Whoever is connected to Christ through faith will know it and lead a different life! The reconciliation with God cannot remain hidden in word and deed. The sacrifice of Christ has effect, impact and an influence in our daily, practical life toward God as well as toward fellow man. Even the creation will experience it.

A New Obedience⤒🔗

It holds true for the church of Christ, for every believer, that no one can continue life in the old way, as in “business-as-usual”. Living in the flesh, in your sin, going your own way and insisting on doing what you want to do; all of this clashes with the atoning act of God. Faith in the One who is our reconciler is going to control all of life! In the NT, the communion with Christ and the consequences of it are given special attention and emphasis.

The communion with Christ is the fellowship through his blood. As there is fellowship with his suffering, so also with his resurrection. That gives and asks for a new and godly life, which in fact will come to light and will continue. Paul writes about this old and new life in the letter to the Romans and lets us know what it means in practice to be transferred from death to life! In the chapter about atonement, 2 Corinthians 5, the apostle says, “One [Christ] has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (v. 15).

In the letter to the Galatians Paul explains what it means to be crucified with Christ and to live with him for God, in true freedom. The communion with Christ means to put off the old man and put on the new one. This is the image the apostle uses in Colossians 3. The life of atonement with God through Christ demands a striving for sanctification, without which no one will see the Lord. To this end the life of atonement requires the Law of God. The Father’s will is law! We are constantly called to keep his commandments — with grateful joy!

The Meaning of the Sacraments←⤒🔗

Reconciliation is always made visible for us in the sacraments as well. In Romans 6, Paul makes it clear that in baptism the death and resurrection of Christ are in view. On the basis of our baptism it is our duty to live a life of obedience. We must live for God, as Christ has done perfectly. Sin may not have dominion over us. Being redeemed from it we may instead be servants of righteousness. This is a fruitful existence with a great future! It is not without reason that baptism holds a big place in the apostolic instruction and we cannot forget this other than to our shame. But God holds us to it!

The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is equally important for the experience of reconciliation with God and our neighbours. When Jesus instituted it, he emphatically pointed to the meaning of his death for those who are his own. He has set this sacrament in the context of his atonement according to God’s will. It is especially in the remembrance of him and his self-surrender that we are called to experience the atonement. And the fellowship with the blood of Christ is to determine the exercise of our thinking and acting with the Lord and with everyone he places on our path and for whom we are responsible. Our lives are to give testimony based on the knowledge and celebration of the sacraments that, we know of our Reconciler and his work. It is not surprising that specifically at the washing of the feet (at the Lord’s first Supper) this was made concrete!

Based on Christ’s atoning work the Holy Spirit also gives the church insight and power through the sacraments for following the Master. Take note as well that reconciliation may be celebrated as a preview of our life in glory (Rev. 5:12).

Mutual Relations←⤒🔗

The reconciliation realized by Christ has meaning and effect on our mutual relationships. Anyone who knows and lives out of the atonement may show this to others, first of all in marriage and family life. After all, the reconciliation colours and determines the interaction with each other. Love and faith are required. Care for each other, service and attention to others should not be lacking or be diminished. Our wife, husband, children, our marital and family life is not a disposable item. It is not without reason that marriage is put under the liberating authority of God and it was enriched through Christ’s first miracle in Cana. Being co-heirs of grace will raise awareness of reconciliation and it demands that it works itself out in how we deal with each other. Because of the reconciliation, communication is not a burden. Through the love of God, fulfilled and directed in Christ, we may love one another and take good care of each other.

There can be precarious situations, unhealthy and degenerate, foundered or terminated relationships, causing such change that reconciliation appears impossible. Within the Christian congregation it remains a task not to assume the impossible in advance. Based on the reconciliation, it should always be attempted to be hopeful towards each other and to establish renewed contact.

We must not cover up the problems or the guilt. The facts need to be addressed in all honesty, yet in a sensitive and resourceful manner, inspired by God’s love. He wants to restore relationships. And when relationships are broken, we need reconciliation even more and we need to pray for each other.

Based on the conciliatory actions of God, reconciliation with the neighbours in a wider circle does not escape attention either.

Christ emphasizes the need for reconciliation between people in Matthew 5:23, 24: “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” And in Mark 11:25 and 26 he teaches us: “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” Without prior mutual reconciliation and forgiveness there can be no true worship before God’s face, in his temple, in his church. The Lord’s Supper cannot be properly celebrated. Nor is there the possibility of an intimate life of prayer. The joyful and ministering relationship with the neighbour is disturbed. That must change! To this end, Christ himself urges us on. He makes this clear in his teaching about prayer that the forgiveness of our sins by God, the life in his fellowship, cannot be separated from our forgiveness. In the Lord’s Prayer – the perfect prayer — he teaches us to pray: “...and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12). As an addition to this prayer Jesus says, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (vv. 13, 14).

So, before friend and foe, it must come to light that our lives and our actions are based on reconciliation! Therefore a way of acting as shown by the servant in Jesus’ parable of the king who took account of his servants (see Matt. 18:23-35) may not be practised in the life of the atonement.

Meanwhile, the Saviour does not mean by this to turn reconciliation into a “cheap grace”, a “forgiveness behind the backs of people” (Sölle). He has shown otherwise in his teaching and his miracles. He has made it clear with his own life. We must pay attention and respect to the neighbours: to care for them, to be concerned for their wellbeing. This is not to be seen as compulsory duty, let alone that it be done in an authoritarian, haughty way. If the reconciliation is to have an effect we have to stand next to others. Indeed, was not Jesus among us as the One who serves?

He does not ask us that we tolerate or conceal sin and guilt. The Saviour himself did not do this. He revealed guilt and sin in his love for sinners. As the Redeemer he did not avoid it, relativize it, or cover it up. No — it has cost him his blood. He has not spared himself. Nor does he expect it from us in regard to wrongs in the past. He has taken the first step and given us hope, so that people are changed, reconciled with God and with each other. That is possible in the world through him! By his example, we are called to charity, to show love to our neighbour, and to actually restore broken and violated relationships.

In Society and Church←⤒🔗

We cannot limit reconciliation to our own inner self or to our own circle. Christians have a calling and duty to be salt and light in society. It is precisely in their words and actions that it may be evident that they know the gospel and that they would like to share it with others.

Therefore, whoever is reconciled cannot leave the world to its fate or assist in further ruining of the creation. We may not be complicit in wrongdoings causing the cross of Christ to suffer shame. Having been taught differently and better through reconciliation, we may not get involved with the appalling spiral of violence, keeping the old structures immutable, and let the destructive forces have their own way. In an inhumane society and in a bloodthirsty world we have to be witnesses of the atonement, showing that we are completely different (see Eph. 4:20)! God demands of his people to act justly and pursue justice, to strive for peace and that which is edifying. We must not therefore simply resign ourselves to an established, irreconcilable order, to conflicts between groups, to suffering, injustice, exploitation, discrimination, to hunger and poverty, to wealth and excesses, and to addictions. People reconciled with God ought to be a new creation! In a time of polarization, of violence, of seduction and degradation, of a frightening arms race and pollution, believers may testify of the reconciliation and act upon it in society; they may show signs of reconciliation. It is not the hope of a good common sense, or some sort of world improvement, that gives courage to the citizen, but faith in the Redeemer and acting in accordance with his command and promise. What Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8 and what Jesus teaches in the parable of Matthew 20:1-6, aim to call us to follow him. It wants to bring us to repentance, change and renewal. The hunger and thirst for righteousness may be known in and for the world, and be brought before God’s heart and before his eyes and ears, may they not? How much more influence for good would there be from Christians who are spiritually resilient and vigilant and really live up to their reconciliation?! Jesus himself exhorted his own: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:25-28). The Lamb of God wanted to remove the sins of the world. He has broken the dividing wall between peoples and races. He was and is committed to Jew and Gentile, to rich and poor, to the just and the unjust.

He does not call upon us to take the sword, but to give expression to the atonement. He does not desire that one race prevails over the other. All apartheid in the worldly sense is foreign to him. Minorities cannot be left to the ups and downs of our social and economic crisis. The love for the neighbour near and far, for the foreigner in the gates, is motivated by the act of reconciliation, so that it is intrinsic in our heart, our flesh and blood. Self-interest, acquired rights, fear and despair may not predominate. The status quo is not immediately a fixed point. The Spirit wants to stimulate us in great and small matters, with all available means, not to give up or to surrender hope. He encourages us to continue to believe in the power of the blood of the Lamb, in spite of the raw and guilty reality we experience. It brings with it slander and friction. That does not bring us into favour with the rulers of this world. But it keeps us with the victorious Lamb. It makes us believe in the blessing and power of the atonement, in his future.

In this procedure the church may not be put out of action, or withdraw itself. It needs to experience the life of reconciliation in its own ranks. It needs to be seen! The confession of the reconciliation with God through Christ must lead us to return to him, in spite of all the divisions that characterize ecclesiastical life, and which are not a recommendation to the world, let alone an honour to the Head of the church, but only guilt and more guilt. A return is needed to God and to his Word, to the cross of the Redeemer. But likewise does it need to be shown from the shared experience of Christ’s reconciling work to each other. What does the High Priest’s prayer (John 17) mean for us? When we listen to it and act upon it sincerely and willingly, we become blessed and the world will take notice. It will discover that the life of reconciliation is rich and meaningful. How attractive and beneficial it is. It will also be blessing for Israel! As far as the life of sin is concerned, God’s judgment goes out to all, both to Jews and to Gentiles. But where grace abounds, we confess, “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). Then alienation is a thing of the past! As fellow citizens of the saints, as household members of God, we experience the reconciliation in Spirit and truth.

Self-Denial←⤒🔗

Jesus himself speaks of carrying the cross and self-denial in following him (Matt. 5: 6, 10). Paul is trained in this and in Philippians 2 he calls on the believers to practise this. Please note that this self-denial, asked for by the apostle, is based on the way that Christ himself has gone. He has emptied himself and has taken the form of a servant. He has humbled himself obediently to death on the cross.

His surrender and ministry must make a strong conviction upon his church that the members are to love, to live and to act filled with mercy and affection, both internally and externally. There must be no pride, no selfishness, and no interest to seek one’s own glory. Each member needs to show deep respect for the other, to consider him or her more excellent than himself. This will serve as proof of reconciliation.

Sacrifices←⤒🔗

It is remarkable that the life of faith is characterized by the sacrifice of Christ and that for Christians the idea of sacrifice is developed over a broad spectrum. In Philippians Paul makes it clear that the believers must also be prepared for monetary sacrifice. When Paul expresses thanks for the gifts he has received from the Philippians, he writes of “a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God” (4:18). By the way, the recommendation of the collection for the brothers and sisters in Jerusalem is put in the same context in 2 Corinthians 8.

A Christian should be ready and willing to sacrifice. That can even result in the sacrifice of one’s own life! For the sake of Christ and his Gospel! Paul knows the compassion that Moses showed for Israel when he writes in Romans 9:3: “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers.” To the church at Corinth he writes, “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls” (2 Cor. 12:15), and to Thessalonica, “We were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves.” (1 Thess. 2:8). Jesus himself emphatically pointed this out when he made clear to the disciples that a servant is not greater than his Master (John 15:18f)! You may reason that between the sacrifice of money and the sacrifice of one’s own self there is a whole range of possibilities for a Christian to confess and to experience reconciliation with God through Christ. That never goes without struggle and strife. And in the same way, it is impossible without prayer.

The willingness to follow and to sacrifice is a gift of God, while at the same time it is a task, for life. Take note that it is not a new commandment that is imposed on the church, one that requires a joint effort. To achieve this, the Spirit brings and keeps us with Christ. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). With thanks to God, the believers are carried in the life of the atonement, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ who loved us so exceedingly. His strength is accomplished in our weakness.