NT Framework - Reconciliation Explained

Peace doesn’t start at a negotiating table; it starts in the heart made right with God. We dive into reconciliation as Scripture defines it: two hostile parties brought to peace, with Christ’s cross as the decisive initiative from God toward humanity. 

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and
our series on the New Testamentframework.
Today, a smaller, bite-sizedpiece from the larger lesson.
We hope you enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 (00:10):
The next word is reconciliation.
This is not an economic word,but this is a social term that
describes a situation where youhave two hostile parties, and
somehow they make peace bycoming to terms.
And so by analogy, of course, itspeaks, you know, the fact that
God and man are at hostilitytoward one another, but Christ

(00:34):
made a peace initiative on thecross so that God is now at
peace with uh the world, withman, but man is not necessarily
at peace with God.
Something has to happen for himto be uh at peace with God.
It's sort of like if you havetwo countries who are warring
one another, or two peoplegroups, let's just say Israel

(00:55):
and Hamas, whatever, okay,Ukraine and Russia, you've got
two people groups that are athostility with one another.
If one side's saying, hey, look,we we we want we want to be at
peace with you, but you know,you don't want to be at peace
with us.
Well, you've got one partythat's willing, you've got
another that's not.
You can't you can't come topeace on those terms.

(01:17):
Um, you have to have both sideswanting the peace.
And so um that's whatreconciliation is about.
And it's not sin word likeredemption, it's manward, it's
directed on man because God andman are in a hostile uh
situation.
The Bible says before webelieved we were enemies of God,

(01:39):
right?
It doesn't say we were friends,it says we're enemies, but those
who believe become friends ofGod.
We're at peace with God.
Romans 5, 1.
We have peace with God.
So um reconciliation is lookingat this peace initiative as it
relates to Christ and what hedid on the cross so that God
could be reconciled to man.
So let's look at uh 2Corinthians 5 first, 2

(02:01):
Corinthians 5, 18 through 21, uh20.
And then we'll look at some ofthese others.
Some of these others are just umpeople that are not reconciled
with one another, just humanrelations.
But why why aren't why aren'twhy is there war in the world?
That's kind of a big question,right?
Like, why is there war in theworld?

(02:23):
Why are people and people groupsfighting one another?
Well, very simple.
I mean, it's sin, right?
I mean, that's why, becausewe're selfish and we have sinful
ambitions.
Um and so that's all consequenceof sin.

(02:44):
Which first our problem is withGod.
That's why we have a problemwith God because of our sin.
Then it becomes a problem withman.
Then we have a problem with man.
Uh so think think about the TenCommandments for a second.
Okay.
Another cultural item in oursociety.
You know, we post those up onthe Supreme Court, you know, the
Ten Commandments.
Oh, we can't have that up there.
It's a I guess we agree withmurder now.

(03:05):
You know, I don't know.
Take that down.
Adultery, oh, that's good.
Take that off.
We don't want we don't want tosay that's wrong.
Um silly things like that thatpeople do in our country.
But all this stuff is likeposted there in the Ten
Commandments.
Well, you've got TenCommandments, right?
We say ten words, the bar,Hebrew to bar.
The ten words that God gaveIsrael at Mount Sinai.
Now, the first three or four,depending on how you count them,

(03:27):
are all between God and man.
Like thou shalt make no othergods before me, right?
Thou shalt have no graven image,okay, and so forth.
They're all like thisrelationship, vertical, man to
gut, man and God.
Then after that, you see thingslike thou shalt not lie, thou

(03:47):
shalt not commit adultery, thoushalt not covet.
Now, those are all man-to-man,right?
What we call horizontal.
Now, why why is it in thatorder?
Um, why does it start with theGod word commands and then move
to the man word?
Because this is where theproblem starts.
In other words, we can look outthere at the world and say, man,

(04:08):
it's a mess out there.
I mean, somebody stole my car.
You know, why why are you guysstealing my car?
That's that's wrong.
You shouldn't do that.
Why do we have stealing goingon?
Well, because we have a problembetween man and God.
That's just, this is the rootproblem, man and God.
This is the fruit problem.
We say, well, we want a bettersociety.
We want things to be nice, wewant nice clean parks around

(04:30):
here, we want plenty of room ondivision, so we're not having a
whole bus lane taken up and wewant to get places fast, and we
want, we want a better life.
Yeah, well, guess what?
The way to a better life downhere is to get this straight.
When this gets straightened out,guess what?
Nobody has their vested interestin the politics of this city in
making stupid decisions.

(04:52):
They want what's best foreverybody else.
Why?
Because they have a rightrelationship with God.
That's why.
See, all the stuff that we haveto deal with down here, the
stupid stuff, is because peoplewon't get right with God.
Because once you get right withGod, then you're conditioned of
humility.
That is necessary.
You have to.
To come to the foot of thecross, you can't come with

(05:13):
arrogance.
Arrogance says, I'm going to doit myself.
Humility says Jesus Christ didit for me.
Now, once you believed in JesusChrist, you have a humble
attitude toward everything.
That means you put everybodyelse ahead of yourself in your
own vested interests.
But if you're if you don'tbelieve in Jesus Christ, it's
all about you and your poweragenda that is usually played
out through the political agendauh political scene.

(05:36):
And that's why Americans hatepolitics.
We can't stand it that thosepeople up there are just really
interested in themselves and notinterested in us.
But why are they interested inthemselves and not in us?
Because they're arrogant.
This is the most obvious thingin the world and it's driving me
absolute crazy.

(05:56):
Sorry.
A lot of rants today, but it'sthis is a is this is a problem
that really is only resolved bythe cross.
It really is.
That's why the only people thatJesus is going to let into his
kingdom are guess what?
Believers.
He will not let one unbelieverin there.
Why?

(06:16):
Because they're spoiled, brats.
He doesn't want that nastinesscoming in there to do what?
Mess everything up that he setup that's perfect.
Oh my goodness.
So we've got this verse.
2 Corinthians 5.18.
And I'm still still inThessalonians.
2 Corinthians 5.18.

(06:41):
And this shows you both sides ofwhat happened when Christ died
on the cross.
Now, all these things are fromGod.
Oh, what things?
Well, the things he's beentalking about since 217, but we
won't go through all that.
All these things are from Godwho reconciled us to himself
through Christ and gave us theministry of reconciliation.

(07:01):
Now, all this salvation that wehave, it's it comes to us from
God, verse 18, who reconciledus.
There's the word.
We were hostile to him, but hereconciled us to himself through
Christ, his work on the cross.
And then he gave us, believersin him, the ministry of
reconciliation.
I just that's so interesting.

(07:22):
Uh he gave that to us.
He could have, he could have hecould preach the gospel himself.
I mean, he's not a mute.
Um God can preach the gospel.
He can speak to the whole humanrace right now if he wants to.
But it says he gave us theministry of reconciliation.
He wants us to take the ministryof reconciliation and tell the

(07:43):
world about what Christ has doneto reconcile us to God.
Why does he want to do that?
Why, when you're working in thegarage or you're a mother,
you're working in the kitchen,do you take one of your little
kids beside you and you say, No,look, here's how you dice green
peppers, here's how you preparethe pasta, here's how you why do
you do that?

(08:03):
Because you want to involve themin the process and get to teach
someone something that they willtake them with them for the a
life.
You're you're investing.
That's what you're doing.
You're investing in the littlekid, right?
You're teaching them, you'retraining them.
Why does God want to involve usin the ministry of
reconciliation?

(08:23):
Because he wants us to get to bea part of what he's doing.
He wants to invest in us.

SPEAKER_00 (08:29):
Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls
with Jeremy Thomas.
If you would like to see thevisuals that went along with
today's sermon, you can findthose on Rumble and on YouTube
under Spokane Bible Church.
That is where Jeremy is thepastor and teacher.
We hope you found today's lessonproductive and useful in growing

(08:50):
closer to God and walking moreobediently with Him.
If you found this podcast to beuseful and helpful, then please
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And until next time, we hope youhave a blessed and wonderful
day.