Purposes of this lesson: [Acknowledgment: the concepts in this lesson are challenging and deep. Many Christians do not often think about such concepts or their meaning.] Often the two most challenging aspects of the concept of reconciliation are found in two questions. (1) What is the meaning of reconciliation? (2) How does that meaning apply to today's people in "right now" circumstances? The purposes of this lesson are: (a) to challenge us to consider the concept of reconciliation; (b) to deepen our understanding of God's commitment to saving/forgiving people; and (c) be reminded that 2000 years ago Christians were challenged to understand reconciliation.
Jesus ended people's alienation from God by serving as the only mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus ended alienation from God for all those who trust his mediation. What results when alienation is destroyed? Ending alienation produces reconciliation. The parties that were separated by alienation establish a new relationship in reconciliation.
Reconciliation is a hard concept for today's American Christians to grasp. The most significant relationship in America that publicly uses the reality of reconciliation on occasions is marriage. Even in that relationship, most people have a poor opinion of reconciliation. "I will never understand why he took her back!" or "Can anyone help me understand why she went back to him?" In America we are more likely to associate reconciliation with "accepting defeat" or "hypocrisy" rather than healing. For example, when reconciliation occurs within political parties after hard primary fights, we think, "Oh, yeah, you love and respect each other now! You losers are just pretending to love the victor! Two weeks ago you attacked each other like you hated each other. Now I am supposed to believe you are thrilled to be friends? Get real! What do you take me to be?"
The illustration below focuses on a failed marriage that produced alienation but accepted the healing of reconciliation. The limitations of this illustration to reveal our reconciliation with God are understood. It has one objective: to help us focus on the nature of reconciliation. We must understand the concept before we apply the concept. Use the illustration to promote understanding of the concept. In failed marriages, reconciliation is produced by the restoration of trust. In the failed God-person relationship, reconciliation is produced by a restoration of trust--faith of the person in God, His nature, and His concern.
Perhaps a clear way to illustrate this trust is by a marriage relationship. A man and woman committed to each other as husband and wife were consensually bonded by their love for one another. One of them allowed something to replace his/her love and commitment in the relationship with enmity. He/she forces a separation. Though one continued to love and did not want separation, their relationship could not endure through the love of one person. As a consequence, separation occurred. Though the loving one wanted reconciliation, the rebellious one did not. Separation became alienation. Alienation generated feelings of injustice and hostility. The alienated couple could not even communicate in an understanding manner.
A mediator [counselor] was invited into the situation. Through his/her guidance [with time], hostility became tolerance, tolerance became understanding, and understanding became respect. New relationship skills were learned. Positive old relationship skills were resurrected. True communication was restored and advanced. Forgiveness was a part of the new respect. The combination of hope and respect gave birth to a renewed love. Alienation ended. Reconciliation began. Reconciliation was the gift of love. Though it was a gift, this gift brought responsibilities.
Consider Jesus as the means of our reconciliation to God.
A basic realization: we created the problem through rebellion and are the problem. God did not create the problem and is not the problem. Reconciliation occurs because God Who is not the problem will welcome back humans who are the problem. Through reconciliation, we can be forgiven and begin again. That can happen as a result of what God did in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Romans 5:10,11
Please note these statements Paul made to the Christians in Rome. (1) Before they desired reconciliation, while they were God's enemies, God through Jesus' death paid the price that made reconciliation possible. Through Jesus' death, God destroyed the hostility produced by human rebellion. [God does not hate humans. God hates the evil that produces human alienation.] Humanity could not destroy the consequence of their rebellion against God. (2) Jesus' resurrection provided the power for reconciliation. Jesus' resurrected life is the source of Christian spiritual life. (3) Note the contrast: Jesus' death destroyed the hostility; Jesus' resurrection empowered reconciliation to give life. (4) Conclusion: God will do even more for those who accept reconciliation than for those who were His enemies. Thus, confidence increased in God's salvation for people who accept reconciliation through Jesus' resurrection. It is this contrast: "If God was this good to us when we hated Him, He is even better to us when we accept reconciliation." He did not make it simple for people to return to Him in order to make it hard for them to stay with Him. (5) Therefore Christians euphorically rejoice in God as they understand what God did in Jesus' death and Jesus' resurrection. They continue to accept God's incredible gift of reconciliation with a growing awareness and joy.
Key realizations for Christians: (1) God wanted reconciliation before we want it. Before we agreed to respond to His initiative, He paid the full price for the consequences of human rebellion. He satisfied justice so He could extend the healing of salvation. As much as God hates evil, He never hated us. (2) Jesus' death satisfied justice. Jesus' resurrection gives us life. (3) The hostility that separated us from God was the consequence of human rebellion against God. We, not God, produced the alienation. (4) If God valued us so much that He created salvation for us before we agreed to respond to His efforts, He can do far more than that for us when we respond to His efforts. Ending our alienation is merely the beginning of what He can do for us. (5) The end result of reconciliation in human life is a joy that cannot be described and must express itself in praising God.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Please note Paul's statements to the Christians in Corinth. (1) Reconciliation, produced by being in Christ, produces a new life. This new life was expressed in the existence of a new creature who was motivated by a new understanding of future things [resurrection's joys rather than death's anguish]. Reconciliation produced new life, and new life produced a new being. (2) This was all possible because of God's reconciliation produced through Jesus Christ. God gave Paul and his company the responsibility of sharing the news of God's reconciliation. (3) As Jesus Christ's ambassadors, Paul begged the Christians at Corinth to place full confidence in God's reconciliation. (4) They were to understand that God made Jesus to be sin [in his death] in order for them to become God's righteousness.
Their confidence was to be in what God did through Christ, not in themselves.
Key realizations for Christians: (1) The reality of reconciliation is demonstrated in human life by a trust that produces a different behavior, a different character, and a different definition of human integrity. (2) This new existence is not possible apart from the strength Jesus Christ supplies. (3) Christians who have the courage and trust to allow God to transform them into different persons become living examples of God's power in human life. (4) The God Who allowed His obedient son to become something God hates [even though the son perfectly did what God asked and wanted] will do incredible things in the lives of humans who seek His righteousness. Reconciliation allows God to work without restriction in the lives of those who belong to Jesus Christ. (5) Those who respond to [accept] God's reconciliation obey Him, but do not place their trust in their obedient deeds. They place their trust in Jesus' death and resurrection.
Ephesians 2:13-18
Please note Paul's statements to the Christians at Ephesus. (1) God used Jesus' blood to destroy the alienation separating Jews from people who were not Jews. One's heritage no longer was significant to God. (2) Jesus produced peace between all people by being God's price to destroy the hostility caused by human rebellion. God used Jesus to make this peace possible (a) by eliminating the enmity produced by Jewish ordinances and (b) by reconciling both to God through Jesus' death. (3) God combined all into one people. Jesus' death produced the death of the enmity that separated Jewish people from people who were not Jews. [Is it not interesting that the hostility that separated people from God also separated people from people?] (4) Jesus came to declare peace could exist between all people and God. Jesus' death allowed God's Spirit to exist in anyone who accepted God's reconciliation. To God, there were no Jewish Christians and non-Jewish Christians, or circumcised Christians and uncircumcised Christians, or Christians converted from Judaism and Christians converted from paganism, or Christians who had scripture for generations and Christians who never had scripture. They were simply people who accepted reconciliation. (5) Reconciliation did not make Christians culturally identical. It did not stress structures that emphasized identical forms in spiritual practices. Reconciliation produced peace with God through Jesus' resurrection because all were built on the same spiritual foundation. (6) Collectively, reconciliation fashioned them into God's temple. As God's temple, they must realize God's presence existed in them through the indwelling of God's Spirit.
Key realizations for Christians: (1) Jesus' blood destroyed alienation. It destroyed all alienation. That which separated God and people separates people from people. Carefully consider Jesus' points in Matthew 5:43-48 and 7:7-12. Notice the connection between a healing relationship with God and healing relationship between people. (2) In reconciling people to Himself, God does not care who you are, what your background is, or what your problems are. There is but one basic issue: do you trust God's reconciliation enough to accept it and begin transformation? One significant purpose of Jesus' death was to declare to all people, "God does not care who you are and what your problems are. He asks each basically one question: 'Do you trust Me enough to become? I can make something of nothing. I can take something horribly dead and make something beautifully alive.'" (3) People make distinctions among themselves. God makes no such distinctions. There are only those who are reconciled to God and those who are not. God, not people, makes that determination. People do not have to be culturally alike doing precisely the same things to be reconciled to God. Human preferences do not determine divine reconciliation. Following identical forms (conformity to human emphasis) do not determine reconciliation. Accepting God's peace in Jesus' death and resurrection determine reconciliation. (4) The reconciled do not fear becoming God's temple and do not fear housing God's Spirit. The reconciled cherish the peace produced by trusting God's presence. Though dedicated to obedience, they do not seek peace in the inadequacy of human deeds.
Colossians 1:19-23
Please note Paul's statements to the Christians at Colossae. (1) God the Father, Himself of His desire, placed divine completeness [fullness] in Jesus. (2) The objective of Jesus having the divine completeness was to extend reconciliation to all people. (3) The sacrifice of Jesus' dying blood produced a comprehensive peace in all spheres of existence. (4) Alienation from God was characterized by (a) hostile thinking and (b) evil behavior. (5) Even though hostile thinking toward God and evil behavior controlled people, God created the potential for reconciliation for all through Jesus' death for a reason. God wanted people who were hostile thinkers who behaved wickedly to accept reconciliation's responsibilities--to become holy, unblemished people dedicated to an existence that an evil world could not ignore. (6) That would happen if they firmly rooted their faith in the hope of the good news of God's offer of reconciliation through Christ.
Key realizations for Christians: (1) Jesus enables us to picture how God' would be true to His values and nature were He to exist in a fleshly existence. This was God's intention in Jesus' physical existence. (2) Jesus was God's means of declaring His desire for reconciliation with all people. (3) There are aspects of and realities involved in God's reconciliation to humans that go beyond the physical realm. Jesus' death and resurrection addressed all of them. (4) Alienation from God produced specific results [consequences] in human thinking and behavior. Reconciliation to God produces specific results [benefits] in human thinking and behavior. The results of (a) being alienated from God or (b) being reconciled with God fundamentally influences a human's thought and behavior. (5) God intends for the reconciled to be God's obvious presence in an evil world--people who stand out like lights in darkness. (6) This can and will happen when the reconciled firmly root their trust in God in what God achieved in Jesus' death and resurrection.
Question for reflection: what thoughts in this lesson do you find most challenging?
The responses to this question will reflect an enormous variety of reactions. Each response will be dependent on where in the transformation process the individual is.
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 7