Repentance and Reconciliation

Yesterday, I gave an example from 2 Maccabees of Jason the high priest introducing foreign practices into Jewish life with disastrous results. After the debacle, Jason was ousted as high priest in favor of Melenaus. While Jason made a successful attack on Jerusalem to regain the position, he overstepped, killing innocent people, so that the Greeks turned against him, forcing him to flee and die in exile. Antiochus, for his part, “dared to enter the most holy temple in all the earth.… With defiled hands he took the holy vessels, and with profane hands he pulled down the things dedicated by other kings to increase the glory and honor of the place” (2 Macc 5:15–16). With booty in tow, he left Jerusalem and sent Apollonius, commander of the Mysians, with an army of 22,000 men, with orders to slaughter all the grown men and to sell the women and young boys as slaves, resulting in the killing of a great number of people (2 Macc 5:24–26).

Amidst the apostatizing priests and later carnage and mayhem from invading forces, we have a sublime message concerning a marvelous truth, wisely acknowledging the ties and priorities between God’s people and His dwelling place.

But the Lord did not choose the nation because of the place, but the place because of the nation. Therefore the place also itself shared in the misfortunes that befell the nation, and later had a share in its benefits; and what was forsaken in the wrath of the Almighty was restored again in all its glory by the reconciliation of the great Lord. (2 Macc 5:19–20)

Evidently, at this time Jerusalem and the temple were held as the linchpin or identity of Judaism—that God had chosen Israel because He placed His name in Jerusalem. The writer reminds his readers that they had things backwards: God had first chosen the nation (Deut 7:6), then afterward had chosen a place to put His name as a dwelling place whereat He might be called (Deut 12:5). While the desecration and looting of the temple was a great tragedy, the greater tragedy was the malaise of the nation concerning the holy things coupled with the loss of human life. Later teaching from Jesus describes the continued downward trajectory of the leaders’ spiritual condition, becoming stagnant and twisted to the extent that the gold of the temple was held in higher esteem than the temple itself (Matt 23:16–17); however, at this time, there seemed to be an understanding that the Lord would and did restore the former glory of the city, temple, and nation upon becoming reconciled with His people.

While we continue on this earth, our sins and trespasses separates us from Him. Isaiah describes the condition this way: But your sins stand between you and your God, and He turned His face from you because of your sins, so as to have no mercy (Isa 59:2). Yet in spite of this great wall, the promise of restoration continues as a theme throughout Scripture. Beginning with Adam’s fall, the Lord had promised action (Gen 3:15); and by virtue of the One promised, a means of atonement and reconciliation was available. Presented with the facts, sinners have opportunity to repent (Isa 59:12–14). We see this continuing even in the churches of Revelation mentioned in yesterday’s post as the Lord warns:

• Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else… (Rev 2:2)
• Repent, or else… (Rev 2:16)
• I will cast her into a sickbed,… unless they repent of their deeds. (Rev 2:22)
• Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. (Rev 3:3)
• As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. (Rev 3:19)

This seems like a who lot of Law being dropped on the people them, and our sinful flesh fights against it; but we need to understand that He has already accomplished the victory for us. By grace through faith, we are reconciled to God (Rom 5:10–11); and when His people repent, He fights for them:

He put on righteousness as a breastplate and placed the helmet of salvation on His head. He clothed Himself with the garment and covering of vengeance, as a recompense of recompenses, even a rebuke to His adversaries. Those from the west shall fear the name of the Lord, and those from the east, His glorious name; for the wrath of the Lord shall come like a violent river; it shall come with anger. (Isa 59:17–19)

For Judas Maccabeus and the faithful of Israel, their day eventually came as hostilities ceased with the Greeks through a truce. To be sure, it was a temporary peace, but the Lord was true to His promise. We know what would happen later when the God Himself came, offering the kingdom of heaven: they rejected Him and His gift outright. But God was still faithful to His word: to those who received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believed on His name. Those are they who received ultimate reconciliation and peace.

If Indeed...

Our pastor challenged the congregation to read five passages (one passage per day) and answer three questions from the daily passage.

• What does it say God is like?
• What does it say God has done?
• Why would He do that for me?

This was a good exercise: first, it forces us to review who God is and what He has done; and second, it causes us to examine Scripture with fresh eyes with hopes that we might see or understand something previously missed: likely from preconceptions from prior teaching. On one hand, this is good We should be so indoctrinated, catechized, or instructed (whichever term you prefer) that false teaching can quickly be identified and dismissed; on the other hand, if the body of learned doctrine is incorrect, there needs to be a re-evaluation and subsequent shift, however slight.

The final text was Colossians 1:13–23, which gives a grand portrait of Christ being very God and very man in every way, redeeming us, and being our head as we are His body the church. As wonderful as all this certainly is, St. Paul tells us something yet more wonderful/

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. (Col 1:19–23)

The fullness of what both God and man are dwells in Jesus in order that within Him all mankind might be reconciled to God. Consider the enormity of this! We who were at odds and cut off from our Creator are now in good stead through Jesus’ death. Where there was once conflict and hostility, peace now holds sway: we are holy, blameless, and above reproach. What a wonderful and comforting relationship has been won! As wonderful as all this certainly is, I was particularly struck by the last portion: if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. St. Paul posits for the recipients at Colossae that for some hearers of this letter—and others who would come in the future—there is a real possibility of falling away from or abandoning the faith, therefore, no reconciliation in the end: a disturbing thought and rightfully so.

How are we to move forward vis a vis this warning? One way might be to rely on self-motivation to continual remain vigilant in the Christian walk and determine to press forward whatever the circumstance. Many believers take this path; however, this routinely leads to failure. Why? When faced with a rule or law, we automatically want to do the opposite of what was stipulated. Do you want me to eat a handful of freshly baked cookies? Tell me I can’t have one, then walk away. St. Paul stated this in a different way:

For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. (Rom 7:7–11)

Laws inflame our sinful desires, so any attempt to rely on personal will or strength to stay in the kingdom until the last day will always fail. The focus must be reversed leading to the second, and proper, course of action: rest in our Lord Jesus Christ. What do I mean?

Christians can be so shortsighted and forgetful. We tend to believe that once God brings us into His kingdom that His work is done, and now we take up our end of the bargain in everyday life. Some become negligent, losing sight of what we have been called to. Others become surprised by their weakness of resolve, tending to make more rules and disciplines to bolster resolve, but that is a self-defeating activity. Eventually, someone recognizes the absurdity of chasing rules. When that happens, some give up on the faith (the highly publicized examples of Joshua Harris and Marty Sampson are not uncommon). Better is to cling to the sweet promise: being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil 1:6). God is the One who strengthens and supplies.

Sadly, there are preachers offering the gospel of Jesus Christ as a self-help plan or a stoic regimen. It is neither. Instead, it is news that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again for you. Baptism is for you. The Lord’s Supper is for you. Confession and absolution are for you. All that we have been given in Christ is intended to keep us in Him. Let us hold fast our confession.

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:19–25)

Should We More Emphasize Reconciliation?

Courtesy of Pexels.com

The following was written by Pastor Andrew Preus (LCMS pastor serving in northeast Iowa) on Facebook. It is a good reminder that we tend to promote one aspect of atonement over another, when the truth lies in seeing the entire multifaceted truth of what Christ accomplished.

As far as I can tell, Lutherans historically did not use the term “penal substitution” so much, but, rather, “vicarious satisfaction” and “reconciliation.” Of course the concept of penal substitution is not denied. Jesus paid the penalty we owed to God, as Luther says in article 2 of the Creed in the Large Catechism. But paying the penalty doesn’t say it all. In fact, there are those who have taught a theory of penal substitution while also denying that Jesus made satisfaction to God’s eternal will (law), such as Hugo Grotius and the New England Reformed theologians like Jonathan Edwards Jr. Instead, for them, Jesus simply paid the penalty to God’s governmental popular law merely so that God, as the governor of the universe, can now bring about the best possible result by making reconciliation available under the condition that we accept it by faith.

Instead, the term vicarious satisfaction means that Christ fulfilled the very heart of God. He fulfilled the law, not merely as a payment to some legal standard distinct from God’s nature, but as the fulfillment of God’s own righteousness summarized in loving God above all things and his neighbor as himself. Certainly this includes paying our penalty. But this penalty is payed not merely to some government run by God, but this is a penalty against God’s own personal righteousness. Certainly it is a legal, forensic transaction. But it isn’t simply a payment to make reconciliation a possibility for us. It is, instead, a fulfillment of the very heart and will of God, commending himself to God who judges justly, confessing his name, upholding his Word to give rest to sinful men, honoring his parents and all authority, giving his life for his neighbor and healing those who were sick and dead, living a chaste life while cleansing his bride the church, not stealing even what was his but taking the form of a servant, blessing those who cursed him, and being satisfied with all of what God gave him. This will of God, revealed in the Ten Commandments, is fulfilled to its very heart and weighty matters in mercy, faithfulness, and justice. This is the vicarious satisfaction, not merely a payment to make reconciliation possible, but a payment to the eternal, immutable will of God, satisfying every desire of God on behalf of every sinner. Here he has satisfied not merely some example of justice, but the personal wrath of God. The infinite will of God is fully contained in this body, blood, obedience, and satisfaction of the Son. This means that the peace of God toward all sinners is identified fully in this work of atonement, not in some invisible possibility of sovereign grace to which we must cognitively add Christ’s payment and our own faith. No, the fullness of satisfaction, rest, peace, and reconciliation is in Christ’s complete obedience.

Therefore this fullness of reconciliation is in the Word of the gospel, not in some invisible testimony of the Spirit. Just as Christ offered himself through the eternal Spirit to God, so does this same Spirit fully testify this complete atonement through the gospel and sacraments. He takes what is Christ’s and declares it to us in full. He doesn’t merely lay out the conditions for reconciliation with Christ’s payment as only one of the parts of the equation. No, Christ satisfied all righteousness for all (Rom 5:18,19). This means that the gospel is already the fullness of God’s revealed pleasure toward sinners. Faith therefore rests on this, comes from this, and builds on this foundation.

So don’t rely on some theory. Don’t rely on an equation you make by adding your faith to what Christ merely made possible. Rely on the fullness of the gospel, which declares the complete obedience and satisfaction of Christ by which God’s personal anger is turned away and by which he has established peace with you. Amen.

The Price of Mediation: Christ Paid a Ransom for All

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.  (1 Tim 2:3-6)

[Paul] wants all to enjoy salvation.  Then he confirms the statement on another basis as well—there is not one maker of the faithful and another of the unfaithful.  There is one creator, one broker of peace, who brought together in himself what were apart.  He spoke of Christ as man since he called him mediator: by becoming man he acted as mediator.  Just as the person wanting to reconcile two parties by the right hand and the other by the left and brings them together in friendship, likewise in his case by uniting humanity to the divine nature, he brought about entire and indissoluble peace.  If on the contrary, according to Arius and Eunomius, he has no share in the being of the Father, how is he a mediator?  While he is united with us in so far as he is one in being with us in terms of humanity, he is not likewise united with the Father if, in their view, he is removed from that nature.  But the divine apostle called him mediator.  Consequently, he is united both with the Father in divinity and also likewise with us in humanity.

Theodoret of Cyrus, “The First Epistle to Timothy”

Christ's All-Encompassing Sacrifice: Our Only Means of Reconciliation

In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.  (2 Cor 5:19)

Therefore the Epistle [of Hebrews] is occupied to a great extent with the topic that the ancient priesthood and the ancient sacrifices were instituted not for the purpose of meriting the remission of sins before God or reconciliation, but only to signify the future sacrifice of Christ alone.  For in the Old Testament it was necessary for saints to be justified by faith derived from the promise of the remission of sins that was to be granted for Christ's sake, just as saints are also justified in the New Testament.  From the beginning of the world it was necessary for all saints to believe that Christ would be the promised offering and satisfaction for sins, as Isaiah 53:10 teaches: When you shall make His soul an offering for sin.

Since, therefore, in the Old Testament, sacrifices did not merit reconciliation, unless by a figure (for they merited civil reconciliation), but signified the coming sacrifice, it follows that Christ is the only sacrifice applied on behalf of the sins of others.  Therefore, in the New Testament no sacrifice is left to be applied for the sins of others, except the one sacrifice of Christ upon the cross.

Apology of the Augsburg Confession XXIV.54-56

Reconciled and Steadfast in Christ

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.  (Col 1:21-22)

Again he lays down also the manner of the reconciliation, that it was "in the body," not by being merely beaten, nor scourged, nor sold, but even by dying the most shameful death.  Again he makes mention of the Cross, and again lays down another benefit.  For He did not only "deliver," but, as he says above, "Who made us qualified" (ver. 12), to the same he alludes here also.  "Through" His "death," he says, “to present you holy and without blemish and above reproach before Him."  For truly, He has not only delivered from sins, but has also placed amongst the approved.  For, not that He might deliver us from evils only, did He suffer so great things, but that also we might obtain the first rewards; as if one should not only free a condemned criminal from his punishment, but also advance him to honor. And he hath ranked you with those who have not sinned, yea rather not with those who have done no sin only, but even with those who have wrought the greatest righteousness; and, what is truly a great thing, has given holiness which is before Him and being above reproach.  Now an advance upon blameless is above reproach, when we have done nothing either to be condemned for, or charged with.  But, since he ascribed the whole to Him, because through His death He achieved these things.  "What then," says one, "is it to us?  We need nothing."  Therefore he added,

if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.  (Col 1:23)

Here he strikes a blow at their listlessness.  And he said not simply "continue," for it is possible to continue wavering and vacillating; it is possible to stand, and continue, though turned this way and that.  "If indeed you continue," he says, "stable and steadfast, and not shifting."  Wonderful!  What a forcible metaphor he uses!  He says not only not tossed to and fro, but not even moved.  And observe, he lays down so far nothing burdensome, nor toilsome, but faith and hope—that is, if you continue believing, that the hope of the things to come is true.  For this indeed is possible.  But as regards virtuous living, it is not possible to avoid being shaken about, though it be but a little; so what he prescribes is not grievous.

John Chrysostom, Homily on Colossians, IV

What Was Estranged Is Now Reconciled

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.  (Col 1:21-22)

From your own case give a thought to the common situation.  I mean, you were given up to wickedness and impiety and utterly deprived of the light of the knowledge of God, but you have become related to God.  It was not the Law who gave this gift to you; rather, Christ the Lord paid your debt so that you were thought worthy of the calling and rendered holy and free of very stain.

Theodoret of Cyrus, "The Letter to the Colossians"

Heaven and Earth Are Joined in Christ

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.  (Col 1:19-20)

He it was who brought about our reconciliation by undergoing saving passion, shedding the blood, and offering the sacrifice for us; and he joined heavenly things to earthly.  The choirs of angels, you see, had been alienated from us on account of the great wickedness.  For this reason at his birth they raised their voices and offered a hymn to God in the words, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men!"

Theodoret of Cyrus, "The Letter to the Colossians"

United in One New Man

That he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

He put to death the enmity by the cross, offering the flawless sacrifice.  He reconciled both, that is, those from the Gentiles and those from the Jews, in one body offered for all, so that they might form one body.  He called all believers one man since while Christ the Lord is the single head of all, those granted salvation fill the role of the body.

Theodoret of Cyrus, "The Letter to the Ephesians" on Ephesians 2:15-16

Reconciled Representatives

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.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.  We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

[Paul] indicated God's unspeakable lovingkindness, saying he was not reconciled to us, although he it was who was insulted by the Fall.  Rather, he reconciled us to himself, not employing a human being as mediator, but making the only-begotten Son a mediator of peace.… The God of all it was who by means of Christ achieved reconciliation with men.  Now what is the manner of this reconciliation?  He granted the forgiveness of sins and commissioned us as ministers of peace.

Since he claimed to have been appointed minister of reconciliation, he was obliged to set out the ambassadorship….  Now, what is the message he brings as ambassador?  We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  The words are sufficient to make even the most unfeeling be ashamed.  He said first that with the execution of Christ he not only did not bear resentment but sent us as ambassadors to win all people over, respect his long-suffering, be ashamed at the murder of Christ, and be reconciled to the Creator, God, and Lord.

He goes on to add to the above the dishonor of the passion.  Though free of sin, he underwent the death of sinners in order to undo man's sin; and bearing the name that we have, he gave us the name of what he himself is—that is, he lavished us with the riches of righteousness.

Theodoret of Cyrus, "The Second Letter to the Corinthians" on 2 Corinthians 5:18-21