Justification and Reconciliation. Romans 5:8-11
In the first eleven verses
of chapter five Paul is making his transition, moving from talking about what
happened at salvation (justification). The first implication Paul pulls from
justification by faith is what he identifies as peace with God (5:1) and then
identifies more clearly as reconciliation which he
almost uses as a synonym for justification when we get to the end of these
eleven verses. Romans 5:10 NASB “For if while we were enemies we
were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been
reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” The reconciliation has to do with
what has happened in the past: salvation by His life, meaning His resurrected
life that is the basis doctrinally for understanding the new life that we have
(Romans 6:4).
Romans 5:9 NASB
“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood …” Talking about what
has already transpired. In verse 10 that shifts from
the parallel, from having been justified, to being reconciled. This parallel
sets up some interesting implications but also can open the door to some
confusion. It has led theologians to some different positions.
In this passage we see
reconciliation as a ground for our assurance. Because we have been reconciled
to God we shall be saved by His life and on that basis we can have present joy,
v. 11. “And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” The mention of
joy again is the same verb that we have in verse 2, “and we exult in hope of
the glory of God,” and also in verse 3, “we also exult in our tribulations.”
Paul ties all this together. The vocabulary is very important for us to
understand. Unfortunately that verb for “rejoice” is translated “glory” in 5:3
[NKJV]
and it throws us off the track. When we realise that it is the same verb in vv.
2, 3 and 11 then we see that that ties together the beginning of the paragraph
with the end of the paragraph, and it is all talking about why we can have real
joy right now in our Christian life today, not just looking for that joy in the
future as a result of our eventual glorification. He is focusing on the present
tense implication of justification in terms of the joy that comes from reconciliation,
and how that peace that we have with God becomes a foundation for living the
Christian life and understanding the Christian life, which is what he gets into
starting in chapter 6.
So we want to go back and
review this doctrine of reconciliation as we see it in Romans. It raises three
basic questions. First, what is the relationship between justification and
reconciliation? The reason that is an important question is because
justification is something that happened to us as believers, only those who
expressed faith alone in Christ alone. In this passage, though, it seems that
Paul creates a very close parallel between reconciliation and justification.
But then the work of reconciliation it is said in 2 Corinthians 5 to be
something that occurs at the cross, as it is here in Romans 5 also, not
something that occurs in time when an individual puts their faith in Christ.
This is what has caused some basic confusion. Some of the questions that have
been raised relate to the fact that with God reconciling the world to Himself.
Is the world that is reconciled to God or is God reconciled to the world? In
other words, who moves? Also related to this is the issue of propitiation. What
is the relationship between reconciliation and propitiation? Propitiation is
said to be something that happens towards God in terms of His justice and His
righteousness, that when He looks at the cross and that in the death of Christ
His justice is satisfied, and so God is propitiated. It doesn’t mean that He
changes; it means that because His judicial requirements are satisfied because
the penalty for sin is paid God’s justice is then satisfied so that God is free
to graciously bestow salvation on mankind.
So the first question has
to do with this relationship between justification and reconciliation. Also
what is the relationship between reconciliation and propitiation? And then the
third question has to do with the issue: is God reconciling the world or is God
being reconciled? How does this work and what are the aspects of this? What we
are going to see is that reconciliation has two different aspects. One is
definitely related to an objective work of God that occurs on the cross that is
related to the world, so that the world, which is at enmity with God, is in a
position of hostility, because of the violation of God’s righteousness and
justice (that is where propitiation comes in), and God has to change that state
from hostility to peace. That is an objective thing that happens at the cross.
We will see as we go through these passages that that dimension of
reconciliation is objective, and like justification it is also forensic.
Forensic has to do with actions in the court room, and
so what we are talking about is the judicial dimension to reconciliation which
helps us to understand why Paul can closely connect them between Romans 5:9 and
5:10. That
objective dimension to reconciliation occurs at the cross and the state of the
world is being transformed from being a state of hostility—once God’s
character is satisfied (propitiation) then the world’s position of enmity is
changed, which doesn’t make the world saved but it makes the inhabitants of the
world saveable.
Therein lies a very simple
expression of a lot of different theology and it is really just the fact that reconciliation
has two aspects to it. One is the objective one and the second is this
subjective one that occurs personally. We see the same kind of thing when we
see words like “forgiveness.” That forgiveness occurred at the cross.
Colossians chapter two: God forgave us by wiping out that certificate of debt
that was against us—basically the indictment related to sin. That was
wiped out or cancelled when it was nailed to the cross. That happened
historically, so that there is a forensic dimension also to forgiveness. It
happened at the cross when Christ paid the penalty and the certificate of debt
was wiped out. But that doesn’t change people individually, it is related to
that legal change of relationship to God because the penalty is paid but that
doesn’t change the on-the-ground reality of each person’s experience of being
spiritually dead and being unrighteous. It is only when we then express faith
in Christ that we receive the imputation of righteousness, are declared
justified and then receive new life and regeneration and have eternal life. And
so those individual subjective aspects are then taken care of.
In Romans 5:10, 11 we have
two different uses of the word “reconcile.” Romans 5:10 NASB “For if
while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son
[past tense], much more, having been reconciled [aorist passive participle], we
shall be saved by His life. [11] And not only this, but we also exult in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ [present tense], through whom we have now
received the reconciliation.” So there is a reception of reconciliation in
verse 11 and that relates to passive voice of “we were reconciled” in verse 10.
That means we received that action of reconciliation, we don’t do anything to
reconcile ourselves to God. But wait a minute, it seems like Paul is going to
say something a little different in 2 Corinthians 5.
1.
The human race is in a
legal state of hostility, which is really what enmity means. It is not a sense
of personal animosity or hatred or personal vindictiveness on the part of God,
and it certainly isn’t talking about enmity in terms of what is on the human
side of the equation. The enmity is related to God’s character. There is a
status of hostility that is in place and it is grounded in man’s violation of
God’s judicial character. So it is a forensic state, a judicial state, and not
an experiential, subjective, personal state of animosity.
2.
No fallen human being can
change this state of hostility. There is nothing we can do. We are the prisoner
in the dock, we are under indictment and we can’t do anything to change that,
it has to be changed elsewhere.
3.
The opposite of hostility
is peace. In the context of Romans chapter five the peace here is also going to
be a judicial peace, because it grows out of our understanding of
justification. Verse 1, “Because we have been justified by faith.” That is
forensic, not experiential. So by implication “we have peace with God” too,
must be forensic. So in Romans five we are talking
about a forensic aspect to this issue of peace. The hostility is forensic, i.e. it is based on a legal case. It is so
interesting that Scripture grounds everything that God does toward mankind on a
contract. That gives it this legal framework. It is about law, so that from the
very beginning, before there was even sin in the human race God is grounding
everything He does on the basis of the rule of law. And when man is operating in sin he always wants to buck the
law, he always wants to violate the law, and the more rebellious the human race
becomes, the more antinomian it becomes, the more it rejects the rule of law.
And what always comes about when the rule of law is rejected is either pure
anarchy or pure tyranny. The history of the human race always tends to move in
one of those directions, apart from the grace of God and the influence of
Scripture. We see the collapse of society because there is a rejection of the
rule of law. But the Bible lays this foundation on the rule of law, that
everything God does it related to law.
A
side note: Coming out of the “lovely subjective” sixties where everything was
about love and flowers (unless, of course, you were conservative. Love was not
directed toward conservatives or the military), and all about emotion and
relationship. Justification was the focus doctrine of the Reformation but, because of societal transformation, but the time of the
60s and 70s the key doctrine for gospel communication is reconciliation because
reconciliation is relational.
In
this passage the focus isn’t on relationship, it is on justice, on law. So law
precedes relationship. Isn’t that interesting! What other area is there where
law and contract precedes a relationship? Technically it is marriage, because a
couple establish a formal legal contract. They are promising in a legal sense
to be faithful to one another until “death do us part.” And the love that they
are declaring to one another is a love that is not related to emotion, because
it is whether in sickness, health, in prosperity or poverty, or whatever the
circumstances may be; and that is not related to emotion.
But
what we see is that relationship biblically develops once the legal
relationship is established. Then the personal relationship can build on that
because a boundary has been established of security within the contract. On the
basis of a legal contract a relationship can now develop. Law precedes
relationship. And as we look at all these dimensions of salvation we see that
they are grounded in legal principle that is established by God in a contract
law, and this becomes a foundation for us for understanding contract law.
4.
There must be a change of status; the legal penalty has to
be paid. So that status of enmity that is legal has to be transformed into a
legal state of peace or harmony and that can only happen by paying the forensic
penalty. That is done by the substitutionary spiritual death of Jesus Christ on
the cross.
Having
said that, we need to look at our other main passages on reconciliation. In 2
Corinthians chapter five we see one of the most significant passages related to
reconciliation. What we have seen so far is that reconciliation has to be
grounded on a change of relationship. That is the central meaning of
reconciliation. It is a change of relationship that is grounded on a change of
legal status in terms of that state of hostility.
2 Corinthians 5:14 NASB “For
the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all,
therefore all died.” What is Paul’s starting point here? It is the same
starting point as Romans 5:8: that it is God’s love, and God’s love provided a
substitutionary solution to the problem. This has to do with the universality
of the objective or judicial side of Christ’s work on the cross. [15] and He died for all…” This is not talking about universalism
in terms of the result of His death on the cross, it is talking about
universalism in terms of the focus of His death on the cross; He is dying as a
substitute for all; it is a real payment for sin. The bill is paid. Christ’s
payment of the objective penalty doesn’t automatically change the subjective reality of each
person being spiritually dead and unrighteous; it just means that the external
penalty is paid in relation to the character of God. “… so
that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died
and rose again on their behalf.” Those who live are those who put their faith
alone in Christ alone, and the purpose for the payment of the objective penalty
is so there is a subjective application when people believe in Jesus.
And the purpose isn’t just
so that they have eternal life and go to heaven, but that their life will be
transformed and they won’t live like self-centered,
self-absorbed, whiny two-year-olds anymore but they will start living for God
in light of God’s plan or purpose. That is, they will live for Him who died for
them and rose again. In other words, there will be a focal point shift in the
vision of their life—or there should be as they get some doctrine and
begin to grow—and it is not just all about them anymore, it is that they
realise that their life is all about Christ. It is always just all about
Christ, and it is never about us anymore and it never really was about us but
we convinced ourselves under the blindness of the sin nature to think that our
life was all about us. It was always about God’s plan, period.
2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB
“Therefore [because this has happened] if anyone is in Christ, {he is} a new
creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” He is a
new creation. This is what occurs at salvation. So he has gone from talking
about this substitutionary atonement idea (vv. 14, 15, and which is objective,
legal, and historical) to the subjective application—the only way to be
in Christ is to trust in Him, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit identifies us
with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection—and the result of that
is we are a new creation. We have that qualitative newness of life of Romans 6:4.
2 Corinthians 5:18 NASB “Now
all {these} things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” The first thing we see here about
reconciliation is that God is the one who does the work of reconciliation. This
is the same verb as in Romans chapter five, katalasso [katalassw], and here it is an aorist active participle, which means
it is going to be modifying the main verb in some way. God reconciled us, believers
in this passage. They are the ones who are changed, not God; whereas
propitiation was Godward, directed towards His
righteousness and justice; reconciliation is manward related to changing that
status. It was the objective status related to the law in Romans 5; here it is
related to the subjective application of it in each individual believer. “… and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” or, “the message
of reconciliation as it is stated in v. 19.
2 Corinthians 5:19 NASB
“namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself…” that has to
be at the cross. The term “world” is one for all of the inhabitants of the
planet. It is the same object as in John 3:16, that God loved the world in this
way. The object of His reconciliation is the world conceived if as unbelievers.
That is Romans 5:8 NASB “But God demonstrates His own love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” “… not
counting their trespasses against them …” That has to do with individual
imputation. We are not condemned for our individual sins; we are condemned for
Adam’s original sin. We sin because we were already fallen because of Adam’s
original sin. “… and He has committed to us the word
of reconciliation.” Word of reconciliation is parallel to ministry of
reconciliation, so how does the ministry of reconciliation operate?
The ministry of
reconciliation operates by communicating the message reconciliation, which is
the word of reconciliation stated in v. 19. God performs the action, and the
world seen and perceived as fallen in a state of hostility, receives the
action. Personal sins are not imputed to the unbeliever; they are not the issue
at salvation. That is huge, because most people who are not Christians think
that the whole issue is all their petty little sins. They do not extend up to the
significance of Adam’s original sin which plunged the
entire human race into sin. It is not our sins that is
the basis of our condemnation.
We have this message of
reconciliation. That is evangelism; that is communicating the gospel, the good
news to people that they are no longer in a legal status of hostility to God
because Christ’s death reconciled us. But that doesn’t change their eternal destiny;
that only comes if they accept the gospel and are personally reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:20
NASB “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ …” An ambassador is
one who is a citizen of one nation who is appointed by the governing authority
of that nation, and is under the authority of that nation, and is sent as a
representative to another nation. Even though he is living in another country,
and even though he is going to do what he can to live as closely to the customs
of that country without violating his own background, his own home, he goes to
represent his nation. He is a representative and that is who we are as
believers. We are representatives of Christ and we are under His authority. “… as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you
on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” We are pleading with people to be
reconciled to God.
So on the one hand God is
in Christ at the cross reconciling the world to Himself—objective, and
that happened at the cross because that provides the basis for the shift in the
world’s orientation to God from hostility to peace—and now, on the other
hand, we plead with each individual to apply that in terms of their own
individual orientation to God. We are to plead with people to be reconciled; it
is not just automatic. But reconciliation is a term that relates objectively to
all of this that has taken place at the cross so that sin isn’t the issue
anymore, the issue is: are we going to accept what Christ has done for us?
That then takes us over to
Colossians 1:19, 20 NASB “For it was the {Father’s} good pleasure
for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things
to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, {I
say,} whether things on earth or things in heaven.” That is the objective
aspect of that payment, and it is done through Christ. Here we have the word apokatalasso [a)pokatalassw] which means to reconcile completely; nothing is left
undone. That same word apokatalasso is
used in Ephesians 2:16 NASB “and might reconcile them both [Jew and
Gentile] in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the
enmity.”
We conclude that
reconciliation is the work of God for man in which God undertakes to transform
man’s position of hostility (legal animosity, not personal animosity) to peace
in order to make possible and actual eternal fellowship with a righteous and
just God. So the objective aspect of reconciliation is Godward
and is related to, but not the same as, propitiation. We say that reconciliation was accomplished forensically or, in a legal sense,
once and for all by Christ on the cross. Then it is applied to each
believer positionally only when a person has trusted in Christ. That is the
subjective aspect that takes place when one trusts in Christ as savior.
Now
when we go back and look at Romans chapter five and its relation to justification
we see how Paul is looking at one dimension of reconciliation, and that is the
objective aspect that is resolved at the cross. But because his readers have
trusted in Christ and have been justified they are reconciled. So if he speaks
to them in terms of their current position in Christ, and he says that because
of that they can now rejoice as a current reality, not just because in the
future they are going to spend eternity in heaven, but they have joy now in
their Christian life because they have received this reconciliation and are in
harmony with God. It is on the basis of that, then, that we can drive forward
in our life in experiencing the rich abundance that God has for us.