Nottheworld
07-30-2008, 03:28 PM
Reconciled to God
Have you ever been reconciled to God? This is a most important question. Your salvation or perdition depends entirely on this issue. How great is your blessing if you have been reconciled to God! You have already passed out of death into life to enjoy the blessing which God has prepared for you in the Lord Jesus. But how pitiful and how precarious is your case if you have yet to be reconciled to God! How terrible to have His wrath always resting on your head! You should honestly face this question—Have you been reconciled to God?
Do not be careless or foolish. You are either reconciled to God or hostile towards Him; there is no neutral position. If you have not drawn nigh to Him through the death of the Lord Jesus, then you are His enemy. For the world is at enmity with God. To be His enemy does not necessarily mean you are one who presses your rebellion all the way to heaven; it simply means you are doing things according to the flesh because you mind only its passions and lusts and not what God requires of you. The Bible declares that "the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be" (Rom. 8.7). Not only those who set their hearts and minds against God are His enemies; even those who mind the flesh are as well.
You may actually approve of religion, you may truly admire Christ, you may have even frequently helped the church—all these things may be quite good; nonetheless, these are no proofs that you are not an enemy of God. You ought to understand that according to the word of God, whoever minds the things of the flesh is at enmity with Him. To mind the flesh is to rebel against God’s law. Now the word "mind" sounds at first so innocent and casual: you may not engage in any outward act of rebellion against God, you may only mind it secretly in the hidden recesses of the heart. Yet that is enough to be at enmity with Him and in rebellion to His law!
Not only is man not subject to God’s law, he cannot be—he does not possess the power and strength to do so. This betrays the utter deprivation of human nature! Do you know that man’s nature is corrupt? Yet how holy and just is the law of God. Can you keep it? Sometimes people really consider God’s law as good and His command as just, and hence they would like to keep it. But what is the result? They do not and cannot keep it. Although at times we want to keep God’s law, we find in us a power which holds us and compels us to mind the flesh instead of obeying His law. Human nature is so corrupt that the hope of keeping God’s law must be completely abandoned. Is it not true that oftentimes people do not want to live wantonly and licentiously, yet they still sink into such mire? It is because of the corrupt human nature. Let us realize that we must acknowledge our utter corruption before the salvation of God can ever come to us.
Another evidence that we are enemies of God lies in the fact that our hearts love the world very much. Does not the glory and the praise of the world move our hearts? In the New Testament we find this revealing statement: "Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" (James 4.4a) This is God’s word, not mine. God calls people adulteresses who have committed the act of adultery in their flesh, but He calls others by that name also; for the more inclusive meaning of adultery here is the embracing of a friendship which ought not to be embraced. Now since the world has crucified Christ, how can anyone who befriends such a world not be considered an enemy of God? For will this world and its attitude ever change? Is the world better today than at the time of Christ? If it has not changed for the better, how can you have any fellowship with it?
Oh how beautiful the people of the world are, how interesting its affairs, and how lovely its things. And because of the people, affairs and things of this world, you have formed an unbroken bond with it. Yet this is the very reason why you became God’s enemy. Truly, the minds of those who have not been reconciled to Him and regenerated are set upon the people, affairs and things of the world day and night. What they seek are its fame, profit and power. They set their faces towards the earth and their backs towards heaven. They disregard the demands of God and are at enmity with Him. Let me ask you, Have you been washed by the precious blood of the Lord? If not, and you are in friendship with the world, then you are an enemy to God.
Human conduct is also an unmistakable evidence of man being God’s enemy. What God wants men to do they will not, but what He does not want them to do, that they do. Who can count the number of sins men commit day and night? The evil deeds of the body betray the enmity that is in the heart: "And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works" (Col. 1.21). Evil works! Sins! Uncleannesses! These are the unfailing proofs of men’s enmity with God. "There is none righteous," declares the Bible, "no, not one" (Rom. 3.10). No flesh dares to claim itself righteous before God. For no one can be justified in His sight through one’s own works. All the works of men are evil in His eyes. Although many works are deemed passable in the eyes of men, they are full of defects in God’s eyes, and are therefore still reckoned as evil works.
Do your works bear witness before God that you are at enmity with Him? Do not think you are better than other people but recognize that your so-called good deeds embody many evils such as pride, fame and self-satisfaction. Therefore, confess your pathetic condition, and come to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ that you may be saved. Otherwise, because of your self-righteousness and self-contentment, you will die in your sins.
May the Holy Spirit convict you of your sins and cause you to see your real condition. For unless people assume the position of a sinner, confessing that they are at enmity with God, they shall not be able to receive His grace. How can anyone come to the cross seeking the salvation of God if he does not realize he cannot please Him and that his very own nature is against Him? Unless he recognizes his terrible state of being at enmity with God and its future consequence of eternal wrath, his confession of faith in Christ may not be real.
What are the people of the world? Are they not as dust? As insects? How small is the place they occupy in the universe! Is there any ground, then, for boasting? But God, who is He? He is the One Most High, the incomparable Sovereign. Heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool. Hence who in this age can tell of His greatness? Oh! For such tiny men to be enemies of such a great God, how can they escape perdition? Does not the Bible declare that "the wrath of God abideth on [them]" (John 3.36)? For this reason, do not deceive yourself by considering yourself as having any good works. Your very enmity with God could be fatal. Do not ever imagine it is of no consequence to be an enemy of His. Nothing else in the world is more serious than this.
We need to be reminded that God so loved the world that He would have all men to be saved. He is not willing to see them perish nor to condemn them for their sins. Though the world—which includes you and me—is hostile towards Him, He patiently forbears. God sent His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus, to die on the cross for us so that He might be our propitiation (satisfaction) for the removal of God’s righteous wrath. The penalty of our sins fell on Him. We have rebelled against God, and according to our nature, thoughts and deeds we deserve the evil consequence of perdition; but His Son Jesus has borne it all in our stead. For He stood on our behalf in the place of us rebels and sinners. And as a result, the Lord Jesus cried out at crucifixion: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27.46b) Jesus is the beloved Son of God, He is His delight, and He is always near to Him. Yet He has borne our sins, stood in our place of hostility, and suffered the righteous wrath of God’s judgment for us. Even His beloved Father God forsook Him, because he became sin for us and died for us once and for all. Forsaken by His Father for our sake, He has nonetheless achieved peace and has fulfilled grace. What amazing grace this is!
Therefore, we can now be in the good of the finished work of Christ. We can be "reconcile[d] . . . unto God through the cross" (Eph. 2.16a). Yet it is not that we have changed to be better, nor that we are able to control ourselves or to improve ourselves—such efforts as these cannot ever satisfy God’s heart. No, "through the cross" is alone the sufficient means. The work is already finished, and we need not add anything to it: "Having made peace through the blood of his cross" (Col. 1.20a). The blood which our Lord Jesus shed while suffering on the cross speaks far better than the blood of righteous Abel (see Heb. 12.24). And peace is thus achieved and salvation is wholly accomplished for us.
Before Christ accomplished the work of salvation God could not draw near to men, neither could men draw near to Him. Though God loved the world, the sin of the world stood in the way. But now the Son of God has died. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Cor. 5.19a). The relationship between God and men has now changed. Yet the death of Christ did not change the heart of God, for He has always loved the world; and neither did the death of Christ change the heart of men, for men are still in sin and refuse to be subject to God. But thanks be to God, the enmity between Him and men has been done away through the death of Christ. God has judged the world by judging His Son the Lord Jesus, so that now He may accept men without any hindrance.
We may illustrate it this way: A judge had an only begotten son whom he dearly loved. The son stole public funds in his father’s house and fled. Though his father loved him dearly, the relationship between the father and the son had changed. What was their relationship now? If the son were arrested, the father would no longer be able to treat him as his son. The father would have to judge him and condemn him as one of many criminals. However much the father loved him, he could do nothing for his son except sell the family property in order to reimburse the theft. Only then could the son be freed and the father receive him back without any hindrance.
We human beings have sinned against God; we therefore deserve to be judged and condemned to eternal perdition. But God loved us so much that He came to be a man (the Lord Jesus is God) in order to suffer on the cross that He might clear our debt of sin and restore the broken relationship between God and men. With the result that God is now able to receive us sinners since peace has been achieved between the two parties. Whether a person is saved or lost now depends on the person’s willingness to accept this peace.
I return again to my opening question: Have you been reconciled to God? Are you a saved person? Have you made peace with God through the Lord Jesus? The divine way of reconciliation is that "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ"—that we are "reconciled to God through the death of his Son" (Rom. 5.1,10a). You do not make peace with God through your so-called good works. For although you may already be a church member—having been baptized and having received the Lord’s supper—or have often attended church worship and frequently read the Bible and prayed, or have even sometimes asked people to believe in the Lord or have preached and led in the church, you are still a lost sinner and an enemy to God if you have not been reconciled to Him through the death of the Lord Jesus by believing that Christ died, bore your sins and accomplished the work of redemption for you. Do not conceive the idea that your good works and zeal will reconcile you to God. No, the price for reconciliation is not that cheap. If God views the death of the Lord Jesus to be absolutely necessary, then anything short of His death is totally unacceptable. Men will either be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ or continue to be enemies of His by trusting in their own works.
God has paid all the cost for reconciliation. He has already accomplished the work of perfect redemption. The Lord Jesus has achieved everlasting salvation. Whether to be saved or lost is now the question which is put before you. You cannot be saved by your own righteousness, yet neither must you perish because of your sins. Whether you are saved or lost depends upon your willingness to accept the salvation the Lord Jesus has accomplished for you.
During the American Civil War a victorious general issued an order to his defeated foes which went something like this: I now set apart several miles of land as a refuge of peace. All who lay down their arms and pass over into this parcel of land shall be saved; all others will be killed without mercy. Many believed the order. They laid down their arms and entered the designated area. These were all saved. But some were doubtful and refused to enter the land of refuge; with the result that they were all eventually killed.
God has designated Calvary’s cross to be the land of peace for all men. You, like so many in this world, have been at enmity with Him; yet if at this moment you are willing to lay aside your sins and stand at the foot of the cross, trusting in the peace which Christ has achieved for you, you shall be saved. But if you still doubt and do not believe, you shall die in your sins. In the Civil War incident there was no difference between those who lived and those who died except as to whether they entered or did not enter the appointed area of land. Some might have moved to within a foot of the land, where they could easily enter in with but one step. Yet they were killed because they remained outside the land. Hence do not delay any longer. Do not be lost for lacking only one brief step. Trust in the Lord and you shall be saved. "He that will, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22.17d). Why not do it today?
Now if you are truly willing to accept the peace which the Lord has achieved, you will be delivered from both your sins and their penalty. For the Bible declares that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses" (2 Cor. 5.19a,b). Moreover, what joy we experience when we are no longer under accusation!—"We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation" (Rom. 5.11).
I would ask one final time, Have you been reconciled to God? You should answer quickly. Your future depends on your answer today. "We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5.20). "He came and preached peace to you that were far off [the gentiles], and peace to them that were nigh [the Jews]" (Eph. 2.17). May the Holy Spirit touch the heart of anyone who receives this message, causing him to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.
"O Lord, I was Your enemy, but now I am willing to believe You because of the love You manifested on the cross and because of the peace which You have achieved. O Lord, save me, a sinner!"
Have you ever been reconciled to God? This is a most important question. Your salvation or perdition depends entirely on this issue. How great is your blessing if you have been reconciled to God! You have already passed out of death into life to enjoy the blessing which God has prepared for you in the Lord Jesus. But how pitiful and how precarious is your case if you have yet to be reconciled to God! How terrible to have His wrath always resting on your head! You should honestly face this question—Have you been reconciled to God?
Do not be careless or foolish. You are either reconciled to God or hostile towards Him; there is no neutral position. If you have not drawn nigh to Him through the death of the Lord Jesus, then you are His enemy. For the world is at enmity with God. To be His enemy does not necessarily mean you are one who presses your rebellion all the way to heaven; it simply means you are doing things according to the flesh because you mind only its passions and lusts and not what God requires of you. The Bible declares that "the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be" (Rom. 8.7). Not only those who set their hearts and minds against God are His enemies; even those who mind the flesh are as well.
You may actually approve of religion, you may truly admire Christ, you may have even frequently helped the church—all these things may be quite good; nonetheless, these are no proofs that you are not an enemy of God. You ought to understand that according to the word of God, whoever minds the things of the flesh is at enmity with Him. To mind the flesh is to rebel against God’s law. Now the word "mind" sounds at first so innocent and casual: you may not engage in any outward act of rebellion against God, you may only mind it secretly in the hidden recesses of the heart. Yet that is enough to be at enmity with Him and in rebellion to His law!
Not only is man not subject to God’s law, he cannot be—he does not possess the power and strength to do so. This betrays the utter deprivation of human nature! Do you know that man’s nature is corrupt? Yet how holy and just is the law of God. Can you keep it? Sometimes people really consider God’s law as good and His command as just, and hence they would like to keep it. But what is the result? They do not and cannot keep it. Although at times we want to keep God’s law, we find in us a power which holds us and compels us to mind the flesh instead of obeying His law. Human nature is so corrupt that the hope of keeping God’s law must be completely abandoned. Is it not true that oftentimes people do not want to live wantonly and licentiously, yet they still sink into such mire? It is because of the corrupt human nature. Let us realize that we must acknowledge our utter corruption before the salvation of God can ever come to us.
Another evidence that we are enemies of God lies in the fact that our hearts love the world very much. Does not the glory and the praise of the world move our hearts? In the New Testament we find this revealing statement: "Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" (James 4.4a) This is God’s word, not mine. God calls people adulteresses who have committed the act of adultery in their flesh, but He calls others by that name also; for the more inclusive meaning of adultery here is the embracing of a friendship which ought not to be embraced. Now since the world has crucified Christ, how can anyone who befriends such a world not be considered an enemy of God? For will this world and its attitude ever change? Is the world better today than at the time of Christ? If it has not changed for the better, how can you have any fellowship with it?
Oh how beautiful the people of the world are, how interesting its affairs, and how lovely its things. And because of the people, affairs and things of this world, you have formed an unbroken bond with it. Yet this is the very reason why you became God’s enemy. Truly, the minds of those who have not been reconciled to Him and regenerated are set upon the people, affairs and things of the world day and night. What they seek are its fame, profit and power. They set their faces towards the earth and their backs towards heaven. They disregard the demands of God and are at enmity with Him. Let me ask you, Have you been washed by the precious blood of the Lord? If not, and you are in friendship with the world, then you are an enemy to God.
Human conduct is also an unmistakable evidence of man being God’s enemy. What God wants men to do they will not, but what He does not want them to do, that they do. Who can count the number of sins men commit day and night? The evil deeds of the body betray the enmity that is in the heart: "And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works" (Col. 1.21). Evil works! Sins! Uncleannesses! These are the unfailing proofs of men’s enmity with God. "There is none righteous," declares the Bible, "no, not one" (Rom. 3.10). No flesh dares to claim itself righteous before God. For no one can be justified in His sight through one’s own works. All the works of men are evil in His eyes. Although many works are deemed passable in the eyes of men, they are full of defects in God’s eyes, and are therefore still reckoned as evil works.
Do your works bear witness before God that you are at enmity with Him? Do not think you are better than other people but recognize that your so-called good deeds embody many evils such as pride, fame and self-satisfaction. Therefore, confess your pathetic condition, and come to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ that you may be saved. Otherwise, because of your self-righteousness and self-contentment, you will die in your sins.
May the Holy Spirit convict you of your sins and cause you to see your real condition. For unless people assume the position of a sinner, confessing that they are at enmity with God, they shall not be able to receive His grace. How can anyone come to the cross seeking the salvation of God if he does not realize he cannot please Him and that his very own nature is against Him? Unless he recognizes his terrible state of being at enmity with God and its future consequence of eternal wrath, his confession of faith in Christ may not be real.
What are the people of the world? Are they not as dust? As insects? How small is the place they occupy in the universe! Is there any ground, then, for boasting? But God, who is He? He is the One Most High, the incomparable Sovereign. Heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool. Hence who in this age can tell of His greatness? Oh! For such tiny men to be enemies of such a great God, how can they escape perdition? Does not the Bible declare that "the wrath of God abideth on [them]" (John 3.36)? For this reason, do not deceive yourself by considering yourself as having any good works. Your very enmity with God could be fatal. Do not ever imagine it is of no consequence to be an enemy of His. Nothing else in the world is more serious than this.
We need to be reminded that God so loved the world that He would have all men to be saved. He is not willing to see them perish nor to condemn them for their sins. Though the world—which includes you and me—is hostile towards Him, He patiently forbears. God sent His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus, to die on the cross for us so that He might be our propitiation (satisfaction) for the removal of God’s righteous wrath. The penalty of our sins fell on Him. We have rebelled against God, and according to our nature, thoughts and deeds we deserve the evil consequence of perdition; but His Son Jesus has borne it all in our stead. For He stood on our behalf in the place of us rebels and sinners. And as a result, the Lord Jesus cried out at crucifixion: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27.46b) Jesus is the beloved Son of God, He is His delight, and He is always near to Him. Yet He has borne our sins, stood in our place of hostility, and suffered the righteous wrath of God’s judgment for us. Even His beloved Father God forsook Him, because he became sin for us and died for us once and for all. Forsaken by His Father for our sake, He has nonetheless achieved peace and has fulfilled grace. What amazing grace this is!
Therefore, we can now be in the good of the finished work of Christ. We can be "reconcile[d] . . . unto God through the cross" (Eph. 2.16a). Yet it is not that we have changed to be better, nor that we are able to control ourselves or to improve ourselves—such efforts as these cannot ever satisfy God’s heart. No, "through the cross" is alone the sufficient means. The work is already finished, and we need not add anything to it: "Having made peace through the blood of his cross" (Col. 1.20a). The blood which our Lord Jesus shed while suffering on the cross speaks far better than the blood of righteous Abel (see Heb. 12.24). And peace is thus achieved and salvation is wholly accomplished for us.
Before Christ accomplished the work of salvation God could not draw near to men, neither could men draw near to Him. Though God loved the world, the sin of the world stood in the way. But now the Son of God has died. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Cor. 5.19a). The relationship between God and men has now changed. Yet the death of Christ did not change the heart of God, for He has always loved the world; and neither did the death of Christ change the heart of men, for men are still in sin and refuse to be subject to God. But thanks be to God, the enmity between Him and men has been done away through the death of Christ. God has judged the world by judging His Son the Lord Jesus, so that now He may accept men without any hindrance.
We may illustrate it this way: A judge had an only begotten son whom he dearly loved. The son stole public funds in his father’s house and fled. Though his father loved him dearly, the relationship between the father and the son had changed. What was their relationship now? If the son were arrested, the father would no longer be able to treat him as his son. The father would have to judge him and condemn him as one of many criminals. However much the father loved him, he could do nothing for his son except sell the family property in order to reimburse the theft. Only then could the son be freed and the father receive him back without any hindrance.
We human beings have sinned against God; we therefore deserve to be judged and condemned to eternal perdition. But God loved us so much that He came to be a man (the Lord Jesus is God) in order to suffer on the cross that He might clear our debt of sin and restore the broken relationship between God and men. With the result that God is now able to receive us sinners since peace has been achieved between the two parties. Whether a person is saved or lost now depends on the person’s willingness to accept this peace.
I return again to my opening question: Have you been reconciled to God? Are you a saved person? Have you made peace with God through the Lord Jesus? The divine way of reconciliation is that "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ"—that we are "reconciled to God through the death of his Son" (Rom. 5.1,10a). You do not make peace with God through your so-called good works. For although you may already be a church member—having been baptized and having received the Lord’s supper—or have often attended church worship and frequently read the Bible and prayed, or have even sometimes asked people to believe in the Lord or have preached and led in the church, you are still a lost sinner and an enemy to God if you have not been reconciled to Him through the death of the Lord Jesus by believing that Christ died, bore your sins and accomplished the work of redemption for you. Do not conceive the idea that your good works and zeal will reconcile you to God. No, the price for reconciliation is not that cheap. If God views the death of the Lord Jesus to be absolutely necessary, then anything short of His death is totally unacceptable. Men will either be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ or continue to be enemies of His by trusting in their own works.
God has paid all the cost for reconciliation. He has already accomplished the work of perfect redemption. The Lord Jesus has achieved everlasting salvation. Whether to be saved or lost is now the question which is put before you. You cannot be saved by your own righteousness, yet neither must you perish because of your sins. Whether you are saved or lost depends upon your willingness to accept the salvation the Lord Jesus has accomplished for you.
During the American Civil War a victorious general issued an order to his defeated foes which went something like this: I now set apart several miles of land as a refuge of peace. All who lay down their arms and pass over into this parcel of land shall be saved; all others will be killed without mercy. Many believed the order. They laid down their arms and entered the designated area. These were all saved. But some were doubtful and refused to enter the land of refuge; with the result that they were all eventually killed.
God has designated Calvary’s cross to be the land of peace for all men. You, like so many in this world, have been at enmity with Him; yet if at this moment you are willing to lay aside your sins and stand at the foot of the cross, trusting in the peace which Christ has achieved for you, you shall be saved. But if you still doubt and do not believe, you shall die in your sins. In the Civil War incident there was no difference between those who lived and those who died except as to whether they entered or did not enter the appointed area of land. Some might have moved to within a foot of the land, where they could easily enter in with but one step. Yet they were killed because they remained outside the land. Hence do not delay any longer. Do not be lost for lacking only one brief step. Trust in the Lord and you shall be saved. "He that will, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22.17d). Why not do it today?
Now if you are truly willing to accept the peace which the Lord has achieved, you will be delivered from both your sins and their penalty. For the Bible declares that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses" (2 Cor. 5.19a,b). Moreover, what joy we experience when we are no longer under accusation!—"We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation" (Rom. 5.11).
I would ask one final time, Have you been reconciled to God? You should answer quickly. Your future depends on your answer today. "We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5.20). "He came and preached peace to you that were far off [the gentiles], and peace to them that were nigh [the Jews]" (Eph. 2.17). May the Holy Spirit touch the heart of anyone who receives this message, causing him to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.
"O Lord, I was Your enemy, but now I am willing to believe You because of the love You manifested on the cross and because of the peace which You have achieved. O Lord, save me, a sinner!"