Reconciliation   Romans 5:9,10,11

Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason -- April 17, 2005    

  8But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s judgment. 10For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life. 11So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God—all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God.

During the Second World War a platoon of American soldiers was fighting their way through a French village. When the battle had ended and the G.I.’s began checking to see if everyone had survived the fight, they found one of their comrades had been killed during the battle.

Because of the respect and love these men had for each other, the surviving members of the platoon carried their friend through the village to the local church. They knocked on the door of the church. A priest answered the door and asked them how he could help them. They requested permission to bury their friend in the church cemetery.

The priest asked if their comrade was a Roman Catholic. Their answer was “No. He was not of that particular church. “I’m sorry,” the priest said, “I cannot give permission for you to bury your friend. The cemetery is for Roman Catholics only.”

The men weren’t sure what to do, so they buried their friend just outside the wall of the cemetery. When they had finished they left the area disappointed but pleased that they were able to care for their friend.

The next day, as they were preparing to move out, the members of that platoon went back to the church cemetery to pay their last respects to their friend. When they reached the church and the cemetery they could not find the grave where they had placed their friend. They noted the landmarks around the church and were certain that they were in the right place. But there was no grave to be found. Finally, in frustration they went back to the church, knocked on the door hoping to speak with the priest.

When the priest, they had spoken to the day before, came to the door, they asked him if he remembered them from the previous day. He said that he did. They asked him about what had happened to the grave of their friend. The Priest answered, “After you left having buried your friend, I was so ashamed of how I had treated you that I spent the rest of the day and night moving the wall of the cemetery to let your friend in.”

In this true story we find something that speaks to us of the love of God for us. Sin will always keep people out, but the love of God has always been keen on letting us in to the presence of God.

Our Bible tells us quite clearly that Jesus Christ has died, and if we have accepted his death as the sacrifice for our sin, we have been justified. For God reached down to lift us up, even while we were His enemies. That is: we who believe have been made just as if we had never sinned. That is how God views us now. And because of His mercy and the grace we have received, we now have peace with God.

The cross of Jesus is a two way street. We have been brought to God and God has been brought to us. Paul tells us of the reconciliation that has come to us through Jesus Christ. And the Holy Spirit continually brings us back to the cross. It is as if he continually reminds us that we, who were once alienated from the life of God, are brought back into fellowship with Him and our sins have been fully dealt with forever.

The word “reconcile” comes from the Latin and means “to bring a person again into friendly relations to or with oneself or another after an estrangement.”

Paul has made it abundantly clear in the early chapters of his letter to the Romans, that there has been an estrangement between the soul of man and God. Man sinned against God, fled from God and became His enemy.

God, who is light, holds nothing against the sons of darkness and is willing to bring hem into the Light, if they will only come. It has always been true that “whosoever will, may come.”

The Greek word that is translated “reconciled” comes from the world of the moneychanger. If you give two dimes and a nickel in exchange for a quarter, or vice versa, you have made an equal exchange. This was the original meaning of the word. It was an equal exchange. In later use it was used for a difference in business dealings and finally for a difference between two personalities who had become estranged.

This word reconcile is never used of God. It is used only of men. Men are reconciled to God. The Scriptures never tell us that God is reconciled to men. The whole argument of this section of Romans is that God took the initiative. God did not have to be reconciled to man because God is love. Man had to be reconciled to God because man was a helpless, ungodly enemy.

By the fall into sin, man was estranged from God. He would not come back to God of his own will, and he could not come back to God because he was incapable of doing so. Man was nevertheless responsible and God was going to do something about it. He was going to save those on whom He had eternally set His love. Those who refuse His love, must incur His wrath.

That is the way it will always be:  Accept what God has done for you in the sending of His Son Jesus into our world and to the cross as the payment for your sin and He will save you or me. Refuse to do so and you will spend eternity lost and without God.

   In 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 we find that what this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!
18All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him. 19For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. 20We are Christ’s ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, “Be reconciled to God!” 21For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

If we go back to the root idea of the word “reconcile”: to exchange coins of equal value, and to adjust a difference, the context of our verse shows us that we were helpless, ungodly sinners and enemies of God. God came in Christ and died for us. That satisfied every demand of His nature for righteousness and true holiness and now His love may be poured out to us.

Going back to the root idea of the word “reconcile” it is as God sets Himself up as a banker in the market place and cries out: “Change your money here! Change your money here! I will give you my power for your helplessness! I will give my godliness for your sinfulness! I will give my love for your enmity!”

We must remember that we are born lost. You or I did not have to do anything to become lost in our sin. We were always lost. And the invitation of God has always been an invitation to be reconciled to the true God who is all love toward us.

Having been reconciled ourselves, we are now called to a ministry of reconciliation.

Paul tells us that we are ambassadors of Christ. We are so by divine appointment. The reality of that appointment is shown by the faithfulness we have to the Word of God.
Paul considered himself Christ's ambassador. What is an ambassador?
He is an authorized representative of a sovereign. He speaks not in his own name but on behalf of the ruler whose deputy he is, and his whole duty and responsibility is to interpret that ruler's mind faithfully to those to whom he is sent.
Paul used this "ambassador" image twice -- both in connection with his evangelistic work. Pray for me, he wrote from prison, "that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak" (Eph. 6:18-20).
He wrote also that God "gave us the ministry of reconciliation...So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).
Paul called himself an ambassador because he knew that when he proclaimed the gospel facts and promises and urged sinners to receive the reconciliation effected at Calvary, he was declaring Christ's message to the world. The figure of ambassadorship highlights the authority Paul had, as representing his Lord, as long as he remained faithful to the terms of his commission and said neither less nor more than he had been given to say. James Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986.

What is our message to an unbelieving world?  It is a word of reconciliation.
It is this: As a human being, You are a sinner, estranged from God. You have been running away from God since the Garden of Eden.

God says to the world of unbelievers: you are in a state of total helplessness, ungodliness and sinfulness…and that you are His enemies.

He commands me to tell you that he has fully dealt with your sin by sending Jesus Christ to die for you. God is totally satisfied with the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as the sacrifice for your sin. I declare to you on the authority of God that he is not imputing your trespasses and sins to you. Every sin, past, present, future, has been charged to the account of Jesus Christ and God holds nothing against you. He authorizes me to tell you that all has been forgiven and that you need only turn around and come home.

We had to come just as we are. It is as if God has said to us: Don’t wash your face or change your clothes. He will cleanse you and give you new garments, but he will not do so until you step inside the door with all your filth and ungodliness. After he has bathed you, you can keep yourself clean. After he has given you new garments, you can keep them clean. Leave all your baggage outside and come in with empty hands.

God loves us. He has nothing against us. He will take us just as we are.

And then he will send us back into this lost world of darkness so that there will be light in it. As we shine as light, we function as Christ’s ambassadors. We are his official, authentic representatives to this lost and dying world. And there are those who will see the light of Jesus in us and be drawn to Jesus because of the message we bear that God is love and that he has sent Jesus to take our sins upon himself so that we might be reconciled to God.

There is someone in your family, in your neighborhood, among those with whom you work who need to know Jesus. You are the one God has chosen to represent him in that place.

How well are we doing at representing Jesus?

You and I may be the only ones they know who will present Jesus accurately and truthfully to them.

We have the ministry of reconciliation now and with it we have the word of reconciliation…the gospel to share with others around us.

It is as if Jesus has said to us:  “Tag, you are it.” “Off you go and as you go I will be with you. You will not have to do this by yourself. I have given you my Holy Spirit and he will lead you, guide you and empower you as you bear witness of me.”

And: “If you will just do what I told you and do it as I have shown you, you can change your world so that many might be reconciled to me…”  Through you I will bring many back into a friendly relationship with me and my Heavenly Father

--Dennis Gleason