Friends Forever!

“Peace on earth and mercy mild; God and sinners reconciled!
Joyful, all ye nations rise--join the triumph of the skies!”
                                                              -- from a Christmas carol

One of the least contemplated needs of men and women in our secular age, is the need for reconciliation with their Maker. Yet, know it or not, that is humanity’s most pressing need--far more so than self-esteem, shelter, or even daily bread.

Of course, for two parties to be reconciled, the first step is certainly an awareness that they are, in fact, estranged from one another. Either one or the other party has committed some crime or offense that has caused the animosity that exists--an offense that MUST be addressed before there can be an end to hostilities and a peaceful resolution.

I would venture that only a tiny minority of folks today are aware that human beings are truly born enemies of God. Most people would be horrified if you even suggested such a notion. “What, ME? God’s ENEMY? That’s ridiculous! Why, there’s no reason God could have any grievance with me...I’ve never even thought about Him enough to give Him any grounds for a complaint!”

But what most people are apt to forget, is that we are living, moving, having our being, as created beings in a created world. Each of us owes his or her life--body, soul and substance--to a Supreme Ruler who made us for a PURPOSE. Rather than occupy ourselves with discovering that purpose and fulfilling it, the vast majority would rather ignore God completely, all the while enjoying all the pleasures and benefits His creation and His providence gives them.

In short, we are REBELS at heart. We could be compared with an infestation of termites in a large, grand house. The homeowner discovers this tiny colony of enemies within his walls, a host of creatures who are enjoying themselves by eating away at what their human host has built, not giving a tiny termite thought that they’ve angered this host in any way.

Ignoring and offending God with our sins has become so second-nature to us, that if and when He ever calls the exterminators to come and deal with the infestation of His home, our jaws would surely drop open and we’d be shocked and amazed.

The sad difference between us and the insects is that we don’t really need the hammer to fall to inform us that we are overstepping the moral boundaries our Maker set for us. We need no stone tablets with graven commandments to tell us that we are not what He means for us to be. The voice of our conscience is ever whispering...sighing...pleading...screaming to us, reminding us that this world isn’t all there is. That there is another Hand at work, another Verdict to be pronounced, another World beyond this one, where we will be held accountable for the lives we’ve lived.

There is a post-war Tribunal at which all the crimes against our Supreme Ruler will at last be fully addressed. All His enemies will be judged with perfect justice and fairness. And there will be no “higher court” to which one may appeal.

In the writings of the New Testament, reconciliation is a major, if not THE major, theme. The Apostle Paul was once a staunch enemy of Jesus Christ and His followers. He spent several years as a young Pharasaic scholar, doing all he could to persecute and stamp out the infant church of the crucified Nazarene.

But one day, on his way to Damascus, the risen and ascended Jesus shone on him with a blinding light and Paul was converted. Christ Himself called him to a new life and a new mission to carry His saving message of reconciliation to the far reaches of the Roman world. Eventually, Paul made it to Rome, the capital of the empire itself, where he faced capital punishment under the persecution of Emperor Nero.

Along the way, Paul’s mission included the authorship of many letters to the churches he helped establish during his journeys. But his lengthiest letter, to the Romans, was written to believers he’d never met. He wanted to give them a thorough, scholarly treatise on the roots, the nature, and the meaning, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Who He was, why He came, why He died and rose again, and how His finished work could benefit all who would believe in Him.

How does this Jesus, this workman and preacher from Galilee, bring the animosity between man and God to an end? Here are some of Paul’s immortal words:

“For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received this reconciliation” Romans 5:10-11

Paul, former enemy and eventual apostle of Christ, never got over the amazing grace that caused Jesus to die in his place on the cross. He continued to rejoice, as do all of Jesus’ people, that their Lord didn’t stay in the tomb. Because He lived a perfect life on our behalf and died for the sins of all believers...because He ascended to heaven’s throne and now rules and intercedes for us, our reconciliation with the Maker we’ve offended is guaranteed to last forever.

Because Christ died, our war with God can be over. Simply trust and submit to Him.

Because Christ lives, that war, once over, can never begin again. We are reconciled FOREVER!


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