Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
One day, Andrew and I had to pick up a pile of scrap iron that someone had stacked high on their property next to their garage. On the pile, they had thrown a trailer frame. It had no tires and no flooring. Over the next month we spent some time fixing it all up. We found some new tires for it, and a spare. Then we bolted a whole new floor on top of the frame bed. We put on some side rails and then completely painted it. It looked like new once again, because we had restored the trailer back to the way that it originally was.
This reminds me of the Christian Life
Reconciliation means to restore relationships back to their original condition, at the point before estrangement began. One of the greatest examples in scripture of repentance, remission of sins and reconciliation is captured in one of my favorite passages, the story of the prodigal Son. Both the father and the son In this passage show what true Christianity is all about.
Luke 15:11-32 And he said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.
In this passage, the younger son got caught up in sinful living, to whom we can all relate because all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He recognized his own faults and shortcomings and how good his life had been in the past. This resulted in him repenting and confessing his faults..
Psalms 51:3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Psalms 32:5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD;
After confession, the dad completely forgave him, right on the spot. He didn’t scream and yell at him for wasting his fortune. He didn’t punish him for the things that he had done wrong. He didn’t steam on it for weeks on end over the supper table. He didn’t take him to court and force him to reimburse him for the money. He simply forgave him upon his apology, granting him complete remission for his sins. Rightly so, because if we want to be forgiven by God, this is the way that we need to forgive others when they apologize to us, otherwise God will not forgive you.
Luke 17:4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
Matthew 6:14-15 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Matthew 18:32-35 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
When forgiveness happens in the heart, reconciliation will immediately take place. This is because if you truly forgive others, you will completely forget the event that happened. It will be completely erased in your memory, and never brought up again, just as God does towards us.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Hebrews 10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
If you cannot forgive and reconcile with people who have apologized, it’s because of a cold and bitter heart. A person in this state is only keeping a grudge, which is forbidden in scripture. Because of their lack of grace they will only find themselves condemned by God.
James 5:9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
In order to be reconciled with God, He requires a confession of fault. As I’ve always taught for years, if you’ve apologized to people, yet they refuse to reconcile, the sin is no longer upon you. It is between them and God because of their unforgiving and bitter heart. Without reconciliation, someone never truly forgave the other in their heart. Reconciliation is such an important part of the Christian faith that God doesn’t even want your gift at the altar until you first reconcile with others that you have knowingly wronged.
Matthew 5:23-24 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
Reconciliation is a requirement by God. Those who don’t believe that are only deceiving themselves. The Apostle Paul refers to it as the ministry of reconciliation. This is why Jesus came, to rejoin our relationship with God.
2 Corinthians 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
Claiming to forgive others and not reconciling with them, is only an attempt by some people to think that they will somehow avoid God’s wrath for not truly forgiving the way that He does. It’s a convenient way for them to hide from the truth, but the facts are that they are filled with pride. God completely forgets our mistakes and misdeeds upon our confession, as exampled in the Lord’s Prayer. He casts our iniquities into the sea never to be seen again. True forgiveness results in immediate reconciliation, just as the father of the prodigal son.
Reconciliation is about restoring relationships back to their normal condition. It’s amazing what forgiveness can do. I think about this, when I think about restoring the old trailer that was placed on top of our neighbors,….
……..Scrap Pile
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by Google searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms, or by getting our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com, or I suppose, you can find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
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