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Chapter 3
Reconciled By Grace ... be ye reconciled to God. -II Corinthians 5:20 The first part of the marvelous work of salvation to which we now call your attention is that of reconciliation. That we are saved by grace means, first of all, that we are reconciled by grace. In the wondrous work of salvation God reveals Himself as the Reconciler, full of grace and truth, rich in lovingkindness and tender mercies. Of reconciliation the Scriptures speak very frequently, not only indirectly in all those passages which refer to the atonement in the blood of Christ, but also directly, using the term itself. "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." (Romans 5: 10) Well known is the passage from II Corinthians 5: 18-20: "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." In Colossians 1 :20 we are told even that God, having made peace through the blood of His cross, purposes to reconcile all things unto Himself, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And then the Word of God continues: "And you, that were sometime alienated in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled." (verse 21) Reconciliation is closely related to atonement and satisfaction for sin, as is evident from such passages as Hebrews 2: 17:"Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." From these passages a few outstanding truths are evident at once. First of all, it is everywhere emphasized that God is the Author of this reconciliation, and that, too, absolutely alone, without any cooperation on our part. It is He that reconciles. We reconcile ourselves to God in no sense of the word. Nor does Christ, Who is the Mediator of this work of God, reconcile us to God. God reconciles us to Himself. No more than we have any part in the work of creation, no more have we any part in the work of reconciliation. What is more, we did not only have no part whatever in this divine work; we did not even desire reconciliation, neither seek it. On the contrary, on our part we did all we could to frustrate God's plan of redemption. For we were reconciled when we were enemies! And never did this enmity against God reveal itself in more horrible form than at the very moment when God reconciled us unto Himself: it was when we killed His Son, and that, too, through that very deed, God reconciled us unto Himself! When we were enemies, He reconciled us unto Himself through the death of His Son, Whom we killed! Surely we are reconciled by God alone and through pure grace! Secondly, let us notice that God reconciled us unto Himself, not Himself to us. It is not the reconciliation of two parties to each other, but of men to God. Often one can read or hear that Christ as the Mediator reconciled us to God, and God to us. But this is a serious error. Scripture never speaks of God's reconciliation to us, nor could He be reconciled. He is the Reconciler, full of a mighty, unquenchable love; and He reconciles us to Himself. Thirdly, let us note that this reconcilation is presented as an accomplished fact. It is not something that must still take place, or that is constantly being realized: nineteen hundred years ago, on the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord, the work of reconciliation was finished once for all. Through faith, and by grace, we enter into the state of reconciliation with God; but the reconcilation itself is an accomplished fact: we are reconciled to God! What then is meant by reconciliation? It is that work of God whereby His own beloved elect were translated from a state of enmity and estrangement and wrath into a state of eternal and unchangeable favor and most intimate friendship, and that, too, by the removal of the cause of the estrangement, namely, sin, and the establishment of an eternal righteousness. Let us analyze this idea of reconciliation. First of all, reconciliation is the restoration of an existing relationship, whether of love, or friendship, partnership, or some other alliance. The actual existence of such a relationship is presupposed in reconciliation. This is true among men. You do not reconcile strangers. There is no bond between them; there never was; and, therefore, no bond between them can be restored. One may speak of reconciling man and wife, between whom exists the sacred bond of matrimony, when they drifted apart for some reason; or of the reconciliation of friends that are at variance for a time; or of the servant to his master, or the subject to his king. Always a relation or bond of friendship and love is understood. The same is true of God's work of reconciliation. It presupposes the eternal covenant relation of love and friendship into which God entered with His people, a relation that is rooted in His eternal purpose of election. That covenant relation can never be destroyed for the simple reason that it rests wholly in God. God loves His people with an eternal, unchangeable love. He never ceases to love them. No matter what they may do or become, He still loves them. Though their sins be as scarlet, and though they be red as crimson, He loves them still, and will restore them to His favor and fellowship. He may be angry with His people in righteous wrath for a moment, but even in His anger He loves them. He is like a husband that loves and remains faithful to his wife, no matter how often she may play the adulteress; or like the father who, no matter how grievously his son may sin against him, still loves that son and will receive him whenever he may return. If this were not so, how could God be the Reconciler? Reconciliation is an act of infinite love, of unlimited grace, of abundant mercy. God loved His people when they were enemies. Reconciliation presupposes the eternal covenant relation of God with His people that rests in God, the I Am, the Faithful and True! Secondly, reconciliation implies that the parties to be reconciled are at variance through some fault on the part of either or of both parties. The relationship is disturbed for a time. It cannot properly function because something intervened that makes the exercise of friendship and love impossible. There is separation. One of the parties in the matrimonial covenant was unfaithful, committed adultery; the son sinned against his father and lives in that sin; the friend offended his friend. The same is true of the relationship between God and His people. He created them in His image and took them into His blessed covenant in Adam. For Adam was the friend of God, clothed with righteousness, the object of God's favor. He knew his God and was known of Him. He loved his God and was loved by Him. He walked and talked with God and was blessed by Him. But in and through Adam the whole human race, and with the human race God's own elect, violated the covenant relationship. They sinned and became guilty, the objects of God's righteous wrath, foolish and corrupt, enemies of God. And as they are in their sin and death, they cannot be and function as God's covenant friends. Because of sin they are alienated, and they have forfeited the right to God's favor and love. The covenant relationship has been violated and disturbed. God is terribly angry with His people in their sin, and they are in themselves worthy of death and damnation! Thirdly, if the disrupted relationship of friendship and love is to be restored, the cause of the disruption must be removed. Among men this may take place through repentance and confession on the part of the party that had offended, and by the promise on his part henceforth to be faithful to the relationship that was violated, and through forgiveness on the part of the one that was offended. An adulterous wife may return to her husband in heartfelt sorrow, and be received by him; and if the woman gives proof of her repentance and renewed faithfulness, the reconciliation is accomplished. The prodigal son returns to his father in dust and ashes, confesses his sin and unworthiness, and his father restores him to his place in the home. But with God this is different. He cannot deny Himself. He cannot permit His holy law to be trampled under foot with impunity. He cannot simply forgive and forget. If the sinner's relation to Him is to be restored, the cause of the separation must actually be removed, so that it is no more. But how can sin be removed? How can the guilt of sin be blotted out? How can the guilty become righteous? How can the object of God's wrath be restored to His favor? There is one, and only one way: that of perfect satisfaction! The sinner must atone for his sin. And atonement for sin consists in perfectly satisfying the justice of God! But of what does this atonement consist? What can so satisfy the justice of God that the sinner's guilt is blotted out and that he is declared righteous before God? Again, there is only one answer: the sinner must freely, voluntarily, motivated by the love of God and true sorrow for his sin, bear the punishment of sin, eternal death! Mark you well, he must not merely bear the punishment and suffer eternal death, he must do so willingly; the bearing of the punishment must be an act of all his soul, and mind, and will, and heart, and strength. The damned in hell also suffer eternal death, yet they can nevermore atone. They are passive in their suffering. But he that would satisfy the justice of God against sin must sacrifice himself He must be so mightily moved by the love of God that he seeks hell in order that he may atone, and that he voluntarily lays himself on the altar of God's holy wrath. For God's demand upon man is that he love Him. And this demand never changes. Even though man has become the object of God's consuming wrath, he must still love Him. He, therefore, who can perform that act of love, whereby he willingly allows himself to be consumed for God's righteousness' sake, satisfies God's justice. Now it is at once evident that the mere sinner can never do this. As far as he is concerned, the case is hopeless. No good works, supposing that he could perform them, will ever atone for his sin: for he is obliged to do them in the first place; and as no man can pay a back debt by paying his current bills, so man cannot atone by doing good works. But the case with the sinner is much worse. He is dead in sin. He cannot do any good before God. He stands in enmity against God, and his nature is so corrupt that he loves the darkness rather than light. He is not at all concerned about the righteousness of God. How then could he possibly bring the sacrifice that would atone for his sin? Even if he would, he could not possibly bear the punishment of eternal death, and finish it, so that he would live. But he will not seek God. He does not care to be reconciled with God. It is clear then that his case is hopeless, and that, if he must reconcile himself to God, he will never be restored to God's favor. Reconciliation cannot be of man; it must be of God. It cannot be by works; it must be by grace! And this is exactly the wonder of reconciliation: God reconciled us unto Himself while we were yet sinners! God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Never change this truth into something different. Never say that Christ reconciled God to us, and us to God. That would make of Christ a third party between God and us. And although it is certainly true that Christ in His human nature is the Mediator of God and man, this Mediator is entirely of God! Nay, He is God Himself, the Son of God, begotten of the Father eternally, Who is eternally in the Father's bosom, God of God in human flesh! In Him the strong arm of the God of our salvation reaches down into our death, in order to remove the cause of our estrangement from Him, and to restore and raise to a higher, heavenly, eternal level the covenant of friendship between Him and us. That is the meaning of the cross: God reconciled us to Himself through the death of His Son! There God was reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. There God Himself, through His Son in the flesh, satisfied His own justice. The Son of God brought the sacrifice that was required to blot out the guilt of sin and to clothe us with an everlasting righteousness. He could do so, because He was the holy child Jesus, the Lamb without blemish, and the zeal of God's house consumed Him. He could and did willingIy, from the motive of the love of God, descend into lowest hell, to suffer the punishment of sin, to bear the wrath of God to the very end. He stood in the place of judgment, and on Him all the vials of God's wrath against sin were poured out. And when He cried out, "It is finished!" He had completed His sacrifice, removed sin, obtained righteousness, a fact which God sealed when He raised Him from the dead. And He was able to bring this sacrifice as an atonement for the sin of all His people. For God had appointed Him to be the head of His church, representing them. For them He died. And, because it is not mere man, but the Son of God Who died on the cross, His death is abundantly sufficient to blot out the guilt of all His own! And so the gospel is the ministry of reconciliation. It proclaims that reconciliation is an accomplished fact: the elect are surely reconciled to God. He reconciled us! We are reconciled by grace, by pure, free, sovereign grace! And it is He, too, Who sends out the word of reconciliation. For He gave unto the apostles the ministry of reconciliation, and put the very word of reconciliation in their very hearts, so that they had the power and authority to speak in the name of God the Reconciler, and so that they became ambassadors of Christ, as though God did beseech us by them: "Be ye reconciled to God!" (II Corinthians 5: 18-20) This word of reconciliation is still proclaimed among us, from the Scriptures, and through His own ministry of the Word by the preachers He Himself sends unto us. Be ye reconciled to God! That is God's own prayer! O, marvelous grace! What is more, it is by His own grace that His own prayer is heard, and that the sinner turns to God the Reconciler. For He causes the word of reconciliation to become a mighty power within us, a fire in our bones, so that we repent of sin in dust and ashes and seek reconciliation with God in the blood of Christ! Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord! |
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