“And having made peace _through the blood of His cross_, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, whether things in earth or things in heaven” (Col. i. 20). “In _the body of His flesh through death_, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight” (Col. i. 22). Thus we are given to understand that the sins of future generations, should be atoned by the one offering of Christ, as well as those of past generations, so that all generations alike owe their salvation to the one Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ, in whom “all are made alive, and who is the one only hope of glory. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. xv. 22) in such manner that if we are united to Him we partake of what is His, and shall find in Him all that we can need as a Saviour, Mediator, Intercessor, and Redeemer. Nothing is of us; all from Christ. In Him is all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Col. ii. 9); full of grace and truth (John i. 14). All power is committed to Him in heaven and in earth (Matt. xxviii. 18). As maker and upholder of all things, blessings, spiritual and temporal, are in His hand (Heb. i. 2, 3); and in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. ii. 3), and “He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him” (Heb. vii. 25). Can we not now with reverent feeling enter into somewhat of the deep meaning of those few words of our Lord, “_That thus_ IT MUST BE” (Matt. xxvi. 54)? and of that awful scene which had just passed in the garden of Gethsemane, when He had thrice prayed—“_If it be possible_, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt”—when His soul was “exceeding sorrowful even unto death” (Matt. xxvi. 38, 39); and when “there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven strengthening Him (Luke xxii. 43); when His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke xxii. 44).