RECOMMENDED READING: 2COR 5: 17—6: 18

INTRODUCTION

There are some points of doctrine on which Evangelical Protestant Theology and Roman Catholicism find agreement.

However, this agreement does not lay a foundation for unity of any sort, for what separates us is at the very heart and foundation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This, the unbridgeable gap, is the Doctrine of Reconciliation.

How is sinful man reconciled to a Holy God?

By the very definition of the word Reconciliation, is implied that an estrangement existed between God and man.

2Cor 5: 19 declares, “God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself,”

 The cause of this estrangement was and still is sin.

Rom 3: 9 declares, “Both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin”

And again in

Rom 3: 23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”.

We need to remind ourselves in this 21 st century, where sin is regarded as a mere slight imperfection in the human makeup, that sin is the most devastating and eternally fatal disease of the human soul, for it does not just kill the body but places the soul in eternal damnation. Sin has infected the whole human race.

Rom 5: 12 “where as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for all have sinned”

 and again in

Rom 6: 23 “ The wages of sin is death”

Notice how Biblical Creation is essential in the gospel Message. Jesus is the second Adam, The first brought sin into the World.

Sin has left man, not only estranged and separated from God, but also incapable of knowing or responding to God.

1 Cor 2: 14 “ The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned”

Rom 8: 7 “For the carnal mind is at enmity with God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be”

 The Word declares that reconciliation both began and was totally completed by God and by God alone. Perhaps the most quoted verse is;

Jn 3: 16 “God so loved that He gave”. Eph 2: 1 tells us that “You hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”

Way back in Genesis God promised reconciliation, indeed the Bible tells us in Eph 1: 4 “that we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world ”

And again in

Rev 13:8 that Christ was “Slain from the foundation of the World”.

And in Col 1: 20 “Having made peace through the blood of His Cross by Him to reconcile all things to Himself”

Because God is the instigator and the One who alone began and accomplished reconciliation, man being incapable of positive response, the Bible declares in, Eph 2: 1 “you have he quicken who were dead”

 And in Eph 2:5 “By grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves”.

 So with us, God in His Mercy according to His Grace quickened us by His Spirit, thus enabling us to respond with repentance and faith, so we are now reconciled to God .

We must however recognise that it is easier to say “I believe in Christ” than to exhibit the life of Christ in us.

The evidence of the truth of the gospel is in the result of reconciliation, which according to our text is “A new Creation”

 So does God’s work of reconciliation manifest itself in our life? The evidence is seen in the way our lives are now lived. We are being transformed in the following ways: -

1 IN OUR SPIRIT

In regeneration, the Holy Spirit infused spiritual life into our dead souls.

John 5: 24 tells us that we passed from being spiritual dead to being spiritually alive. This life of the Holy Spirit will manifest itself as we demonstrate in daily living the fruits of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance”. Gal 5:22-23.

2 IN OUR SPEECH.

How often can a person’s speech contradict what they profess they believe?

Col 4:6 reminds us that our speech must always gracious and promote holiness. In 2 Tim 1:13 we are instructed to “Hold fast the form of sound words”

 While our bodies are subject to sickness and eventual death, in God’s reconciliation there is the promise of a new resurrected body, which we are told will be like the resurrected body of Jesus.

In Phil 3:21 we are told that Jesus will transform our lowly bodies that they may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, And in 1 Cor 15 v 53 that this corruptible body, will become incorruptible.

OUR FAITH IS BASED SOLELY ON THE WORD OF GOD.

2Tim 3:16 “all scripture is given by inspiration of and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of god may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works”.

Ps 119:105 “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path”.

Rom.10: 17”Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God”

OUR FAITH IS SOLEY RESTING IN HIM WHOM THE WORD DECLARES IS:

“The only name given under heaven whereby a man can be saved”

 No Mary, no Saints, no Angels, no Priests, just Jesus and Jesus Alone .

OUR FAITH IS SOLEY RESTING ON GOD'S GRACE

“By grace are ye saved and not of yourselves”.

 We as Evangelical Protestant who hold the Bible as the Word of the Living God and the only source of Doctrinal Revelation, do not consider any other teaching on this subject to be valid, but endeavour to handle that which we know to be truth and rejoice in the knowledge that “In Christ” we who were sinners by nature, in thought word and deed are now by the Grace of God, through Faith in the atoning Death of Jesus, reconciled to God and adopted by Him as His children. We are now priests and kings of the Most High God.

OUR ETERNAL DESTINY IS DEPENDANT ON OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. MAKE SURE THAT YOUR DEPENDANCE IS SOLEY IN HIM.

Dermot Nash