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Reconciliation

Explain the removal of hostility through Christ and the resulting peace with God and fellow believers.

The application of salvation

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Romans 5:1-11 · 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 · Ephesians 2:11-22 · Colossians 3:1-17

Reconciliation is more substantial than deciding not to mention the disagreement. Two people can stop arguing while remaining deeply hostile. In salvation, the problem includes real guilt before God, not simply a misunderstanding that could be cleared up with better communication. Christ deals with that guilt and brings His people into peace with God. That peace then changes how they should treat one another.

Read Romans 5:1-11

1 Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;
2 through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3 Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance;
4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;
5 and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
6 For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a good person someone would even dare to die.
8 But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him.
10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.
11 Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Paul says reconciliation happens while people are enemies. That does not mean the sinner first makes himself agreeable enough for God to begin loving him. God acts through Christ. The passage also distinguishes the accomplishment from the believer’s fluctuating feelings. A reconciled person can still have trouble feeling secure, but the remedy is to return to what Christ has done. Repeating the accusation more loudly does not make it more authoritative than the saving work on which peace rests.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:11-21

11 Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are revealed to God, and I hope that we are revealed also in your consciences.
12 For we are not commending ourselves to you again, but speak as giving you occasion of boasting on our behalf, that you may have something to answer those who boast in appearance and not in heart.
13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. Or if we are of sober mind, it is for you.
14 For the love of Christ compels us; because we judge thus: that one died for all, therefore all died.
15 He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.
16 Therefore we know no one according to the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
18 But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Paul can say that God was reconciling the world in Christ and still appeal to hearers to be reconciled. The scope of the proclamation should not be confused with automatic salvation regardless of response. The messenger speaks on behalf of another. That leaves little room for adding conditions Christ never gave or removing the repentance He commands. The final sentence connects reconciliation with Christ bearing sin and believers receiving righteousness in Him. Peace has a foundation, not merely an optimistic mood.

The word reconciliation can also hide different stages in a human relationship. Two people may agree to stop retaliating before trust is fully restored. An offender may genuinely repent while consequences remain. None of that should be confused with the completeness of Christ’s work in reconciling believers to God. God has perfect knowledge and provides the sufficient ground of peace. Human beings work with limited knowledge and need evidence of changed conduct. Applying divine mercy to human relationships therefore requires wisdom. The command to forgive cannot be used to demand that someone call an unsafe situation safe or deny a fact simply because it is uncomfortable.

Read Ephesians 2:11-22

11 Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision” (in the flesh, made by hands),
12 that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace,
16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it.
17 He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near.
18 For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
19 So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God,
20 being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone;
21 in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord;
22 in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

Paul addresses a real Jew-Gentile division. Christ brings people near and creates one body. His language about commandments in ordinances must be read within that argument about the dividing hostility and covenant access. It cannot simply mean that murder, adultery, and dishonesty have become acceptable. Belonging to God’s household makes inherited superiority claims inappropriate. Differences may remain, but they no longer justify treating a fellow believer as a permanent outsider to the mercy both have received.

Read Colossians 3:1-17

1 If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.
3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory.
5 Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
6 For these things’ sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
7 You also once walked in those, when you lived in them,
8 but now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth.
9 Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings,
10 and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,
11 where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, or free person; but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;
13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do.
14 Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
17 Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

The instruction to forgive appears among commands to abandon lying, anger, and malicious speech. Forgiveness does not make truth unnecessary. It changes the purpose and manner of dealing with wrong. A person can seek accountability without seeking another person’s destruction. The peace of Christ belongs in the community’s decisions, not only in its vocabulary. If every disagreement is treated as an opportunity to punish an opponent, the community is acting as though reconciliation were a doctrine for sermons but not for meetings.

Receive peace with God on Christ’s terms rather than trying to negotiate a separate arrangement. Then consider whether some hostility you are maintaining contradicts that received mercy. Human reconciliation requires truth and can take time, but a Christian should not cultivate revenge while celebrating reconciliation purchased at the cross.

Consider your perspective

Reconciliation means more than reducing tension: through Christ, hostility gives way to peace with God. That peace challenges contempt and superiority between people, while truthful human reconciliation may still require repentance and safeguards.

Put it into practice

Consider one strained relationship where a truthful, safe step toward peace is possible. Make an appropriate apology or invitation to talk without pretending that damaged trust has already been restored.

Reflect and respond

  • What does Christ remove that mere politeness cannot?
  • How does gospel reconciliation change social superiority?
  • What truthful step toward peace is presently possible?

Passages and further study

Scripture quotations are from the public-domain World English Bible (WEB). Historical confessions are study aids, subordinate to Scripture. This independent lesson is not an official denominational statement.