Cross Purposes 4: Reconciliation Series

CROSS PURPOSES 4: RECONCILIATION

In this series of messages on the purpose of the cross, we began by seeing how the cross reveals the amazing love of God. Then we considered the cross as God’s ultimate answer for human suffering.

Last week, we took a deep dive into the righteousness of God: In the cross, God combined justice and mercy, so as to be “just and the one who justifies” all who trust in Christ.

Some preachers tell a parable to illustrate that God is “just and the one who justifies.” In the story, an offender stands before a judge in a court of law. The evidence is presented, and the offender is clearly guilty. The judge pronounces the verdict, and decrees the penalty required by law. Then the judge comes down from the bench, takes off his robe, and himself pays the fine or accepts the punishment. The righteous judge satisfies the demands of justice, while justifying the offender. Like God, he is “just and the one who justifies.”

Yet the parable fails to account for the public spectacle of the cross. If God needed to do something to be “just and the one who justifies” (as we saw last week), couldn’t he do it in a hidden corner of the universe, or in heaven? Why did the Son of God come to the earth, to die such a publicly humiliating death?

***Imagine a different story—a story of a father and a son. The father is a pillar of the community. The son had every advantage: a loving home, the privileges of moral training and good schools, and a future of great opportunities. Yet from early days he showed signs of rebellion. He goes off to college, where he chooses a life of immorality and debauchery. Feeling ashamed, he breaks off all contact with his father. After two years of failure in his studies, he drops out of school, and takes a menial job. Feeling hopeless, he begins to deal drugs. A drug deal goes bad, and a woman is shot. The young man is brought before a judge.

What does the father do with his wayward son? Does he accept the choices his son makes, justifying them by saying, “I am sure he has good reasons for his choices.”? Does he disown his son, to avoid the shame of being identified with such a lowlife individual? Does he wash his hands of his obligations to his son, saying, “He didn’t want my help before; he is on his own now.”?

No, the father—a pillar of the community—takes a walk of shame. As he exits his car, his picture is taken, for the news later in the day. He walks into the courtroom, and his son barely acknowledges that he is there. Yet the father stands in solidarity with his son, sharing the pain and shame which he does not deserve. Why is he there? He hopes that by his presence, the son might be RECONCILED to him.**

Sin is not only a problem of justice; it is a problem of a broken relationship with God. At the cross, God reaches out to us to restore a life-giving relationship with himself. The cross brings reconciliation.

Colossians 1:19-22 says, “God was pleased…through [Christ the Son] to RECONCILE to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were ALIENATED from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has RECONCILED you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation…”

Reconciliation.

HOW DOES THE CROSS RECONCILE PEOPLE TO GOD?

-THE CROSS RECONCILES WITH TRUTH AND GRACE

***In Dallas, Texas, an off-duty police officer killed a man who was sitting on the couch in his own apartment, watching TV. She was convicted of murder, and after her sentencing, the 18-year-old brother of the man who was killed was given a chance to speak from the witness stand. The young man said he was willing to forgive her, and he pleaded with the judge to allow him to come down from the stand and give her a hug. The emotional hug lasted for 30 seconds.

The story made national news, and some questioned whether forgiveness was too easy, for such an odious crime. Some sources neglected to report how the young man began his statement in the courtroom: “I don’t want to say twice or for the hundredth time what you’ve taken from us. I think you know that. But I just—If you are truly sorry…I forgive you. And I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you.”**

Forgiveness is not ignoring wrong or making excuses for another person: the offense was real, harm was done, and the hurt does not go away easily. Forgiveness is costly, but it sets us free.