Colossians 1:20 - Lasting peace at last

"...and through Him to reconcile the all things unto Him, having made peace through the blood of His cross, [through Him] whether the [things] upon the earth or the [things] in the heavens." 

-The Father was well-pleased to accomplish another thing through Jesus: make peace.  Reconciliation, to exchange back, a strengthened form of changing the relation of hostile parties into a relation of peace.  The hostility could be mutual or just one-sided.  Paul says that all things in heaven and earth are included in this, which could mean that all things must have needed to be reconciled, or perhaps peace was made only for all the things that needed to be reconciled.  But it makes the most sense to connect the ‘all things’ being reconciled to the ‘all things’ of the preceeding verses, all the things which were made and which are held together by Jesus.  Which means that at some level, to some degree God has worked (and is still working) out some kind of universal reconciliation between all He has made and Himself, and not just for the church (cf Acts 3.21).  This implies a universal hostility or separation (mentioned in Romans 8.21).  Restoration would, however, seem to contradict verses like Isaiah 65.17 and 2Peter 3.13 and Revelation 21.1-5 where it looks like the current (old) heavens/earth are going to be replaced rather than redeemed, but perhaps we are talking about a kind of restoration where the old things are replaced with new things of exactly the same type but instead these are no longer corrupted?  That would be consistent with what we are already told about those who believe in Christ (Romans 6.4, Galatians 6.15, 2Corinthians 5.17).  To be sure, a universal reconciliation should not be construed to mean a universal salvation, nor a kind of already-completed restoration, inasmuch as Scripture clearly does not teach universalism, and we can clearly see that even the redeemed in Christ are not yet fully free from the effects of the fall.  But peace - real, lasting, soul-satisfying peace - at last is on its way, and in fact is already making its appearance in the lives of those who do follow Christ.

-Specifically, it is the blood of the cross, that which Jesus shed, which secured peace with God.  Indeed, there is no other way to find peace with God.  Note that this actually was the essence of Jesus’ prayer in the garden on the night He was betrayed, repeatedly entreating His Father that if there was any other way to make peace that He might be spared the passion, that ordeal which loomed before Him.  But there was and is no other way to true peace - nothing but the blood of Jesus.