Key Verse: "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden."
- Genesis 3:8 KJV
Adam enjoyed perfect fellowship and communion with God before he disobeyed Him in the Garden. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God that fellowship was broken, and Adam tried to hide himself from God (Genesis 3:8-11). That broken relationship with God needed to be restored or man would be eternally separated from God’s holy presence.
The apostle Paul tells us God "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 trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18-19).
God “makes one” that which was formerly a broken relationship. The word “reconcile” properly denotes to change, like exchanging money, and in relationship to persons, it is to change from enmity to friendship, and thus to reconcile.
This is what God accomplished by exercising His grace toward us sinners on the ground of the death of Christ for our sins. We are the ones who needed the change from enmity to friendship with God. We needed to be reconciled to God.
Because of the atoning sacrifice of Christ men in their sinful condition and alienation from God are invited to be reconciled to Him. The change in attitude is on our part, not God’s. Sinful, rebellious, disobedient men are the ones who need to change. God in love and grace reached down to man and provided a means whereby He could reconcile us to Himself.
The change that is needed on our part is repentance and faith. A spiritual birth brings about this change in our hearts toward God.
The apostle Paul tells us that we were the ones who were reconciled to God in Christ. “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” (Rom. 5:10). We were the enemies and hostile to God. Until this change takes place in our hearts we are under condemnation, exposed to the wrath of God.
How can God reconcile us to Himself? The death of His Son is the reason of removal of God’s wrath and thus we receive the recondition.
The emphasis of these passages is on the attitude of God in grace acting toward us to change our attitude toward Him. We love Him because He first loved us.
We receive “reconciliation” because Christ offered atonement for our sins. Therefore, God can act according to His unchanging righteousness and lovingkindness toward sinners. He did not forget that we are sinners, nor does He “make up” with sinful men. We needed to be reconciled to God because of our enmity.
Sin always separates and destroys relationships. Just like God went searching for Adam after he sinned (Gen. 3:9), He comes searching for us and reconciles us to Himself.
The only person who can mediate between the guilty sinner and God and bring reconciliation is Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 2:5). The barrier that separates us from God was removed by the death of Christ. Our reconciliation to God is made possible because of the sinless sacrifice of Jesus as our substitute. God reconciles us to Himself through the redemption in Christ. It was an act of God because “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.”
It is an act of grace. We do not deserve it, but God in His love took the initiative and removed the barriers (2 Cor. 5:21). The reconciliation for the believer is complete. He has removed all enmity and nothing stands as an impediment to peace with God. Have you been reconciled to Him?
