Talk Together
Family conversations with God’s Word.
Have you ever had a fight with a friend or family member? What happened? How did you make up? Did a parent or another friend help the two of you work things out?
When you fixed your friendship you reconciled with your friend. Reconciling is when you fix a relationship that has been broken.
Did you know that because of sin you are born with a broken relationship with God? The bad news is there is nothing we can do on our own to reconcile with Him. The best news ever is that Jesus made it possible to fix our relationship with God.
The apostle Paul helps us understand this. Let’s read what he says. Can you help me find 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, verses 17-21? The book of 2 Corinthians is in the New Testament.
ESV
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
What is Paul talking about? God wants to have a relationship with us and was willing to do whatever it took. And what it took was His Son, Jesus, dying on the cross for our sins.
The only way to have a relationship with God is through belief in Jesus as Savior. Romans 6:23 tells us we deserve eternal death for our sin, but God offers us the free gift of eternal life through Jesus. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us we are saved through faith and not by anything we can do.
God has done what He needed to do so we could have a relationship with Him. It was a complete and perfect fix. There is nothing we need to add or do. We only need to believe Jesus died on the cross for our sins and trust in Him as our Savior.
When Paul believed that Jesus was the one and only way to have a relationship with God, he became a new man. Instead of fighting people who followed Jesus, he shared Jesus with as many people as he could. Instead of trying to be perfect and holy on his own, he trusted it was only through following Jesus that he could be perfect.
Does being perfect in Jesus mean we will never disobey God and sin? Absolutely not. We will still make mistakes and sin, but if we are a follower of Jesus we can be confident we will one day be perfect in heaven.