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! (Romans 5:10m NIV)
Through the work of Jesus in His blood shed on the cross, we are reconciled to God. The meaning of the word “reconcile” is “to be restored to our original value.” It is going back to the position man was in before he was alienated. Because of Christ’s work of salvation, we are taken back to that place. Back to the place before sin entered the picture.
But there is still more. The alienation has not just been removed and ended. It has been replaced. Not only are we reconciled and restored to the original connection with God, we now have a peace with God. Peace with God has replaced alienation from God.
[For God was pleased] through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:20, NIV, inference mine)
Here is an amazing consideration. He is our peace. We are in Him. Is He at peace with God? Definitely. In Him we share that peace. Because of that total and certain peace, we can approach God with boldness and confidence.
Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence. (Ephesians 3:12, NLT)
Does that sound like an approach we would take with an enemy? Would we walk confidently into the stronghold of an enemy? But we are no longer God’s enemies in our minds. We have peace with God. We can enjoy His presence with a confidence. This is not about a future hope or expectation. It is a position we have in Christ. We don’t have to do something to get there. We are already there.
Let’s firmly established something about God’s unconditional love. I’m going to get pretty complex and a little radical. I’m going to go somewhere with an idea that many people might find hard to accept. But here it is. God’s unconditional love is unconditional. God’s unconditional love has no conditions attached to it.
An obvious observation? It should be. Yet many Christians do not see His unconditional love without thinking that there must be some strings attached. But because we have accepted the once for all sacrifice of Jesus, our alienation has been removed. We have been accepted unconditionally. And where the love is unconditional, the peace is also certain.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2)
