Reconciled to God

Transcript

GRM 1078
04/08/2012
Reconciled to God
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

What a Savior we have, that’s what I want to talk to you about for a time this morning. The most awesome event that ever occurred. The most significant event by far are the events associated with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the most important event that has ever happened on the face of the earth. Nothing will compare to it until Jesus Christ returns again to establish a kingdom on this earth. Important that we understand the significance of the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They are inseparably linked together. If Christ had returned to heaven without dying on the cross, we would be left in our lostness with no hope of salvation. If He had died on the cross and not been raised from the dead we would have been left in our hopeless, lost condition. Paul said, in such a state we would be pitiful, our faith in Christ would be worthless. But Christ did die on the cross to pay the penalty for sin. He was raised from the dead because the penalty was paid. He is alive today. And so there is salvation for lost and sinful human beings.

There are a number of words in our bible that talk about what was accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. A word like “justification.” It means to be declared righteous. And that’s what Jesus Christ made possible. Made it possible for a holy God to declare condemned, sinful people innocent, absolved of all guilt, and credit them with the righteousness of Christ. That’s justification.

“Redemption,” a word that means that by His death and resurrection, Christ has paid the penalty that was necessary to set us free from the bondage and slavery to sin. We’ve entered into liberty and freedom to serve the living God, because of what Christ has done.

There’s a word, “propitiation,” that’s used when we talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Propitiation means that Christ has dealt with the wrath of God. He has turned the wrath of God away from us by turning it on Himself. We were the objects of God’s wrath. That will culminate in an eternal wrath which the bible says will involve bearing the wrath of God in its full strength for eternity in hell. But propitiation has taken place and Christ has turned away the wrath of God from us who deserved it and born it Himself.

There’s a word, “sanctification”, which simply means to be set apart from sin for God. It’s related to the word, “holy.” It’s related to the word, “saint,” (hagios) we are the saints of God, the holy ones of God. Sanctification is God’s work in setting us apart for Himself. Which means now we live lives that are to honor Him. We are being sanctified, being conformed more and more to the beauty of His person, His character. It’s what God says, “You shall be holy for I am holy.” God is perfectly holy because He’s perfectly set apart from sin. And in the death and resurrection of Christ provision has been made for us to be set apart from sin and now live lives that are pleasing to God. Someday that will culminate in the glory of His presence, and we will be set apart in the fullness of His glory, all sin and defilement having been removed.

But I want to talk to you about a word, “reconciliation,” in our time together today. Reconciliation, we’re familiar with it, we use it in English all the time. It presupposes alienation, conflict, enmity. Two people that have had a major disagreement, we say we want to do what we can to reconcile them. Bring them from a state of separation, alienation, enmity, into a relationship of harmony, peace, tranquility, agreement, friendship. The bible says, that’s what Jesus Christ has done for us in His death and resurrection. Taken us from a condition of being alienated from God, separated from God, the enemies of God and He has made possible for us to be reconciled to God, to be brought into a relationship with God. Relationship characterized by peace, harmony, agreement, friendship, family life. That’s what Jesus Christ has done.

There are three major passages in the New Testament that talk about reconciliation. I just want to look at those with you this morning starting in Romans 5. We’re just going to take them in the order they come in our New Testament. So, we’ll start in Romans, which is the first in our bible of these passages. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans - so we move through the four gospels and the history book of Acts, and we come to the mighty book of Romans.

Romans 5. You note what has led into chapter 5 just preceding it in chapter 4. Paul is explaining that salvation, the righteousness of God, comes to an individual not by works, not by human efforts, but by an individual responding in faith, believing what God has said and done. He used Abraham as the example. And he quoted all the way back to the book of Genesis, in Genesis 15:6, when God spoke to Abraham and made him a promise, and Abraham believed God, and God credited it to Abraham as righteousness. Abraham believed what God said He would do and God declared Abraham righteous. Down at the end of Romans 4, after he quotes what I just quoted in verse 22, he says in verse 23, “Now not for his sake,” Abraham’s sake, “only was it written, that it was credited to him, but for our sake also.” Two thousand years before Christ, God had recorded a statement that would be very important to us two thousand years after Christ. Four thousand years after God made this statement to Abraham, it’s important we understand God intended it for our benefit.

“But for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” What an awesome statement. It tells us how we can be justified by a holy God, declared righteous by the One who exercises judgment, by believing Him and what He has done in the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ is the one, verse 25 says, “who was delivered over,” given over to death, the death of crucifixion, “because of our transgressions.” Romans 6:23 says, “the wages of sin is death.” What was the Son of God doing on a cross being crucified? He was paying the penalty for our sin. He was given over to crucifixion because of our sins, our transgressions. He was raised because of our justification. Because He had provided, He had done what was necessary for God to declare us righteous. That happens when a person recognizes their sin and guilt, they turn from their sin, and place their faith in Jesus Christ, believing what God has promised, what God has said. That we are sinners separated from Him, under condemnation, but Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for sin. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, (in order) that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life,” [John 3:16]. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s seal and stamp and guarantee that righteousness has been provided in the death of His Son on the cross. When we believe that, we experience Gods salvation. And we are declared righteous by Him.

So, chapter 5 opened up, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” That concept of peace is important, because we’re going to talk about reconciliation. Involved in reconciliation is the concept of peace. The background for it is the Old Testament, the Hebrew word, “shalom.” It’s not just a cessation of hostility. But it is now a whole new realm of peace and harmony and agreement of relationship. “Having been justified,” declared righteous by God, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Come down to verse 6, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” No one understands the love of God who does not know something of the death of Christ to pay the penalty for our sin. People like to talk about ‘oh, God is love’, ‘my God is a God of love’, and so on. And they have no knowledge, they know nothing of what they’re talking about. Here is God’s demonstration of love: He had His Son take our place, die for our sin while we were sinners. [Verse 9], “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood,” declared righteous by virtue of His death, “we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” You see where we were, we were the objects of God’s wrath. Now, we are saved from that wrath through Christ, who has done a work of propitiation. Turning the wrath of God away from us, because He absorbed it. “He Himself bore our sins… on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness,” Peter wrote in his letter. [Romans 5:12], “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled,” there’s our word, “to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” Twice in verse 10, we “were reconciled,” “having been reconciled.” Then the end of verse 11, “We have now received the reconciliation.”

You note the context here - some of you have been here when we’ve studied this portion of Romans in detail - you note the key ways we are identified. In verse 6, “while we were still helpless.” Do you have that marked, the word “helpless”? The end of verse 6, “ungodly.” Toward the end of verse 8, “sinners”, “we were yet sinners.” In verse 10, “enemies,” “if while we were enemies” describes the condition. Remember, when you talk about reconciliation you’re talking about alienation. You are talking about separation. You are talking about enemies. We were helpless, we couldn’t do anything to save ourselves. We were the ungodly sinners; we were at enmity with God. We were enemies of God. People don’t like to think of themselves that way, but that is our condition apart from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God says we are His enemies. We are the object of His wrath. We are sinners under condemnation. When we were in that condition we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. There is no reconciliation with God apart from the penalty for our sin being paid. The penalty has to be paid. What God has done is have His Son step in and take our place to pay our penalty so that we can be reconciled with Him. That’s what happens when we believe in Jesus Christ, place our faith in Him. It’s what Paul talked about in chapter 4 of Romans and the first part of chapter 5, “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.” Reconciliation has occurred. Where there was hostility and enmity and wrath because of our ungodly sin, now there is harmony, there is peace, there is friendship. We’ve entered into a relationship with God and now we call Him Father. We have been the recipients of His love.

You’ll note in verse Romans 5:10, “For if while 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.” He’s talking about the fact there He’s been raised from the dead. He “was raised because of our justification,” we saw at the end of Romans 4. Now, Christ is alive. If God had His Son die for us when we were His enemies, now that we have been reconciled with Him and are in a relationship of peace with Him, friendship with Him, a family relationship with Him - we are assured of eternal life with His Son. He’s going to develop that in chapter 6. We won’t be going there, but he goes on to explain how when we died with Christ and were raised with Christ spiritually, and have new life in Christ and that is unending eternal life. The resurrection of Christ is the assurance from God that the salvation we have in His Son and the life we have in His Son will go on forever. Same thing that we are told in Hebrews 7:25, that Christ “is able to save forever those who” come to Him because he ever lives, “since He always lives to make intercession for them.” So, when you become a child of God through faith in Christ, you were born into God’s family, and you were assured of living the new life He has given forever on through eternity.

Come over to 2 Corinthians. You’re in Romans, and just keep going and you’ll come to 1 Corinthians. We’re going to 2 Corinthians 5, the second major passage we want to talk about on reconciliation. As we look at these passages you’re going to note overlap in what is said, as you would expect as Paul writes these various letters under the direction of the Holy Spirit, covering the same subject but a little different emphasis. In 2 Corinthians 5, he says in verse 14, “For the love of Christ controls us.” And he’s talking here about the love that Christ has for us. Jesus said ‘Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” [John 15:13]. Jesus Christ gave His life for us. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,” [John 3:16]. This is the great demonstration of God’s love for us, “that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” we just read in Romans 5:8. So here, we talk about “the love of Christ controls us.” Why? “Having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died.” When Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God, the God-Man, died on the cross, He was taking the place of sinful humanity, “therefore all died.” “He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” You note, “He died for all.” So the provision is made for all, therefore all died. That the penalty has been paid for them, but is not applied to them until they receive it, believe in Him. “He died for all, that they who live.” Because not all that He died for are going to live. Those “who live” are to live, not “for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”

Remember, we mentioned the word “sanctification”, holy ones, those who have been set apart by God for Himself, are now to be living for Him. “Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer,” [verse 16]. What we’re talking about here, is we no longer look at people just in the physical realm. That’s true here, right? We look and see these are believers, people who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. We see them now as a son of God, one who belongs to God. We don’t just look at them as another human being. There’s something more important and greater than that. We don’t look at Christ just as a man who walked the earth and lived and died. We understand He is the Savior of the world. He’s not the greatest man who ever lived, He is the most unique man, He is the Son of God as well as man. We understand we don’t just learn great truths about Him, find things to imitate in Him. We see He is the Savior. What He accomplished in His death in unique and different from any other death that has ever occurred.

“Therefore,” verse 17, “if any man is is Christ, he is a new creature.” It’s not enough that Christ died, made provision. You have to believe in Him and thus be “in” Him. “Anyone who is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” We’ve been sanctified, set apart by God for Himself. That’s why Paul begins his letters, writing to “the saints” in the church at Corinth, the saints in this church, the saints, the holy ones, the set apart ones. The old things are gone, new things have come. We have been made new. Remember, Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again,” [John 3:7], born from above. Peter said that we are born again, by the living and abiding word of God, 1 Peter 1:3] “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ,” [2 Corinthians 5:18]. This is all the work of God. Salvation is God’s work. He initiated it, He carries it out. He sent His Son from glory, to be born into the human race, to die on a cross, to pay the penalty for sinful human beings. “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”

You know, this emphasis on reconciliation, there is a variety of ways it could be illustrated. Sometimes they have a special tax relief, and they’ll say, if you have failed to pay your taxes as you should, if you pay them within this space of time you will be forgiven any penalty. And so, somebody who has neglected to pay their taxes, they pay it within that time, even though they were guilty they are viewed as innocent now. But if you don’t pay within that window of opportunity, it closes, you’re still guilty. Now the opportunity is there, if you don’t take advantage of it, then you’ll be dealt with as a guilty person. The provision was made, but a person didn’t take advantage of it. Happens in other situations. I’m a pastor, and pastors are given the right to step out of Social Security if they chose for religious purposes, contrary to their convictions. Some pastors did. But then a window of opportunity was opened and those who had chosen not to be part of the Social Security program for whatever reason were given the opportunity to get back in and receive the benefits of Social Security and Medicare and so on. Then that window of opportunity closed. And if you didn’t get in, if you hadn’t been in, and you didn’t take advantage of the window of opportunity, then you can’t get in, can’t get Social Security, can’t get Medicare and so on, those kinds of things.

What God has done is have His Son make a provision. He died, He died for all. That doesn’t mean all are saved. It means now God has opened, if you will, a window, a door. He says, you who are guilty, helpless to do anything to help yourself, sinners, ungodly, my enemies - I have provided an opportunity for you, I have made a provision for you, My Son paid the penalty for you. You can be forgiven, you can be declared innocent, declared righteous by Me. But that window will close.

Look how chapter 6 opens up. “And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain – for He says, ‘At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.’ Behold, now is ‘the acceptable time’, behold, now is ‘the day of salvation’.” People go on and don’t think about it. I shared with you recently, a poll that was recently done, showed a large number of people never give a thought about what’s going to happen after they die. They don’t think about heaven and hell anymore. They think, if they don’t think about it, it will go away and everything will be alright. You know what the danger is? They miss the window of opportunity for salvation, when God says, ‘I will forgive you, My Son paid the debt for you.’ But you must respond, you must receive it, you must believe what He has done on your behalf. Otherwise, you will be judged guilty and condemned accordingly.

So, back in chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians. “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” That’s what I’m carrying out right now in talking to you. I’m telling you about the reconciliation God has provided in Christ. There is a door of opportunity for salvation. God has paid the penalty on your behalf, and you can be declared innocent. If you will receive it, accept it, believe it, turn from your sin and place your faith in His Son. So, we have been entrusted with this ministry, that’s what we do. Someone told you about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as payment for your sins. Someone told me. Almighty God has entrusted the message of His reconciliation to us who have been reconciled.

So, He “gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” What is that ministry? “Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” That’s what Christ did. He died for all. So, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” How’d He do that? “Not counting their trespasses against them.” We keep referring to Peter, in Peter’s letter. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die and live to righteousness,” [1 Peter 2:24]. He paid our penalty. Not counting my trespasses against me. He’s counting them against Christ! What an opportunity! I can be forgiven the greatest debt possible! Absolved of the guilt that I have incurred and built up, and declared innocent. Declared righteous. Reconciled to God. Because of what Christ has done. That’s how reconciliation occurs. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” No one understands or knows anything of importance about the death and resurrection of Christ who hasn’t come face to face with their own sin and guilt before God. Why was Christ hanging on the cross? So, that God would not count my trespasses, my offenses against Him, not count my sin against me. And now, “He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” Amazing! God has taken this message of reconciliation and given it to us. “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.” We function as Christ’s representatives acting on His behalf. It’s like an ambassador to the United States in another country acts, representing the United States. So, we are ambassadors for Christ. We come representing Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us. That doesn’t mean that He’s not, He is! But it’s like that, God is making His appeal through us. “We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

Back up a page or so in your bible to 2 Corinthians 4. Paul says this is the ministry we have in verse 3, he says, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.” That comes out of the analogy in chapter 3. Some people hear the message of the gospel and it’s like they have a veil over their heads, they don’t see anything. They fail to perceive the truth of what is being presented. “In whose case the god of this world,” Satan, “has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord.” I’m not preaching me; I want to tell you about Christ, this message of Christ. Come down to verse 7, “But we have this treasure,” the treasure of the gospel that he’s talked about in verses 5 and 6 particularly, “in earthen vessels,” these physical bodies of dust, “so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.”

So, back in chapter 5:20 when he says, “we are ambassadors for Christ..., God is making His appeal through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” That is God speaking through us. Think of the awesomeness of that! When you as a believer in Jesus Christ, tell someone else about Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection, you are God’s mouthpiece. God has chosen to put His message of salvation in the mouths of piles of dirt, “earthen vessels.” We were created from the dust of the ground, descendants of Adam. We have the message of God’s salvation. He doesn’t send angels. It wasn’t an angel that came and told me that Christ died for my sins, He was raised, and is alive. It was another human being who had been saved by that message.

That’s been God’s plan down through the history of the church. We tell others. If we take time and go around with everyone here and we would say, who told you about Jesus Christ and you could be reconciled to God by His death and resurrection if you believe in Him. We could go around and say, I heard it here. This person told me there. My parents told me. My son or daughter told me. A family member told me. I heard it in a message. I heard a co-worker. Somewhere we had to hear because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the message of Christ. No one ever gets saved anywhere in the world who was not told the truth concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. No one ever. So, that’s God’s plan. To be saved a person must hear about Christ. To hear about Christ they must be told. To be told it must come from a person who knows Christ, and knows the gospel.

Paul says, that’s our role, as those who have had the gospel passed on to them. “We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” That’s the message of reconciliation. God made Christ take my place, bear my penalty, bear my sin and the penalty for my sin in His body. So He could propitiate God, turn God’s wrath away from me, set me free, redeem me from the power of condemnation of my sin. Reconcile me to God so that I might be declared righteous by God. That I might become the righteousness of God. That’s what I need. Not trying to clean up my life and be a better person. I need something much more than that. I need the righteousness of God, that I find in Christ. Reconciled to Him.

One more passage, Colossians. You have to keep going, you’re in 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, a few of the smaller letters. Colossians 1:15 tells us about the person of Christ, “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.” He has the priority over all creation because He is the Creator of all creation. Verse 16, “For by Him,” or in Him, “all things were created.” And that’s the things in heaven, on earth, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities, “all things have been created through Him and for Him.” You see the absolute supremacy of Jesus Christ? Nothing outside of God Himself - in three person, Father, Son and Holy Spirit - exists except by the creating action of God the Son, Jesus Christ. “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead.” He’s alive, 1 Corinthians 15, He was raised from the dead. He has priority over all. Our resurrection is assured by His resurrection. “So that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.” Philippians 2 [verses 9-11] said, God gave Him a “name, which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow… And that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

That is God’s sovereign plan. It will happen. They will either bow before Him as their Savior or they will bow before Him as their condemning judge. It can be no other way, God has spoken. Colossians 1:19, “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him. Colossians 2:9 says, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in Him in bodily form.” He was not only man, He was God. How do I understand that? I don’t! I accept it by faith. How would I understand that? How can this finite mind as a created being grasp the awesomeness of God? And that God in His fullness could dwell in a human body? But He did. All the fullness dwells in Him.

And why did it dwell in that human body? Verse 20, “through Him to reconcile,” there’s our word, “all things to Himself.” How could this happen? “Having made peace [there’s our word, peace] through the blood of His cross.” We who were the enemies of God have been reconciled, peace has been brought, tranquility, harmony, friendship - because Christ has died, because He’s alive.

Verse 21, “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” Could there be any greater contrast? Same thing we saw in Romans 5. Now look here, verse 21, “you were formerly”, you, me, before we were reconciled to God, “alienated.” Strong word here, a strong grammatical construction, denotes a settled state, an ongoing state. We were “formerly alienated,” we were “hostile in mind,” we were opposed to God, actively hostile toward Him. Remember, in Romans 5, we were His enemies. We were “engaged in evil deeds.” You note, people today, religious people, want to start at the end there. They’re going to clean up their life, not do the bad things they did. I’m giving up drinking. I’m giving up drugs. I’m giving up being immoral. As though by doing that we can make ourselves righteous before God. But, you note, that follows on the fact that you’ve got a problem in your heart and mind. The heart which is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things, [Jeremiah 17:9], God says. It’s out of the heart and the mind that proceed all kinds of sinful practices and activities, Jesus said in Mark 7. And that condition is a result of being alienated from God and separated from Him. So, these go together. Separated from God. The enemies of God are hostile toward God, and they practice the things contrary to the will of God. Yet now, through the death of Christ, the One in whom “all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,” verse 19. He has been the object, the One through whom reconciliation has been brought about.

His fleshly body, which is more than just a human being, it is God dwelling in a human body. He’s the God-man, He’s both God and man, one person, a human nature, a divine nature. “He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death,” [verse 22]. There’s no other way to get around it. The penalty for sin is death. It’s not good works. It’s not baptism. It's not partaking of the communion service. It’s not going through sacraments. It’s not joining the church. It’s not being confirmed. It’s death! Death! Why do we think that Jesus Christ died on the cross if you could get saved by being baptized? Or cleaning up your life? You can’t do anything. It’s death. We’re reconciled by His death. What’s the result of that? “In order to present you…,” the “you who were formerly alienated,” in verse 21, “and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds… In order to present you before Him,” God, “holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” What a transformation God’s work of reconciliation brings about. Me, the one who was alienated, hostile in my mind and in my thinking toward God, practicing those things that are an offense to a holy God. And now, because of the work of Christ on my behalf and my faith in Him, someday I will be presented before the throne of God as one who is holy, one who is without blame, no charges, beyond reproach. Nothing can be brought up against me, I am completely absolved. The Judge of all has declared me righteous. Any wonder we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Who else but God can so change a sinner and make him new? That’s what Jesus Christ has done.

There are two kinds of people here. We’ve all received a benefit. Christ died on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin. God opens a door of opportunity for forgiveness, for salvation, for reconciliation. There are some here who have taken advantage of that, have responded and believed in Jesus Christ and have been reconciled to God, been declared righteous, absolved of all guilt. Look forward to the time they will be presented in the presence of God and the glories of heaven as holy and blameless and beyond reproach. Now, understand, there is only one group of sinners. But there are redeemed sinners, reconciled sinners. Then there are people here who have heard this message, maybe again and again, but have never responded to it personally. Maybe been raised in this church, maybe been baptized in this church, maybe take communion in this church, but they’ve never been reconciled to God. Because you can’t be reconciled to God by baptism. You can’t be reconciled to God by communion. You can’t be reconciled to God by joining the church, being active in the church. The only way you can be reconciled to God is by faith in Jesus Christ, in His death and resurrection. If you’ve ever understood you are a sinner, guilty and condemned before God… you are helpless, you are hopeless, you are ungodly, you are a sinner, you are the enemy of God… But God says, He has made provision for you to be reconciled. Why would you not? It’s free. He already paid the price. For those of us who have believed in Him, our greatest privilege is to be God’s mouthpiece and tell others this great truth.

Let’s pray together. Thank You, Lord, for what we’re celebrating on this Easter Sunday, the resurrection of Your Son, a truth that is precious to us every day. We have a Savior who loved us and died for us, who’s been raised from the dead, He’s alive! We have entered into His life by faith in what He did. Pray for those who are here on this special day, Lord, that this truth will grip each of our hearts. Pray for those who do not know You, who hear the message of reconciliation, but for one reason or another have chosen to ignore it. May this be a day when they turn, place their faith in Christ, experience Your power of salvation, to bring them into a relationship of peace with Yourself. Lord, for those of us who have, we give You thanks. We count it a great privilege to carry this message to others, that they might hear and believe. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen