Exploring God’s Plan: Reconciliation Through Christ

Posted on by korgrocker

“And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 NLT

Paul wrote that “God was in Christ”. There is a pivotal moment recorded in the Gospel of John, one that we know very well. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. This verse sets out how God, in the presence of His Son, reached down into humanity to bring reconciliation with Himself. I never tire of reading this verse because it provides us with a glimpse of the wonderful God we worship, our Heavenly Father, who loved us so much that He was prepared to take the initiative and bring Heaven to earth and salvation for sinners. But what makes this verse so powerfully poignant is that He did this while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners”. 

But what does “reconciliation” mean? It represents a healing process following a relationship breakdown. So a husband and wife will go to sessions with a therapist, intent on reconciliation to save their marriage, perhaps after a partner has been unfaithful. Following reconciliation, the relationship is restored. In Colossians 1:19-20, we read, “For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross”. 

The wonderful thing about the reconciliation between God and man is that sins are no longer recorded. Paul wrote that after this reconciliation, God “no longer [counted] people’s sins against them”. This does not mean sin doesn’t matter. It means that in Christ, the penalty has been addressed. Romans 6:10-11, “When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus”. God’s justice was satisfied at the cross. Because of Jesus, believers stand forgiven, not because sin was ignored, but because it was paid for. No matter how hard they try, people can never atone for their own sins. Only Jesus could do that, and His atonement is only possible through God’s plan for the salvation of mankind.

Paul continued with, “And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation”. The next verse starts, “So we are Christ’s ambassadors”. An ambassador represents the authority and heart of their king. As believers, we represent Christ’s heart to a divided, hurting world. We carry the news that people are not too far gone to be saved. No sin is ever too bad that it cannot be forgiven (Yes, I know about the “unpardonable sin”, but that was something focused on things the Pharisees were saying to Jesus at the time). Our message to the lost also declares that God is not holding their past against them and that peace with God is only possible through Jesus. He said, “ … I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

We pilgrims have been forgiven much. In fact, if we could weigh up on the scales of eternal life all the sins that we have committed, there would be no balancing weight heavy enough to tip the scales in our favour. And yet, Jesus balanced the scales by removing the pile of sins, saying that He would take them on Himself. To do so would require a humiliating and very painful death on a Roman cross, but no balancing weight required. Reconciliation with God should produce reconciliation with others. When we understand how much we’ve been forgiven, we become agents of forgiveness. When we’ve received peace, we pursue peace. Hebrews 12:14, “Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord”. Paul continued, “God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”” Do we plead with others to accept His grace and love? We must, because it is only through Jesus that reconciliation with God is possible, and we pilgrims are here on earth at this time in history to “speak for Christ”. We have around us a generation who have never heard about what God has done for us. How will they hear if we don’t tell them?

Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for reconciling us to Yourself through Christ. Help us live as grateful ambassadors, reflecting Your grace and sharing Your message of peace with the world, as we invite our friends and families, and anyone we meet, to be reconciled to You. Amen.

War and Peace

Posted on by korgrocker

“For Christ Himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in His own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in Himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of His death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.”
‭Ephesians‬ ‭2:14-16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Peace. A lovely concept but beyond human capability to achieve? All my life I have never known a total absence of strife. There seems to be something within human beings that desires war in preference to peace. As individuals, we battle anything that we feel encroaches on our space, disturbing our peace. The aggressive driver who annoys us on the roads. The person who cuts in front of us in the shopping queue. The spouse who disagrees with something we say. As nations we rattle sabres at the borders with the adjacent country, stressed over a few yards of barren soil. Religious groups fight and kill to eliminate other religions in their country, in some cases committing genocide in the process. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 120:7, “I search for peace; but when I speak of peace, they want war!“. 

So in this personal and national mayhem, a counter-cultural whisper calls out. “Christ himself has brought peace to us”. Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). And right at the start of the early church an age old conflict between Jews and Gentiles was resolved. At a stroke. Over a period of about six hours one dark and dismal day. Jesus’ death at Calvary brought to an end the Old Covenant and replaced it with the New. A New Covenant of grace and love. The Old was discarded. The New was welcomed in. And there is no difference between the Jews and Gentiles any more. Regardless of our origins we are all one in Christ. 

So we pilgrims, making our way through a complex and strife-infused world, shake our heads in disbelief. We long for the whisper of Christ’s peace to amplify into an audible shout, so clear that it penetrates people, principalities, palaces and parliaments, even pieties and principles. So clear that the world becomes a peaceful place. But our enemy the devil will have none of that. He thrives on wars and strife, doing what he can to stoke up anger and dissent. But peace will come one day – there is no war or strife in Heaven. In the meantime, our pilgrimage through life brings us into contact with all sorts of opportunities to be counter-cultural. Situations where we can bring a kind word to angry hearts, dispensing God’s love and grace to troubled souls. We pray today for our governments, our politicians, our civic leaders. But also our friends, families and communities. That “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,” (Philippians 4:7) will be with them all. And us too.