A Reconciled Life

2 Corinthians 5:19 "God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ..."

I don't know if I will ever fully understand the depth of this verse. The simple part of this is that God desired to have restored relationship with us, His most precious of all creation. Think of reconciling in terms of your finances, like our checkbook (for many it's online banking... I'm still old school). The purpose of reconciling your account is to make sure that your records balance with the what the bank has on record. This keeps things in sync and helps avoid being over drawn.

The part that is so overwhelming with this verse is that God took it upon Himself to balance our life... not me balancing it. Before the days of online banking, one would take their bank statement from the mailbox and open their check book and go line by line to make sure that everything was accounted for. Sometimes a check would be forgotten and the two seperate records would not reconcile. You would rack your brain trying to recount where you've been and what you spent your money on. Some people didn't bother keeping track at all, and would open up their bank statement and would find themselves either pleasantly surprised by the amount of money they had or fearful of what they didn't have.

God could have put the weight of responsibility on us (our records) to reconcile with Him, but He reconciled our life with Himself... His records with His records. God understood that we were dead in our sins, and had no idea how "over drawn" we were, and provided a way to make us reconcile with Him; the life of Jesus Christ. As real as this is, some people still try to reconcile their life with God by their own means: acts of kindness, trying to be good people, not get into too much trouble, etc. All these thing aren't sufficent to reconcile us with God. Basically, they reject God's gift and plan of settling accounts by relying on their own records and methods.

I know I'm not God, but if I were... I would be sad, frustrated, angry and frankly insulted at the rejection such an act of kindness that was made available through my Son Jesus Christ. I find myself trying to be self-sufficient at times, paying no attention to what "debts of sin" I have built up. These include words spoken, attitudes, being rude and causing hurt in peole, in my anger reacting wrongly.

Where would I be without God's love for me? I can't even imagine the questions and fears I would have hoping and praying that I've done enough to make things right with God. He removed all doubts by giving His Son Jesus Christ to die for my sins. And to think that all I have to do is acknowledge and repent of my sins and confess Jesus as the Savior of my soul. To devote everyday of my life in humility and faith in Christ Jesus. That's too much for me to comprehend. Thank God for His love for me!