RECONCILED WITH GOD
Romans 5: 6-15
Proper #6

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for this mornings meditation is recorded in Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 5, verses 6 through 15, particularly these words: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation.”  This is our text.

In the name of our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, dear Christian friends.  Two Sundays ago, our sermon text dealt with the word “Justification”.  A big word which simply means “a balancing of accounts.”  Today, our text talks about a synonym of Justification.  A synonym is a different word which has the same meaning and can usually be used interchangeably.  Today our text talks about “reconciliation.”  Once again this is a big word, but it is not hard to understand.

To “reconcile,” has about the same meaning as to “justify”, but there is a fine line difference.  A debt can be justified between two people without their personal feelings getting involved.  If I owe a stranger 10 dollars, I can pay it and say nothing and “justify” the debt.  But if I owe 10 dollars to a close friend who is not speaking to me because of that 10 dollars, if I pay him, apologize, and we make up — that is “reconciliation.”

The dictionary says that “reconciliation” means, “a restoring to friendship, harmony, or communion.”  When husband and wife have a fight and separate for a time, when they get back together that is called a “reconciliation.”  Whenever friends have a fight and don’t speak to each other for a while, when they make up that is called a “reconciliation.”  Whenever two people restore peace, love, and harmony to the relationship between them, that is a “reconciliation.”

When Paul says in our text, “We were reconciled to God,” he too is speaking of the “restoration of friendship, harmony, and communion.”

Why do we need reconciliation with God?  We find an answer to that question at the front of our Bible.  In Genesis we read, “Then Adam and Eve heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”  Ever since that day, men and women all over the world have been hiding from God.  Some people hid behind their own scientific theories of Evolution and say that God does not exist.  We call them Atheists.  Others hid from God by creating many different Gods.  That way they can hid from the wrath of the one true God by calling down the love of their false Gods.  We call that Polytheism, paganism, and materialism.  Others try to hid from God’s wrath behind their own good works.  They try to earn God’s favor so that God will be good to them.  We call them self-rightous hypocrites.

Before anyone can truly appreciate the tremendous love of God for us, he must quite hiding!  Before we can ever be reconciled with God, we have to come out of hiding, stand before God Almighty, and confess, I, a sinner by my very nature, have sinned against you in thoughts, words, and deeds.

Our text says, “BUT!! — while we were yet enemies of God, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.”  We were enemies of God, yet God still loved us.  Even while we were hiding behind all our modern scientific proof that God didn’t exist, even while we were hiding behind the many different God’s of money, fame, wealth, friends, social position, and the like, even while we were hiding behind our own good works, knowing that God would be nice to us because we were nice to him, Even while we were enemies toward God,  HE brought about our reconciliation with him, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.  John wrote, “Greater love has no man than this, than to die for his friends.”  But God showed an even greater love than that — He died for his enemies

Usually “reconciliation” is brought about when the guilty party confesses and asks for forgiveness.  But is this case, reconciliation was brought about by the innocent party.  God himself made the first move, and while we were hiding from him, while we were yet sinners — Christ died for us!

What we could not do, God did for us.  God restored us to friendship, to harmony, and to communion with himself.  He restored us to our rightful place as his children.  Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God brought us out of hiding, forgave us our sins, put away his anger and wrath, and claimed us as heirs of his eternal kingdom.

Our reconciliation with God is complete through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  There is nothing that we can add to what Christ has already done for us on the cross of Calvary.

So what does this mean in our lives?  Our text said, “We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation.”  WE REJOICE IN GOD!

That is what the Christian life is all about.  Peace, joy, and  love is all a way of rejoicing.  We don’t have to walk around with long faces because we are Christians.  We do not have to avoid having fun because we are Christians.  We are to rejoice, BECAUSE we are Christians.  Of all the people in the whole world, only Christians can truly enjoy life, because only a Christian knows that he is reconciled with God and that heaven is a gift of God, not something that has to be earned or paid for.  Only Christians can be sure where they will spend eternity, because God has promised, “He that believes and is baptized will be saved.”

How then does “reconciliation” with God, affect the Christian’s life?  The Christian helps his neighbor — not because he has to, but because that is his way of rejoicing before God.  The Christian attends church — not because he has to — but because that is where he rejoices with fellow Christians and receives the gifts of God’s grace.  The Christian contributes to the work of the church — not to pay his dues — but because he rejoices that God has given him so much and rejoices that he can share the message of Christ with others through the work of the church.  The Christian receives Holy Communion — not because it is a good thing to do — but because it is an opportunity to rejoice over the forgiveness of sins which we receive through the very body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Every moment of every day of our lives, should be a time of rejoicing, even in bad times, because God has promised us, “All things work to the good for those who love the Lord.”

The Christian responds with rejoicing — Because God, by grace, has done all of this and more for him.

If you are still hiding from God behind indifference, apathy or self-righteousness, then come out from behind that tree of sin, and through the love of God, receive the gift he offers to you.  He offers himself.  He offers forgiveness.  He offers heaven.  Let us rejoice in God’s grace and love in our life!  For “We are reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”  This is a day, the Lord has made.  We will rejoice, and be glad in it.  Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.