God alone decided to make peace with the human race, while the human race is an active enemy to God. Certainly the bible shows that God does not like the actions of the human race, but God reconciled himself to his enemies while they are still in hostility. These are important words; God’s reconciliation to the human race took place when the human race was actively his enemy, not after the human race repented.
The entire human race is guilty when it comes to human merit, performance, and production and all fall short continually coming short of the righteousness of God himself. All of the human race are in need of a justification that will come totally apart from anything that they do. Paul wants the human race to know at one point in time something was true, but now something else is true.
No longer does the human race have to strive to attain and maintain God’s acceptance on the basis of who they are and what they can do. No longer are their sins held against them, no longer does the death penalty of sin hang over them. It is simply been given to the human race to either accept or reject what God’s son has already accomplished in this age of grace. Reconciliation simply means a change in status and it is a major issue recognizing reconciliation. Reconciliation from God’s advantage point is a done deal, and God is reconciled where the totality of the sin debt of all the human race is concerned.
The issue of sin was settled, it is a son issue today, not a sin issue. Will the human race accept what Jesus Christ accomplished or will they reject it, the son is the issue with God today. God’s attitude of love forces no one to take him at his word. God gives all the choice to accept what Christ accomplished on their behalf today, or to reject it. God purchased the human race out of sins dominion never to be returned to the market place of sin again. By removing the sin issue from the table of God’s justice, God effectively canceled Satan’s ownership of all the human race.
The transaction called Justification has to do with God recognizing those who take him at his word, concerning the price Christ paid on their behalf to resolve God’s justice for their sins. Justification is a recognition of righteousness that comes from God to those who believe his good news, which he committed to the apostle Paul to bring to the Gentiles, the message that must be believed for God to declare a person, or recognize them as being righteous, perfectly righteous.
God is not dealing with a nation today, and he is not recognizing any nation above any other nation. God is dealing with individuals today, to believe this good news is to be reconciled in your mind, not God’s. God in his infinite wisdom devised a plan whereby he could take the very faith belonging to his son along with its resultant faithfulness and credit that faith and faithfulness to the account of those who believe. Jesus Christ believed that God’s justice has been satisfied where the sins he came to sacrifice himself for are concerned, Christ’s faith was and remains in God, and indeed we can believe God’s justice has been satisfied.
Those who believe in a belief system known as Universal Reconciliation are not understanding the difference in reconciliation and justification. To have your sin slate judicially emptied because Christ died for those sins does not mean that you now possess the righteousness recorded on the slate of the one who died for those sins. The instant you take God at his word, that his son resolved God’s justice where all your sins are concerned (past, present, and future), God’s power from on high joins you to his son who died for your sins and thereby you become an instantaneous member of the household of God. Belief is necessary for righteousification and that belief is how you are heaven-worthy.
To be dead in sin, is to be identified with the first Adam, Adam in rebellion. To be dead to sin, is to have that new identification Paul is telling us that belongs to all whom God has sanctified, or set apart through union with the second Adam, Jesus Christ. From God’s perspective, all believers have Christ’s righteousness freely attributed to their account, what belongs to Christ belongs to you. God no longer views you from the standpoint of your sins, he views you now from the standpoint of his son, who you are in.
Why continue to consider your relationship with God to be based solely on your former identity. Why not consider your relationship with God to be based solely on your new identity. Why not come to the understanding that God now relates to you the only way he can relate to you and that is according to your new identity in his son. God cannot relate to you, he will not relate to you according to your former identity in Adam, that Identity disappeared the instant you took God at his word concerning Paul’s good news.
What security we have in our union with Jesus Christ. This is not something you did for yourself. This is not something you are gradually accomplishing yourself through better performance. This is something God did for you at the point that you believed Paul’s good news. God gave you a brand new identity. God can no longer view you according to your former identity. God views you the only way he can view you since you believed the gospel of your salvation, and that is according to your brand new identity.
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