Man needs to be reconciled to God because he is a son of disobedience and a child of wrath. Ephesians 2:2-3 shows us that before God fallen men are sons of disobedience and children of wrath. Because of their rebellion against God and their resistance to God, fallen men are sons of disobedience. Hence, they have incurred God’s righteous anger and are children of wrath who are under God’s wrath. Since man’s relationship with God has fallen to such a state, he truly needs to be redeemed and reconciled to God that he may have a thorough change toward God.
Although man rejects God, hates God, and is at enmity with God, God loves man and delights in man. Man does not want God, yet God wants man. Man has offended God and needs to be reconciled to God, yet man does not have the thought of being reconciled to God, much less has he found a way to be reconciled to God. Although God has never offended man and does not need to be reconciled to man, He desires that man would be reconciled to Him, and He even accomplished a way of propitiation that man may be reconciled to Himself. This is because He loves man and delights in man.
God has reconciled us to Himself in Christ, that is, through Christ. Second Corinthians 5:18-19 says, “God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ...; how that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” This clearly indicates that God accomplished reconciliation in Christ, that is, through Christ. “In Christ” indicates that Christ is the instrument and the sphere in which God has reconciled us. Although God loves us and desires that we would be reconciled to Him, it is only in the sphere of Christ and through Christ that we can be reconciled to God. Therefore, it is in Christ, that is, through Christ, that God has reconciled us to Himself.
Moreover, God has reconciled us to Himself through the death of Christ with the shedding of His blood. Colossians 1:20 and 22 say, “And through Him to reconcile all things to Him, having made peace through the blood of His cross...yet now has He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death.” In order that we might be reconciled to Him, God accomplished a propitiatory way for us, which is the redemption of Christ. Christ died for our sins and shed His blood on the cross to accomplish redemption that we might be reconciled to God. Because the redemption of Christ has solved all the problems and removed all the barriers between us and God, and because it has satisfied the demand of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, we can turn back to God and be reconciled to Him, and God can also receive us and be pleased with us.
Second Corinthians 5:18 says, “...and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” In order that the world might be reconciled to Himself, God accomplished all the necessary steps of reconciliation through Christ. Not only so, He also has given to men the ministry of reconciliation, so that they may become ambassadors of Christ, commissioned to represent Him for reconciling people to God. God is anxiously hoping that we may be reconciled to Him. So urgent is this matter to Him that He sends men to us, entreating and beseeching us to be reconciled to Him. Hence, if we still are not reconciled to God, the problem is not with Him but with us. The problem is that we would not accept God’s love or listen to His entreating, nor would we respond to His beseeching and be reconciled to Him.
The first result of our reconciliation to God is that we have peace toward God (Rom. 5:1); that is, we are walking toward God on the way of peace. Formerly, as sinners we had no peace; neither did we know the way of peace (Rom. 3:17). Since we have been reconciled to God and have peace toward God, we are walking on the way of peace. This is an issue of our reconciliation to God.
As a result of our reconciliation to God, we can boast in God. Romans 5:11 says, “We also are boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” The word boast in Greek also means exult and glory. Since we have been reconciled to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, we boast, exult, and glory in God. Because we have been reconciled to God and have received God, God Himself has become our eternal portion. We enjoy Him, and we boast, exult, and glory in Him, even in tribulations (Rom. 5:3). We also boast in hope of the glory of God (Rom. 5:2). This also is an issue of our reconciliation to God.