Since sin is rebellion against God, we are in need to be reconciled to Him. If you don’t think your sin warrants such an action, you really don’t grasp the weight of disobedience.
Reconciliation is a word regaining usage today. It is often connected to racial reconciliation efforts in the last few years. Due to disunity between ethnicities due to past grievances and present tensions, this world has numerous disjointed groups needing relational resolution.
Get that picture in your head. Two entities where wrong has occurred, distrust is high, and peace seems unlikely. Some side has to initiate the work required for the difficult task of reconciliation. It isn’t easy because there seems to be such a divide. It’s painful because someone must humbly seek reconciliation even if they were the party wronged.
18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
In ethnic disunity throughout history, opinions will always vary regarding what happened and what can fix it. Regarding the reconciliation mentioned in this passage, we need not deliberate to discern the culprit and the victim. We need to be reconciled to God because we declared war on Him! The chasm exists because we moved.
The conflict happened because we rejected peace. We were unsatisfied with God’s good and gracious rule and decided to rebel against His standards and try to supplant His position.
Many Christians don’t have proper handling of how sinful we are. The thought of reconciliation can seem overkill to the one who doesn’t believe their sins to be that defiant. Christ had to die on the cross to reconcile us to God (5:18).
When we chose the things of this world over the things of His Word, we identified as enemies of God (Jam. 4:4). We were so different from Him, there was no easy way to reconcile. The damage had been done, and it was all clearly our fault.
The divide existed because we moved. Sin separated us from God (Isa. 59:2), but His arm was not too short to save us!
Reconciliation is necessary because we were rebels.
The people that need the gospel are no different from you. If Jesus could reconcile you, there’s no one too far gone! As you share Christ with others, don’t forget how much He was willing to pray for your reconciliation.
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
