Reconciliation.
A number
of different words have been employed by the Spirit of God to convey to us the
far-reaching effects of the work of Christ. Reconciliation is one of them, and
it possesses great definiteness of meaning. It carries us further into the
positive blessings of the Gospel than do justification or redemption. The very
idea it expresses belongs to the New Testament.
At first
sight this hardly appears to be the case. A good concordance (such as
"Young's") shows us that the word occurs nine times in the Old
Testament; but on closer inspection we discover that in seven of these it is
used to translate the ordinary word for "atonement." In one case it
is used for a word that has to do with offering or receiving a sin offering.
The remaining occurrence of the word comes nearer to the New Testament meaning
(in 1 Samuel 29: 4), but there God is not n question.
In the New
Testament there are three passages that deal with reconciliation — Romans 5, 2
Corinthians 5, Colossians 1 — and there is also a reference to it in Ephesians
2.
Justification
is needed by us because of the guilt of sin and the condemnation thereby
incurred. Redemption is needed because of the bondage which sin has produced.
Reconciliation to God we must have because one of the gravest effects of sin
has been the way it has alienated us from God, producing utter estrangement of
heart on our side. The word "alienated" occurs in Colossians 1: 21,
where it stands in full contrast to the fact that we now have been reconciled.
We shall better understand the fulness of the reconciliation if we begin by
grasping the full tragedy of the alienation.
One other
passage refers to the state of alienation into which man has fallen — Ephesians
4: 18. We get right to the bottom of things when we discover that we have been
"alienated from the life of God." Connected with this alienation are
such things as vanity, darkness, ignorance, blindness, lasciviousness,
uncleanness. This is not surprising for the life of God is the exact opposite
of all these things. Sin, having alienated us from God, has cut us off from all
the things that go to make up life according to Him.
Alienated
from God, we have naturally no desire for Him, nor for the light and life that
His presence brings. This came out most clearly directly sin had entered and
the alienation had come to pass. Genesis 3 bears witness to it; the action of
Adam and his wife plainly declared it. Directly the voice of the Lord God was
heard in the garden they hid themselves. God did not instantly destroy them. He
dealt with them in mercy; still they had erected a barrier between themselves
and Him which nothing on their side could surmount, and which He
ratified by placing a barrier on His side in the shape of cherubim and a
flaming sword.
Sin thus spoiled
the Divine pleasure in man. To say this puts the matter too mildly. We have
only to turn on to Genesis 6 to find that, mankind having been given sufficient
time in which to develop their sinful propensities, an utterly unbearable state
of affairs was produced, so that, "it repented the Lord that He had made
man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart." At the end of Genesis
2 everything, man included, was pronounced to be "very good." Once
man had been very good in the Divine eye, now he was a perfect grief to
contemplate. The alienation was complete.
And it was
complete on man's side also. God had become as distasteful to man as man had
become to God. The latter part of Romans 1 unfolds the dreadful story of man's
alienation from God. The sunken state of mankind is attributable to this,
"they did not like to retain God in their knowledge" (verse 28).
Romans 3 corroborates this by telling us that, "there is none that seeketh
after God." When we get to Romans 5 it is plainly stated that when the reconciliation
reached us we were "enemies."
Here we
must carefully draw a distinction. On our side the alienation was not only in
life but in heart also. On God's side the alienation in life was felt far more
acutely than ever we could feel it, but there was no alienation in heart. In
other words while we as sinners hated God, He never hated us. Had He hated us
He could have just damned us, and left it at that. Instead of which He has
Himself made available for us the reconciliation; a reconciliation brought to
pass at so great a cost as "the death of His Son."
The Lord
Jesus came into the world in the spirit of reconciliation. "God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them" (2 Cor. 5: 19). This characterized His life and ministry. Not
judgment but forgiveness was His work; and even where guilt was most pronounced
and manifest, He did not impute it: see for instance John 8: 11, and Luke 23:
34. All that God could do was done by Him, yet every overture was rejected by
men and He was crucified. But it was just then that God's reconciling mercy
registered its most signal triumph.
Then it
was that God "made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him." Now it is evident that if we are
made in Christ — in the Christ who died and rose again — the very righteousness
of God, there can be no longer before Him that which is obnoxious and
distasteful to Him. It cannot be any longer a grief to His heart to look down
upon us, but the exact reverse. Christ was identified with us and our sin under
the judgment of God. We are identified with Him and His acceptance as risen
from the dead.
In
Colossians 1: 21, 22, the same truth is stated, but in other words. We have
been reconciled "in the body of His flesh through death," for He
became a Man, thereby possessing Himself of the body of His flesh, in order
that He might die. As the result of reconciliation we can now be presented
"holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight."
"In
the body of His flesh" may seem a rather peculiar expression, but a
similar form of words occurs elsewhere; Romans 7: 4; Ephesians 2: 15; Hebrews
10: 10 and 20. If we understand the matter aright, the thought is that the Lord
Jesus in His grace identified Himself with our place and condition in assuming
Manhood apart from sin, so that He might lay down His life, presenting His
sacred body as a sacrifice for sin; and then take up life again in
resurrection, in which life believers may now be identified with Him. His death
was thus the judgment and judicial ending of the old order; His resurrection
the real beginning of the new.
This
mighty change then has been brought about for us "in the body of His flesh
through death;" and consequently our whole standing before God is
manifestly altered. Once we were exactly in the position of fallen Adam, and
nothing could be worse than that, nothing more repugnant to God. Now, being in
Christ, we have the position that is Christ's as risen from the dead, and nothing
could be better, nothing more delightful, more pleasing to God than that. This
is what we may call God's side of reconciliation; the work which He has Himself
effected in the death of Christ. It is perfect and absolute; accomplished for
us, accomplished for ever. It is work of a new creation order, as 2 Corinthians
5: 17 shows.
But there
is our side of the matter which had equally to be met. It was we who were
"alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works," and
consequently there had to be a complete and fundamental change of mind and
attitude as regards God with every one of us. There was no need that His heart
should be turned towards us, but there was every need that our hearts should be
turned towards Him. Hence the Gospel was committed to the Apostles as "the
word of reconciliation." They carried on that ministry as
"ambassadors for Christ," praying men "in Christ's stead, be ye
reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5: 19, 20). When we believed the Gospel, the
ministry of reconciliation became effective with us, and it could be said,
"we have now received the reconciliation" (Rom. 5: 11, margin). As
the fruit of having received the reconciliation we "joy in God,"
whereas formerly we feared and even hated Him.
We may sum
up, then, this most blessed truth by saying that everything about us which was
obnoxious to God and deserving of judgment has been judged in the death of
Christ; and as the fruit of reconciliation we stand in a perfect acceptance
before Him. His work it is, for "He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved" (Eph. 1: 6). Christ's acceptance is the measure of our
acceptance: and the measure of His acceptance may be discerned in the title
given to Him — "the BELOVED." And further, since we do not believe
the Gospel apart from the work of the Spirit in us, by which new birth is
effected, we receive the reconciliation in believing. Our thoughts Godward are
altogether altered; the enmity that once filled our hearts is removed, and we
joy in Him. A new day has dawned in which He can look down upon us with
complacency, and we look up in answering love to Him.
We can now
see more clearly perhaps how reconciliation does carry us more fully into the
positive blessings of the Gospel. As forgiven, we know that our sins have been
dismissed. As justified, that we have been cleared from all charge. As
redeemed, that our days of slavery are over. But as reconciled, we have full
entrance into the wealth of the favour and love of God. It is the introduction
into blessing of the highest order.
An old
hymn states the matter thus:
"My
God is reconciled,
His
pardoning voice I hear."
That is
hardly in keeping with what we have been seeing, is it?
It is not.
It was we who needed to be reconciled. It was God who did the reconciling
through the Lord Jesus Christ. But though this is so, we must not overlook the
fact that God had to be propitiated in regard to sin. The publican of our
Lord's parable knew this, for he said, "God be merciful [propitiated] to
me a sinner" (Luke 18: 13). God had to be propitiated inasmuch as sin was
an outrageous challenge to His righteousness and holiness. He never hated us
however. His heart was not estranged from man, for had it been He would never
have sent His Son to be the propitiation, which was needed to meet the claims
of His righteousness and holiness.
Do we
understand then that reconciliation has more to do with our state before God
than with the guilt of our sins?
It
certainly has. It is worthy of note how the fact of our enmity comes into view
when reconciliation is in question. The passage in 2 Corinthians 5 is an
exception to this, but even here enmity, though not mentioned, is inferred, for
it says, "old things are passed away; behold, all things are become
new." Old things are passed away wherever new creation comes to pass,
though they are very much in evidence in the world at present. As new creation
beings we are reconciled to God. Nevertheless we must not overlook the fact
that "the blood of His cross" is the basis of the reconciliation, for
it was there that sin met its judgment, and everything in us that was offensive
and obnoxious to God was condemned. Our guilt is not overlooked, but even here
it is more a question of the judgment of our sinful state than the expiation of
our innumerable sins.
Why then,
in Hebrews 2: 17, do we read of Christ as "a merciful and faithful High
Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the
people"?
Simply
because the translators of the Authorized Version inserted here the wrong word.
It is "to make propitiation for the sins of the people," as
the Revised and other versions show. Under the law Aaron the high priest made
atonement by sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy-seat. The Lord
Jesus has fulfilled the type, but on an infinitely grander scale. It is an
interesting fact that in the Old Testament the word for "mercy-seat"
is one closely allied to the word for atonement; whereas the word in the
New Testament is as closely allied to propitiation. This shews that the
propitiation of the New Testament embodies the idea of atonement, yet going
beyond it. Reconciliation is to be distinguished from both, though not to be
disconnected from either.
We have
been dwelling on the fact that believers are reconciled now. What about the
reconciliation of all things, spoken of in Colossians 1: 20?
That
far-reaching reconciliation is coming in its season. You will notice that the
verse limits the blessing to "things in earth, or things in heaven."
The "things under the earth," of Philippians 2: 10, who are to bow at
the name of Jesus, are not mentioned here. The blight of sin has affected
certain parts of the heavens, through the fall of angelic beings. Wherever sin
has been, there reconciliation is needed. A time is coming in which all that is
evil will be swept into the place of judgment, there to lie under God's fiery
indignation; and then all things purged and reconciled both on earth and in
heaven will be delightful to God, and themselves delight in God.
The blood
of His cross, that has already brought us into reconciliation, has power and
value to accomplish even this.
There
seems to be a sense in which the world is already reconciled, according to
Romans 11: 15, What does that passage mean?
The whole
passage has to be read and carefully considered if we would arrive at the
Apostle's thought. He is discussing God's ways with Israel as a nation, showing
how they have been set aside for the present in order that He may pursue His
purpose of extending mercy to Gentiles. Throughout the dispensation of law, God
concentrated His favour and His dealings exclusively upon Israel: they were in
the light of His countenance, and the nations were left in their darkness — the
darkness which they had chosen for themselves, according to Romans 1: 21. But
with the advent of Christ and His rejection by Israel a great change in God's
ways came to pass. Israel is fallen from their place of national favour, and
this has led to what is called "the riches of the world," in verse
12, and to "the reconciling of the world," in verse 15.
The
"world" here has evidently the force of the Gentile world as
distinguished from Israel. The reconciling has been brought to pass by the
change in God's dealings which has led Him to set Israel aside from their
special place of national favour, and to bring the Gentile world before Him for
blessing. Formerly the position was that the Gentiles had deliberately turned
their faces from God, and He had turned His from them. Now He has turned toward
them; and as Paul elsewhere said, "The salvation of God is sent unto the
Gentiles, and . . . they will hear it" (Acts 28: 28). This dispensational
reconciliation has taken place and Paul was the chosen servant, sent to offer
salvation to the Gentile world.
Does the
reconciliation which we receive today involve more than this?
Most
evidently it does. When we receive it we "joy in God," as we are told
in Romans 5: 11. This is a thing which the world cannot do, in spite of the
fact that the mercy of God is active towards it in connection with the Gospel.
When God gave His only-begotten Son He had the world in view' and love to the
world was behind the gift. This dispensational reconciliation brings to all the
ministry of reconciliation, of which 2 Corinthians 5 speaks; and that is not
dispensational but intensely vital. Believers are really brought to God in
righteousness and love, with every stain and discord removed, and every fear
banished for ever.
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