Reconciliation with God

“We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Romans 5 v 11

What does reconciliation mean? We must understand this as we discuss the last of the seven spiritual blessings listed by Paul in his letter to the Romans – Reconciliation with God.

My friends over at Merriam- Webster define the verb ‘to reconcile ‘ as ‘to restore to friendship or harmony.’ In order to thoroughly grasp this remarkable position of being reconciled with God we must process our state of being prior to it.

The need to be restored to friendship with God implies that we were not friends to begin with. Restored to harmony infers we were in disharmony . The Bible clarifies it further when it says we were enemies (Isaiah 63 v10). We walked away from Him. We rejected Him. We accused Him. Our rebellion against God earned us nothing but eternal damnation. Yet He saved us. We tend to construe salvation to simply be an act of kindness upon our unfortunate souls – He helped pay a debt that poor us couldn’t pay on our own. The truth is Jesus didn’t die for his friends who needed him. He hung on that cross in passionate love for his enemies that despised him (Romans 5 v 10).  While we waged war against God, He initiated peace through Jesus, that we might be reconciled to Him.

Through Christ, we abound in these blessings that ensure the eternity our salvation. This is not just a promise for the future. This is a statement of current status. We are now at peace with God, in whom we have access to glorious hope, by whose gracious love we have been saved and are being transformed to be more like Jesus, and to whom we have been reconciled.

Amazing!