Reconciliation with God
What is 'reconciliation with God
What is 'reconciliation with God', and why is there a need for it?
When God created Adam and Eve, they were perfect in character and inclination, and lived in obedience to God's law. To make it natural for them to obey Him, God imprinted on their hearts the Ten Commandments. He also revealed to them that transgression of His law is punishable by death. "The wages of sin is death" Romans 6:23. All governments require clear laws and well-defined punishments for violation of these laws. Just imagine the state of the world if punishments were absolved. Would we be safe to live in a place where violators of the law were not subject to a penalty?
While God revealed His law to Adam and Eve, and made it natural for them to obey by imprinting it in their heart. He did not remove their freedom of choice. God might have created man without the power to transgress His law; but in that case man would have been not a free moral agent, but a mere automation. Without freedom of choice, his obedience would not have been voluntary, but forced.
Regrettably, Adam and Eve wilfully chose to disobey God, thus sin created a barrier between man and God. They became subject to the punishment of death for transgressing God's law. They had to die. Furthermore, the pure inclination they had for obeying God was corrupted after choosing to disobey His law.
Their hearts had now acquired an opposing and stronger tendency to disobey.
Faced with the transgression of Adam and Eve, what was our loving God to do? Leave them both to die for their transgression of His law? Do loving earthly parents abandon their children after they choose to disobey them? Or worse, would He remove the punishment for the transgression to accommodate them? Can a government, earthly or heavenly, endure and prosper without well-defined punishments? Certainly not.
In short, if Adam and Eve were to pay for their transgression themselves, that would have resulted in the end of the human race. Or if God were to create anew another Adam and Eve, there was no guarantee that they would not, like their predecessors, choose to disobey, and the whole process would happen again. It is apparent that an external solution (out of the realm of the sinners) had to be devised. This heavenly plan was prepared by God long before the need for it actually came.
The Bible says it is "the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints" Colossians 1:26. God's plan incorporated the solution to bring the human race back in harmony again with Him, without undermining His law, or government because as much as God hates sin He loves the sinner.
This solution meant that someone else innocent must pay the death penalty; hence, his death would be on behalf of the sinners. By his death, the sinner who believed would be reconciled to God, as if he never sinned, and thus God's justice and love for the human race would not be in conflict with each other. Without paying the penalty, there would never be reconciliation between man and God. And reconciliation is necessary to be in harmony with God and live with Him in heaven eternally.
Additionally, this external person who was to die on behalf of sinners needed to show man how to live on earth without sinning, so there would be permanent reconciliation with God. What is the point of being reconciled only to slip back into sin, and need another reconciliation? Obviously, God's plan included a way to empower man to live victoriously over sin! So that, although by transgression of God's law, Adam lost paradise, in obedience to the Father's law and through faith in the atoning blood of this external person, paradise may be regained.
I want to be reconciled with God; I want to overcome sin in my life. What must I do first?
You must remember two important points. Firstly, the proud heart strives to earn salvation; but both your title to heaven and your fitness for reconciliation are found in the righteousness of this external person. Secondly, God can do nothing towards your reconciliation until, convinced of your own weakness, and stripped of all self-sufficiency, you submit yourself to the control of God.
However, your question means that you are already convicted of your personal sin. You are not happy with yourself. The first step that must be taken of all who return to God is repentance. "Repent...and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out" Acts 3:19. We often sorrow because our evil deeds bring unpleasant consequences to ourselves; but this is not repentance. True repentance is more than sorrow for sin. It is a resolute turning away from evil. No repentance is genuine that does not work reformation. Nevertheless, can man repent of himself? No more than he can pardon or expiate himself. Repentance is no less the gift of God than is forgiveness and it cannot be experienced except as it is given to the soul.
When the heart becomes fully repentant by yielding to the influence of the Spirit of God, the sinner will begin to discern the sacredness of God's holy law. There will be a yearning desire to live a pure and holy life and to be in constant peace with God. And as we strive daily to walk closer with God, "He will draw nigh", and our characters will reflect His more and more as we "die daily" of our old sinful ways. James 4:8; 1 Corinthians 15:31