Tag Archives: Reconcile

No Halfway Measure

3 Replies

A convicted terrorist from Guantanamo Prison is pardoned, released and then rehabilitated so completely, he qualifies to be a federal judge.  You didn’t hear about that?  Good.  I don’t think that has been suggested…  yet.  But something more astonishing is what happens to someone who is reconciled by the blood of Jesus (See: Reconciled).  Paul didn’t want anyone to miss the full measure of what that means, so he said:

“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—” (Colossians 1:21-22)

When God reconciles us, He changes us from His enemies to ones who are free from accusation!  From evil behavior to holy!  That’s quite a jump, from one extreme of the moral spectrum to the far, opposite end.  Hard to fully comprehend because we can’t manage anything like it on our human plane.

Perhaps you are thinking, “Well, I’m a bit alienated from God – I’m not perfect by any means – but I wouldn’t consider myself to be an enemy.”  But God sees no middle ground.  If you are not for Him, you are against Him.   He does not grade on a curve.  Same thing between evil and holy: no shades of gray in the middle.  That’s not to say there’s no moral difference between you and a terrorist.  God assigns these radical judgments “in His sight.”  See that, at the end of the quote above?

God takes an enemy, reconciles him or her through the sacrifice of Jesus, “to present“  that person to Himself completely holy, unable to be justly accused of anything.  God sees the reconciled according to what that person will become. It does not say this transformation happens immediately, but that this is the ultimate purpose and what will be accomplished.  Perhaps you have put your trust in Christ, accepted this gift and still recognize a few things in your life for which you could be accused.  Yeah, me too, except with me it’s more than a few.  But understand this and hang on to it:  Because God sees no middle ground, He takes no halfway measures.  He will do everything necessary to bring you to the finish line, faultless in His sight.  He will not leave you, halfway.  Paul says, in another letter, he is

“… confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)

No halfway measures.

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

 

Reconciled

1 Reply

When you are in the doghouse, there’s no use pretending.  A busted love relationship brings down everything else.  You may not be sure what went wrong (especially if you are a guy!), but there’s no denying that the tension needs fixing.  Papering over conflict with smiles and nice talk doesn’t work.  Caving in, going along to get along is worse.  Both attempts are temporary at best and lead to sullen, resentment.  But when someone initiates real repair by doing whatever is necessary to truly reconcile the broken relationship, the results can be exhilarating.

It was God Who took the initiative to repair our broken relationship with Him.  Paul described it like this:

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Him (Jesus – See: Seeing the Invisible),  and through him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. –  (Colossians 1:19-20 – with my comment)

Carefully note that it was God Who took the initiative.  And, He did not give in and say, “Let’s just pretend everything is OK now.”  He did everything necessary to truly repair the break.  The sobering, necessary cost was the blood payment for our sin.

Notice also that His act reconciled “all things” to Himself, not the other way around.  When you reconcile your bank statement, in almost every case it is your figures that must be adjusted to match the bank’s record; you change to reconcile to the bank.  God did not lower Himself to adjust to our sinfulness, but reached down through Jesus to lift us up to Himself.

The end result is peace.  Peace is not pretending to get along, it is the absolute, settled, restoration of the way things between us were always meant to be.  Peace wipes out all tension.  God, through Jesus, made this peace.  He took the initiative and He accomplished it.

You know, because you have been there, when your partner makes the first move to reconcile your relationship, it requires a certain humility to receive that act of love.  But if you are willing, you exchange brittle tension for peace and joy.

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ … God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation…We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-20 – excerpts)

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.