RECONCILIATION
Is God’s main work in the world. All else is secondary.
All centres on JESUS MESSIAH, He Who died to pay for our sins and make it possible through trusting in Him for us to be reconciled first to God and then to each other.
Reconciliation is far more important to God than moral perfection. We are to keep trying but reconciliation is the thing that matters.
The Tawrat tells of the coming of a God like King and of a Suffering Servant of God.
A child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His ever expanding peaceful government will never end. He will rule forever with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David. The passionate commitment of the Lord Almighty will guarantee this!
It was our weaknesses he carried: it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins! But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped and we were healed! All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the guilt and sins of us all.
He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. From prison and trial they led him away to his death. But who among the people realized that he was dying for their sins-that he was suffering their punishment? He had done no wrong, and he never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave.
But is was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and fill him with grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have a multitude of children, many heirs. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of what he has experienced, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honours of one who is mighty and great, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among those who were sinners. He bore the sins of many and interceded for sinners.
Jesus said,
I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep..The Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may have it back again. No one can take my life from me. I lay down my life voluntarily. For I have the right to lay it down when I want to and also the power to take it again. For my Father has given me this command.
Through the death of Jesus Messiah God offers us forgiveness for all our sins because Jesus was punished to pay for our sins. The reason why the death of Jesus can obtain forgiveness for everyone is because of who Jesus is.
In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he did’nt make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone..So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father.
Christians do not mean God had a son by the virgin Mary in the way a human being would. They mean that the Word of God, part of God Himself, became a human being. Jesus said that he had a unique relationship to God. He said that God was his Father. He claimed the right that God has to forgive sins, to judge the world and to give us God’s Spirit. He displayed the power to create life which only God has in his miracles of healing blind eyes and raising the dead to life.
The Jewish leaders thought that he was speaking against God by making these claims so they had him killed. They did not understand the hints all through the Tawrat of the coming of a God like Person because Jesus is to come twice, once as a Suffering Servant and a second time as a Divine King.
Jesus said
, I will be rejected by the leaders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. I will be killed, but three days later I will be raised from the dead.But God vindicated the claims of Jesus and showed who he really was by the great sign of His resurrection from death. This stupendous event is what started the Christian religion. The resurrection showed that Jesus really was the Person Like God whom God had sent, and whose death was sufficient to pay for all our sins. This is the message of forgiveness of sins and how we can be made right with God. The follower of the Lord Jesus is also protected against evil spirits, feared by many throughout the world.
Jesus said,
It was written long ago that the Messiah must suffer and die and rise again from the dead on the third day. With my authority take this message of repentance to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: "there is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me." You are witnesses of all these things.And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.
This letter is from Paul, Jesus Christ’s slave, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News. This Good News was promised long ago by God through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. It is the Good News about his Son, Jesus, who came as a man, born into King Davis’s royal family line. And Jesus Christ our Lord was shown to be the Son of God when God powerfully raised him from the dead by means of the Holy Spirit. Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.
We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done. For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us..our acquittal is not based on our good deeds. It is based on our faith.
God was in Jesus Messiah, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. This is the wonderful message He has given us to tell others. We are Jesus’ ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Jesus Himself were here pleading with you," Be reconciled to God!" For God made Jesus, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Jesus Messiah..
If we are living in the light of God’s presence, just as Jesus is, [if we reconcile with one another] then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from every sin..
This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.We love each other as a result of His loving us first.
All that matters is faith [in Jesus Messiah] that works through love [reconciliation].
Note on meaning of Son of God for Muslims. Jesus is the Lamb of God [God’s sacrificial lamb] and the Word of God [God’s Word become a human being]. Christians understand Word of God to be part of God Himself, hence the term "Son" [Ibn].