Reconcilation

7/11/17      Nolan       about 35

“You talk like you are in a real relationship with God” – was the observation a man named Nolan made today in a coffeeshop conversation.  I had to remind myself that what seems so natural to us as Christians is a foreign concept to those who haven’t experienced it. 

Earlier in our conversation I had explained how man’s intimate relationship with God was cut off when Adam and Eve disobeyed, resulting in their feeling naked and exposed, running and hiding from God rather than walking with Him in a harmonious and peaceful relationship.  Our own disobedience does the same thing, driving us further from God and causing us to look for cheap substitutes as a result.

Nolan, in fact, had abandoned his Christian upbringing and was building his own beliefs from a variety of religious traditions.  It was good for me to review with him what he knew of the Gospel, but what really caught his attention and what he seemed to have missed in the first go-round growing up was that he could know and walk with God personally.

“Do you know what it means to settle out of court?”  I asked in explanation to his questions.  “It basically means that you meet informally with the judge before the official trial date to come to some sort of agreement before the full force of the law takes effect.  We all have a court date coming up, Judgment Day, and we need to make our peace with God and seek His mercy before we experience the full weight of His perfect justice.

Because of Jesus, we can “settle out of court” and make peace with God, trusting that His sacrifice on the cross can bring us forgiveness and allow us to walk in peace and intimacy with God once again, restoring what was lost in that garden so many years ago. 

“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”  Without Jesus, we are actually God’s enemies!  Have you experienced the peace and relationship that reconciliation with God brings?