Romans 5:9-11
Therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, it is even more certain that we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, it is even more certain that, since we have been reconciled, we will be saved by his life. And not only is this so, but we also go on rejoicing confidently in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received this reconciliation.
Dear Heavenly Father,
The idea of reconciliation with you, at first glance, may seem strange because part of our human nature is wanting our enemies to suffer when they have done things against us. To reconcile something means to make sure everything is balanced out. Considering a balance scale, the weight of sin is still on our side of the plate; there is nothing we can do to remove or change it. Once it is there, we cannot remove it off our scale side. We can try to be better, but those sins are still weighing us down. In your word, you remind us that all our good deeds are like a filthy rag, so they don’t remove the sin from our side of the scale. Yet you reconciled us, meaning the weight of our sins; Jesus took that sin to himself. Before we were even born and were still your enemies, you loved us; and you put your plan in motion to restore us to you. Since we have all the sin boulders on our side of the scale, we should endure your punishment and be eternally separated from you. But we don’t. Jesus came to this earth, lived the perfect life in our place, then went to Calvary. He lifted up all those sinful boulders off our side of the scale, placing them upon his own shoulders on the cross. Jesus restored us to you. Faith started through your Spirit that we trust what your Son has done for us; we are confident he has restored us to you. It is through faith alone; we receive the blessings of eternal life. So you reconciled us back to you, and we thank you for restoring us. Amen.
Pastor Roger Emmons
As humans, we think since we broke our relationship with God, somehow, we can fix it. Your most extraordinary efforts would never be enough to pay off the debt to God. And you cannot pay it because Jesus already paid for it. Just say thank you.