Reconciliation

Colossians 1:21-22, Romans 5:10, II Corinthians 5:18-20 (NASB)

Col 1:22-23: And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.

Rom 5:10: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Cor 5:18-20: Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 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. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Reconciliation is a significant concept in the New Testament. To reconcile means to receive a person into favor, to bring together those who are at variance.  If you have lived long enough you have experienced (hopefully) reconciliation with someone.  You have gotten back together with a boy or girlfriend after splitting up for awhile.  You have made up with your spouse after a bad argument nearly split you two apart.  You have made peace with a friend or neighbor or family member or business associate after a disagreement pulled you apart.  The results of these closures are examples of reconciliations.  Bridges have been rebuilt, trust has been restored, and mutual love and caring and respect renewed.  Such reconciliations are normally very sweet, very happy, and very fulfilling. 

In the same way, God has taken the initiative to reconcile sinful man to Himself.  Read again and meditate on these verses.  They describe human beings as aliens and enemies of God, being hostile and evil and full of sins.  Don’t you hate the thought of being viewed as an enemy of God?  Yet that’s what you were and perhaps still are before accepting His conciliatory gesture by offering Jesus Christ to die for you (Romans 5:8, John 3:16).  God made the first move toward reconciliation.  The cross represents reconciliation.  Christ’s death on the cross applies every day to anyone who sees his need for reconciliation with God.  Think of a great chasm between you and God.  The only way to cross that chasm, the only way for Him to come to you and for you to come to Him is through the cross.

Reconciliation with God not only involves your accepting what God has done through Christ and the cross, but also receiving Christ as your Savior, allowing Him to enter the center of your life and follow His ways rather than your own (II Cor 5:17, Gal 2:30, John 1:12).  When you live your life according to the will and ways of Jesus (His will and ways being taught in the Bible), then notice in II Cor 5:20 that you become an ambassador for Christ.  You become holy and blameless and beyond reproach (Col 1:23).  Is not this initiative of reconciliation by God towards you and what results from it the most unbelievable truths imaginable? 

You know that reconciliation with another human, someone you love and care for, is one of the most joyful experiences in life.  Just think further about how reconciliation with God and the consequences of that reconciliation significantly and so positively affects the rest of your life on earth and for all eternity.

"The number one problem in our world is alienation, rich versus poor, black versus white, labor versus management, conservation versus liberal, East versus West......But Christ came to bring about reconciliation and peace."--Billy Graham.