To Encourage You

Romans 5:10 “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.”

Reconciliation is a beautiful word.  It is wonderful when two enemies, two nations, or a husband and wife who had been fighting and at a distance from one another have their relationship restored. The world is focused on the conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians right now.  What a wonderful thing if these two people, who have been at such enmity for so long, could find some semblance of reconciliation. Surely the whole world will be a better place if this could happen. 

Well, there’s another reconciliation that is much more wonderful than something like this, and in fact it’s the most wonderful restoration of relationship in all the universe – the reconciliation of God and man.  The Bible tells us that we are at enmity, i.e., war, with God.  The evidence is in our actions against Him, actions that are called sin. God hates sin, and in fact the Bible says that His eyes are too pure to even look on it (Habakkuk 1:13).  Sin has brought a great curse on the entire world.  It is the source of all pain, sorrow, and death.  The God who is love, loves His children too much to allow any sin to enter heaven.  When man flagrantly commits sin, it is ultimately against God and God only that he acts (Psalm 51:4), for when we sin either directly against God or against anyone made in His image, He sees it as exactly the same thing. It is all a violation of His law as stated in both the 10 commandments and in the greatest commandment, to love Him and to love our neighbor as our self. 

God has made it clear that no unrepentant sinner will ever inhabit heaven with words recorded in such places as Revelation 21:8 which says, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death”.

You see, in this war with God, God will not lose. Anyone who chooses to fight against Him until death will be ultimately destroyed, for who can stand before His infinite power?  But is there a remedy?  Is there a means to reconciliation?  Wonderfully, the answer is “Yes!”  But how is this possible? Well, in the verse from Romans 5 above, we find that reconciliation is possible because God and God alone has made it possible.  It is possible because God provided a sacrificial lamb to bear the sin of the world and the punishment for that sin. That lamb is Jesus, the very Lamb of God who bore the penalty for our enmity on the cross.  God acted on His own, in the most awesome act of love ever committed, in spite of our hatred against Him, and all we have to do is to say “Yes” to Him and “No” to our sin.

Everyone who has been so reconciled to God has been given the responsibility to share this message with everyone who has not been with these words: “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).

So, if this message makes you angry, if your reaction is “how dare anyone say such a thing to me?” it is only evidence of your enmity against God. As they say, “don’t shoot the messenger” when your true enmity is with the One who gave us all the message.  But if this makes sense to you, if you realize you have sinned against God and are estranged from Him, the truth is that He has provided the way of reconciliation, a reconciliation that will result in the love of God, rather than the wrath of God, being showered upon you for all eternity.