Be Reconciled to God

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Total Peace with God!

One of the primary uses of the term reconciliation in our American culture comes from restoring a broken marriage. It’s being at peace with someone that you used to be at war with! That's what we were with God --at war with him as enemies-- when He chose to save us from our sin and death.

Paid In Full!

Another use of reconciliation comes from the accounting realm. At the end of a business-tax year a bookkeeper must balance the company’s financial books. That’s simply making the income and the outgo be equal; the money received must equal money spent. And that includes bad debts where a customer doesn’t pay for what he received. This describes what God did by paying our debt in full.

He Didn't Stop There...

But God didn’t stop there with reconciling Himself to us; He goes on to tell us to also be reconciled to Him! That means to quit trying to pay back that debt that He already paid. Remember, on the cross He shouted out that "It is finished!" The debt was paid in full on that day.

God's At Peace with You; Are You At Peace with God?

Are you trying your best to be perfect --as your Father in heaven is perfect? Are you trying to live a holy life --being holy in all you do? Are you trying to live an acceptable life for Him? Are you striving to be a better Christian? Take a look at what He has already done for you.

You Can Be At Total Peace with God

One example of reconciliation is comes from marriage. Sometimes a couple has difficulties and they separate from each other. If the two of them work out their problems and unite again as one, then that's called "reconciliation". They have reconciled to each other. There is peace between them. It’s being at peace with someone that you used to be at war with! This is covered in Romans chapter 5.

For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:10-11)

God reconciled the whole world to Himself. He didn't wait for us to be sorry for our sins and come to him claiming that we had repented from those sins. He died for us while we were still sinners --His enemies!

Did that act of reconciliation --Jesus’ death on the cross-- save mankind? No! He says "we are saved through his life!" There is a distinction between being reconciled and being saved. God made peace with man by removing all obstacles between us and Him. He has made an offer: accept His Son’s life in exchange for your own life. That’s salvation!

Paid In Full!

Another use of the term "reconciliation" is in the accounting realm. At the end of a business tax-year a bookkeeper must balance the company’s financial books. That’s simply making the income and the outgo equal; the money received must equal money spent. And that has to include bad debts where a customer doesn’t pay for what he received. The books have to balance --it's the law!

As an example, a retail business spends money to buy merchandise that it hopes to sell to customers. Normally, the bookkeeper makes entries under the "expenses" column for money spent buying from his supplier. Similarly he makes entries in the "received" column for money received from the customer.

But occasionally a customer buys some merchandise on credit and later can't pay back what he owes. You would see the same effect from a customer writing a bad check. In such cases, the bookkeeper has to record these bad debts, or losses, by making an entry under the received column indicating that the debt was paid by the business itself. The debt is written off. As unfair as it seems, this is all part of reconciling financial records and it’s required every tax period!

What did He pay for and what did He use for payment? He paid for our sins with his Son's life. You know, the wages of our sin is death. Well it's our sins that He paid for. Why can't we pay our own sins? We never had an eternal life to pay with. Only God had spiritual life. And that's what He used to pay for them!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. (2 Corinthians 5:17-19)

No doubt you’ve heard this old story many times leading up to what God has done for mankind. He --like the businessman-- paid a debt he didn’t owe to cover the debt owed by a person who couldn’t pay. That’s what God describes in 2 Corinthians 5: He paid that debt with the death of His Son since we obviously couldn’t pay it ourselves.

And He Didn't Stop There...

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:19-20)

He took on all of our sin --became sin-- for us so that we can have the righteousness of God.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Nearly every time that reconciliation is discussed, the questions is raised "If the whole world is reconciled to God, then isn’t everyone saved?" The last part of the passage states "so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." It’s conditional. To have God’s righteousness, we must be in Christ --saved. Christ is righteous. Being in Him --clothed in Christ-- is what makes us righteous.

Have you quit trying to pay Him back for what He has done? In other words, are you reconciled to God? He made peace with you and will never bring your sins up (that's what He said in 2 Corinthians 5:19). That means that there is nothing that you must achieve to be good in His eyes. If you're in Christ, then you are righteous!

God's At Peace with You; Are You At Peace with God?

Are you trying to be perfect --as your Father in heaven is perfect? He says that He has already made you perfect!

Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:13-14)

Are you trying to live a holy life --being holy in all you do? He says that He has already made you holy!

And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10)

Are you trying to live an acceptable life for Him? He says that He has already accepted you!

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (Romans 15:7)

Are you striving to be a better Christian? He says that He wants you to rest instead!

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:9-11)

Don't let anyone lead you astray. You have been made into a New Creation so rest in that and grow in His love for you. You received Him by faith; now live by faith in what He says He has already done for you.

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. (Colossians 2:6-10)

Everyone who is "in Christ" is perfect, holy and acceptable. In Him we are redeemed, and forgiven, and chosen, and cherished, and... The list goes on.

The more you trust Him; the more His love will shine through you and onto others. That's doing the one thing He asks us to do: The world will know us as children of God by our love for one another!