God didn’t move. We did. Now he is wooing us back.

The noun atonement in English literally means at-one-ment or one with God or reconciled to him (the -ment suffix means “the result of”). Theologically, the atonement means the extensive and costly process of being reconciled to God.

So reconciliation is the key idea or the apex of the doctrine of the atonement.

Let’s use the Question and Answer format for clarity and conciseness.

I. What are the key words in original Greek?

A.. The verb apokatallassō (pronounced ah-poh-kah-tah-lah-soh and used 3 times) means “to reconcile.”

B.. And the previous verb is related to the verb katallassō, (used 6 times), and is also related to the verb allassō, which means “to change” or “exchange,” usually in the context of two people coming together after hostility. God removes the hostility between him and humanity.

C.. The noun katallagē (pronounced kah-tah-la-gay and used four times, and it is translated as “reconciliation.” As noted, this is when God removes the hostility between him and humanity.

II.. How Did the Distance between God and Humankind Happen in the First Place?

A. Adam and Eve and the Fall

1.. Even if a reader does not believe in a literal Adam and Eve, their story in Genesis still has meaning. The big picture in the biblical worldview:

2.. Adam and Eve illustrate humanity’s predicament. They had intimate fellowship with God, but their relationship with God was ruptured (Gen. 3:8). That’s how the distance occurred.

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (Gen. 3:8)

B.. A deeper look at the distance between God and humans

Let’s describe the predicament a little more.

1.. Sinners, whether they realize it or not, are hostile towards God (Rom. 8:7).

They may not do especially bad deeds, but their sin nature separates them from a thrice-holy God (Is. 6).

⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. (Rom. 8:7)

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Is. 6:3-6)

Colossians 1:21-23 says that in our minds we used to be alienated from God, his enemies, but now we have been reconciled to God by Christ’s physical body through his death on the cross. For those who have not been reconciled, they are still hostile in their minds, if not their actions.

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. ²² But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— ²³ if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.  (Col. 1:21-23)

Psalm 5:4-5 says that God detests wickedness and arrogance, and the people who are wicked and arrogant cannot come into his presence.

⁴ For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness;
    with you, evil people are not welcome.
⁵ The arrogant cannot stand
    in your presence.
You hate all who do wrong; (Ps. 5:4-5)

2.. So the problem is humankind’s unregenerated heart. What is the solution?

Humankind has not been born again or born from above. So now God reaches out to him, which is the message throughout the Bible.

In John 3:7, Jesus said you must be “born again.” Jesus is speaking with Nicodemus:

You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again’ (John 3:7).

The first birth is your birthday from your mother’s womb; the second birth is your spiritual birthday, your conversion.

1 Peter 1:3 says God gives us new birth.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3).

Some translations say “causes” new birth. This agrees with John 3:5-8, which talks about the Spirit causing regeneration.

1 Peter 1:23, Peter says his readers have been born again:

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God (1 Peter 1:23).

In Titus 3:5 Paul writes that God saved us by the washing of regeneration. I also add the surrounding verses for context:

⁴ But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. ⁸ This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.(Titus 3:4-8)

What leads to this gifted righteousness? Grace and mercy and kindness and love. Verse 8 says we must trust (have faith) in God.

Biblical Regeneration: What Is It and How Does It Work?

3. Even creation itself was impacted by the wall of separation between it and God.

God cursed the ground after Adam and Eve rebelled (Gen. 3:14-19).

¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

And Paul affirms that the entire creation groans with frustration under subjection, so that creation will be liberated from its bondage to decay. It is suffering the pains of childbirth (Rom. 8:20-22).

²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  (Rom. 8:20-22)

4.. But why the frustration and bondage and need for liberation?

a. The only answer is that the physical universe is connected to the moral one.

b. Also, those verses in Romans 8 say God subjected creation, presumably long before humanity got here.

c. The stage was set for creation to become the proving ground or the valley of soul-making for humankind.

d. Would humanity work things out on its own? No, for otherwise reconciliation would not be needed.

III. Who Performs Reconciliation?

Only God can do this.

A. God had to take the initiative (2 Cor. 5:18-19.

A drowning man does not know how to save himself; otherwise he would not be drowning. So the lifeguard has to take the initiative to swim out and get him. So God reconciled us to himself.

¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. (2 Cor. 5:18-19)

B. God reconciles sinners to himself.

In the above passage (2 Cor. 5:18-19), Paul is teaching that in Christ God was reconciling sinners to himself through Christ, not counting their sins against them. The last clause is great because this “not counting” is the same, in a corollary opposite way, as God declaring us righteous in Christ.

C.  God even reconciles all of creation to himself through Christ (Eph. 1:9-10; Col. 1:19-20).

Those verses explain a remarkable truth—the universe and the invisible realm—needed reconciliation. And he did this by making peace with them through the cross and the blood that was shed there.

 ⁹ [God] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. (Eph. 1:9-10)

¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Col. 1:19-20)

IV. How Was Reconciliation Accomplished?

A. it was done through the cross.

Paul writes that while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son (Rom. 5:10).

¹⁰ For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Rom. 5:10)

As noted, 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 says we are a new creation because God reconciled us to himself through Christ. God has reconciled us to himself through Christ’s body, that is, his physical death on the cross.

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  (2 Cor. 5:17-19)

And Hebrews 2:17 teaches that Christ became fully human in every way, so he can be merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. This atonement brought us near to God; it reconciled us to him.

¹⁷ For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. (Heb. 2:17)

B. Reconciliation works its way from you to other people.

Christ is our peace between various ethnic groups, particularly Jew and Gentile (Eph. 2:14-18). He brought reconciliation to humanity by his flesh, that is, his death on the cross, by setting aside the rules and regulations and commands that separated us. he reconciled them and put to death their hostility through the cross, to be in one body. Now through Christ we have access to the Father by the Spirit living in us.

¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵ by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. ¹⁷ He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. (Eph. 2:14-18)

How does this post help me grow in Christ?

God went a long way to descend to earth to reconcile humankind to himself. He sent his Son to shed his blood on the cross to shed his blood, as a sacrifice for your sins. Doing this, he fulfilled the Old Testament sacrificial system, which required blood and sacrifice to die in the place of the man who offered the animal. Then the system said that after the sacrifice was done, his sins were atoned for. He was reconciled to God. And that’s the entire goal.

Now let’s bring home the doctrine of reconciliation to your life.

On a human level, there is a distinction between forgiveness and reconciliation. You have to forgive everyone who offends or sins against you. Sometimes you are called to be reconciled to him; other times you are not called to be reconciled. For example, a family member abused you, while you were growing up. God calls you to forgive him, but not necessarily to be reconciled to him.

God loves you, and he wants you to be reconciled to him. You do this by surrendering to his Son in faith, making him Lord of your life.

SOURCES

Works Cited

At that link, look for the NIV Study Bible