received the atonement or propitiation--
God alone received that.
"The reconciling of the world" (Rom. 11: 15).
"The word of reconciliation" (II Cor. 5: 18, 19).
Apokatallasso appears in the following passages:--
"Reconcile the both" (Eph. 2: 16).
"Reconcile all things" (Col. 1: 20).
"You hath He reconciled" (Col. 1: 21).
If the reader will read through the above references, he will see that katallasso,
katallage and apokatallasso are used exclusively by Paul.
We have written elsewhere upon the bearing of these facts upon the ministry of the
apostle Paul (see "The Apostle of the Reconciliation") and must here confine ourselves to
the epistle we are studying. We cannot, however, exclude the companion epistle to the
Ephesians, for these two epistles are complemental and present the truth of the mystery
from all angles.
Someone may ask the significance of the change of expression from katallasso to
apokatallasso. It will be observed that the two words are not used indiscriminately,
but are kept strictly to the two sets of Paul's epistles. The lesser word is used before
Acts 28:; the fuller word is used only in the epistles of the mystery. The lesser word
is used of a reconciliation made, but not necessarily experienced (see Rom. 5: 10, 11: 15;
II Cor. 5: 19), whereas apokatallasso indicates a reconciliation made, entered into and
appreciated--in other words, apo lends something of the thought of the word "mutual".
In Eph. 2: 16, where it occurs first, the reconciliation is confined to the two elements
that entered into the creation of the new man:--
"And that He might reconcile the both unto God in one body by the cross."
Its association with a new creation is important, and the reader should note that the
word translated "make" in verse 15 really means "create":--
"For to create in Himself of the twain one new man" (Eph. 2: 15).
Reconciliation and new creation are as much here in Eph. 2: as they are in Col. 1:
This church thus created is called "the fullness" in Eph. 1: 23, of which Christ is the
Head (Eph. 1: 22). In the practical outworking of the doctrine of Eph. 2: we have the
"new man which after God is created in righteousness and holiness of truth" (Eph. 4:
24), which still stresses the place that the new creation has in this teaching. The
reconciliation of Eph. 2: is between the two sections forming the One Body--the enmity