Pastor's Power Points

Reconciliation

There is a strong emotional pull to stories of reunion because they appeal to a deep-seated longing in each person to be at one with those who are loved.  Human connection and belonging is the antithesis of separation, estrangement and alienation. With the former we associate joy and security; with the latter: pain and anxiety. One is triumph, the other is tragedy. So we love stories and experiences of long lost siblings reunited, or the passionate embrace of a returned soldier and spouse.

The ultimate separator is death – a place of no return. This is behind the meaning of the Creator’s warning to Adam: “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” And while the tempter played down the gravity of such a scenario by integrating a positive twist on it, the end result of the willful independence was that man was driven away from the One who perfectly loved him. This was the introduction of alienation into the human race. From this point such alienation would be innate in humanity – both in nature and by experience.  David recognized this fact in his expression: Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

The beauty of the biblical record is that the story does not end in tragedy, but with reconciliation.  The ultimate issue of humankind is wrapped up in this term.  Jesus’ axiomatic statement: no one comes to the Father but by Me implies that the objective of humanity is coming to the Father. We see this reflected in the story of the Prodigal Son.  The apostle Peter affirms that Jesus Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God.  Oswald Chambers summarized the faith by asserting: “Faith is the whole man rightly related to God by the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (emphasis added).

 To reconcile means to bring back together that which has been separated; more specifically it connotes to return to favor with. The story of history and the hope of the future are encapsulated in the Creator’s accomplishment of reconciliation – that we might be brought back into right relation with God because we were created specifically for Him.

The Incomparable Blessing of Reconciliation

 The sinfulness of man which is rooted in self-preeminent pride does not just sadden God. It is an affront to his holy character, an offense to his person, an insult to his purpose. Sin is an outrage in the sight of God which requires the necessary response of His wrath wherein He must judge and condemn it, isolate and separate it from himself. God is a consuming fire which obliterates all impurity – that which is contrary to his absolute holiness. Yet it is only through the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.

But how, you might ask, can God be consistent in absolute holiness yet be merciful so as not to consume that which is an outrage to that holiness? The answer is in the foreordained redemptive plan in Jesus Christ. God’s holiness and love collided on the cross and Jesus absorbed that wrath that we so deserve. What awesome grace! So when we were enemies – hostile opponents – we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. As children of wrath and sons of disobedience we desperately needed a way to be made acceptable to the Creator who made us for Himself.  Jesus the just suffered for the unjust that He might bring us to God. Jesus’ substitutionary death opened a way of access to God in rendering us acceptable to Him. Apart from Christ we have no hope. The only ground on which God can reinstate us in His favor is through the cross of Christ; you who once were far off have been made near by the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:13). Through Jesus Christ we have access to the Father. That is the question for every person: Do you have access to the Father – the One by whom and to whom are all things, the One who is the very source of life – the fountain of living waters?

Reconciled in Christ we are regarded as the objects of God’s favor. The eternity of hell will mean most importantly this: no access to the Father. Imagine the thirst, the isolation, the sense of abandonment, the torment of alienation and unforgiveness. The only thing the unbeliever will have in an eternity of hell is what he always demanded in his self-preeminent pride – himself.  But in Christ we are made acceptable, qualified to come near and commune with the perfect infinite Creator.

 There is first qualification, and then comes presentation:

He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death,
 in order to present you before Him
holy and blameless and beyond reproach.
Col. 1:22

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!