Reconciled to God

Matthew 14 records Jesus calling Peter to come out of the boat and to “walk on the water.” Peter immediately exited the boat and indeed began to walk on the water. It wasn’t until he took his eyes off of Jesus that he had fear, began to sink and called out to Jesus, “Lord, save me.” Not that one can compare Peter’s experience of walking on the water with the walk that Adam and Eve had with God in the Garden of Eden, but please stay with me and I hope you will see where I am going with this.

When God created man and placed him in the garden, everything was perfect. Adam and Eve walked with God everyday, communed with Him and were in a sense, one with God. Just as Peter exited the boat and was walking on the water. Adam and Eve took their eyes off of God and lost their focus. They allowed Satan to tempt them with the sin of pride and once sin entered in, they fell. Once Peter took his eyes off of Jesus, he sank. Perhaps this analogy isn’t what the great scholars would consider noteworthy, but I thought the comparison was worth considering.

Before the fall of Adam and Eve, before God created what we call the “known universe,” God in his infinite wisdom knew that he would have to repair the damage, build the bridge that was caused by Adam and Eve. Before all of this, God decided to send the second person of the Godhead, the Christ to be the One to reconcile fallen man back to God. Everything in the Old Testament, starting with the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16) where the priest would make the sacrifice for the sins of Israel, to the time of the cross was all established by God to prepare fallen man for the ultimate reconciliation back to Him.

In Hebrews 9:12-14 it says that Jesus did not enter the tabernacle by the way of goats and calves, but rather he entered the Most Holy Place once for all of us by the shedding of his own blood. It says that prior to Jesus; the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer were sprinkled on those who were ceremonially unclean to sanctify them so that they were outwardly clean. The writer of Hebrews goes on to say that the blood of Christ offered himself unblemished to God to cleanse of our sins. The giving of the law by Moses in the Old Testament was only a shadow of the good things to come. I’ll come back to this in a moment.

So exactly why did Jesus come? Jesus said, “I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17) In Matthew 9:13, Mark 2:17 and Luke 5:32 Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” In Matthew 10:34 he said, “Don’t suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Jesus said in Mark 1:38 that he came to preach the gospel. Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

In Luke 12:49 Jesus said that he came to bring fire on the earth. In John 6:38 Jesus said that he did not come down from heaven to do his own will but the will of the Father. In John 9:39 Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." John 10:10 Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” The reasons why Jesus came? Because He loves you so much that he does not want to see you separated from God. He does not want to see you parish.

Jesus came to reconcile sinful man back to the Father.

Ephesians 2:13-16 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

Colossians 1:19-23 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 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. 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—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Romans 5:8-11 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that 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. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Sometimes speakers and writers try to razzle-dazzle people with their knowledge of the scriptures or their great insight. I must fall on the worlds of Paul who said in 1 Corinthians 2:2 not to know anything except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I thank God that Jesus Christ reconciled me back to the Father. It wasn’t something that I could do on my own. My salvation and yours is not based on anything we can do on our own. You and I, individually, must accept the free gift of salvation offered to us through Jesus Christ. Amen.

There are so many great resources available to you if it be your desire to learn more about being reconciled. The first and the greatest resource of course is the Word of God.

Next, may I suggest clicking here!

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Other Christian resources, please visit Emmaus Road Christian Store at http://www.emmaus-road.com

May God Richly Bless Your Life!