"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God." -- Hebrews 10:19-21
We are all
by nature enemies to God. Our hearts, by nature, are enmity against God. But
God has reconciled us to himself in Christ. And in the new birth, he brings us
into the blessedness of that reconciliation. Reconciliation is what Gospel
preachers proclaim: – Reconciliation accomplished!
Twofold
Work
Reconciliation
is a twofold work of grace. Judicially, it was accomplished at Calvary
when Christ died as our Substitute. God was in Christ reconciling the world of
his elect unto himself by blood atonement. When atonement was made,
reconciliation was done (Rom. 5:10-11; 2 Cor. 5:17-19).
Experimentally, God’s elect are
reconciled to him by faith in Christ. Though Christ put away our sins and
justified us, we were born “children of wrath, even as others.” Hating
God, we came forth from the womb as rebels against him, and lived as such,
until he conquered us by his grace, and reconciled us to himself, granting us
life and faith in his dear Son.
In Christ every believing sinner has full freedom and confidence to enter the very presence of God in the name of Christ, by the power and virtue of his blood (Heb. 4:14-16), because he and God are at peace, by the work of God himself. When our Savior died at Calvary the veil in the temple was rent in two, and the ceremonies and sacrifices were all fulfilled and forever ended by Christ's effectual sacrifice in the flesh (Gal. 5:1). Christ is our great, eternal High Priest. He is a Priest upon a throne, the King-Priest, who rules and reigns by virtue of his atonement, who is accepted and has absolute authority! And we are forever, immutably accepted in him (Eph. 1:6).
Gospel
Persuasion
In preaching
the gospel, God’s servants speak as his ambassadors to rebel sinners who
deserve his wrath, and we seek to persuade them to be reconciled to God (2 Cor.
5:11-21). All who come to God by Christ, finding peace with God in his dear
Son, enjoy the blessedness of perfect, indestructible reconciliation.
Reconciled sinners stand before the holy Lord God in Christ as new creatures.
Their old record of sin has been obliterated by the blood of Christ. A new
record of perfect righteousness (the righteousness of Christ) has been written
in heaven in their name. God himself has no quarrel with believing sinners,
because God found a way to both punish our sins to the full satisfaction of
justice and justify us by his grace. “For he hath made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”