Reconciled with God

The word reconciled means:
- won over to friendliness – ie reconciliation between enemies
- to settle a quarrel
- to bring into agreement or harmony (reconciling different views)
- to restore to fellowship

2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (NIV) All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself [NLT: brought us back 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. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

So many people have this view that God is an angry judge ready to pour out wrath – much like Jonathan Edwards’ sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” that compares us to spiders held over the fire, ready to be dropped in at any moment. They see Jesus’ intervention as what is barely holding back that anger.

That wasn’t how Jesus represented the Father – he said “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). God gave Christ the purpose of bringing us back into fellowship – they’re not working against each other, each holding back the other’s intentions. Jesus is the mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him (Acts 10:38).

As verse 19 says, God is no longer hold our sins against us like a grudge. Yes, they are like the wood, hay and stubble that would be burned in judgment, but we will endure. Our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Although it is a fact, it is not good news to tell someone they are going to hell. It is good news to tell them Jesus is the way to the Father. This is the message of reconciliation.

Doug