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WHO WAS RECONCILED TO GOD BY THE CROSS?

We read in II Cor. 5:18-20, “And all things are of God, Who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation: to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their sins unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation”. In Romans 5:10 we read, “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son…..”. Putting these two passages together we may conclude that the world, while still enemies of God, was reconciled to Him by the death of Christ on the cross.

But most Christians believe that one is reconciled to God only by faith. That is to say, most believe that the world has not already been reconciled to God, but only upon acceptance of the message, will the believer be reconciled to God. It is this difference between what is widely believed and what is actually taught in Scriptures that will be discussed in this paper.

So that I am not misunderstood, I would like to affirm that salvation is by faith. But reconciliation is not the same as salvation. What is salvation? Salvation is being redeemed (purchased by the shed blood of Christ) from the grave. All those who, by faith, have been justified, will be raised from the dead. Reconciliation, on the other hand is something quite different. Reconciliation is a reversal of something God did as explained in Romans 1:22-24, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God gave them up to uncleanness……”. Because of the great sin described in Romans 1, God gave up the world to those sins. Reconciliation is the world being reconnected to God by Christ’s death on the cross. The world, which had once been given up, was, at the cross, taken back. We are not told when in human history God “gave them up”, but I believe that it is possible that after God “gave them up” He called Abram, so that He would have a people through whom He would reveal Himself to the world. That would put God giving up the world just before the call of Abram.

Salvation is a gift of God given to those who “believeth in Him” (John 3:16). And it is only those who believe that “shall have everlasting life”. Reconciliation, on the other hand, is God reconciling a world that He had given up. It is a unilateral action fully accomplished by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Let us now search the scriptures to see if these things be true.

ARE RECONCILIATION AND SALVATION ONE AND THE SAME?

First let us determine that salvation and reconciliation are not the same thing. We read in Romans 5:10, “for if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life”. If reconciliation and salvation were one and the same, Paul could not have written “much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life”. We have been reconciled by the death of Christ. Much more, we have been saved by His life, i.e. His resurrection.

WAS THE RECONCILIATION A UNILATERAL ACT OF GOD?

Having determined from Scripture that salvation and reconciliation are not the same, we must now determine if the reconciliation was unilateral, i.e. does it require acceptance to be put into effect, or was it accomplished without regard to acceptance?

The most compelling evidence that the reconciliation of the world was a unilateral action comes from the passages which explain this reconciliation. Once again we will consider Romans 5:10 and II Cor. 6:18-20. Romans 5:10, “For if, when we were enemies”. Who were enemies of God? The world, i.e. everyone in the world. “We were reconciled to God”. How were we reconciled to God? “By the death of His Son”. There is nothing in this passage that suggests that faith was required to put the reconciliation into effect. To say that faith was required is to interject a thought that simply is not there.

II Cor. 5:19, “To wit, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them”. Again, there is simply nothing in this verse, or in the context, that suggests that reconciliation must be accepted in order to be put into effect. (The phrase “not imputing their sins against them” will be discussed below.)

Some have suggested that the Greek word itself (katallasso) means reconciliation by two parties. But, as we have seen, there is nothing in the passages quoted above which tell us of reconciliation that implies a required participation of two parties. The Companion Bible, Appendix 196 1. c gives us the definition of “katallasso, and reads, “to change or exchange something (anything) arbitrarily: not as by mutual consent, but as proceeding from one…..”. Let us look at the other occurrences of this Greek word and the occurrences of the related word “apokatallasso” so that we might discover from its usage the Scriptural definition. .

The only occurrence of the Greek “katallasso” apart from the passages we have already considered is found in I Cor. 7:11. “But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife”. In my opinion this verse is not conclusive as to whether this is a unilateral reconciliation, so it is not helpful in our search on this matter.

The Greek “apokatallasso” is “katallasso” with the added prefix “apo”. The word is found in two passages, i.e. Eph. 2:16 and Col. 1:20-21.

Eph. 2:15-16, “Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace; that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby”. The context will show that it is believing Jew and Gentile who are being reconciled to God in one body. That is to say, whereas before the cross believing Jew and Gentile were separated by the “middle wall of partition”, after the cross, Jew and Gentile were no longer separated, but reconciled to God in one body. Paul’s point was that believers were now one. It is true, of course, that believers had to accept the message of salvation in order to be counted as believers. But there is nothing in this passage that suggests that the reconciliation of believers in one body was dependent upon them accepting the message of reconciliation. That is to say, Jew and Gentile were reconciled to God in one body whether or not they accepted that fact. This was a unilateral reconciliation.

Col. 1:20-22, “And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him I say whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy…..in His sight”. This is written to believers, so Paul could say with confidence that they would be presented “holy…. in His sight”. But there is nothing in this passage that suggests that things in heaven and things in earth needed to accept this reconciliation in order for it to be in effect.

Because Scripture never speaks of acceptance of reconciliation for it to be put into effect, I believe that we may accept Dr. Bullinger’s definition that reconciliation (katallasso and apokatallosso) is “not as by mutual consent, but as proceeding from one“.

“NOT IMPUTING THEIR SINS AGAINST THEM”

But, some might object that the phrase “not imputing their trespasses against them” implies salvation, which certainly does require acceptance. So that there is no confusion, once again, I do not believe that salvation is the same as reconciliation. But, some might object, Paul speaks of “not imputing sins”. Isn’t that salvation? No, it is not. Let me explain.

Paul wrote in Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned”. We learn two things from this verse. 1) Death entered the world because of Adam’s sin. 2) All men sin because we are all in Adam. Man sins because he is in Adam. And man dies because, as a consequence of Adam’s sin, death entered the world. God’s remedy for this situation is resurrection. Who is resurrected? Only those who, by faith, have been made just are acceptable to live with a holy God in resurrection. Note Gal. 3:11, “……..the just shall live by faith”. While it is true that the just have been forgiven their sins, it is their justification that makes them worthy of resurrection life in the presence of a just God.

My point is that when God reconciled the world unto Himself and did not impute their sins unto them, He was not granting them justification, which leads to resurrection. He was opening the door for Paul, the minister of the reconciliation, to go to the world and preach to them the message of salvation. That message was, in effect, that they had been reconciled to God, their sins were not imputed against them, now accept the message of salvation and be made just so that they may dwell in the presence of a just God in resurrection.

“BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD”

If, as I believe, reconciliation is a unilateral act of God, why would Paul write “be ye reconciled to God”? That phrase suggests to some that reconciliation is not unilateral. First, it should be noted that Paul does not say, “believe in this reconciliation”, he says “be ye reconciled”. Let us examine the context for the true meaning of this phrase.

II Cor. 5:20-21, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”. Let us first determine to whom the pronouns refer. “We are ambassadors for Christ”, the “we” is of course, Paul and his associates. “As though God did beseech you”. The “you” refers to those to whom Paul wrote this letter. Verse 1:1 reads, “Paul…….unto the church of God which is at Corinth”. The church of God, is, of course, composed of believers. So Paul is saying that God did beseech believers to be reconciled to God. Going on with verse 5:20, “we pray you (believers) in Christ’s stead, be ye (believers) reconciled to God”.

Paul is saying that he wants believers to be reconciled to God. But believers are already made righteous and they are certainly already reconciled to God. What does Paul mean when he writes that believers should be reconciled to God? I believe that he means that they should live their lives as if they are reconciled to God. That is to say, that because God had reconciled them to Himself by the cross, they should live their lives as if they were reconciled. But this is certainly not to say that they were not already reconciled. As we go on to the next verse that point will be proved.

II Cor. 5:21, “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”. How does this verse connect to the previous one? In other words, what does reconciliation have to do with being made the righteousness of God? In my opinion, Paul is saying that because they have been made righteous, they should live lives that prove them to be righteous. So too, Paul, in the previous verse is saying that because they had been reconciled at the cross, they should live their lives as if that were true.

CONCLUSION

In my opinion the greatest obstacle to understanding the truth that the world has been reconciled to God is the phrase “not imputing their sins against them”. To most, this phrase means salvation. But, as I hope I have shown, the forgiveness of sins is not justification. And it is justification that is needed for resurrection.

This paper was written by Joyce Pollard. If you would like to comment on this paper please write to me at: [email protected]

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