“Reconciliation”
By Ron Stoothoff
For the past several months, the Lord has been opening up -- and emphasizing to me -- scriptures relating to reconciliation. What He has been showing me has given me a whole new perspective on what Jesus has done for us and what doors He has opened for us in this new life that He has given to us.
There are two main verses that the Lord has been speaking to me through. They are: “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ . . . that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself . . . .” (2 Cor. 5:18-19) and: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8-9) These two passages go together like a hand in a glove. They are two sides of the same coin.
Let’s first remember that Jesus was called the Christ because God was in Him. We sometimes talk of “Jesus Christ” as if that was his name, like “John Doe”. But Christ is not part of His name, it is what He was. He was “the Christ of God” – that is, the anointed one -- the one who had the very Spirit of God dwelling in Him. It was the revelation from God to Peter that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” that Jesus said was the rock upon which He would build His church. Immanuel – God with us. God was with us in Jesus. And why? To reconcile the world to Himself. That’s why God came down here and manifested Himself in human form. And what did that accomplish?? The purpose was to destroy the works of the devil. (And that is the work that Jesus said was finished on the Cross.)
Destroying the work of the devil and reconciling us to God are one and the same thing! For the work of the devil was division, separation, alienation.We probably think of the devil’s work as including a variety of things – many different things that he’s doing to interfere with God’s work, and to attack the saints. He “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour”, he tempts, he sets snares, he shoots “fiery darts,” he lies and deceives, and never ceases his work of battling against the saints. However, what I’ve been seeing is that Satan’s work is basically one thing. What he did back there in the Garden is the very same thing that he is working at today – all day, every day, in all of us! Yes, he caused Adam and Eve to disobey God, caused them to sin. But there is more to it than that. That was very important, of course – but why?? Because it had one truly awful result. An awful result that has caused all of mankind, and even the creation itself, to suffer and be in bondage ever since. What the devil accomplished, by getting Adam and Eve to eat that fruit, was to bring an end to the close relationship that they had had with God – with their Father.
The devil caused a separation, a division, between man and God. The close relationship, the fellowship, that Adam and Eve had with God, was broken. And that’s what Satan will still try to do today – everyday!! All of his efforts and all of his different devices have the same goal: to keep us separated from God – to keep us from enjoying that blessed fellowship with the Father that is our rightful inheritance through our new birth as sons of God. Just as in the beginning, Satan wants to keep us out of the Garden where we can walk with the Lord in the cool of the day.
But Jesus destroyed this work of the devil. He made it possible for us to enter into the Kingdom of God – the realm where God dwells --through our new birth in the Spirit. He shed His life so that we could share in it – share in His life. Jesus was One with the Father, and that same spirit that was in Him can now be in us – that same spirit that raised Him from the dead! As that new life in us grows, we, too, can be one with the Father! Reconciliation! Hi Daddy! I love you! Glory! As John says, “truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” We can have fellowship again because we can now return to the Garden – to God’s paradise! We can, to put it differently, walk in the kingdom. This kingdom is, of course, a realm in the spirit. God is spirit – that’s what He is – that’s His essence. So His kingdom – the realm where He dwells, and where His will is done – is a spiritual realm. And the “good news”-- the gospel -- that Jesus preached -- was that the Kingdom of God is at hand! “At hand”: within reach, available! Now! To all that believe on Him! “To them He gave the right to become the children of God.” Children! Back home with the Father! Can you hear it???
One thing that always grates on my ears is hearing Christians saying things like, “I hope to go to heaven when I die,” or, “Of course, as Christians, our goal is to go to heaven when we die.” “When we die!!!” Hey, somebody isn’t listening!! Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And, “if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” “Has come”, not “will come”. The point of all those miracles he did was to demonstrate that He – a flesh and blood man – was walking in the Kingdom of God. Jesus was able to do all those miracles because He was walking in the heavenly realm where the limitations of this physical, temporal realm do not apply. In Him God’s will was being done – right here on earth. Jesus was walking right here on earth in perfect fellowship with the Father. Satan was not able to separate Jesus from this fellowship – this oneness – with the Father. And by destroying the work of the devil He opened the door for the rest of us to enter into that same realm.
This reconciliation – this ability to walk in the Kingdom --is not something that only takes place after we die. The scriptures are clear on this. “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” (Romans 5) “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.”(2 Corinthians) “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight . . . .” (Colossians 1)
Now, of course, we are not yet experiencing the fullness of God’s realm – the fullness of heaven. We are still seeing through a glass darkly, still knowing in part. We have been received back home by our Father. We are part of the family of God. But we are yet children. Children who are being brought to maturity by His work in us; “From glory to glory He’s changing us – from earthly things to the heavenly;” From walking according to our own fleshy nature to walking according to the leading of His Spirit. Not the fullness yet, but we have begun. We don’t have to wait till “the next life” for this to happen. Death is not the key to entering heaven! Life is! “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Jesus said. He wasn’t speaking this in a graveyard! He was speaking this to the living! He was speaking this to people who already had a life – our temporal, earthy life, our life in the flesh. He was talking about a different life, a new life! The life He came to give us – which the enemy had stolen – was a new life in the spirit; a new life where we can resume fellowship with our Father. A much, much more abundant life!!! Praise God! Amazing grace indeed!
So this is the main point that I want to make: that because of the work that Jesus did in destroying the work of the devil, we can now have fellowship with God our Father, we are now able to walk in His Kingdom where there is righteousness, peace and joy. (Will we go to heaven when we die? Yes. When we die to self.) God’s word says, “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.” Our mortal bodies — that’s the one we have now!(make alive)
But I also want to add another point. This concerns that divisive work of the devil. Even though He has been defeated, he never gives up. Because Jesus laid down His own life, God forgave us for turning away from Him. But the enemy knows that while we are still here on earth in this fleshly body with our natural desires and our natural mind, he can still trouble us. He knows that one of the features of this world that God has placed us in is that we can make choices. Just as in the Garden in the beginning, where Adam and Eve had a choice of which tree to eat of, we can continue to choose. Every day, all the time, there are always choices open to us. We can now hear the voice of God, in a way that we couldn’t do before, but we can also still choose to ignore it. Every day we still have that choice of life (that new life!)or death! And the enemy will still continue to try to get us to make the wrong choices! Because of Jesus’ work, we can now know the peace and joy of the Lord. And the enemy hates that! He will try to interrupt our peace and steal our joy whenever he can. Every day! That’s why Jesus said, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” It’s a daily battle! “Take up your cross daily”, Jesus said. Yet we have all we need for daily victory!
When we have lost our peace, when we are fearful, when we are worried and filled with anxiety – we can know that that is the enemy working. He is trying again to interrupt our fellowship with the Father. He is attacking our faith – attacking our trust in God – attacking our belief in God’s word. Jesus has told us that He will be with us always, that He will never leave us or forsake us. He is our peace. He has broken down the wall of partition between us and our Father. By our faith in Him we can resist the lies of the enemy which continually try to build that wall back up. Actually, saints, it’s not even our faith in Him but His faith in us! We live (that new life) by the faith of Jesus Christ. As Paul 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.”Truly, truly, truly, it is Christ in us that is our hope of glory!
“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.”
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
Ron Sept. 23, 2009
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