Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. Paul said we were reconciled
to God by the death of his son while we were yet enemies. This
plainly indicates that God was engaged in providing something
for us before we were ever aware of it and even while we were
in total rebellion against him. The scripture unmistakably says
that God judges the righteous and God is angry with the wicked
every day. He goes on to say, I will render vengeance to mine
enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine
arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh.
Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people, for he will avenge the
blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries,
and will be merciful unto his land and to his people. Now it
seems clear to us that those whom God is pleased to call His
enemies are those whom He has fitted for destruction. He will
laugh when their calamity cometh, and have them in derision. He
will not at all acquit the wicked, nor by any means clear the guilty.
Yet we read that there are some who are under no condemnation.
There are some for whom Christ shed His precious blood to purchase
their redemption. We are certain that God does
not change His mind since He is immutable. So has he quit
being angry at some? Or is it not true that he has
never been angry nor an enemy of those whom he has loved with
an everlasting love, those who were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world? They have ever been the objects
of his love, even before the creation took place, and he has
never needed to be reconciled to them because of this affection.
So what does the scripture mean when it says we were enemies
and he has reconciled us to himself? I think that there is a two-fold
answer to that question. The first is that the only reconciliation
that he has required is that which has been brought about
by the fact his elect bride has disregarded his holy law. She
has hopelessly disobeyed that law and brought herself under
its condemnation. He will not disregard his law.
So in order to be just and her justifier, he has come into the
world made in the likeness of sinful flesh and has suffered
the curse of the law in her behalf, being made sin for her. He is
fully satisfied with that sin offering made by Jesus Christ
the righteous and has delivered her forever from the penalty
and destruction which the law demanded for all who break it.
The elect of God were born into this world with the imputed sin
of Adam hanging about their neck. And according to the Scriptures
were by nature the children of wrath even as others, even though
they were not appointed unto wrath. The Scripture says, And
you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled by the death of Jesus Christ.
He is not our enemy, but we have been raging against his precepts
from the moment of our conception and have hated his way as well
as his kingship. We have declared ourselves to
be his enemies. In order for reconciliation to
fully take place, there must be a mutual agreement. The account
is fully settled as far as God is concerned. He has provided
both the altar and the sacrifice. He has paid every last farthing
that was owed. No corrections can be made to
this account. The balance reads, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. This was
all true while we were yet in the gall of bitterness, and our
mouths breathed out threatenings and slaughters, while we fulfilled
the lusts of our flesh and mind and lived as the heathen do.
We were even as Gomer whom Hosea loved, for she did not know that
I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver
and gold, which they prepared for Baal. But thanks be unto
God that in the fullness of time, when it pleased Him to reveal
His Son in us, He brought life and immortality to light through
the gospel. He caused us to hear with our
ears and see with our eyes the unsearchable riches of that which
He has prepared for all of those who are in Christ. He gave us
faith and we believed it. And now every time we pick up
this Bible or hear some messenger sent from God to proclaim His
glorious truth to us, we are ever more certain. We are reconciled
to God by the death of His Son. We have thrown down our arms
of rebellion. We have kissed the Son. He is
our Master and Lord. The evidence of this reconciliation
is seen, as Paul said, much more being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life. This is exactly what he meant
when he said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. He has now given us this
ministry of reconciliation, that we might publish the glad tidings
to sinners far and near, and know that it will be heard by
as many as the Lord our God shall call. Are you reconciled to God? If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at forthepoor at windstream.net.