Spiritual Suicide

“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

~2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Reconciliation is defined as “the action of making one view or belief compatible with another.” We hear it when a family member has been estranged and then returns home, or when a couple has been separated and then gets back together. We make compromises to be reconciled to those we’ve been separated from whether a spouse or other relationship. We offer forgiveness to one another, and choose to let old hurts remain in the past for the sake of the relationship. When it comes to Christianity, we were all separated from God, unable to overcome our sins and be reconciled, so God sent Jesus Christ to bridge the gap between us and Himself.

“And you, who once were 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 1:21-22).”

Jesus Christ is the reconciliation God required through His death, burial and resurrection. Without accepting those three things, and bringing them into our lives, we cannot be reconciled to God. We simply don’t have what it takes on our own. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and no matter how we try, we will never be good enough for God until we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We must repent (turn from) our sins and turn to God by following Christ (Acts 3:19) in order to be saved. Although none of us are good enough for Heaven on our own (Romans 3:10-12), Jesus came to earth to change all of that and to reconcile us to Himself. Realizing our need for Jesus Christ is the first step to reconciliation, ignoring that need is spiritual suicide.

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation (Romans 5:6-11).”

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 © 2018 Marie McGaha