The Truth and Experience of God’s Salvation

Lesson Nineteen

GOD’S SALVATION - CHRIST’S REDEEMING DEATH ON THE CROSS (4)

III. God’s Salvation

B. The provision of Christ’s redeeming death on the cross

4. Reconciled by His death is to be brought back to God and to be secured in His salvation – Rom. 5:10a

Burden to Impart:

After being redeemed, forgiven, cleansed, and justified, we have a further need to be reconciled to God. Originally, we were not only sinners, but also enemies of God. Because we were sinners, we needed redemption. Because we were also enemies of God, we needed reconciliation. God in Christ was reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor. 5:19). Through Christ, God reconciled all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross. He has now reconciled us in the body of His flesh through death, to present us holy and without blemish and without reproach before God (Col. 1:20-22).

Memory Verse: “For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled,” (Rom. 5:10)

Facts to Teach:

1. Originally, we were not only sinners, but also enemies of God. Propitiation and forgiveness of sins are adequate for a sinner but not for an enemy. An enemy needs reconciliation, which includes propitiation and forgiveness but goes further, even to resolving the conflict between two parties.

2. Christ died to reconcile sinners to God from sin (1 Cor. 15:3) that they might be forgiven by God. This is the objective aspect of Christ's death. In this aspect He bore our sins on the cross that they might be judged by God upon Him for us.

3. Our being reconciled to God is based on Christ's redemption and was accomplished through God's justification (Rom. 3:24; 2 Cor. 5:18-19). Reconciliation is the result of being justified out of faith.

4. Reconciliation transpired when we believed in the Lord Jesus. We have received God’s justification and reconciliation by faith. This has opened the way and ushered us into the realm of grace for the enjoyment of God.

5. Through the Lord’s death on the cross, we have been saved from our fallen situation and reconciled to God. Praise the Lord that now there is nothing separating us from Him! We may still be weak, but we are in a reconciled condition. When we are in fellowship with the Lord, we are happy. But when we lose touch with the Lord, we are sad. But whatever our feelings, we nevertheless have been reconciled to Him.