+I. Restored the friendship between God and man broken by sin.+
+II. Accomplished His work by the voluntary sacrifice of His life.+
+III. Introduces harmony into a disrupted universe.+
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 21, 22.
_The Personal Blessings of Reconciliation._
Having shown the relation of Christ to God, to the whole creation,
and to the Church, and His connection with all moral beings, the
writer now proceeds to point out the relation of Christ to individual
man in delivering him from the fetters of sin and opening up the way
of reconciliation with an outraged but loving Deity. In this passage
we have a description of _the attitude of sinful man towards God and
the method of his restoration._ We learn that:--
+I. Sin has placed man in antagonism to God.+--1. _Man is estranged
from God._ "And you that were sometime alienated" (ver. 21). Sin
severs the soul from God. The principle of cohesion--the
consciousness of rectitude which God implanted in man in his sinless
state--is weakened, and the sinner, breaking away from the centre of
all goodness, drifts into an ever-widening and ever-darkening
wilderness of alienation and evil. Sin places man at an infinite
distance from God, leads him to shun the Divine presence and
disregard the Divine overtures. A state of alienation is a state of
danger; it is a state of spiritual death; and yet it is painful to
observe how few in this state are conscious of their awful peril.
2. _Man is hostile to God._--"Enemies in your mind" (ver. 21). The
enmity follows from the estrangement, and both have their seat in the
mind--"in the original and inmost _force of the mind_ which draws
after it the other faculties." The mind of man opposes the mind of
God, sets up a rival kingdom, and organises an active rebellion
against the Divine Ruler. "The carnal mind is enmity against God"
(Rom. viii. 7). If the hostility is not always flagrantly open, it is
in the mind; the fountain of all sin is there. To be a stranger to
God is to be an enemy of God: "He that is not with Me is against Me."
The sinner is his own greatest enemy. It is a vain thing to fight
against God; terrible will be the vengeance He will ere long wreak
upon His enemies.
3. _Man's estrangement and hostility are evident in his
actions._--"By wicked works" (ver. 21). Man is stimulated by his
sinful mind to perpetrate the most outrageous acts of rebellion
against God, and to indulge in the most fiendish cruelty towards his
fellow-man. But there are "wicked works" that may not figure in the
criminal columns of the newspapers, nor be detected by the most
vigilant watcher. To cherish envy, hatred, malice, and all
uncharitableness is equally heinous in the sight of God, and an
unmistakable evidence of hostility towards Him. Sin conceived in the
mind will, sooner or later, manifest itself in action.
+II. Man is reconciled to God in Christ.+--1. _The distinguished
blessing._ "Yet now hath He reconciled" (ver. 21). To effect this all
that is necessary is to persuade the sinner to cease his rebellion
and submit to God. In Christ God is reconciled to the sinner; there
is no need to persuade Him. He is love; the sinner is enmity. He is
light; the sinner is darkness. He is nigh unto the sinner, but the
sinner is afar off. The great object is to destroy the sinner's
enmity, that he may have Divine love; bring him from darkness into
Divine light; bring him from his evil works nigh unto God, and
reconciliation is the result (_Biblical Museum_). The amity existing
between the soul and God, and which sin had interrupted, is now
restored. Dear as are the friendships of earth, none can equal
friendship with God.
"The calls a worm His friend,
He calls Himself my God;
And He shall save me to the end
Through Jesu's blood."
The loftiest communion of the soul with God is renewed. In this the
soul finds its strength, consolation, life, rapture. How much does
that man lose whose heart is not reconciled to God?
2. _The gracious medium of the blessing._--"In the body of His flesh
through death" (ver. 22). The apostle here refers in the most
explicit terms to the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ and shows
that the great work of reconciliation was effected in His body, and
through death, for that body was crucified and actually died. The
apostle perhaps aimed at correcting certain pseudo-spiritualistic
notions regarding the person of Christ, busily propagated by the
false teachers; some of whom held that Christ was an angelic
emanation which animated the man Jesus for a time and withdrew from
Him before He suffered. While maintaining the proper deity and glory
of Christ's nature, the apostle plainly indicates that the Divine
method of reconciliation was by the incarnation and sacrificial death
of Christ. He thus exalts the significance and value of the death of
Christ. Reconciliation was not accomplished by the faultless example
of Christ's life or the supernal wisdom of His teaching, but by His
crucifixion and death. The cross, with its unfathomable mystery, is
to them that perish foolishness; but to them that believe it is still
the power and wisdom of God.
+III. The Divine purpose in reconciliation is to promote man's
highest blessedness.+--The magnificence of the believer's future
career will be in marked contrast with the obscurity and imperfection
of the present; but even in this life he is lifted by the reconciling
grace of God to a high standard of moral excellence. The terms here
employed, while referring to the same spiritual state, delineate its
different aspects.
1. _The highest blessedness of man consists in his moral
purity._--"To present you holy" (ver. 22). This shows the condition
of the soul in relation to God; it is freely offered to Him as a
living sacrifice; the inward consciousness is wholly consecrated to
the permanent indwelling of the Holy One; every thought, affection,
and aspiration of the soul is hallowed; the whole man is enriched,
ennobled, and radiant with a holy character.
2. _The highest blessedness of man consists in his personal
blamelessness._--"Unblameable" (ver. 22). This aspect of character
has reference to one's self; it is the development in the outward
life of the purity and consecration of the heart; it is a sacrificial
term and means without blemish. The soul is inspired with a sense of
integrity, and of always acting for the best. When Socrates was
asked, just before his trial, why he did not prepare himself for his
defence, he calmly answered, "I have been doing nothing else all my
life." A noble, blameless life is its own defence.
3. _The highest blessedness of man consists in his freedom from
censure._--"Unreproveable in His sight" (ver. 22). This feature of a
holy character has reference to others. If man thus purified and
blessed can bear the piercing glance of Him whose scrutiny no defect
can escape, his character is unchallengeable. To be accepted and
approved of God places him beyond the accusations of man or demon;
the subtle insinuations of the Great Accuser are powerless to hurt.
"It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?" To be holy,
unblameable, and unreproveable in the sight of God is to enjoy the
highest honour and completest bliss. This is the ultimate result of
reconciliation in Christ.
+Lessons.+--1. _Sin is the great foe of God and man._ 2. _The death
of Christ is the means of reconciling sinful man to God._ 3. _The aim
of reconciliation is to produce an irreproachable character._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._