01.02.09 - Reconciliation

9. Reconciliation: The biblical teaching of reconciliation views salvation as the reestablishment of our relationship with God. Since we are all born spiritually dead “in Adam”, that is, since we all possess a sin nature through physical birth, a fact which guarantees that sin will follow our inherent sinfulness, we are all also born alienated from God (Colossians 1:21), the Father of our spirits (Hebrews 12:9). But just as the prodigal son’s father loved him dearly, and was overjoyed when he returned (Luke 15:11-32), so too our heavenly Father loves us beyond our comprehension, and has indeed done the most for us that we might be able to return to Him and reenter the grace and blessing reserved for His true sons and daughters. For in order for us to be reconciled to Him, not only do we have to be willing to turn away from the world and return to Him in humility and repentance and faith, but He first had resolve the issue of sin, that is to say, a means had to be provided for us to be made righteous and acceptable to God before we were fit to be reconciled to Him (i. e., justification must precede reconciliation).

[God] has erased the charge against us along with its bill of particulars (i. e., the record of our personal sins). This stood against us, but He removed it [as an obstacle] between us by nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:14. In this teaching, sin thus forms a barrier, so to speak, which separates us from holy God, a wall of enmity and impending wrath, which can only be removed by the complete and righteous judgment of all of our sins. For [Jesus] Himself is our peace, for He has made both [Jews and gentiles] one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition, that is, the enmity, by discharging the Law of the commandments and its requirements with His [own] body, so that He might re-create the two into one new Man by making [this] peace, and might reconcile both in one Body to God through His cross, having by means of it abolished the enmity [between God and mankind]. For when He had come (i. e., the 1 advent), He proclaimed the gospel of peace to you who were far away [from God], and peace to those who were near. For it is through Him that we both have our access to the Father by means of one Spirit. Ephesians 2:14-18. The prerequisite for reconciliation with the Father has thus in ineffable blessedness been carried out by the full and fully effective judgment of the sins of the world in the body of Jesus Christ. It is our Savior’s blood that has torn down the wall of hostility and impending wrath and opened up the door of grace and peace. But God commends His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So how much more is it not true now, after we have been rendered righteous [through faith] in His blood, that we shall be saved from the [coming] wrath through Him? For if when we were His enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, how much more is it not true [now], since we have been reconciled [to Him through Jesus’ death], that we will be saved by His life? And not only that, but we even flaunt [our new relationship] with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained this reconciliation. Romans 5:8-11. In the symbolism of reconciliation, Jesus has made peace for us with God – through His own death which paid our outstanding debts – and in so doing has transformed us from being God’s enemies by nature and by birth into members of God’s own household, sons and daughters fully restored into the good graces of the loving Father who made us. For it was [God’s] good pleasure for the fulfillment [of His plan] to reside entirely in [Christ], and so through Him to reconcile everything to Himself, having made peace through Him, through the blood of His cross, whether things on earth, or things in heaven. You were once alienated from God – your very thoughts were hostile towards Him and your deeds were evil. Yet God has now accomplished reconciliation [for you] through the death of Christ in His physical body so that you may stand before Him as holy, without blemish and free from accusation – [this you will do] if you remain solidly grounded and firmly fixed in the faith, and un-moved from your hope in the gospel which you have heard proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which [gospel] I, Paul, have become a minister. Colossians 1:19-23.

Though as sinners by birth, we were previously God’s enemies, we have now been reconciled to Him by the blood of Jesus Christ through our faith in Him and His sacrifice for us on the cross, so that the wrath we once anticipated has been replaced by confidence in the justification we now possess, for now in place of enmity, we have access to God Himself (Romans 5:1-2; Ephesians 2:18; Ephesians 3:12; Hebrews 4:16; 1 Peter 3:18), and peace with the Father through the intercession of the Son. So now that we have been justified by faith, let us take hold of the peace [we have] with God [the Father] through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained our access into this grace in which we stand, and let us boast in the hope of the glory of God (i. e., in anticipation of our resurrection). Romans 5:1-2.

It is the Father Himself who initiated this process of reconciliation, striving to bring all of His lost sheep back to Himself through the greatest sacrifice He could possibly make, and empowering us who have returned to spread the message that, since Christ has removed the barrier of wrath and enmity that once separated us, instead of anger for sins past, God’s attitude towards us is now one of loving acceptance, if only we are willing to accept the gift of Jesus Christ and be reconciled to Him. And all things come from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, for that God was [and is] in Christ making overtures of reconciliation between the world and Himself – not taking their transgressions into account – and has entrusted us with this message (lit., “word”) of reconciliation. As ambassadors of Christ, as though God were urging you through us, we beg you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God! 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. The Son is also said to be an agent of reconciliation in the context of His becoming – like us – a genuine human being, with, moreover, that taking on of humanity being implied in the following verses as necessary in order to accomplish reconciliation (since He had to become a man in order to die for our sins). But [in fact] He was made subject to torment on account of our transgressions, and He was crushed because of our collective guilt (lit., “guilts”). The punishment [required] for making peace [with God] on our behalf [fell] upon Him. Because of His wounding, we have been healed. Isaiah 53:5.

Therefore since these children have a common heritage of flesh and blood, [Christ] too partook of these same [common elements] in a very similar fashion (i. e., not identical only in that He was virgin born and so without sin), in order that through His death He might put an end to the one possessing the power of death, that is, the devil, and might reconcile [to Himself] those who were subject to being slaves their whole lives long by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15.

Jesus is thus the Mediator between God and mankind, for He alone is qualified to be so. He is not only true God and always has been, but is since the incarnation a true human being as well. As such, He is able to represent both parties and effect reconciliation. He offers this reconciliation to us, and we who have accepted it proclaim His offer to the world (2 Corinthians 5:18-20), but the offer is only possible because of the fact that the aggrieved party, God, has been fully and completely conciliated by the ransom Jesus Himself paid to affect our return to the Father, namely, by bearing our sins in His body on the cross, and by paying the full penalty for them in dying in our place.

[God] who wants all men to be saved and come to accept the truth. For as God is One, so there is [only] One Mediator between God and Man, Christ Jesus in His humanity, who gave Himself as a ransom for all [mankind] . . .1 Timothy 2:4-6 a This is how we enter into to the new agreement of restored and eternal fellowship with God, the New Covenant “in My blood” (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25), as our Lord said, namely, by being reconciled to the Father through faith on the basis of the death of Jesus in our place. But Christ has already arrived [in heaven] as High Priest of the good things to come, [having passed] through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, that is, the one which is not of this creation. Nor was it through the blood of goats and bullocks, but through His own blood (i. e., His spiritual death) that He entered once and for all into the holy of holies, having wrought eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of the heifer sprinkled upon the unclean render a person holy in respect to bodily cleansing, how much more will the blood of Christ, who offered Himself without defect to God through the eternal Spirit, cleanse our conscience from dead works so that we may serve the living God? And it is for this reason that He is the Mediator of a New Covenant, so that those who have been called might receive their eternal inheritance on the basis of the death He suffered to redeem us from the transgressions [committed] under the first Covenant. Hebrews 9:11-15 (cf. Hebrews 12:24)