BE RECONCILED!
The greatest need in the world today and since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden is the need to be reconciled to God. Every single issue and problem we see in the world is the direct result of sin and being separated from God! It doesn’t matter the issue, whether it is poverty, divorce, racism and prejudice, murder, abortion, infidelity, slavery and human traficking, addiction, fatherless homes, etc...ALL is the direct result of our broken relationship with God! God’s creation was perfect, but when Adam and Eve gave the keys of authority and dominion over the earth to Satan through their sin, everything fell apart. All the good that God had created and the life abundant that He intended for His creation to live in was broken and the door opened wide to Satan--who is the one that comes to kill, steal and destroy all of God’s purposes and everything God had designed and purposed for His creation.
It is no surprise then that we see the world in chaos and desperation. The entire world is broken, in darkness and enslaved to sin. The pain, suffering and selfishness people see and experience all around is the will of Satan and the direct consequence of broken relationship with God. It is Satan’s influence in the world and being controlled by our sinful nature that leads us into all this mess. John 8:44 says, “For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Galatians 5:19-21 says, “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.” Hmmm...does this look familiar? Isn’t this what we see all around us in the world? So what hope is there when Satan-- the one who seeks to steal, kill and destroy every good thing God created and designed for us-- is in control over our lives?
All thanks, honor and praise to the one and only God, the one who truly has ALL power and authority, for His plan to reconcile the world to Himself through His son Jesus. Why? God’s will is that no one perish, but that all would repent, come to know the truth, be saved and have eternal life. (2 Pet 3:9, 1 Tim 2:4, John 3:16-21) And what is eternal life? “And this is eternal life--to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one You sent to earth.” (John 17:3) Colossians 1:13-22 says, “For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.”
You see, Jesus died for us while we were still sinners and now through faith--the leaning of our entire life in hope, trust and confidence--in Jesus and Jesus alone can we be saved from sin and eternal death and be reconciled to a right relationship with God. This was God’s plan all along--from Genesis to Revelation, this has been a story of REDEMPTION! By reconciling us (restoring us to right relationship) to Himself through His one and only Son Jesus, God would restore and make right what had been broken in the Garden of Eden. This restoration would give us new life--a life free from the bondage of sin and lead us to be molded and made into the image of His Son Jesus through the indwelling power of Holy Spirit giving us “peace with God”, making us “friends with God” (Rom 5:1-11), causing us to “become His children” (John 1:12) and leading us to become His “rich and glorious inheritance” (Eph 1:18). WOW!!! What a plan!!! God is so GOOD!!! Praise the Lord!!!
But was there more to this plan of redemption?
Absolutely! God also desired to reconcile people. When Adam and Eve sinned, division and hostility between people entered the world. This was not God’s plan, so He made a promise to Abraham--a man of great faith--that he would be the father of many nations. In other words, that Abraham would have a family that came from every nation, tongue and tribe around the world. That promise was fulfilled through Jesus, who broke down the walls and barriers that separate people. He did this through His life, death and resurrection. Jesus is the One who unites every person who trusts in, clings to, relies upon and adheres to Him. Through faith in Jesus, we join God’s family--those from every tribe, tongue and nation! As John 1:12 says, “But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, he gave the right to become children of God.” This means we are God’s children through faith in Jesus, but it also means we are brothers and sisters through faith in Jesus. How beautiful is that!
The word of the Lord for us today is this: “For you are all children of God THROUGH FAITH IN Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:16-28) All these groups mentioned here were divided. They devalued each other and even hated each other for many different reasons. What we see is a call to lay down their differences, forgive all wrongs and come together in unity. We see this reflected today when Muslims who become Christians now love and pray for Jews. We see this when Christians from enemy tribes join together in unity. We see this when persecuted Christians love and pray for those who persecute and kill them. We see this when black, white, brown and yellow people put aside and forgive injustices of the past, present and future and focus on our unity in Christ! God’s heart and call is that we would love Him and love one another as He loves, no longer focusing on what divides people all around the world and no longer looking to the past. Those things are no longer important for we are called to put on Christ and be one in Christ Jesus, “forgetting what is behind and looking to what is ahead” (Phil 3:13), recognizing that “we have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer we who live, but Christ Jesus lives in us” (Gal 2:20) in order to reflect His character & nature and represent Him and His Kingdom Culture to the world around us.
2 Corinthians 5:14-21 says,
"Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know Him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, 'Come back to God!' For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ."
In closing, God is saying to the world,
“BE RECONCILED TO ME THROUGH MY SON JESUS! I AM THE ONE WHO TRANSFORMS LIVES, COMMUNITIES AND CULTURES. I AM THE ONE WHO TAKES WHAT IS BROKEN AND MAKES IT NEW. I AM THE ONE WHO HEALS AND RESTORES RELATIONSHIPS. I AM THE ONE WHO FORGIVES YOUR SIN. I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE...THE ONE AND ONLY ONE WHO CAN GIVE YOU LIFE ABUNDANT HERE IN THIS LIFE AND INTO ETERNAL LIFE AS YOU FOLLOW ME!!! AGAIN I SAY, BE RECONCILED TO ME!!!”
AMEN!
Click the link if you'd like to read about "The Kingdom of God and the Issue of Injustice"
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