Reconciled (day 73)

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.

The truly good news, the best news of all time is that though we were in total rebellion toward God, God in his merciful love sent Jesus to reconcile all men to himself.

Anyone who has lived from paycheck to just about paycheck has probably had some experience with a check book. If you have one of these, it is a good idea from time to time to reconcile your check book. For those who are not aware of what I’m talking about, you need to get a statement from your bank that tells of the transactions that they have processed and make sure that your record agrees with the bank. When your record agrees with the bank’s statement you have peace with the bank. It does not work the other way round. Sometimes banks do make mistakes, but rarely, very rarely.

The God who made you and me designed us to function best in proper relationship to Himself and gave us instructions so we would be able to be happy and at peace with all of his nature.

Unfortunately, in our arrogance and stupidity we have come up with thousands of “better ideas”. And so, our lives are unimaginably out of balance with God.

When you are balancing your check book and find that you and the bank do not agree, you need to find out where the difference occurred and make a correction, usually to your own record. Sometimes you can’t find the problem. Then you must insert what is called a reconciling entry. The bank will almost never, if ever, make the reconciling entry in your favor, when you are the cause for the difference.

That is exactly what God has done in the case of Jesus.

We were out of balance with God and God’s nature. God sent Jesus to live a life in balance, in agreement, in union with Him and his nature in order to show us what that looks like. And then he was executed according to God’s plan, to make the reconciling adjustment for our arrogance and rebellion.

whereas God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and putting the word of reconciliation in us. (2 Corinthians 5:19)