Iniquity & Enmity Reconciled

Romans 5:6-11 “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Heading into our church’s summer break for the small group ministries and the beginning of an all-church mid-week summer series, our little Friday night group decided to jump halfway, but not half-heartedly, into a short study on having an authentic, genuine, and meaningful relationship with God, to understand better the personal relationship He wants to have with us and about the community He wants to bring us into. To understand what exactly reconciled, regenerated and restored of that relationship, we need to comprehend the root cause of the broken and separated intimacy with God - sin. We didn’t become sinners in iniquity and at enmity with God because God pulled away from mankind, abandoning us, leaving us on our own. Our relationship with God was damaged by man’s own willfulness and choice. Like rebellious children, we walked away from the protection of being obedient to our Creator and Sustainer. A sinner means people who basically run their own lives, doing things their own way rather than God’s way. Therefore they fall short of God’s standard and separate themselves from God. Being “Just & Holy”, sin had to be paid for, so God in “Love & Mercy” sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on that cross to pay for the sins of the world in our place. When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son. We need to recognize the seriousness of sin in our lives; the distance that we fall and the gap it creates in our relationship from Him. What great lengths God had to go and what a great price God had to pay for our reconciliation, demonstrating His love for us in action. But Jesus didn’t stay dead. He rose from the dead. He lives and we will live too, saved through His life. Praise be to God and our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:1-9 “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

In Christ, Brian