Repentance, Redemption and Reconciliation through the Cross of Jesus...

Last week we talked about the disposition of sin: “My claim to my right to myself , “I am my own God”. We also talked about the manifestations of sin. We discovered that selfishness, self centeredness, self pity and self-reliance were the source of them. And that when they show their dark nature they are impatient, cruel, envious, boastful, arrogant, rude, selfish, irritable, resentful, they have fun doing wrong and they reject the truth, they’re intolerant, they are skeptical and have no faith, they’re a source of despair and pessimism, and unable to cope with hardship and challenges. They are the opposite of the attributes of Love. The realization of, and conviction of the wrongness of these Sins and the separation from God that results from them, is the beginning of our spiritual journey. In the biblical context conviction, (refers to the Holy Spirit’s work of bringing awareness of sin, righteousness, and judgment, leading individuals to repentance and a deeper relationship with God).

The next task we have is to identify these Sins in ourselves, then become willing to surrender these Sins to Jesus and Repent of them. There’s a lot more to repenting than just saying I’m sorry. We must be willing to change , then by faith humbly ask His forgiveness for our Sins, and believe that if we lay them at the bottom of Jesus’s Cross, He “will” take them away and forgive us. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”—- This I believe this can be perceived as His invitation to us to come to His Cross, to come to “repentance” (Biblical definition: a sincere turning away from sin and self towards God, involving a change of mind heart and action and a commitment to a life pleasing to God ) for salvation. (Biblical definition for salvation is God’s act of rescuing humanity from the consequences of sin and death offering eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ a free gift of grace not earned through human effort... We have affirmation about the free gift of salvation in Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” —- Salvation comes as a result of our repentance and God’s Mercy and Grace. In Acts 2:38 “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”—- then Peter to the Men of Isreal for their part in Jesus’s Crucifixion in Acts 3:19“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,” and again according to Jesus in Luke's Gospel, Luke 24:45–47 “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”—- according to this repentance is also an integral part of the directions we have for sharing the gospel in the Great Commission. Jesus makes repentance as easy and as painless as possible, if we trust and rely on His Love for us. He gives us these words of encouragement in Matthew 11:29–30 “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”—- This is our part, conceding to the conviction of our sins by the Holy Spirit and accepting, by Faith, Jesus’s Gift of Salvation. As a result of our surrender, God has prepared a way for us to be redeemed and reconciled to Himself.

About Redemption. What do we mean when we say, redeemed? Redemption signifies being rescued or freed from bondage, sin, or evil, often through a payment or sacrifice, with Jesus’s death on the cross being the ultimate act of redemption for humanity. Let’s look at Ephesians 1:3–10 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. 5 In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”—- The more I read and study the more I think I understand why Paul and Peter used nearly the same doxology (Definition of doxology ; it’s a liturgical expression of praise or glory to God, often in the form of a hymn or verse, and the word comes from the Greek “doxa” meaning “glory” and “logos” meaning “word”) for opening of each one of their epistles. The doxology Peter uses to begin his first letter is one of my favorites ; 1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”—- Worship at it’s finest...

Now, let’s look at this miracle of Reconciliation... being Reconciled, having our relationship to the Father restored, to what it was before the fall of the first Adam, by Grace through the Blood of Jesus . Let’s read one of the greatest Love letters from God through Paul, 2 Corinthians 5:14–21 14 “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 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. 16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”—- and again in Romans 5:7–11 “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

So what are the differences between redemption and reconciliation... Redemption Is being freed, from the condemnation of Sin from a legal point of view ...Galatians 3:13 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—” We have been freed from the Law and are now under the rule of Grace. Also, there is the eternal death sentence that results from sin that we inherited from Adam’s disobedience as well as our own. Scripture tells us in Colossians 1:13–14 “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”—- Jesus paid the price for our sins with his blood Romans 3:23–25 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”

Now, being reconciled is about relationship. Through reconciliation I have been put in a position with Jesus, when God looks at me He sees Jesus’s righteousness instead of my sin, which allows me to have a personal relationship with God the Father through the blood of Jesus. This is declared here in Colossians 1:19–22 “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, 22 doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,”—- There is a principle called imputation that sounds complicated, but I think it’s pretty simple ... God ordained in that, as I was alienated from Him by Sin, through the cross of Jesus I was forgiven and restored to a right relationship with Himself. Jesus died on the Cross, in my place, my substitute...

Next week I’m gonna use the principal objective of repentance, salvation, redemption and reconciliation... “To allow the Holy Spirit to transform us into the likeness of Jesus”... to transition into a study on our Position within Christ, being set apart...”Consecration.” Paul says in Romans 6:6–11 “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”—- We’ll also be looking at the Cross Jesus said we are to bare with Him (our cross) in Luke 9:23–24 “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”—- I believe that tends toward “Sanctification.”