“But God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. 9. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled we shall saved by His life. 11. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received atonement.”
I have been chasing the word “reconciliation” in the Greek and English today, and this is the passage that I landed on to share with you. First, we have been “reconciled to God by the death of His Son.” Though we are sinners as mentioned in verse 8, we have been, or can be justified by Christ’s blood as mentioned in verse 9.. The only way we can be justified before God is through the blood of Jesus. This does not call us to religious ritual, but to a faith relationship with Jesus. Second, to be reconciled through Christ is to be saved from the wrath of God. We don’t like to dwell on the wrath of God, but it cannot be erased from the Bible. God hates sin, which makes it imperative for us to seek reconciliation with God. For we have “all sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Christ died on the cross that we might turn to Him in faith in order to be saved from the wrath of God. Third, to be reconciled through Christ enables us to find “joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Christian gospel does not call us to gloom and doom. Some people see us as a joyless bunch, but they are wrong. In Christ we have found joy, and we call you to join us in the joy of Jesus Christ. It is not a call to be “religious” but it is to be reconciled to God by faith in Jesus Christ. We call people to repent and confess their sins and invite Jesus into their lives, believing that He died and rose again to reconcile them to almighty God. Fourth, to be reconciled to God is to be atoned. It is interesting that the same Greek word that is translated as reconciliation is also translated as atonement in this verse. As far as I know, the King James Version is the only Bible to translate this verse as atonement. Look at the word this way: “at-one.” Through Jesus we can be at one with God. That is one of the basic meanings of reconciliation, which probably explains why the KJV translators rendered the word as atonement. It is better to be at one with God, than to be separated from Him. I imagine that you agree! Well, this is my feeble effort to deal with the word “reconciliation.” I hope that it makes sense to you and that I have shown it to be an essential word in the Bible. Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|