“Reconciled to God through Christ”
Romans 5:1-11
2-27-08
In tonight’s epistle text the Apostle Paul
uses some very technical and judicial language to describe what God has
done for us in Jesus Christ. And though we may have heard some of
these words before, if we were asked to explain just what they mean, we
might have a hard time giving an answer.
One of those words (and the word I’d like to
focus on tonight) is the word “reconciliation.” Now,
if I were to ask you to picture in your mind what reconciliation would
look like, you might envision two parties, who were at odds with each
other about something, getting together to work out their differences,
as well as apologizing for their respective offenses, so that a
friendly relationship between them might be restored. The
dictionary also defines the verb “to reconcile” in this
way, adding that it also means “to cause to coexist in
harmony.” But if we tried to use this definition in order
to understand what reconciliation is between ourselves and God,
we’d end up concluding something like this: that we and God
worked together at some sort of bargaining table to settle our
disagreements, in order to restore a peaceful, harmonious, and friendly
relationship between ourselves. It might look something like the
attempts of the Israelis and the Palestinians at trying to reconcile
their differences with one another. With our idea of
reconciliation, we not only need to be reconciled with God, but God
needs to be reconciled with us, as if not only do we have something to
apologize for and amend in our lives, but so does God.
This is not the kind of reconciliation, however,
that Paul is talking about here. When the Scriptures talk about
reconciliation with God, it has nothing to do with God being reconciled
to us, but our being reconciled to Him. It’s strictly a
one-sided thing. God doesn’t have anything to apologize for
or to repent of. He doesn’t need to amend His words or
actions. He is not the one who rebelled against us, abandoned us,
or failed to keep His promises. We have rebelled against Him, we
have abandoned Him, we have failed to keep His testament, we have
sinned against His commandments. We became God’s enemies;
He didn’t become our enemy. There was no bargaining at the
table with God, because we didn’t even want to have anything to
do with Him. It’s like the members of Hamas and other
militant Islamic groups, who hate Israel, are unwilling to even
recognize Israel’s right to exist, and would die before they sat
down and negotiated with them.
And that’s where we were in our sins before
God. As Paul says here, we were enemies of God, not only dead in
our trespasses and sins, but actively hostile against Him. And
while we were in this state, Christ died for us. Our
reconciliation with God was completely His doing, achieved for us by
His Son on the cross, something which we had nothing whatsoever to do
with. We did not reconcile ourselves to God. He reconciled
us to Him, and that with the blood of Jesus. Our reconciliation
with God is an achieved fact, done, finished, accomplished, and stamped
with the blood of Christ. It’s not achieved by our faith;
it’s only received by faith as it’s given to us through the
Word and the Sacraments.
We who have been baptized into Christ have all
received by faith this reconciliation that God has worked for us in
Christ. So, what does this reconciliation look like between God
and ourselves? Paul uses a number of words here to describe
it. He says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.” Paul uses words like “justified” and
“peace” to describe what reconciliation with God looks
like. To be justified by God is to be declared righteous by Him,
and to have peace with God means that our warfare with Him is
over. Things are as they should be again between ourselves and
God. Whereas before we were ungodly and unrighteous, actively
hostile towards God, now through faith in the reconciliation that
Christ achieved for us on the cross we have been declared both godly
and righteous, and we have been given a new nature by which we both
love God and want to do His will. Whereas before we were subject
to God’s temporal and eternal punishment, now we live under His
grace and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, rejoicing in the
fact that we not only stand before God now clothed with Christ by way
of our Baptism, but also that we will stand in God’s glorious
presence in the age to come, when we’ll see Him face to
face. And so reconciliation includes not only being saved from
God’s judgment and condemnation right now, but also being saved
from His judgment and condemnation to come on the Last Day.
There, our resurrected and living Lord who reconciled us to God with
His blood shed on the cross will stand for us as our Advocate before
the Father, pleading us righteous with His blood. This is what
Paul means when he writes, “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.” Jesus lives to
intercede for us. Because of His reconciling, we will not be
separated from God for all eternity in hell, but we will enter into His
glorious presence to live with Him forever.
So, reconciliation at its core means being brought
back to God. It means that our relationship with God which was
broken on account of our sin has been restored for us by Jesus.
He is the Good Shepherd who went after us wayward sheep to bring us
back to the Father. He is the merciful Father who loves His
prodigal sons, runs after them and embraces them when they are brought
back to Him in repentance. This is why I love the German word for
the verb “to reconcile.” The word is
versoehnen. The root of this word comes from the word for
“son” (s-o-n) in German. So, it’s almost like
saying you “son” someone to yourself when you reconcile
them. And that’s exactly what God does for you - He
“sons” you in Jesus. In Greek the root word of the
verb “to reconcile” is the word “change.”
So, what happens when God reconciles you is that a change takes
place. You are changed from being an enemy of God to being a son
of God, and as a result your status has also changed - you are no
longer under God’s wrath but under His mercy, and you’re an
heir with Christ of the world to come.
Again, this change is not something you have brought
about yourself, nor is it something that you and God both worked
together on in bringing about. This change was done completely
apart from your willing or doing by Christ alone. As Isaiah
writes, God’s own arm has brought Him salvation. God
reconciled you, He “sonned” you, He worked peace for you
through the cross of Christ, He has declared you righteous through
faith in this reconciliation. This reconciliation He has
delivered to you in your Baptism, and He continues to give it to you in
His words of absolution and in the Lord’s Supper.
This leads to rejoicing on our part - rejoicing in
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as rejoicing even in our
sufferings. No longer must we look at suffering as a sign of
God’s wrath against us, because we have been reconciled to God
through the blood of Jesus Christ. Nor must we be afraid of
suffering, as if it could separate us from God’s love for us in
Jesus. What can our sufferings do to us, now that we have been
reconciled to God in Christ? Not even death can separate us from
Him. Both suffering and death are made now to serve us in
Christ. Even though suffering is painful, look at what Paul says
God works through it - endurance, character, and hope. So, yes,
we can even rejoice in our sufferings, because God causes all things to
work together for the good of those who love Him, for those who are
called according to His purpose.
This Lenten season, then, let us continue to rejoice
in God who has reconciled us to Himself with the blood of His
Son. Let us rejoice that we who were once God’s enemies and
separated from God have now been brought near to Him through the blood
of Jesus and are His beloved sons. And let us rejoice even in the
sufferings of this life, knowing that God is working through them for
our good, that they will not last forever, and that some day the
reconciliation that have now by faith will be manifested in the age to
come, when we’ll see our Savior face to face in glory. Amen.