RECEIVING THE RECONCILIATION
Preached at Emmanuel, Workington on Sunday, 12th March 2006
Reading: 2 Corinthians 5 vs 9-21.
Text: Romans 5 v 11, “We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through Whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
Subject: Receiving the reconciliation.
My text today is taken from Romans 5 v 11: “We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through Whom we have now received the reconciliation.” This morning we focused on ‘rejoicing in God’ whatever the circumstances of life; tonight we focus on the reason for rejoicing in God – “we have received the reconciliation.”
SUMMARY OF ‘REJOICING IN GOD’
This morning we defined ‘rejoicing’; the word means to shout, not in a loud mouthed coarse manner but as Ps.100 puts it, “Make a joyful shout to the Lord; serve the Lord with gladness; enter His gates with praise.” We know the King; we have seen His great salvation; how can we keep silent? Proclaim it from the housetops!
The word is often translated to boast in the positive sense; it would be wrong not to boast about the works of God & of Jesus Christ. Paul refused to boast in the flesh but insisted on ‘boasting in the cross of Christ’.
Christian joy is not an emotion that comes & goes; it is a frame of mind, a constant disposition that marks out believers, even in day of trouble. Fix your mind upon God; dwell on His wonderful works; contemplate the glories of Jesus Christ; meditate on the grace of the Gospel and you will experience Christian joy despite the miseries of this life.
THE ROOT MEANING OF RECONCILIATION
Paul has explained Justification by Faith based on double imputation, our sin transferred to Christ that His blood might propitiate the wrath of God & His righteousness transferred to us that we might be accepted in Him! That is reason enough for rejoicing in God. Now Paul sums up that Gospel with a different term, reconciliation: 5 vs 10-11, “if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
We all know from experience what reconciliation means. I fall out with a friend; we regret the fall out; we shake hands & make up or kiss & make up! Trouble is, it probably happens again. That is not an adequate statement of what the Bible means by reconciliation. So what did Paul mean by reconciliation.
In Greek, the core word is allos, other. As a verb it means to make other. If we ‘make other’ we alter, we change things. In order to alter & change things, we must do 2 things, one negative & the other positive: we must remove what is not wanted, sweep away faults; dismiss, withdraw, even destroy the bad. Then we must improve what is wanted, make things better - more distinguished, so that in future the breakdown does not recur.
So reconcile means TO CHANGE BY MAKING AN EXCHANGE. The term used in business. You go to the market place to exchange goods. You get rid of what you do not want & acquired what you desire. So things change because you have exchanged what you don’t need for something you do need or desire.
In particular the word was used for the exchange of coins. Today, if we go to France, we exchange pounds for euros. We get rid of pounds because they are useless in France & exchange them for euros which have value. So the word implies CHANGE by way of EXCHANGE, losing what we don’t want; gaining what we want.
CHANGE BY WAY OF EXCHANGE APPLIED TO THE REPAIR OR RELATIONSHIPS
Next the term was used for the repair of relationships. Businessmen fall out; then comes a reconciliation which alters the relationship from alienation to harmony. It is done by way of an exchange: things that caused the breakdown are removed or destroyed; things that bind the relationship together are cultivated, enhanced, and improved. So reconciliation is achieve by removing what damages & by enhancing what binds them together.
The Bible speaks of reconciling married couples who have fallen out. It is achieved by an exchange. The thinking & conduct that caused the breakdown are removed; things that bind the couple together are cultivated.
Thus reconciliation means far more than restoring a former loving relationship. In involves getting rid of the causes of the trouble & encouraging what binds the couple together. As a result, the reconciled relationship is stronger than their relationship was before they fell out! Hence the falling out should not be repeated!
It is this idea of reconciliation achieved by putting right what is wrong & encouraging what is good that is used in the Gospel. The first man, Adam, sinned against God & was cast out of His presence under sentence of death. The Gospel declares that “through Jesus Christ we receive the reconciliation.”
HOW CAN MAN CHANGE SO AS TO BE RECONCILED TO GOD?
Objection! Surely that makes reconciliation between God & man impossible. How can man change sufficiently to be reconciled to God? Unless man is radically changed, reconciliation will not work.
Do you see how we are described in Romans 5? In 5 v 10 we were enemies of God; in 5 v 6 we were without strength to put things right & ungodly; in 5 v 7 by implication, we were unrighteous & not good; in 5 v 8 we were sinners; in 5 v 9 we faced God’s wrath. As such, there was no way we could be reconciled to God.
Now look at the strange way our text puts it! “Jesus Christ through Whom we have now received the reconciliation.” So we do not achieve reconciliation; Jesus achieves it; we receive it
The two key passages about reconciliation of man to God are Romans 5 & 2 Corinthians 5. If husband & wife are to be reconciled to each other, both must put right what is wrong & strength what is good. But when man is reconciled to God, GOD DOES NOT CHANGE. In that sense, God is never reconciled to man! Always it is man that is reconciled to God! The fault in the relationship was on man’s side, not on God’s side; therefore man must change, not God!
Throughout history people have tried to change so as to be reconciled to God. Every attempt has failed. It can’t be done, for all have sinned & come short of the glory of God!
JESUS CHRIST DID FOR US WHAT WE CANNOT DO, HE RECONCILED US TO GOD!
Since we cannot change sufficiently to be reconciled to God, God sent a Representative Man able to put things right on our behalf! God sent His Son, to take our flesh & become our King & Priest, to represent us before God! What sinful man cannot do, Jesus Christ our representative did!
So Paul puts it beautifully in 2 Corinthians 5 v 19: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” Jesus Christ, our representative, lived a sinless life, wholly pleasing to God, earning access to the tree of life, deserving eternal life! He obeyed the Father even on the cross where He offered Himself for our sin as our sin-bearer that, in Him, we might be acceptable to God! The Man, Christ Jesus, represented us before God & did everything necessary to reconcile us to God.
That is why the rest of Romans 5 is full of the Second Adam, the second representative Man. The amazing thing is that 5 v 10, “when enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son!”
Jesus Christ did what we cannot do for ourselves - He reconciled us to God! And according to 2 Corinthians 5 v 19 it is all based on imputation! “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them!” It is all summed up later in Romans 5 vs 18-19, “As through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.”
Because sinful man cannot change sufficiently to be reconciled to God, the MAN was changed! God’s Son took our place and by His sinless life, by His death on our behalf, by His resurrection from the dead & ascension into heaven, representing us before God, He did the impossible – He reconciled us to God! Praise the Lord!
RECEIVE RECONCILIATION
Friends, reconciliation without change never works. The reconciled persons just fall out again. The only thing that works is reconciliation by changing. But that is more than we can achieve, so God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to achieved reconciliation for us. Our sin was imputed to Him that His blood should cover our iniquity & that His righteousness might be argument for our acceptance. The Father cannot refuse the Son.
So Jesus achieved reconciliation & we receive it by faith. Trust in Jesus Christ & the reconciliation He achieved will be ours!
And as we contemplate so great reconciliation, the Holy Spirit sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts. And that changes us & makes us more like Him every day, until we see His face & are changed into His image!
Isn’t all that reason for rejoicing in God? Isn’t it power to create in our hearts dispositional joy in God?
