During the 17th century,
Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, sentenced a soldier to be shot for
his crimes. The execution was to take place at the ringing of the evening
curfew bell. However, the bell did not sound. The soldier’s fiancée had climbed
into the belfry and clung to the great clapper of the bell to prevent it from
striking. When she was summoned by Cromwell to account for her actions, she
wept as she showed him her bruised and bleeding hands. Cromwell’s heart was moved
and he said, “Your lover shall live because of your sacrifice. Curfew shall not
ring tonight!”[1]
That story gives us a
picture of a biblical concept related to salvation known as reconciliation. In essence,
reconciliation has to do with the removal of hostility between two warring
parties. Reconciliation is the process of going from enmity to peace, or to borrow an architectural
analogy: a reconciler seeks to build a bridge between estranged parties rather
than a wall.
In the Gospel message,
Christ is the mediator of reconciliation between holy God and sinful man. According
to Isaiah 59:2 it is our sin which disrupts our relationship with God, “but
your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God and your sins
have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” However, God took the initiative
to reach out to sinners through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ.
Christ removes the hostility between God and man by receiving the judgment due
to man on the Cross. From God’s standpoint, the chasm which separates sinful
man from Him has been bridged by the Cross of Christ.
Consider just a few
scriptures which teach this doctrine:
Romans 5:10 says, “For if
while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much
more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”
2 Cor. 5:19 adds, “In
Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses
against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
When we respond to the
Gospel by repenting of our sin and trusting in Christ, the broken relationship
with God is healed. C.S. Lewis described it this way, “Fallen man is not simply
an imperfect creature who need improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his
arms and stop fighting against God.”[2]
According to the Bible, reconciliation
is not just something we receive, but it is something we do. After we’ve made
peace with God, we have the duty and delight of being God’s ambassadors and participating
in what Paul calls, “the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:20). An
ambassador is someone who represents a king, president or government to a foreign
country. Warren Wiersbe says, “As ambassadors of Christ, we represent God’s
kingdom to our world which is at war with Him. It is our task to spread the Good
News—that God has handed the world an olive branch, a peace treaty, in the
person of Jesus Christ. We are to inform people they don’t have to be at war with
God, because He has turned His face towards us.”[3]
That’s why Jesus said, “Blessed
are the peacemakers” (Matt. 5:9) and why Paul told us to put on “the Gospel
shoes of peace” (Eph. 6:15). As Christ’s ambassadors we declare God’s message
of peace to a hostile world. -DM
[1]
Lou Nichols, Hebrews: Patterns for Living
(2004), 41.
[2]
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (San
Francisco: Harper One, 1952), 56.
[3]
Warren Wiersbe, Key Words for the
Christian Life (Lincoln, NE: Back to the Bible, 1982), 80.
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