The Bible uses a variety of words pictures to describe our salvation in Jesus. Justification pictures us as offenders pardoned in a courtroom. Adoption depicts us as orphans brought into a family. Redemption imagines us purchased at a slave market. Sanctification portrays us being made holy as a temple where God’s presence will dwell. In this week’s passage Paul uses the image of reconciliation to evoke the idea of friendship. The Bible informs us that God created us to know Him and be known by Him—to exist in a relationship with the living God! However, because we sin, rebelling against God and His good design for us, we are estranged from Him and the life and order He offers us. We are the offending party, yet God in His overflowing kindness and love initiated a plan to restore our ruined relationship with Him! 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 tells us, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” Because of His great love for us, God the Father sent God the Son (Jesus) to step into our enemy status and receive the punishment we deserve for our treason so that we would be restored as God’s friends! What an incredible magnitude of mercy God has shown us in Christ! If you are united to Jesus, then you are no longer God’s enemy, but His reconciled friend!
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Mike