4. Reconciliation | God's Good News | Presenting the biblical gospel so that you might find free and abundant eternal life.

God sent his Son to accomplish that restored relationship.

Everything that was needed for salvation and a restored relationship with God, which was impossible for us, God himself did through the work of his Son, Jesus Christ. The whole Old Testament speaks of God’s promise of salvation and presents previews to help us understand what God would do on the behalf of sinners. Then in God’s perfect timing:

…when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.¹

What exactly did Jesus do to reconcile sinners to God?

Jesus, the eternal Son of God,² also became a real human being³ so that he could stand in the place of sinful human beings as their sinless representative.⁴ This is what we celebrate at Christmas. ⁵ As God incarnate (God in full humanity), Jesus came to live a perfect, sinless life of flawless obedience⁶ that we could not, and to pay the penalty of the lawbreaker that we deserved.⁷
In order to satisfy the justice of a holy God, Jesus gave his life as a sacrifice by dying on the cross as a sinless substitute.⁸ This is what we celebrate at Good Friday. Jesus arrived at the cross with no sin of his own, and so was able to serve as a substitute for sinners. On the cross: (1) Jesus atoned for⁹ (paid the price for, removing the guilt) the sins of those he came to save; (2) he suffered the full wrath of God to satisfy the justice¹⁰ of God’s holiness; and (3) he made those who were the objects of his wrath¹¹ acceptable and pleasing to him.¹²
And in approval of Jesus’ sacrifice¹³ and declaration of his victory,¹⁴ God raised Jesus from the dead. This is what we celebrate at Easter. His resurrection means that Jesus’ mission to redeem (pay the price for) a people for God was a success.¹⁵ God had provided the way for forgiveness of sins, newness of life, and reconciliation of sinners with himself, all without compromising his character. In fact, God has provided no other way. As Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”¹⁶ The Bible’s message of life has to do with Jesus.

In answer to the question, “Who crucified Christ?” the ultimate answer of the Bible is: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son;”¹⁷ “It was the will of the Lord to crush him.”¹⁸ God himself accomplished salvation, and so all the credit goes to him. So we see that God did not just ignore the sin of those he decided to save. Nor did he simply issue a pardon. No, God paid for the sins of his people by sending his Son to give his life a ransom¹⁹ for them and to provide the righteousness (perfect obedience) required by his law so that they could be acceptable to him.²⁰

The question, now, is how can you be reconciled to God?

Cause for Pause: Have I ever really thought about those Christian holidays in terms of Jesus and what he did that relates to me?

Next chapter 5. Obligation

Previous Chapter: 3. Initiation

Galatians 4:4-5

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
John 1:1; Mark 2:7; John 8:58

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

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Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?

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Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
John 1:14

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Hebrews 2:14-17

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
Matthew 1:21

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 5:8-9; Romans 5:19

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

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Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him...

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For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Philippians 2:6-8; Isaiah 53:3-5; Galatians 3:10-13

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.

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For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”
Colossians 1:19-20; Colossians 2:13-14

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

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And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:24-28

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace...

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For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Romans 3:23-26; 1 John 4:9-10

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

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No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
Ephesians 2:3-5; Romans 9:22-24

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will...

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What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
Ephesians 1:4-7

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace...
1 Timothy 3:16

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:

He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory.
1 Cor 15:12-20

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1 Thess 1:9-10

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Isaiah 53:10

The LORD has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.
Mark 10:45; John 10:14-15,27

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

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I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep... My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
Romans 3:19-26; Romans 8:1, 31-34

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

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There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.