The Bible says we have been reconciled to God. “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:10 NKJV).
The dictionary defines and describes reconciliation in the following terms: To cause to become friendly and peaceable again; to bring into agreement or harmony; to restore. In accounting terminology, reconciliation would mean to balance the books. Our need for reconciliation is because of the sin that has driven a wedge between us and God. Peace and a right relationship needs to be restored. The books need to be balanced. Sin has left us spiritually bankrupt, so we cannot balance the books. Thank God, Jesus paid a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay! Jesus balanced the books and reconciled us to God.
The means of our reconciliation was realized through the cross of Christ. The hymnwriter describes it in the well known words: “On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame…”. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus endured the cross and its shame for the joy that was set before Him. The joy of reconciling us to God was in the heart of Jesus. It was not the nails in His hands and feet that held Jesus on the cross. It was the unconditional love in His heart that held Him there.
What should be our response to such wondrous grace and reconciliation? Perhaps we find it in the last verse of The Old Rugged Cross. “To the old rugged cross I will ever be true, its shame and reproach gladly bear; them He’ll call me some day to my home far away, where His glory forever I’ll share.”
—Terry Morrison