Metaphors of the Cross part 6

 

Reconciliation - The Relational Metaphor

 

 

1. Introduction

 

“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross. And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, 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.

                                                                                      [Colossians 1:19-22]

Our final session in this series looks at the Doctrine of Reconciliation, and breaks down into two parts, I want to firstly look at the extent to which our relationship with God is broken by sin, and then to look at how that relationship is restored, and how we are reconciled to God through Christ, so firstly, the extent to which our relationship is broken. This passage talks of reconciling us to God, but also talks, in verse 20 about Christ reconciling all things and it is important to note the extent to which sin has broken not just our relationship with God, but how it has broken all things such that they need reconciling.

• There is a breakdown between God and his creation: the world is no longer perfect; we have earthquakes and other natural disasters, all of creation 'groans', (as it says in Romans 8) and as the great Biblical narrative comes to an end we see a new heaven and a new earth - a reconciliation between God and his creation.


• There is breakdown of our perception of ourselves: Adam and Eve felt shame at their nakedness. Sin shatters our self-image. Our perspective of ourselves as made in the image of God needs to be restored.


• There is a breakdown of the relationship between ourselves and others: The very next chapter after the fall finds Cain killing Abel. murder entered the world. There is division and a reconciliation back to one people with one God is needed.

But most importantly:

 

• There is a breakdown between God and us: because to put it bluntly, outside of Christ we have a very broken relationship. If we just think about our relationship with God, never mind these other points, as valid as they are, then we see three consequences of our broken relationship with God.

 

• we face separation from God (we are no longer united with him)      
• we face silence from God (we are no longer communicating with him)
• we face anger from God  (we are no longer at peace with him)           

And it is these three points I want to look at, to draw out the seriousness of them, and to show how Christ addresses them and reconciles us to God.

 

2.  The Extent to which out Relationship with God is broken by sin

 

 

            2.1 Facing separation

Let us take them one at a time. At the beginning of Genesis 3 we have this wonderful picture of Eden; Adam and Eve enjoying a perfect environment, but by the end of the Chapter they is banished from the garden.

"The Lord sent him [Adam] out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life."     

                                                                                                  

                                                                                                           [Genesis 3: 23-24]

 

And we have that so well illustrated in this painting by Domichino :

 

It is important to note this is a very real separation, this is not just a minor disagreement that will be resolved in time. This breakdown is not some minor upset, Adam and Eve and not going to be able to mooch  around for a few weeks - endure a bit of hardship and sneak back into the garden and find that all is as it was. Sin is not something that just breaks our relationship with God in a minor way, it is serious and fundamental, and just as Adam and Eve were barred from God's presence so sin separates us from God totally and completely.

 And we should also point out God had very real, and very good reasons from barring Adam and Eve from Eden. The picture suggests an angry God, a God who bars his creation from the garden because they had broken his rules, and whilst that is true, this also a wonderful picture of love and a God who protects. Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they knew right and wrong; they were now responsible for their actions, and disobedience to God carried a severe penalty - as we have seen throughout this series. God does not just banish them because they have disobeyed him; he banished them because under no circumstances must they now be allowed to eat from the tree of life.  Notice the flaming sword did not bar the way to the garden, but the way to the tree of life. If Adam and Eve were to eat from this tree and live forever, they would live forever carrying the consequences of their sin.

This banishment is a consequence of love as much as it is of anger, but none the less, Adam and Eve, and we, face separation from God as a consequence of our sin.

        
          2.2 Facing Silence

 

Secondly we face Silence from God. Sin enters the world and so this terrible silence descends, God is not longer talking to Adam, Adam can no longer talk with his heavenly father. Any plan of reconciliation must open up the channels of communication again.

 

The Psalmist describes this so well:

 

"To You, O LORD, I call; My rock, be not deaf to me, lest if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. "          [Psalm 28:1]

 

"O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God."             [Psalm 83:1]

 

"Be not silent O God of my praise."           [Psalm 109:1]

        

      2.3 Facing Anger

 

And then thirdly; Adam and Eve face the wrath of God. This is not a subject we find easy to discuss or write about, but the wrath of God is very real. God is angry is a very real and very personal way towards those who have sinned.

 

"Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?                    [Deut 31:17]

 

"It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God"

                                            [Hebrews 10:31]

 

 

We don't speak often about the wrath of God, possibly for one simple reason; anger and wrath are things we generally see as a negative response or emotion. We encourage our children not to get angry - to resolve issues; a real and burning anger about something is never portrayed positively - yet we know that God is a righteous and holy and loving God, a positive God, and so when we cannot join this positive God together with this negative emotion we shut up shop and ignore the issue. But God is big enough to carry, what for us are two conflicting emotions, in perfect harmony. God loves us beyond all measure, but as a holy God, a God for whom sin is totally against his nature, there is a natural anger towards sin and toward those who sin. We often use the phrase;  

 

"God lovers the sinner but he hates the sin"

 

 I get what it means but it is not actually theologically correct. God does love the sinner, passionately immeasurably; enough to send his son to die in our place. God loves us even when we turn away from him, but at the same time, but at the same time,  he is angry in a very real sense towards those who sin.

 

A song that we sing here a lot is 'In Christ Alone' by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. You may not know but that song has caused all sorts of debates in some churches because it contains the line:

 

"And on the cross where Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied"

 

And some churches will not sing that song and others have changed that line to be:

 

"And on the cross where Jesus died, the love of God was magnified"

 

Now you might not think that a big deal or a big difference, but it shows how people struggle with the idea of God being angry or wrathful. It conveys the idea of a capricious God who is only satisfied when the blood of his innocent son is shed, It is a concept that causes debate and controversy and even division. Is the wrath of God an idea that needs to be consigned to the history books; just some archaic concept from 18th century hell and damnation sermons, or is this a  real doctrine we need to understand?

 

And I will certainly nail my colours to the mast a say God is indeed angry with sinners, sinners do indeed face the wrath of God, but, I will also contend that we can view this in a positive way that no way contradicts the loving nature of God, and only then will we have a robust theology of the Cross.?

And so we face separation from God, we face silence from God, and we face the anger of God. If Christ is going to reconcile us then all of these must be addressed.

 

3.  The Extent to which out Relationship with God is restored by Christ

 

So let us move onto something more uplifting and see how Christ addresses these issues and reconciles us. Chris on the cross does three things with regards to reconciliation:

 

• He restores unity (He ends the separation)

• He restores communication (He ends the silence)

• He restores peace (He ends the anger)

 

Again, let us look at each of these in turn:

 

 

            3.1 Restoring Unity

 

One of the greatest pictures we have in scripture of reconciliation is the Prodigal Son (here illustrated by the Artist Murillo which so clearly shows the emotions in play here). I'm am sure you are familiar with the story and Jesus told this story to help illustrate the nature of God's love and relationship towards us.

 

The son asks for his inheritance early (something that is deeply offensive even in our culture today) and promptly leaves to spend it foolishly on having a good time, and before long the money is gone and he has to return home destitute. Rather than rejecting him the father embraces him, and rather than accepting him back but  holding him at arms length, he rejoices and restores his family position. The relationship is restored.

 

Our sin has left us totally undeserving of any acceptance back into God's favour, and yet we have this wonderful picture of unmerited favour and grace. The Father is not taken unaware when his son returns and decides reluctantly to forgive him anyway (after all he is family), no - he is actively looking for him

 

"While he was yet a long way off"                   [Luke 15:20]

 

We might ask why was the father looking for his son, was this just some vague hope his son might come back. Actually there is something far more powerful at play here. In taking his inheritance early the son has not only shamed himself, he had shamed his whole family and his community. The culture of the day was such that if the son returned and presented himself to others in authority, the village elders for example, they would ban him or banish him permanently, he would be legally cut him off from his father, before the father had any chance to intervene. The father is looking out for his son so that if he should come back he can run and embrace him and restore him before it is too late.

Again see the wonderful active provision of the father. Our repentance was not just accepted with a shrug of ' Oh well I thought they would come back - , I'll forgive them." God actively sent his son; God actively came into the world in the person of Jesus Christ to restore this relationship. The anger that demands sin is dealt with is perfectly held alongside the love that intervenes with positive action. Again we have this idea that anger and love are two emotions that can be held together at the same time.

 

The Hebrew word for peace is 'Shalom' and it carries a very powerful idea that we sometimes miss with our traditional interpretations. For us, peace can so easily be defined as the absence of war. Countries who are not at war, are by definition at peace, but Shalom does not mean that. Shalom is not just an absence of hostility or enmity, shalom implies the very real presence of blessing and positive affirmation.

 

And so when we say that peace is restored to this family it is far more than the father and the son hugging and making up, we see that in the picture, but look on the side to the servant holding the robe; this is what reconciliation is all about - the positive restoration of position and blessing. The son is not consigned to feeding the pigs, as he had asked, instead all the benefits and honour of son-ship are restored. His position in the family as a  son and heir is his again.

 

           3.2 Restoring Communication

 

Jesus through the cross, reconciles us to the father and restores unity, and secondly he restores the communication.

It takes two to talk - that's why it's called dialogue (from the Greek prefix 'di' meaning two, and 'logos' meaning word - two words. And the communication between God and men and the communication between men and God is broken and needs to be mended.

 

We can picture it in this way with God and man separated by a wall of silence. Christ fulfils a very specific role in bringing these two parties together that is played out through the whole of the Old Testament, and finds its fulfilment with Christ on the cross.

God as a holy God has to remain separate from his sinful creation. Again let me stress this, not because he is aloof or proud, or wants nothing more to do with us, but because he is so holy that to interact with sinful humanity would impact his holiness. That is why there are all these rules in the Old Testament:

 

'Do not enter the holy of holies'

 

'Do not touch the mountain'

 

Even the priests were not allowed into the holy of holies where God dwelt. Once a year the high priest alone was permitted to enter and even then the other priests tied a rope around him in case he was struck dead by the presence of God, so they could at least get the body back. Hardly a picture of open communication - but God still wants to talk to us, and he wants us to talk to him.

 

And so we have these two great roles in the Old Testament; the Prophet and the Priest

 

The Prophet brings Gods work to the people

The Priest brings the offerings (and words) or the people to God.

 

There is this two way communication that we so desperately need, and perfect restoration of communication and reconciliation comes through Christ on the Cross who is described in scripture as someone who is both a prophet and a priest.

 

 

Throughout the Old Testament there is this division between priests and prophets, you can be one or the other but not both. Only in Christ do we see both roles fulfilled, he opens up again the channels of communication, and represents each party perfectly to the other, but through his death we take on his characteristics. We saw last time this wonderful exchange that took place on the cross as our sin was imputed to Christ and his righteousness was imputed to us, well through that exchange we are now priests, we have open and free access to the father, and we are prophets in that through the Holy Spirit we can hear the father talking to us.

 That which was lost in Eden is restores on the cross, That which was lost through Adam;' sin is regained through Christ's obedience. the Father and his children reconciled.

 

3.3 Restoring Peace

 

So Christ restores unity between us and the Father, he restores the communication between us and the Father, and thirdly let us return to the Wrath of God, this difficult idea that God is angry with sinners, and see the wonderful way in which Christ on the cross turns away that anger and restores peace between us and the Father. It is a difficult idea for no other reason that the passages do not translate very easily. Take a well know passage, Romans 3:25 for example. Our different versions all use different words to explain this, often words that we don't really use today- that is the difficulty of accurate translation, but if we put them all together we can get a bigger perspective of what Christ did for us through his death.

 

Romans 3:25 which contains the Greek word 'hilasterion'. Different versions translate this in different ways - it is not a easy word to translate:

 

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement (NIV)

 whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood (RSV)

 whom God put forward as a propitiation (ESV)

 They all are saying a similar thing, but in a different way and when put together give us more depth.

 Expiation has the prefix ex - it means out (it where we get out word exit) and it carries the idea that something (in this case our sin) is taken out of us, it deals with us - the ones who have caused offence.

 Propitiation shows the other side and focuses on the one who has been offended - namely God. If you look up the word in a dictionary it will say it is similar to the word 'appeasement' which is not very helpful as that word carries quite negative connotations; you cannot always appease an aggressor, as often happens in history, they still act aggressively; it is a rather weak word. However it does mean to change the attitude of someone, and in this case God, and in this instance to be more favourably disposed towards us. You could say Expiation shows that sin is dealt with objectively (it no longer belongs to us) Propitiation shows a subjective or personal side in that God no longer feels the same way towards us through Christ's death.

 Let me give you an example: If I were to commit a crime, to steal something, that would be a sin and the one I had stolen from would be rightly offended, even angry, and I would be carrying the consequence of that crime. I can apologise, or make recompense, or take what ever punishment is appropriate for that crime and by taking that punishment the consequences are taken out of me; the crime is dealt with, it is expiated. However this leave the person I offended still rightly very angry with me. Something has to happen to change his attitude to be more favourable towards me - if we are to be fully reconciled (which is what this whole session is about).  The attitude that belongs to him as the one who has been offended, and must be changed and so on a different level the must be propitiation for the crime.

 Christ on the cross both expiates and propitiates our sin, The consequences for us are removed and the anger of God towards us removed and replaced with a favourable attitude. Even this is not a full explanation, for God, as I keep saying, is not aloof or distant, waiting to be appeased or placated, the picture that causes many people to reject the whole idea of the wrath of God, but notice in the verse God is not distant or aloof, it is he himself who presents himself in the person of Christ as the solution. God is rightly angry with us, but he addresses the issue by coming into the world in the person of Jesus - the one who has been offended, dealing with the offence.

In concluding this series we can simply say on every level, the Cross addresses the divide between men and God that was caused by sin. So much was broken by sin, but in Christ so much is restored.