RECONCILIATION
[p. 383] RECONCILIATION
I will tell you the great idea of reconciliation — reconciliation means the removal of moral distance. God has by the judgment of sin removed the distance that existed between Himself and man by reason of sin. He was the only One who knew the distance or could measure it, and He has removed it. When Adam and Eve were turned out of Paradise, although God clothed them in coats of skin, yet the distance was immeasurable and so far as man was concerned, irremediable. Man had fallen under the power of sin, and the distance between God and man was infinite. When I come to the ministry of reconciliation, I find that all that is gone. It is not that man has bridged the distance, nor has God bridged the distance, but God in grace has removed it. If you want to know the great proof that the distance is gone, it is that He has raised Christ, who was made sin, from the dead. There could be no resurrection to life if sin had not been put away — that is perfectly certain, because resurrection is the annulling of the sentence of death, and the sentence of death could not have been annulled if sin, which brought death in, had not first been put away.
The moral settlement of the question of sin was upon the cross, where Christ was made sin, and death did not come in till sin had been completely put away as before God. Christ appeared “once in the end of the world, ... to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself”. Therefore, when Christ died, the first thing that came to pass was that the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. It was not that man went in to God, but the wonderful thought is that the distance between God and man was so completely gone that God could come out to man. It was not man getting back to the garden of [p. 384] Eden; man never could get back that way; God placed cherubim and a flaming sword that kept the way of the tree of life. But in the cross God comes out in grace to man, because He has annulled by Christ the distance that existed between Himself and man. That is what was done by the cross; that was the effect of Christ being made sin.
Having spoken about reconciliation, I want now to convey a general idea of the purpose of it, what the great end of reconciliation as to persons is; and you will see how it connects itself with the thought of man going into the holiest. The first thought in reconciliation is that God may have His pleasure in man: the other is that man may joy in God. The apostle says in Romans 5, “We ... joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation”. The reception of the reconciliation, the knowledge that God has annulled the distance that stood between Himself and man, enables us to joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
I will give you just one illustration of it which is so perfectly simple and familiar that no one can miss the idea; that is, the case of the prodigal son. He was reconciled outside the house, but he was brought into the house in order that the father might have his delight in him, that he might be there to the father’s entire pleasure and satisfaction, and that he might joy in the father. That is the good and gain of reconciliation, and really that is the great thought of the holiest of all. The prodigal must have been delighted at the thought of what his father was to him, but his delight was not greater than the father’s delight; the father was delighted to have the prodigal at his table. I cannot press it too strongly that reconciliation means that distance is gone, and the good and gain of reconciliation is first on God’s side, that He may have His pleasure in man, and then on our side, that we may joy in God. You will understand, I think, why I connect it with the thought of [p. 385] the holiest of all. Where reconciliation is apprehended you get a worshipping company. You could not worship God acceptably unless you first knew that God has His pleasure in you, and your delight is in God. The Lord lightens up the subject of worship in John 4. He says, “the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him”. When I know that it has been the Father’s pleasure to call me into the place of a child which I occupy before Him, and my joy is thus in the Father, then it is I can understand worship; but I cannot understand worship apart from the holiest. The holiest is where the glory of God is, where His perfect satisfaction rests. Heaven is a place, but you cannot talk of the holiest as being a place, it is a moral thought.
Reconciliation is God-ward, it is what is effected for God. The High Priest is toward God; ministry is for God, but the covenant is for man: Christ “hath ... obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant”, that is toward man, but reconciliation is something effected for God in the universe; the saints are looked at as the first-fruits of reconciliation, Christ comes in as the beginning on that line and the church comes in also; but reconciliation goes out wider, it says that He might “reconcile all things”. It is helpful to understand the two terms: in the covenant God gets His place with us; in reconciliation Christ gets His place with us.
In this passage Colossians 1: 18 - 23 there are three thoughts: (1) the Head; (2) reconciliation; and (3) the body. In the beginning of the passage Christ is the Head of the body, then later in the chapter it says “for his body’s sake, which is the church ... Christ in you, the hope of glory”. The effect of reconciliation is this, it brings Christ under the eye of God in the saints. It really began when Christ was on the earth, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself”, the point of it was that Christ was under the eye of God. The change affects everything down here. There was that in which God was complacent. The simple meaning of reconciliation is that where there had been distance, there is complacency; not only distance removed, but complacency where the distance was.
When Christ was here, His presence meant complacency — “Glory to God in the highest, ... on earth peace, good pleasure in men”, that was really what was in the coming of Christ here. We see it more clearly at the cross and in resurrection; at the cross the distance was most marked, but in resurrection there is the utmost complacency.
What follows on the mention of reconciliation in Romans is that there is one man under the eye of God. Distance could only be removed by death, the removal of the man. In principle all is effected in the death and resurrection of Christ (reconciliation brings in what is God-ward, and therefore you get in the next chapter, Colossians 2, that the saints are risen together with Christ and quickened with Him).
Paul speaks about the word of reconciliation. Reconciliation was effected for God in the death and resurrection of Christ, now it has to be made good in us. The word of it is the testimony of it; you have the testimony of what has been effected, and that is what is used to effect the reality of it in the saints, which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. When Christ was here it was the ministry of reconciliation, you could not have the word of it then. When Christ was here the eye of God rested upon Him, and God had perfect complacency with what Christ was. It was a new departure, the second Man was under the eye of God instead of the first man: God was not imputing trespasses. In the death of Christ you get the removal of the first man to the glory of God. The apostle exhorts the Corinthians to be reconciled to God; they had not really [p. 387] accepted it; if they had received the reconciliation they would have been perfect. The first epistle closes with the gospel; they wanted both the ministry of the new covenant and reconciliation. Reconciliation can only be made good in us by new creation. You cannot improve what is alienated, we could not be holy and unblameable before God except in new creation. An enemy in mind cannot be altered; if a man is an enemy in mind and will, the case is hopeless: “alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works” is not simply a question of conduct, but of mind.
In the Old Testament we have atonement, in the New Testament we have reconciliation. In the Old Testament God was dealing with man on the ground of law and responsibility, therefore we get atonement; but in the New Testament God is dealing with state, God goes to the bottom of things, and that brings in reconciliation. You could not have reconciliation without atonement; we have atonement, but that does not fully meet the case. In reconciliation one thing is removed that something else may take its place. There must be atonement, for in all gospel testimony God is dealing with man on the ground of responsibility, therefore you get atonement, and God offering forgiveness of sins; but we know very well that man’s state is a great point, and for that we must have reconciliation.
Christ takes up everything, hence it is that where distance was, there is complacency. God will gather up in one all things in Christ. The foundation of blessing is new creation, even on earth in the millennium. God’s Spirit will be poured on all flesh.
Now to take the order in which it is in this chapter: first the Head. To apprehend reconciliation and that order of things, you must get the idea of the Head. He is the Beginning, morally He is pre-eminent in regard of everything. The great thought in the Head is that Christ is on the side of man; He has taken up the Headship as man, He is (1) the Head of every man:
([p. 388] 2) the Head of principalities and powers: and (3) the Head of the body. You could not say He is displayed as Head of principalities and powers yet, though He is so in title, but He is the Head of the body. The body has a place in relation with Him which other things have not. Head of every man is the largest sphere of all; Head of principalities is the next sphere. The very fact of the Son of the Father becoming man puts Him in that place at once, He must be the first of all men, that is simple, but then no other could be with Him apart from His death; “except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”.
All the dominion and lordship and headship are in Him.
The Head is the first One in regard of God on the part of man; He presents us holy and unblameable, but He has the first place in what He presents. All the fulness dwells in Him, reconciliation is brought about in the full light of God. You get a figure of it in Luke 15; you have the father come fully out to the returning prodigal, that is the full light of the Father, and on the other hand you get the perfect complacency of the father in the son when he goes inside.
In 1 John you get new covenant in chapter 4, and reconciliation in chapter 5. The church is the first-fruits of reconciliation. No one could touch reconciliation if they had not come under divine teaching, that is God’s disposition towards you; and the next step is that everything is to be for God. That is reconciliation: man is not going to be glorified, it is God who is to be glorified — everything is to be for God. It is a great thing to come to that point in our souls. In Luke 15 you get all that was perfect on the part of the father, all was complete when he met the son, but I do not think the son entered into it all until he was inside; when he was seated at the table he was in the sense of complacency.
[p. 389] I think the great point of present ministry should be the unseen things which are present things, people can have the consciousness of them.
I believe we have made a mistake in regarding the unseen things as eternal future things and not as to be enjoyed at present.
They are eternal, but they are present things; you are to look at them, so they must be in existence, the soul is brought consciously into the presence of things that are unseen. We get the consciousness of things by being in the nature which is suitable to them, and hence it is we can take account of them, and have the consciousness of them. The deep things of God, the whole scope of new creation, is unseen, but it is a great thing to be able to contemplate the unseen world, to look at the things that God looks at, and that He has perfect complacency in. These are the “things which are above”, they are to come out from above. The word eternal is simply to describe the unseen things, they are all of God. Everything down here in the world, all the seen things have in themselves the elements of decay. The world is not going to continue in its present form, “the world passeth away, and the lust thereof”. People all have that idea, they think some sort of change must come. It is he that does the will of God that abides for ever.
After reconciliation you get presentation. You get the prodigal presented in that way, what the Father’s eye rests on is what is of Christ. The best robe and the ring do not speak of the prodigal, but he was in a new moral equipment; it is another man, not in any sense the old equipment. We are to be presented holy and unblameable in His sight. It is for the eye of God that we are reconciled. No soul enters into reconciliation until it is fully affected by the love of God. My own great defect has been failing to come under divine teaching.
It is a great point when a man is prepared to say, I am willing that everything should be for God’s satisfaction [p. 390] and glory; and no one comes to this till he is instructed in the love of God. The effect of the knowledge of the love of God is to beget confidence in God, then I am prepared for everything being to God’s pleasure, I know then I shall be well off: men have been set on getting their own glory, reconciliation brings us to another side altogether. There is a wonderful climax reached by the apostle in 1 John 5 at the end of the chapter: we are free of the wicked one; we are free of the world; and we have an understanding from the Son of God. Then the next step is “we are in him that is true”, you come to the circle of reconciliation. The acceptance of the truth of reconciliation brings about in a practical way the truth that there is a body here in which Christ is, the formation of the body for God, that is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. The body was formed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but there is another thought altogether, it is not simply that, but that Christ is under the eye of God — a body practically of which Christ is the animating Spirit. That is the force of Christ in you, the hope of glory. The body is for God. It is Christ living in the body; Christ contributes to the body; the body lives in the life of Christ; the body is animated by the life of Christ, and in that sense the body is for God. It says “present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight”, if it were in the presence of man it would be righteousness, but when it is for God it is holiness. The presentation of the saints to God is according to God, holy. As also it is said “that we should be holy and blameless before him in love”, you want holiness for God, righteousness for man, and that is connected with the new man, our testimony here is more connected with the new man, but the body is for God and whatever is for God is holy.
The “temple of God is holy”, the temple is for God; righteousness comes in with regard to man.
Why do the things in heaven need to be reconciled? I think it is because of the fact of the existence of evil,
[p. 391] evil coming into the vast complicated system of things has destroyed complacency: rebellion has occurred in heaven, and sin on earth, and everything has thereby been dislocated. Christ takes up all in heaven and in earth, so that everything may be reconciled. Reconciliation applies to the millennium, but not to the new heavens and new earth. Reconciliation was accomplished in the death of Christ, it is brought to pass in the fact that all is set right in Christ; Christ as Head is the beginning of reconciliation, everything hangs on Christ. All has been brought into disorder by sin, and the kingdom will be the time of restitution. Everything depends on the place that Christ has taken in incarnation. It has been said: everything hangs on that truth “the Word became flesh”. He was the beginning. To apprehend reconciliation it is helpful to see that when Christ was here the eye of God could rest upon Him with perfect complacency, but then there was more to be effected, otherwise He would have remained alone. Christ had to remove man. The truth is, the leprosy is removed by removing the leper.
In the christian, if there is any allowance of the man that has been removed, the rights of God are invaded, and you have to judge it unsparingly. Take Deuteronomy 12 where Moses gives the covenant to the people; everything is centralised (that is, the place is chosen where God placed His name), now in christianity it is not locally as with them, but in the Spirit. Then the next thing is the most unsparing judgment upon all that invades the rights of God. If the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend who is to thee as thine own soul, entice thee, thine eye shall not spare, thou shalt surely kill him (see Deuteronomy 13), that is very unsparing. Now we have to carry out that unsparing judgment upon ourselves. The flesh is as dear to you as your own soul, you are to kill it.
Now with regard to reconciliation, I think it is a great thing that these things exist; the Head is there and the [p. 392] church as the first-fruits of reconciliation, and if we accept it then all is for God, not that God is to have His part and you to have yours. People imagine that God is to be recognised and have His part on the first day of the week, and then hope that He will prosper them in their things the rest of the week; but that is not the idea at all, all is for God, in that sense you have the assembly all the week. You are outside the world, you meet the Lord on resurrection ground. When we come together in assembly we have the sense of being in association with Christ, outside everything here, and if you had your choice you would not leave it all the week, and if there was power for it you need not leave it. The assembly can only be called together on adequate testimony. When the assembly is convened you leave your different spheres and come together, you leave the world and join Christ on resurrection ground. In spirit that position is to be maintained all the week. If we were in the sense of association with Christ on resurrection ground we should accept our baptism, and be in the fellowship of His death. What souls need is to be in communion with Christ’s death. It is a tremendous thing to me to think that Christ, who came to this world, will never be known to this world save as a Judge. If we were in the reality of this we should be in the fellowship of His death now. God brings out in resurrection another Man; and another world depends on another Man.
I should be very sorry if any one thought that reconciliation were a matter of attainment.
You will observe how intimately the truth of new creation is bound up with reconciliation. I think reconciliation is largely misunderstood. The idea of reconciliation in many minds is of some change in themselves, but that is not the divine idea. God has reconciled us. I could not say God is reconciled. There are two thoughts presented here: the ministry of reconciliation and the word of reconciliation. When the Lord Jesus [p. 393] was here upon earth, He was here in the ministry of reconciliation. It was the outset of it: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation”. The fact is that the very presence of Christ here meant reconciliation. It meant that God had removed the distance that stood between Him and man, and in the coming of Christ all stood for Him on a new basis. Man was approached on wholly different ground, and that was in view of the death of Christ; but the fact remains that God was approaching man down here in the Person of Christ. If God had imputed trespasses, there could not, of course, have been reconciliation; but when Christ was here, God was not imputing trespasses.
Now as to the word of reconciliation. The force of “word” is testimony, and the testimony of reconciliation was, that in the death of Christ the moral distance between God and man had been completely and eternally removed for God’s glory in the judicial end of man in the cross; and further, God had made the very removal of man to be the occasion of the expression of His love. Love has come in where distance was. That is what the cross meant. All that was effected, so to speak, in a moment in the death of Christ. Now, the apostle says, God “hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation”. In accepting the light of the cross, people received reconciliation. Now this connects itself with the truth of new creation. If there was not new creation, one could not be in the full enjoyment of God’s love. But new creation is there, and in virtue of it we are in the enjoyment of reconciliation; conscious on the one hand, that the infinite distance that existed between God and man has been removed in the death of Christ to the glory of God, and that in the place of the distance there is love. God “made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”. You have to remember that when the [p. 394] righteousness of God came out in christianity, the love of God was behind it. God made Him sin for us — that was in love to us, that we might be for the satisfaction of God in regard of righteousness.
It is plain that new creation and reconciliation are very intimately connected. No one could enjoy the thought of reconciliation if there were not new creation. The christian is thus a man of another order; he is after the order of Christ. “As the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”. He is according to God, and, as being according to God, he can enjoy the thought of reconciliation, and this is as being of God. The apostle says in Romans 5: “we ... joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation”. I do not believe that any christian can be in the enjoyment of reconciliation but as being in the apprehension of the love of God. The very presence of Christ here was the expression of His love. It shewed that God had no pleasure in the distance. And there was the blessed testimony, divinely given, down here, of divine love. The Lord bore testimony that “God so loved the world”. In the cross the distance was removed, and in the place of the distance we find the love. You get an illustration of it in the parable of the prodigal son in his coming back to the father. The distance was gone, and the love was there, and that marks properly our relation with God.
As I said at the beginning, we get two chapters opened out here; one, which will be brought to a close at the judgment-seat of Christ, never to be re-opened; and the other, which tells us of the work of God, as the effect and result of which we enjoy the blessed truth of reconciliation. There is the process by which the soul arrives at the truth of new creation. This begins with the witness of the death of Christ. That is all passed away. But we come to new creation, where all things are of God. Everything in the line of new creation takes its character from God morally. The new man is created,
[p. 395] after God, in righteousness and holiness of truth. God has begun a creation for Himself morally. It is according to Him. That is where the christian properly started from.
May God give us to know the great reality of being down here in the enjoyment of reconciliation!