Reconciliation (2643) (katallage from katá = an intensifier + allásso = change - see study of verb katallasso) describes the change from a state of enmity between persons to one of friendship. It pictures the reestablishment of an interrupted or broken relationship. Reconciliation is a vivid word, pointing to the making of peace after a quarrel. Katallage describes the bring together again people who have been estranged and describes the state of those who have been restored to friendship. In the New Testament it refers, of course, to God's reconciling of the world to Himself through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Thayer describes it as "the restoration of the favor of God to sinners that repent and put their trust in the expiatory death of Christ." Reconciliation assures us of the future bliss of eternal life and Christ’s risen and exalted life is the guarantee - this should be cause for exultation. God changes us from enemies to family. Man is reconciled to God, not God to man to God, for it was man who moved away from God. The reconciliation is the effect of the death of Christ, and so reconciliation brings out the significance of the Cross, where God's wrath against sin was poured out on His Son Who was made sin on our behalf. Katallage originally was used in Greek to describe an exchange (or profit from exchange), especially of money (of the business of money changers, exchanging equivalent values). This word group then began to acquire a wider sense of exchanging any one thing for another. Aristotle, for instance, speaks of professional and mercenary soldiers who are willing to barter their lives for trifling gain. And then the meaning came to be more than anything else, the change of enmity into friendship, as in the present passage. Remember that the Scripture always portrays God as the Reconciler and sinners as the ones reconciled, since it was human sin that ruptured the relationship between God and man, even as explained by the prophet Isaiah... But your (speaking to rebellious Israel, but practically to all mankind who likewise are rebels) iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear. (Isaiah 59:2) Barclay summarizes the truths about reconciliation writing that... First and foremost, Paul sees the work of Jesus Christ as above and beyond all else a work of reconciliation. Through that which he did, the lost relationship between man and God is restored. Man was made for friendship and fellowship with God. By his disobedience and rebellion he ended up at enmity with God. That which Jesus did took that enmity away, and restored the relationship of friendship which should always have existed, but which was broken by man's sin. It is to be carefully noted that Paul never speaks of God being reconciled to men, but always of men being reconciled to God. The most significant of all the passages, 2Cor. 5.18-20, three times speaks of God reconciling man to himself. It was man, not God, who needed to be reconciled. Nothing had lessened the love of God; nothing had turned that love to hate; nothing had ever banished that yearning from the heart of God. Man might sin, but God still loved. It was not God who needed to be pacified, but man who needed to be moved to surrender and to penitence and to love. Here then we are face to face with an inescapable truth. The effect of the Cross—at least in this sphere of the thought of Paul—was on man, and not on God. The effect of the Cross changed, not the heart of God, but the heart of man. It was man who needed to be reconciled, not God. It is entirely against all Pauline thought to think of Jesus Christ pacifying an angry God, or to think that in some way God's wrath was turned to love, and God's judgment was turned to mercy, because of something which Jesus did... When we look at it in Paul's way, it was man's sin which was turned to penitence, man's rebellion which was turned to surrender, man's enmity which was turned to love, by the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ upon the Cross. It cost that Cross to make that change in the hearts of men. (Barclay, William: New Testament Words:. Westminster John Know Press, 1964) Katallage is used 4 times in the NT... Romans 5:11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Romans 11:15 (note) For if their rejection be the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 2 Corinthians 5:18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (in the gospel) Leon Morris writes... Since the New Testament never speaks of God as being reconciled, and some conclude that reconciliation means no more than a change in sinful people. But it is the wrath of God, not of people, that has to be dealt with, the demand of God that we live uprightly that must be reckoned with. Moreover, v. 11 speaks of receiving reconciliation, which was thus in some sense wrought before we received it. It is also true that the first change is not in the sinner’s feelings, but in his state (Gifford). The death of Christ puts away our sin, which had aroused not our opposition but God’s. (Morris, L. The Epistle to the Romans. W. B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press) Newell notes that... the word here is not atonement (as in KJV) which means to cover up, and is applied to the Old Testament sacrifices. The word reconciliation here (katallage) is simply the noun form of the verb "reconcile" in verse 10. Compare "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses (2Cor 5:19). To "receive" a complete, accomplished reconciliation, -how simple! We have seen men and women exult in God, thus! Every believer has this great right of exultation. This is a "song of the Lord" that lasts forever-"through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5) Richards sums up some of the truths on reconciliation... (1) It is human beings who need reconciliation; their sinful attitude toward God must change. (2) God has acted in Christ to accomplish reconciliation, so that with our sins no longer counted against us, believers no longer have a basis for counting God as an enemy. (3) When we come to believe the gospel, we experience a psychological and spiritual change, as our attitude is brought into harmony with the divine reality. We who once were enemies "rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ro 5:11). In pagan religions, human beings might bring offerings designed to win the affection of some wounded deity. Only in Christian faith, however, does God take the initiative to win, at terrible cost, the affection of those who have wounded him by their sins (Richards, L O: Expository Dictionary of Bible Words: Regency) Let's summarize the benefits of justification by faith... Peace with God through Christ (see note Romans 5:1) Access into the grace & presence of God through Christ (see note Romans 5:2) Experience of Exultation and Joy in tribulation (see note Romans 5:3) The love of God poured out in our heart (see note Romans 5:5) The indwelling of the Holy Spirit (see note Romans 5:5) Deliverance from future wrath of God (see note Romans 5:9) Present continuing salvation in Christ our life (see note Romans 5:10) Reconciliation through Christ with God (Romans 5:11) Warren Wiersbe sums it up this way... Totally apart from Law, and purely by grace, we have a salvation that takes care of the past, the present, and the future. Christ died for us; Christ lives for us; Christ is coming for us! Hallelujah, what a Savior! (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor or Logos) Harry Ironside notes that... This is the glorious end - for the present - to which the Holy Spirit has been leading us. Our salvation is full and complete. Our sins are gone. We are justified freely by his grace. We have peace with God and we look forward with joyous certainty to an eternity of bliss with Him who has redeemed us. (Ironside, Harry. Romans and Galatians. Kregel. 2006) ><> ><> ><> In his sermon Joy in God Spurgeon addresses the question... WHAT is joy IN GOD? Now, my dear friends. I have before me a topic which far exceeds my ability. I get out of my depth when I have such a question as this to answer, “What is joy in God?” I shall be like the swallow, that but touches the brook with its wing, and then is up and away again; I can do no more than skim the surface of the subject, but I know that there is, to the believer, a joy, first, in the very fact that there is a God. To the ungodly man, it would be a great delight if it could be proved that there is no God. When he is at all serious, and thinks upon the great problems which concern his own state, he is troubled with the thought of God; for, if there be a God, then sin must be punished. If there be a God, then a life spent in neglect of Him must entail, somehow or other, chastisement and sorrow. The worldling would be glad if he could be thoroughly well assured that the idea of God is “a mere bugbear (a thing that causes obsessive fear or anxiety) of priests to keep men in terror,” as some say. There is a something within a man that makes him feel and know that the world must have had a Maker. If it is so full of intelligence, a Someone, by His intelligence, superior to all the intelligence of mankind, must have made it; and the man gets troubled as he remembers that he has lived so many years, and yet has forgotten his Maker, and broken His laws. But the child of God, the regenerate man, who feels within him the nature of God and kinship to the Most High, could not bear the idea of there being no God. Atheism is a black Egyptian night to a soul that once has known God. If we ever come to have joy in Him, anything which robs Him of his glory makes us grieve; but to prove that there is no God, would be to prove that we are orphans, it would prove to us our everlasting poverty and wretchedness. It would be to us an infinite catastrophe if we could ever be convinced that there is no God. Happily, we have no fear of any such a calamity; we delight to know that, there is a God, and that God is everywhere. Our highest joys are experienced when we are in His most immediate presence; and if we ever do anything which we should not do if we were conscious of His presence, we know that it is wrong, and we have to grieve for doing it. But when we live as in hHis sight, when we truly walk with God, then we live like Enoch, who “had this testimony, that he pleased God.” Then do we realize the truest form of happiness and joy. So, first, we have joy even in the fact that there is a God. But we have joy, most of all, in the knowledge that this everlasting God has become our Father (John 1:12, Gal 3:26, 1John 3:1). We take no delight in the universal fatherhood which comes of creation; that is a poor thing, and belongs as much to dogs and cats as it does to us, for they are as truly created by God as we are; and that sort of fatherhood, of which I hear men talk, which is the portion of those who blaspheme God, and live in utter rebellion against Him, is not that of which the apostle wrote: “If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (note Romans 8:17) Sirs, until God renews your nature, you are children of the wicked one (John 8:44, 1John 3:8-10) and not children of the Most High; neither have you any right to talk about the fatherhood of God towards you. “Ye must be born again;” (John 3:7) and only when you are born again, and have believed in Christ, are you God’s children, for “as many as received him, to them gave he power” (John 1:12) — the right, or privilege, — “to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” But that fatherhood which comes of the spirit of adoption within you, because you have been born into the family Of God, — in this you may indeed rejoice. Now, can you not, and must you not, if you have believed in Christ, joy in God as you feel that He is, through His abounding grace, your Father? Whatever He does, He is your Father. When He smiles upon you, He is your Father. If He frowned upon you, He would still be your Father. I have told you before what the old Welsh preacher answered when his friend said to him, “While you are preaching, this morning, may you have the smile of God resting upon you!” “Yes,” he replied, “my dear brother, I hope that I shall have it; but if I do not have the light of God’s countenance, I will speak well of Him behind His back.” So we should; when we do not have the Lord smiling upon us, we should speak well of Him behind his back. Let us be resolved to say with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” (Job 13:15) If He should take away every comfort which. I have, I am so persuaded that it will be a Father’s love that will dictate the action that I will still praise Him, and magnify Him, do what He may. It is joy indeed when you can say that, if the Lord is strong, He, is strong for you; if He is wise, He is wise for you; if He is unchangeable, He is unchangeable to you; and whatever He is, and whatever He possesses, He has made Himself over to you to be your possession, saying, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (2 Cor 6:16) This, then, is joying in God first rejoicing that there is a God, and then delighting in Him as our Father. When we once reach this point, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we rejoice in every attribute of God, we delight in Him as He is revealed. I fear me that, in these days, many men are very busy trying to Construct a god for themselves, such as they think God ought to be; and it generally turns out that they fashion a god like themselves, for that saying of the psalmist concerning idols and idol-makers is still true, “They that make them are like unto them, so is every one that trusteth in them.” (Ps 115:8) These modern manufacturers of gods make them blind because they are themselves blind, and deaf because they are deaf, and dead because they are spiritually dead. No, beloved, there is no God but the God revealed in Holy Scripture, the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; and the excogitation of another godhead, which has been the business of the sages of the present day, is all a mistake and a delusion. God can only be seen in His own light, He must be His own Revealer; and no man can know God except God shall reveal Himself unto him. I trust that many of us can say that we do rejoice in God as we find Him in the Scriptures. Some quarrel with God as a Sovereign, and no doctrine makes them grind their teeth like the glorious truth of divine sovereignty. They profess to want a god, but He must not be on a throne; He must not be King, He must not be absolute and universal Monarch; He must do as His creatures tell Him, not as He Himself wills. I adore that God Who says, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (note Romans 9:15) Such a God as He is needs no limitation; let Him do as He wills, for it is not possible that He should will to do anything that is unjust or unholy. Let us joy and rejoice in Him as an unlimited Sovereign. Then let us rejoice in Him as perfectly holy. The holiness of God is an attribute that may well fill us with awe; to the eyes of ungodly men, it shines like “the terrible crystal” of which Ezekiel speaks, but, in the Word of God, whenever the song rises higher than usual, you will generally find that it is a hymn in praise of the holy God. Yea, this is the song of heaven: “They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” (Note Revelation 4:8) The wholeness of the divine nature is seen in His holiness; there is in Him no defect, no excess, He is altogether just such as a holy soul must delight in. I trust also, dear friends, that you and I can joy in God as to His justice. The justice of God makes men dread Him till they become His children. There are some, today, who pretend to preach the gospel, and who really are preaching’ “another gospel which is not another;” (Gal 1:6) and they try to set forth the littleness of sin, and as for the justice of God it seems to be ignored by them. Their effeminate deity is not worthy to be known by the name of God; but our God is terrible in His justice, and He will by no means clear the guilty; and conscience tells every man this. But the believer in Jesus, when he sees what God did that justice might be satisfied, and that love might freely flow to the unworthy when he beholds Christ crucified, the great Father piercing his Son with sharpest smart that He might justly put away the sin of His people, then he comes to delight in God’s justice. Instead of threatening him, God’s justice becomes the guardian of his salvation with a drawn sword protecting him from condemnation. Happy is the man who can say of every attribute of God that he adores it, the man who would not have turned back at the Red Sea, and refused to sing unto the Lord who had triumphed gloriously in his righteous vengeance upon the ungodly. Bow your heads before God as He is, as He declares himself to be in His own Word; for if you do not, you are not reconciled to Him; but if you are truly reconciled to Him, you will accept Him without question in all those points that seem dark and mysterious you will believe those doctrines which sometimes grate upon the ear as you hear of them, and you will say, “Though I cannot understand, I adore; and where I tremble before the Lord, so that the joints of my bones are loosed, and I fall prostrate at His feet, yet even in those dread mysteries I feel that I love and I joy in God.” Beloved brothers and sisters, what a blessed and transcendent joy this joy in the Lord is! Sometimes you joy in your children; yet they die, and then you sorrow. At other times, you rejoice in those who are grown up and are prospering; but perhaps they treat you with ingratitude, and then again your joy is gone. You joy in your health, and that is a great blessing; but you sicken, and your joy departs. Some rejoice in their riches; but wealth takes to itself wings, and flies away. You may joy in a choice friend, but after a while you may be forsaken and forgotten. You may joy, perhaps, in past achievements, and there, may come to you a joy in your prospects for the future; but there is no joy equal to joy in God. Suppose I have nothing in the house but God; suppose there is nothing for me to rely upon but God, nothing that I can call my own but God. Well, is that a little thing? Are not all creatures but the visions of an hour? But the Creator is the substantial all in all; so that he who has God has all that he can possibly need. God, to His people, is the fullness out of which all their wants shall be supplied. What a mercy it is that, when we can joy in nothing else, we can joy in God! We can joy in His power, for He can help us. We can joy in his faithfulness, for He cannot fail us. We can joy in His immutability, for He changes not, and therefore we are not consumed. We can joy in every thought that we have of Him, for altogether and observed from every point of view, He is the delight of His people. Well now, dear friends, if we have come as far as that, we can also say that we joy in God in all His dealings with us. “That is hard work,” says one. But when you perfectly joy in God, you joy in everything that He does. Suppose you had a dear friend, who came to your house, and suppose you should say to him, “anything that there is, you may enjoy, or you may take. I will give you anything you can ask for or desire. I owe my life and all my prosperity to you.” Well, if you did miss this and that of your treasures which you might like to have retained, when you heard that your friend had them, you would be quite content. According to that good old parable, when the master went into the garden, and took a very choice rose, the gardener did not trouble himself at the loss of it when he knew who had plucked it. He was so glad that the master admired it, that he could even rejoice that it had gone. Now, dear friends, can you not get to this point, that, if the Lord brings you comforts, you will not rejoice in them so much as in Himself who brings them? You say that you can get as far as that; but if the Lord takes away your comforts, can you come to this point, that you will not sorrow over them, but that you will joy in Him who took them away? The drops are gone; yes, but there is the fountain always flowing. Though the sunbeam behidden from your eye, the sun is always shining. Wherefore, always rejoice in God, your all in all, and say, “Yes, I will rejoice in all His dealings with me.” Looking back on the whole of my own life, I desire to bless God for everything that He has ever done for me. I desire to praise Him for every cut of the rod, for every blow of the hammer, for every melting in the furnace, for the crucible and the burning heat. Everything has commenced, and continued, and concluded as it ought to do, according to His infinite love and wisdom; and I therefore joy in all that God does to me, and bless His holy Name. Then I think that we also learn to joy in all God’s requirements of us, and in all His teachings. In all that He tells us, and in all that He reveals to us of the world to come, we learn to joy in God. Thus, as I told you, I have only touched the surface of this great subject; I pray the Holy Spirit to reveal to you all that there is in the blessed Trinity in which we can rejoice. This God is our God; and He has said, “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” (Ps 37:4 Spurgeon's note) There is no fear of your delighting too much in Him, so let your hearts be filled with joy. Take down your harps from the willows, and touch every string with sacred delight as you joy in God. (Read his full sermon Joy in God - Pdf) "Copy and paste the address below into your web browser in order to go to the original page which will allow you to access live links related to the material on this page - these links include Scriptures (which can be read in context), Scripture pop-ups on mouse over, and a variety of related resources such as Bible dictionary articles, commentaries, sermon notes and theological journal articles related to the topic under discussion." http://www.preceptaustin.org/romans_510-11.htm#Reconcile