Reconciling us to God through Christ

 

Reconciling us to God through Christ

 

2 Corinthians 5:18–19: "All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through (*dia*) Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God (*Theos*) was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them, and has committed to us the message (*ton logon*) of reconciliation."

*Dia* (διὰ) means "through." Salvation must come through Jesus Christ. To go through Jesus, one must enter into Jesus; Jesus’s role is to bring about reconciliation between God and humanity. The relationship between God and humanity was severed due to sin, and Jesus acts to bridge that relationship. Therefore, if one is not in Jesus Christ, one cannot be reconciled with God.

*Theos* (θεὸς) without the article refers to Christ. It means that Immanuel—God—is within Christ. In other words, Christ is Jehovah. Thus, when a believer enters into Christ, they can meet God. *Theos*, Christ, and *ton logon* (the Word/Logos) are one and the same.

Leviticus 3:1–2: "If a person’s offering is a sacrifice of fellowship [peace offering] and he offers an animal from the herd—whether male or female—he is to present it without blemish before the LORD. He is to lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting; then Aaron’s sons the priests shall splash the blood against the sides of the altar."

The defining characteristic of the peace offering is that one comes before God with a sacrifice. Those who are in Jesus Christ have already been reconciled. Thus, through the Bible—specifically Romans 12:1—God says: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship."

Offering oneself means working to bring dead spirits to life. Many people in the church equate this with financial offerings. While money is certainly needed for church finances, fundamentally, the act must encompass everything done to revive the spirit.

The Hebrew term for the peace offering is *shelamim* (singular: *shelem*), a word derived from *shalom*. It signifies a sacrifice of fellowship. Unlike the burnt offering or the grain offering, the peace offering is not mandatory; it is a voluntary offering.

With a burnt offering, the entire sacrifice is consumed by fire, leaving nothing behind. With a grain offering, a portion is burned, and a portion goes to the priest. With a peace offering, however, a portion is given to God, a portion to the priest, and a large part is shared among the people as a meal.

Deuteronomy 12:17–18 states: "You must not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain and new wine and olive oil, nor the firstborn of your herds and flocks, nor any of the offerings you have vowed to give, nor your freewill offerings, nor the special gifts from your hands. Instead, you are to eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place the Lord your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns—and you are to rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you put your hand to."

The peace offering creates an atmosphere of joy. The term for "freewill offering" implies an offering made with a joyful heart. Peace offerings were presented for various purposes.

First, they were offered when a vow needed to be fulfilled. In Genesis 28, while Jacob was sleeping at Bethel, the heavens opened and angels were seen ascending and descending; amidst this, God promised Jacob descendants and land, just as He had promised Abraham and Isaac. Verses 20–22 record Jacob’s vow: "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the LORD will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will give You a tenth."

Similarly, in 1 Samuel 1:10–11, Hannah, in deep anguish, prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly, making this vow: "LORD Almighty, if You will only look on Your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget Your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head."

The second type was an offering presented when there was cause for thanksgiving. Psalm 107:22 says, "Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of His works with songs of joy." Leviticus 7:12 states, "If they offer it as an expression of thanksgiving, then along with this thanksgiving offering they are to offer cakes of unleavened bread mixed with oil, wafers made without oil, and cakes of fine flour well-kneaded and mixed with oil."

The third type was offered to express love and joy toward God; in Korean, this is referred to as a *nakheonje* (freewill offering). There was no fixed time for the *hwamokje* (peace offering), and any animal without blemish could be offered; one could present either a male or a female animal.

Hands were laid upon the head of the sacrificial animal. Laying hands on the head signifies that the offering and the one who presents it become one. An animal was slaughtered, and its blood was sprinkled; the blood of the dead animal stood in for the sinner's guilt. Reconciliation with God requires the shedding and sprinkling of blood. Thus, the shedding of Jesus Christ’s blood brings about reconciliation between God and the sinner.

For a sinner to be reconciled with God, they must die; this is why we die on the cross together with Jesus. Through the shedding of the animal's blood, the sinner’s blood is symbolically shed; the sprinkling of that blood represents the sprinkling of the sinner’s own blood. Those who are in Christ must not merely focus on daily repentance, but must remember the truth: "I die daily."

What many in the church overlook today is the realization that those in Christ are also those who have been buried with Jesus. Salvation is not simply a matter of believing in Jesus; it involves believing that we have died with Him, uniting with Jesus Christ who died on the cross, and being liberated from all sin.

Romans 6:3–5 states: "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection."