RECONCILIATION

RECONCILIATION

Shelby G. Floyd

March, 2008

I don't know if this is a God incident or not. The text that was read is the text that I am going to be preaching from today in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. Have you ever noticed how sometimes things work out like this? We shall explain the great word RECONCILIATION. The most common error of all religious philosophy in all the world religions—Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, or what have you, is that man has got to do something in order to propitiate God's favor and God's mercy. It might be by human sacrifice, it might be by some mental or physical torture, some act of sinful man is required, but Christianity is not like that. God sent Jesus Christ to take care of that matter for us. All we have to do is to appropriate the free gift of salvation that comes from Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23).

The Word “Reconciliation” Defined

I want to define the word reconciliation. In our text, the Bible says “be reconciled to God.” The word reconciliation is made up of two words. The word "re" means again and the word "conciliate" means to be a friend. So in its simplest terms reconciliation is to be friends again. The idea is that we need to be reconciled to God, because at one time man and God were good friends. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve walked and talked with God. They conversed with Him and they had a close relationship. Something interrupted that relationship and caused a separation or alienation and therefore there was enmity between man and God. They were no longer friends. The Bible tells what it was that separated the friendship between man and God. The Prophet said in Isaiah 59:1-2: "Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” So what is it that separated man and God and therefore brings about the necessity of reconciliation so that we can be friends again? It is sin. Sin stands between God and man and that is the reason we need to be reconciled to God.

Sin Separates Man from God

I want to illustrate what reconciliation is. I have been reading about Abraham Lincoln, and the Civil War. The paramount purpose of Abraham Lincoln the whole time he was in the White House was to hold the union together. He didn't believe that states had the right to secede from the union. Several of the states had already seceded before he even became President. After he was inaugurated several more of them seceded from the union. The assault on Fort Sumter in South Carolina started the Civil War. The war raged on for four or five years with brother killing brother. There was alienation. There was separation between the northern and southern states. I have read in my histories about that era and that sometimes a brother would be on one side of the conflict and another brother on the other side of the conflict. It was terrible. Finally, the war was over, and surrender was made at the Courthouse at Appomattox. Then the task was set about as to how we are we going to reconcile the South and North back together. The radical Republicans in the north wanted to crucify the southern people. They wanted them to pay the price for the rebellion and they considered it treason. Abraham Lincoln and Vice President Johnson felt like the way to reconcile the North and the South was to treat them as friends again, to forgive and to forget and to work things out and bring about a gradual reconciliation. As you know the people who wanted to treat them harshly won the day and therefore we had the period called reconstruction. Reconstruction went on and it caused a lot of hard feelings. It was basically 50 or 60 years before all of those feelings were overcome. Even right now we are only gradually being reconciled back together to really be friends again. That is an illustration of what happens in reconciliation.

When you need to be reconciled there is something that has interrupted the friendship. There is something that has broken the communion and the fellowship between people and therefore reconciliation is required. I want to give you another example that I read about. Robert Milligan, one of our great preachers in the Restoration Movement, who wrote the great book The Scheme of Redemption, tells the mythical story of Zaleucus, Greek King of the Locrians. In his kingdom the people were very immoral. Murder, adultery, and fornication was common, with hardly any morality in the society. Being a good king, and wanting the best for his people, the king passed a law that whoever was found guilty of adultery would have both of their eyes put out. Maybe we can understand that because Jesus said, "If a man looks on a woman to lust after her, he has committed adultery already in his heart." Jesus is not referring to the physical act itself, but the mental act which leads to the physical act. So that was the law. As time went on, the people knew what the law was and the first person that was found and arrested being guilty of adultery was the king's own son. What shall he do? He is now in a predicament. He made the law, and his own son has been found guilty of adultery. The citizens are all looking to the king as to what he is going to do. Is he going to have both of his son's eyes removed? If he does that the people will say: "He is a cruel king. He has no compassion, no mercy, no grace and we don't want to serve a king like that who has no love or mercy for anyone who does wrong." On the other hand if he says, “Well that is the law, but this is my son and its different, I am not going to take both of his eyes.” Then the people will not respect him either. He made the law and now he will not uphold the law. We do not respect a king like that who makes the law and does not uphold the law. The law must be obeyed. His solution was this. I will show mercy to my son and yet uphold the law. I will have one of his eyes removed and then I will give up one of my eyes. That way the law says two eyes must be given up. I will sacrifice one of mine and therefore show mercy, love and grace to my son, but he must pay a penalty for breaking the law. That may be a feeble illustration but in some ways it illustrates how God has worked on our behalf. We have to obey, because the Bible says that sin brings about death. Adam and Eve were told that the day you eat thereof you shall surely die. So when man was separated from the Garden of Eden he started to die a day at a time. Therefore today it is a universal sentence that comes up on all of us. Hebrews 9:27 says: "Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” So God felt sorry for man, He loved man, He had grace and mercy toward man. He said He was going to create a plan where I can still uphold the majesty and the respect of my government and my law and at the same time show grace and mercy to my people. I am going to send my Son down to earth, and he will take the place of man and die upon the cross. Man must also pay his own penalty, and he is going to face death and the judgment. If sinful man will accept the gift of salvation that comes through my Son Jesus Christ, then he can be saved and have life ever more.

We can also apply this to our friendships with each other. Ken Franklin and I have been friends since we were teenagers. We had many wonderful years when we were young. We played basketball out on the farm where we lived, and played up in the big barn loft. Every Sunday afternoon after church we would have basketball games until time to go to the evening service. We had a great time. We have been friends all of these years. For about 20 years, I did not see Ken and Donna very much because they went to another congregation, but it was wonderful when we all got back together here. It was just like we took off where we left off. We are friends and we never became enemies even though we didn't spend a lot of time together. If I did something to Ken and he broke off our friendship and I knew that I had offended him, what must I do? I have got to go back and be reconciled to him. In order to be reconciled to him, I may have to give him an apology. I may have to make some kind of payment, I may have to repair something that caused the interruption, and vice versa if Ken had done something to me, then he would have to be reconciled to me. The teaching of the Bible is if you know that somebody has something against you then you are to go to them, and if you have done something to somebody and broken a friendship then you are to go to them. So the truth of the matter is whether we are the guilty or innocent party, and we know about the situation we need to be coming and meeting each other in the middle. We need to be reconciled. The teaching of Christ says in Mathew 5:23-24: "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” So basically the teaching there is if we are coming to worship and know that our friendship is being interrupted we need to say, “While I just want go to worship, I am going to call my brother, meet and work this out, and then we can go and worship together.” That is the teaching of the Bible.

You can also apply this to marriage. When two people get married they are greatly in love. Everybody thinks when they get married that they are going to married forever until death separates them. In actual experience that is not the case. If you want your marriage to last forever then you have to meet each other’s needs. My wife’s needs are not necessarily my needs and my needs are not necessarily her needs. So we have to start in and learn and find out what each other’s needs are. God expects us to meet each other needs in the marriage relationship. Many times a husband does not meet his wife's needs and she does not meet his. Then that friendship, that love relationship begins to pull apart, and they are no longer friends. If that does not stop then many times husbands and wives actually start doing overt things to tear the relationship apart. They do things that are mean, things that will hurt, things that will tear it apart for a time. How can a husband and wife be reconciled? If they have created displeasure and broken the heart in each other they must go back and apologize. That is when the man may buy flowers, take her out to dinner or a movie or do other things as a small gesture to say, “I hurt you and I want to apologize and make up.” That is basically what Jesus is saying. Lay down your guilt and go and be reconciled, and then come and worship together. So whether it is an individual friendship, or the friendship of a husband and wife, or whether it is our relationship as brothers or sisters in Christ, if things are not what they should be, then we need to be reconciled and be friends again.

This is the case in our relationship to God and this is what our text is talking about.

Have you ever noticed the fact that in 2 Corinthian 5:17 Paul says: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" When we are in Christ Jesus we become a new creature. We do not become a new creature like little Gabriel, who is a new creature chronologically, because he was born just a few weeks back. In the Greek New Testament there are actually two words for new. One is chronos, new in regard to time. The other is a word kainos, which means new in quality, or new in character. Here in 2 Corinthian 5:17, Paul did not say that to be in Christ we would have to be a new creation like little Gabriel. We are going to have a new start and begin all over again. He used the word that means that when we are in Christ we become a new creation quality wise. We will have new thoughts, new emotions, new beliefs, new aspirations, new desires, and new devotions. Everything about us becomes new, and we have a new relationship with God. We become friends with God and we become reconciled. After he said we are a new creation, and the old has passed away and the new has come into being, He says: "All of this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18). God was reconciling the world in Christ. The ministry of reconciliation is from God. You did not invent it, I did come up with it, and no man initiated it. God initiated the scheme of redemption, the plan of human reconciliation back to God. It is all from God as is everything. Everything is of God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

God is Not Reconciled Back to Man

Many of the religions today say that God must be reconciled to man. They have that turned around. God is not going to be reconciled to us. He did not leave us. He did not offend us. He did not do something that separated Him from us. We did that. So in the Bible it is never God that is going to be reconciled back to man, it is always man that is going to be reconciled back to God. God does not change. Christ does not change. Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Christ does not change, the Spirit of God does not change, and the Father does not change. Man is changeable. Man separates himself from God. Therefore, God reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. How did He do that? In verse 21 He says: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. Here is a perfect individual, God manifest in the flesh "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Christ became flesh, became one of us and took upon himself the human frame and He was a man, but He was a perfect man, God manifest in the flesh. He knew no sin. Jesus said: "Which of you convicts me of sin." There was no one and there is still no one that has ever been able to find a flaw in the Lord Jesus Christ. The skeptics, infidels, or the in-for-hells, as N. B. Hardeman called them, would examine the Bible with a microscope trying to find something that they could condemn Jesus with. It cannot be done. In the sinless, perfect, immaculate Son of God, no sin could be found against Him; therefore, He was the perfect sacrifice, and God offered Him up on Calvary. That is how God reconciled the world. Potentially the whole world has been reconciled by the death of God's Son upon the cross. Paul says: "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly." (Romans 5:6.) But actually, only those who have an obedient faith are reconciled back to God. “He tasted death for every man,” the Hebrew writer says. That is how God made it possible to reconcile the world unto Him.

God Reconciled the World in Christ

God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ. That is the reason the phrase “in Christ” is so very important. For, we are reconciled as new creatures in Christ Jesus. God reconciles the world through Jesus Christ, and we must be in Christ to be reconciled back to Him. Paul declares in Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Only the perfect sacrifice could purge sin. Christ is the perfect man and He is the only one to intercede as a mediator between God and man. A mediator can not be prejudiced. If Ken Franklin and I had a dispute, we might need a mediator in order to try and resolve it. Someone may say, “What about Tom.” Well I don't know about that, Tom is his son-in-law and they are pretty close and I don't know if he will be fair or not. Someone might say, “What about Jim.” Well I know Jim and he might be prejudiced against Ken because he is in my family. So we have to find somebody that would be fair, neutral and related in both ways. Jesus Christ is the perfect mediator. He is related to God. He can look at the situation from God's viewpoint. He is related to man because He became a man. He never sinned, so he can relate to God's repugnance of sin. On the other hand He lived on this sinful earth and He saw what man goes through and He can sympathize with the situation we are in. The Bible says: "There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus”(1 Timothy 2:5). The Virgin Mary is not the mediator. We do not go to God through Mary. We go to God through Jesus Christ. So God reconciled the world back to himself through Jesus Christ who is the perfect sacrifice. He is able to propitiate, or to atone for our sins by His death upon the cross. In 1 John 2:1-2 the Bible speaks, "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” Propitiation is just another word for atonement, or the satisfaction to make it possible for God and man to be friends again.

One of the first things you learn when you go to school is to count. I remember when I was a little boy, in the first grade; the teacher had us to bounce a basketball up in front of the class. You had to stand up there and bounce that basketball as long as you could keep counting. If you dropped the ball you had to stop. I was so proud I bounced it over a 100 times without missing. That is the reason I love basketball to this day. We watched the Indiana Pacers last night, and I was counting the whole time when they went over 100 by the end of the third quarter. They look a lot better this year. I think we have a good coach and a good team. Once we are in Christ, God does not know how to count when it comes to our sins. He counts our sins before we are in Christ. “The wages of sin is death.” So God has counted all of our sins. When we are reconciled back to God through Jesus Christ and we try to do the very best that we can, God does not count our sins. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:19: "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.” He is not counting or imputing our sins against us.

There are two extremes today on the confidence that you have in your salvation. We have some of our religious friends that tell us that once they have been saved they can never do anything to be lost. That is called the impossibility of apostasy or the impossibility of falling from the grace of God. This very morning there are religious people that think, “I am safe from my sins and I can never fall from the grace of God and never be lost, it is impossible for me to do that.” The other extreme and I am sad to say that even in the Church of our Lord, many members of the church do not know from one minute to the next if they were to die if they would go to Heaven. If I were to ask some of you today if you were killed in automobile accident on the way home from this service would you go to Heaven? Maybe some would say yes or I would hope that I would or I think that I would, but I am not absolutely sure. I can sympathize with that. Maybe in the absolute sense there are not any of us who can say we would go to Heaven if we were to die just like that. But I think we can have confidence. We can have a confident hope. Here is the reason why we can have a confident hope. The Bible tells us that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:5-10). Brother Guy N. Woods preached a sermon at Garfield Heights in Indianapolis, and I will never forget his illustration. He said, "The blood of Christ is like a windshield wiper, when it is raining you turn those windshield wipers on, and they keep the window clean so you can see." If we are in Christ, and doing the very best we can, even though we mess up and make mistakes and repent when we do wrong, and we pray and ask God to forgive us every day, if we were to die on the way home from this church building God would not charge sin against us. The Bible teaches us in Romans 4:8: "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” We have a confirmation of that in 2 Corinthians 5:19: "that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.” If you are faithful to the Lord, serving Him and doing the best you can, and you are trying to be faithful, even though you make a mistake once in awhile, the Lord is not going to charge sin against you. The blood of Christ is going to keep on cleansing you of your sins. If you sin and you don't confess your sin, and you won't repent of your sin, the blood of Christ is not going to keep on taking away your sins. It is all contingent upon repentance, prayer and forgiveness. If you are in that frame of mind and disposition, and attitude of heart then the Lord is not going to count your sins against you. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:19: "And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

We have been working on our ministries here at Heartland Church of Christ. We have about ten ministries, we have the Prayer Ministry, and it is going very good. If anyone needs prayer, we call the Thompson's, and they call the leaders of the six teams, and within a matter of hours either through the telephone or e-mail we can be praying for those who are sick, in the hospital, or those who need special prayers. We are doing the same thing now with the ministry of doing good. John and Cristy Owens are doing a good job as leaders of that ministry. That is for those who have sickness or in the hospital or lost their jobs, people who are having problems. We are reaching out, not only to the members of the church, but to others in our community that we have contact with. The Bible says, “As you therefore have opportunity do good to all men, especially the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). So we are especially going to reach out and do good to our brothers and sisters in the congregation and to others as we have opportunity. We have the Fellowship Ministry. The Hills and the Roblings are going to encourage all of us to be together. When we are together we can create friendships. We can all be friends and we can enjoy each others company and do things that will draw us closer together and closer to the Lord. They have some wonderful plans where all of us can have the opportunity to share in each other’s lives and be a close knit family here at Heartland. We have another ministry that we have not talked about and it is the one mentioned in our text.

The Ministry of Reconciliation

It is the Ministry of Reconciliation. I would hope that all of us would be involved in that, and that is the ministry of bringing people and reconciling them to the Lord. That will involve personal work, the pulpit, and all kinds of evangelism. The word evangelism just means teaching and preaching the Good News, the Gospel. This is the ministry that all of us can be involved in. So Paul says: "All of this is from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” The ministry of reconciliation is reconciling the world to God and not counting man’s sins against him. We can all be involved in one way or another in bringing people back to be friends with God and reconciled to God. I want us to look at a chart and see how God has a plan to reconcile sinful man back to Himself.

How God Reconciles Man
God	“All things are of God”
Christ	“Who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ”
Apostles	“And has given unto us the ministry of reconciliation”
Word	“Has committed unto us the word of reconciliation”
Man	“Be reconciled to God”

On the left side we have God. All things are of God. So God is the author and initiator of this ministry of reconciliation. Coming down the chain of command we have “in Christ.” God reconciles the world to Himself by Jesus Christ. Next, God has given to the apostles the ministry of reconciliation. The word ministry means service, we serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Then He says: "He has committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” The Holy Spirit gave us the Bible, inspired the apostles, so the Holy Spirit has a part in this. Even though it is not mentioned here it is mentioned in other places. God reconciles the world unto Himself through Christ, through the apostles and through the inspired word. The NIV says: “The message of reconciliation,” which means the same thing. Notice at the bottom of the chart, God does not do it all. Even though we can't earn our salvation, even though we cannot do something that will make Him indebted to us, man has a part in this ministry of reconciliation. Man has to do his part and his part is to appropriate the free gift of salvation. Man must be reconciled to God. The religious world says you do not have to do anything. The Bible says “be reconciled to God.” Man has the responsibility and the action. Notice the next chart that illustrates man’s part:

The Law of Divine Reconciliation
God	The Primitive Originating Cause
Christ	The Vicarious Sacrificial Cause
Apostles	The Proclaiming Cause
Word	The Instrumental Cause
Man	The Receptive and Obedient Cause

It all starts with God on the left side. God is the originating cause. Christ is the sacrificial cause. The apostles, and secondarily all of us are the proclaiming cause, because we are to go out proclaiming the Gospel. The word is the instrumental cause. Man is the receptive and obedient cause. The Bible says in Hebrews 5:8-9: "Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him." Man's responsibility is to receive the message, the word, and to obey. Thereby, Christ becomes the author of our eternal salvation. So man must act and be reconciled to God. Paul said: "We are therefore ambassadors of Jesus Christ." The apostles were the original ambassadors of Christ—they were doing and saying what Christ would do if he were here in person Himself. I have been trying this morning to say and do what Christ would say if he were here in this pulpit. We stand in for God’s work. We are a representative of Christ. His work is not finished. He left the work for us. The apostles did not finish their work, they left it for us. That work is to preach the Gospel, preach the message. The message is to be reconciled to God. Be friends with God again.

Back at the beginning of the lesson we read, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). How do you get into Christ? If you will go back to the book of Romans and book of Acts and the book of Hebrews you will find the requirements for being reconciled to God. "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." (Hebrews 11:6.) You cannot serve God and be reconciled to God without faith. In the Book of Romans, the Bible says faith is “unto Christ” “With the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10). In Romans we have two of the conditions of reconciliation. They are both said to be “unto.” Believe is said to be “unto,” and confession with your mouth is “unto.” In the book of Acts God said that repentance is “unto.” Concerning the Gentiles, God has granted repentance unto life unto the Gentiles (Acts 11:18). When we read about baptism it is always “into.” Galatians 3:27 declares, "for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." We are baptized into Christ. This morning when you decided to come to worship, you got into you automobile and drove unto the church building. When you drove into the parking lot, you got out of your car and walked unto the door. Everything you did until you reached the door was unto. Unto is something that is progressive, a goal, or an object. When you opened the door you walked into the building. Into is a preposition that indicates a change of location. You were in a different sphere before you came into the building. Once you came into the building, you are now in the building, which is your sphere of location. These prepositions are very important: unto, into and in. How does God reconcile? He did not reconcile us unto Christ. He did not even reconcile us into Christ, He reconciles us in Christ. That simply means that you have to take care of the “unto” and “into,” and then you will be “in” Christ. That is where reconciliation is to be found— in Christ. We plead with you in the place of Jesus Christ—“Be reconciled to God.” *