Reconciliation

There is no question but that Paul was the early church’s great theologian. God took all the native skill that he had given to this converted Jewish Rabbi and joined it with the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit to write the first “text book” on the Christian faith. So the posts on the first chapters of Romans are a bit heavy. But they are strategically important both for the churches to which the letters were addressed but for us in the 21st century as well. Being a Christian is not simply carrying out a set of rules, but a personal involvement with the One who “wrote” them. Theology is not knowing but experiencing. That’s why we need to listen to what Paul has to say about the basis for our Christian living. Stay with us; we’ll get to the how our faith expresses itself in daily life after we understand the why. Accepting Christ is crucial, but understanding what went on between Gethsemane and resurrection morning provides us with the answer to why.

In the section of Romans marked above we see an important sequence. We were “powerless” (v. 6), “Christ died for us” (v. 8), we were “saved from God’s wrath” (v. 9), “we were reconciled” (v. 10), “we rejoice” (v. 11). That story has been told and accepted from the first day in Jerusalem until today all over the world. Countless lives have been forever changed. Faith matures as we learn more and more of what God has done for us in Christ. Today I want to say a few things about reconciliation.

If one begins with the premise that we were created by God for fellowship with him and with one another, the separation is by definition an unnatural and undesirable state. Life teaches us that solitude was not God’s intention for his children and that good relationships with others are deeply satisfying. We were meant to share life together whether in the close ties of marriage or the wider associations such as one finds in a church. One writer notes that the church ”is not a theological classroom . . . but a reconciliation . . . center, where flawed people . . . gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he designed” (Paul David Trip). Alienation and separation is not a story of God’s failure in creating what he wanted, but the story of man rejecting God’s provision. We are the prodigal son who knew better than his father. The picture of the father longing for the return of his son mirrors God’s longing for our return to Eden. Over the entire account of the incarnation is the redemptive theme – Reconciliation! It is priceless, it is available. I encourage you to come home to love, authentic friendship, and a deep and lasting joy.