Relationship Restored!

 

Last night’s television show featured two sisters who had not talked for forty years. Fiction yes, but true stories are not any different. I cannot imagine it, at least the forty years part, but do know of rifts in relationships. Life seems too short for such estrangements yet both sides must be willing before any rift can be resolved.

RECONCILE is a NT word. It means “to be or become restored to favorable or friendly relations with another after a presumed wrong.” In the Bible, the wrong is sin and the rift is between all of humanity and God because, “All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.”

Reconciliation was promised in the OT and believers looked forward to it in prophecies about Jesus.

Isaiah 53:6. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Reconciliation happened when the Messiah came, died and rose again. It is fulfilled as individuals believe in Him and experience the wonder of being restored to a personal relationship with God.

Romans 5:10–11. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Reconciliation is the work of God. He removes the enmity between himself and humanity, yet this divine act requires a response of faith from us. The NT admonishes readers to “be reconciled to God.” When that happens, other wonders are included. We become part of Christ’s Body, the church. We are at peace ‘with’ God and enjoy the peace ‘of’ God even in life’s trials. He sees us in Christ, holy and blameless, a salvation freely given yet proven to be true by a changed life of faith and obedience.

Colossians 1:18–23. “And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”

This restoration was promised to the Jews yet made available to all people after most of them rejected Christ. Romans 11:15 says, “For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?” That is, when they said NO to Jesus and crucified Him, then the whole world could respond to God’s offer of salvation and reconciliation, an offer that changed the deadness of being separated from Him to the life of being united to Him!

Such removal of enmity between God and those who believe leads to missionary zeal because He makes us His ambassadors. We live here but represent our heavenly home:

2 Corinthians 5:18–21. “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

The outcome of this amazing grace is that we are also reconciled to one another. The Bible is clear that because of Christ, we are united in Him and in agreement on the very basics of life in Him. There ought to be no animosity between Christians. Only it happens. Our sinful selves, which the Bible calls our fleshy nature, can usurp the Holy Spirit. If this ‘tipping over’ as I call it is not recognized and confessed for what it is, the wonderful results of being reconciled to God and to others is blocked until I give up my selfish I-wants and yield again to the Holy Spirit. Only the Lord can restore right relationships.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY is made possible by being reconciled to Him. Before that happened, I knew nothing of God and could not see His glory or communicate with Him. The enmity, caused by sin, needed to be removed. He put my sin on Jesus, indeed all the sin of all the world for all time, and put Jesus’ righteousness on me. Jesus was not a sinner but treated as if He was. I am not righteous but because of Jesus I am now treated as if I am. This is the absolute wonder of being reconciled to God!