Forgiveness & Reconciliation - God & Man
Often you hear Christians making the distinction between being religious & being in a relationship with God. This is because it’s entirely possible to be affiliated with a religion, do religious stuff & have nice religious thoughts, but never actually have a relationship with God. This becomes clear in Jesus’s words below:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ – Mt 7.21-23
Jesus not only disregards their otherwise amazing religious feats, but also calls them “evildoers”, pointing to their lack of relationship with Him. This must mean that there is something that disrupts peoples’ relationship with God & that it cannot be fixed by religion. Of course, we know from other Scriptures that our sinful behavior cuts us off from God because we violate His holiness & perfect moral standard (1 Jn 3.4, Isa 59.2, Rom 3.10-18). Even if we merely break 1 of God’s laws, we are guilty of breaking them all (Jas 2.10) & in turn, are enemies of God & hostile in our minds (Rom 8.7-8, Col 1.21). As a matter of justice, this places us under God’s 100% righteous & perfect judgment – we are guilty & condemned, awaiting trial (Jn 3.18, Rom 2.5, 8, Eph 2.3). And to think all this can just be simply glossed over by doing religious things or trying to obey His law is further hostility towards God because it misses the point (Gal 3.11). Here is God’s grievance against such religious people:
Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him…
When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong... – Isa 1.4, 12-16
This would be like a heinous enemy who has continually assaulted you & then just shows up one day & takes a seat at the dinner table. That would be outrageous! Or, if every day you do things to upset or violate me all day long & then say nice things when I’m around or call me every evening to ask for help with something. That too would be outrageous! Why? The crimes were never acknowledged or dealt with (justice ignored), the relationship was non-existent & absolutely nothing was done to make things right. If a relationship was there, you would cease fire or at least take notice that I was offended. Note that one’s behavior reflects their relationship or attitude towards another. The relationship doesn’t simply materialize from niceties or good intentions. Your actions don’t define your relationship; your relationship defines your actions. And if one’s actions are merely superficial, it shows the relationship is merely superficial.
Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. – Jn 14.23-24a
Now, mankind is in a huge dilemma – perpetual hostility towards God, whether we care to acknowledge it or not. In His tremendous mercy, God holds back the deserved instantaneous punishment of our sin, yet letting various consequences unfold to perhaps gain our attention. He’s put us in a truly marvelous creation that points to His eternal divine nature. He’s instilled a conscience in each of us as an early warning device if we don’t become deaf to it. He’s placed friends, family & random internet bloggers in our lives to help alert us to our grievous situation. He pursues us still through His Holy Spirit to highlight our sin & His holiness & justice. How merciful!!! This tells me that He tremendously cares about the relationship of each human being to Himself. He goes out of His way to get our attention because He doesn’t want us to experience His eternal wrath in hell as the ultimate punishment for our sin.
Because He cares more about our relationship with Himself than we do, He had to initiate a way for us to be saved from the coming judgment (Heb 9.27). Despite the fact that we have all sinned wickedly & do not desire Him as He truly is, He did something utterly amazing. He infiltrated humanity & became a man – Jesus Christ. And He was a Man on a mission. This mission has many facets, but includes those of our topic – forgiveness & reconciliation.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Rom 5.6-8
Dictionaries define forgiveness as giving up resentment or granting relief from payment. The Biblical word also carries the idea of a pardon or release. In order for God’s wrath against our sin to be avoided, our sins must be forgiven. In order for God not to be accused of injustice, our sins must still be punished. When Christ was crucified & died on the cross, God was redirecting His future wrath against our sin from us to Jesus. Christ was sinless & would never require His own punishment (1 Jn 3.5). However, this doesn’t mean everyone is somehow automatically forgiven & saved. A transaction must take place & this is where reconciliation comes in.
Consider that your life is like a bank account that you’re responsible for. When you sin, even in the slightest, it results in insurmountable negative debt. If that occurred & someone had the capacity & desire to assume your debt & pay it down (forgiveness), it would be quite reasonable that they might have some terms for you. It is only upon acceptance of those terms that you would be reconciled. Part of God’s terms are that we would acknowledge our sin debt, turn over our life account to Him & trust that He alone is able to deposit enough into it to completely satisfy the debt payment. Believing you can contribute anything yourself is not only futile, but also offensive towards God (compounding sin debt). If mankind could be forgiven & reconciled to God by “being good” or doing religious things, then Jesus is totally unnecessary & His death pointless. He needs no help. There is a place & a reason for “religious works”, but it’s not to attain forgiveness or reconciliation. Christ’s perfect life & sacrificial payment is the only adequate & acceptable currency.
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law (religious obedience), Christ died for nothing!
– Gal 2.21
Reconciliation is defined as making things consistent, accounting for something or restoring friendship (reuniting) – all 3 apply here. Our understanding must be consistent with God’s in 2 areas – we must understand we’re guilty of sin that’s offensive to God requiring His judgment & that only Christ’s perfect righteousness (sinless life) is able to compensate for our moral deficit. After we recognize our need for Christ’s forgiveness & righteousness, we are then to confess that directly to God which is a matter of giving an account. At that point, Christ’s punishment is applied to our sin (justice) & His righteousness is applied to our person (justification) – friendship is established with God & the hostility & wrath cease (1 Thes 5.9). Sins are forgiven & there is a relationship with God. How awesome! Sometimes the ideas of forgiveness & reconciliation are packaged together into another Biblical word called atonement & can be remembered as “at-one”-ment with God.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ – Mt 7.21-23
Jesus not only disregards their otherwise amazing religious feats, but also calls them “evildoers”, pointing to their lack of relationship with Him. This must mean that there is something that disrupts peoples’ relationship with God & that it cannot be fixed by religion. Of course, we know from other Scriptures that our sinful behavior cuts us off from God because we violate His holiness & perfect moral standard (1 Jn 3.4, Isa 59.2, Rom 3.10-18). Even if we merely break 1 of God’s laws, we are guilty of breaking them all (Jas 2.10) & in turn, are enemies of God & hostile in our minds (Rom 8.7-8, Col 1.21). As a matter of justice, this places us under God’s 100% righteous & perfect judgment – we are guilty & condemned, awaiting trial (Jn 3.18, Rom 2.5, 8, Eph 2.3). And to think all this can just be simply glossed over by doing religious things or trying to obey His law is further hostility towards God because it misses the point (Gal 3.11). Here is God’s grievance against such religious people:
Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him…
When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong... – Isa 1.4, 12-16
This would be like a heinous enemy who has continually assaulted you & then just shows up one day & takes a seat at the dinner table. That would be outrageous! Or, if every day you do things to upset or violate me all day long & then say nice things when I’m around or call me every evening to ask for help with something. That too would be outrageous! Why? The crimes were never acknowledged or dealt with (justice ignored), the relationship was non-existent & absolutely nothing was done to make things right. If a relationship was there, you would cease fire or at least take notice that I was offended. Note that one’s behavior reflects their relationship or attitude towards another. The relationship doesn’t simply materialize from niceties or good intentions. Your actions don’t define your relationship; your relationship defines your actions. And if one’s actions are merely superficial, it shows the relationship is merely superficial.
Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. – Jn 14.23-24a
Now, mankind is in a huge dilemma – perpetual hostility towards God, whether we care to acknowledge it or not. In His tremendous mercy, God holds back the deserved instantaneous punishment of our sin, yet letting various consequences unfold to perhaps gain our attention. He’s put us in a truly marvelous creation that points to His eternal divine nature. He’s instilled a conscience in each of us as an early warning device if we don’t become deaf to it. He’s placed friends, family & random internet bloggers in our lives to help alert us to our grievous situation. He pursues us still through His Holy Spirit to highlight our sin & His holiness & justice. How merciful!!! This tells me that He tremendously cares about the relationship of each human being to Himself. He goes out of His way to get our attention because He doesn’t want us to experience His eternal wrath in hell as the ultimate punishment for our sin.
Because He cares more about our relationship with Himself than we do, He had to initiate a way for us to be saved from the coming judgment (Heb 9.27). Despite the fact that we have all sinned wickedly & do not desire Him as He truly is, He did something utterly amazing. He infiltrated humanity & became a man – Jesus Christ. And He was a Man on a mission. This mission has many facets, but includes those of our topic – forgiveness & reconciliation.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Rom 5.6-8
Dictionaries define forgiveness as giving up resentment or granting relief from payment. The Biblical word also carries the idea of a pardon or release. In order for God’s wrath against our sin to be avoided, our sins must be forgiven. In order for God not to be accused of injustice, our sins must still be punished. When Christ was crucified & died on the cross, God was redirecting His future wrath against our sin from us to Jesus. Christ was sinless & would never require His own punishment (1 Jn 3.5). However, this doesn’t mean everyone is somehow automatically forgiven & saved. A transaction must take place & this is where reconciliation comes in.
Consider that your life is like a bank account that you’re responsible for. When you sin, even in the slightest, it results in insurmountable negative debt. If that occurred & someone had the capacity & desire to assume your debt & pay it down (forgiveness), it would be quite reasonable that they might have some terms for you. It is only upon acceptance of those terms that you would be reconciled. Part of God’s terms are that we would acknowledge our sin debt, turn over our life account to Him & trust that He alone is able to deposit enough into it to completely satisfy the debt payment. Believing you can contribute anything yourself is not only futile, but also offensive towards God (compounding sin debt). If mankind could be forgiven & reconciled to God by “being good” or doing religious things, then Jesus is totally unnecessary & His death pointless. He needs no help. There is a place & a reason for “religious works”, but it’s not to attain forgiveness or reconciliation. Christ’s perfect life & sacrificial payment is the only adequate & acceptable currency.
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law (religious obedience), Christ died for nothing!
– Gal 2.21
Reconciliation is defined as making things consistent, accounting for something or restoring friendship (reuniting) – all 3 apply here. Our understanding must be consistent with God’s in 2 areas – we must understand we’re guilty of sin that’s offensive to God requiring His judgment & that only Christ’s perfect righteousness (sinless life) is able to compensate for our moral deficit. After we recognize our need for Christ’s forgiveness & righteousness, we are then to confess that directly to God which is a matter of giving an account. At that point, Christ’s punishment is applied to our sin (justice) & His righteousness is applied to our person (justification) – friendship is established with God & the hostility & wrath cease (1 Thes 5.9). Sins are forgiven & there is a relationship with God. How awesome! Sometimes the ideas of forgiveness & reconciliation are packaged together into another Biblical word called atonement & can be remembered as “at-one”-ment with God.
In fact, notice that prior to following Christ, we are enemies & hostile to God (Rom 8.7-8, Col 1.21), but afterward, Jesus calls us friends (Jn 15.13-15) & the Apostle Paul explains we are adopted sons (Eph 1.5-8). Now that is an amazing change in relationship!
So far, all this concerns what happens when someone gets saved & becomes a born-again Christian. They are permanently transferred into a relationship with God & given spiritual life & eternal life. This relationship or position with God is referred to as being justified & is irreversible & secure because it depends on Christ’s work, not ours. If you are not confident of your salvation, it may be that you are relying on your own achievement or performance & are subconsciously aware that it will never suffice. Ask yourself this: If I stop doing [fill-in-the-blank], would I still go to heaven? If you answered “no” or “not sure”, you probably are relying on yourself. If you answered “yes” & are wholly trusting in Jesus to save you, then you are likely just experiencing a period of doubt which is normal. Rest assured, if you have trusted that Jesus died for your sins & that only He is able to qualify you for heaven by His merit, you are heaven bound (1 Jn 5.13, Jn 3.18), but need to focus on God’s Word (Rom 12.2, Php 4.8).
However, since Christians are all still sinners, sin inevitably occurs & it does interfere with this relationship, but it cannot sever it. When a Christian sins it interferes with their relationship at a level of intimacy & communion (fellowship) with God, not their standing or position before Him. This would be akin to me sinning against my wife. It would interfere with our quality of relationship, but it would not nullify our marriage. For example, the following verse talks about how if a husband is inconsiderate & disrespectful of his wife, it is sin & will interfere with his relationship with God.
Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. – 1 Pt 3.7
So when Christians disturb this communion with God by sinning, we still need forgiveness & reconciliation (1 Jn 1.9). Again, this does not mean someone loses their salvation & secure position in Christ. But because this relationship already exists, it needs to be reconciled all the more. Therefore, the sin debt has already been paid by Christ’s all-sufficient sacrifice, but recognizing our need for Christ’s forgiveness & righteousness provides the reconciliation of communion with God. And similarly in the marriage analogy, I would need to seek forgiveness from my wife to reconcile communion with her.
So we see that it is possible to be forgiven by God in one sense, yet still be in need of reconciliation with Him. But it doesn’t seem possible to be truly reconciled without forgiveness. And this now brings us to the application of forgiveness & reconciliation amongst fellow man (proceed by clicking on the blue button below).
So far, all this concerns what happens when someone gets saved & becomes a born-again Christian. They are permanently transferred into a relationship with God & given spiritual life & eternal life. This relationship or position with God is referred to as being justified & is irreversible & secure because it depends on Christ’s work, not ours. If you are not confident of your salvation, it may be that you are relying on your own achievement or performance & are subconsciously aware that it will never suffice. Ask yourself this: If I stop doing [fill-in-the-blank], would I still go to heaven? If you answered “no” or “not sure”, you probably are relying on yourself. If you answered “yes” & are wholly trusting in Jesus to save you, then you are likely just experiencing a period of doubt which is normal. Rest assured, if you have trusted that Jesus died for your sins & that only He is able to qualify you for heaven by His merit, you are heaven bound (1 Jn 5.13, Jn 3.18), but need to focus on God’s Word (Rom 12.2, Php 4.8).
However, since Christians are all still sinners, sin inevitably occurs & it does interfere with this relationship, but it cannot sever it. When a Christian sins it interferes with their relationship at a level of intimacy & communion (fellowship) with God, not their standing or position before Him. This would be akin to me sinning against my wife. It would interfere with our quality of relationship, but it would not nullify our marriage. For example, the following verse talks about how if a husband is inconsiderate & disrespectful of his wife, it is sin & will interfere with his relationship with God.
Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. – 1 Pt 3.7
So when Christians disturb this communion with God by sinning, we still need forgiveness & reconciliation (1 Jn 1.9). Again, this does not mean someone loses their salvation & secure position in Christ. But because this relationship already exists, it needs to be reconciled all the more. Therefore, the sin debt has already been paid by Christ’s all-sufficient sacrifice, but recognizing our need for Christ’s forgiveness & righteousness provides the reconciliation of communion with God. And similarly in the marriage analogy, I would need to seek forgiveness from my wife to reconcile communion with her.
So we see that it is possible to be forgiven by God in one sense, yet still be in need of reconciliation with Him. But it doesn’t seem possible to be truly reconciled without forgiveness. And this now brings us to the application of forgiveness & reconciliation amongst fellow man (proceed by clicking on the blue button below).