Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3, NKJV)
We have hope, because 2 Corinthians 5:18 says, ‘All things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.’ When God made us in the beginning, we were one with Him! It was Adam’s disobedience that separated us from God. When Eve ate the fruit, it wasn’t so much the fruit, it was the question the devil threw at her, “Has God said?” It was the element of doubt that became the first sin.
Today one of the greatest enemies of our Christian faith, of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, is the element of doubt, “Has God said?” In our thinking and our teaching, we have to return to the Authority of God’s Word. Paul wrote to Timothy, ‘All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness’ – 2 Timothy 3:16. In Scripture we find an authority that cannot be denied. Scripture is not just a ‘Bible’, which literally only means a ‘collection of books’, but it is the Word of God, the written record!
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, (2 Timothy 3:16, NKJV)
So we see, right from the beginning, by doubt, by questioning, man became separated from God. It is still the biggest problem today. Doubt. Unbelief. Disobedience. This brings separation from God. This is why Paul taught so much about the importance of being reconciled to God!
Speaking to you as an evangelist, unless we are reconciled to God, there is no way into the Kingdom of Heaven! Look at the nations today! Warring factions between the different nations. The recent wars in Syrian, Afghanistan, Libya – wars can only come to an end when there is a spirit of reconciliation! This is so different to ‘reunion’. The greatest reunion in my life was with my family after spending one year in a communist prison. I flew home with Prime Minister Harold Wilson, my wife was waiting, my brother, my sister. This wasn’t reconciliation, it was reunion, because there was nothing that stood between me and my family, only time and distance, we were not physically present with one another for the best part of a year. It was reunion. But we cannot in the same way automatically expect to be able to come to God. There has to be a time when we are reconciled, when we make peace with God.
This is what it says in Romans 5:10, ‘When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son’! Verse 8 emphasises this, ‘God commends His Love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’!
But this is the miracle. When we are reconciled with God in Christ, we become a new creature, old things are passed away, all things are become new! 2 Corinthians 5:17. Reconciliation becomes reality only by regeneration, by being re-created, by being made new. You can’t combine the old with the new. You don’t put new wine into old bottles, or they will break! The beauty of our salvation is this, that not only did Christ die on a cross to pay the price of sin – but Christ died and rose again from the grave to give us new life! Baptism by total immersion in water is a symbol of this – death to the old, burial of the old, just as Jesus entered the grave, and just as Jesus rose to new life, when we come out of the water, we are born or resurrected into the new! ‘If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away and all things have become new!’ This is what makes reconciliation of the sinner with God a reality!
Reconciliation with God only comes through Jesus Christ! Scripture is clear. We cannot come to God without Christ! Religious ceremony, prayers and lighting candles, confession and penance – this doesn’t bring us to God. The ONLY way to be reconciled with God is THROUGH Jesus Christ! Because He, by His death, died instead of us, taking away the penalty of our sin. And when we came to Christ, we died to the old nature! Conversion is a change – you can convert an old shed into a garage or a workplace. But spiritual conversion is more, it has to be the death of the old and a new birth. That’s why Jesus said, “You MUST be born again!”
THIS is what makes the completeness of our salvation! When we come to God through Christ, Christ breaks down the wall, the division, the barriers between us and God, and gives us the ability to be reconciled into harmony, unity with God! So complete, we become ONE with God! THIS is the certainty of our salvation, of our hope.