Renovation vs Restoration -- What does Reconciliation really mean??

The impetus for this article came from two main sources. One was the sermon given by both pastors at my local church two weeks ago.* It was part 10 of a 12 week series on "Following Jesus Together".* The other was a comment I had seen and responded to on Quora. At the same time, the bulk of my material here is based on the "deeper dive" done for the podcast my pastors have been doing for about a year now, "Dive in With Matt and Joe".* At the end of their regular message of June 14th, Pastor Matt encouraged us to send in questions on the material they had just covered. Their answer to my question filled the first half of their time that Wednesday.

The question I asked was based on what I had seen on Quora, combined with my own thoughts on the question of what reconciliation actually is and looks like. This is the email I sent --

I've seen it suggested on Quora that, when a person accepts Salvation, they become a person who has never sinned before. They cite 2 Cor. 5:17 for reference. Now, I'm very familiar with the analogy of the caterpillar and the butterfly; but people are not the same. While the butterfly has no memory of ever having been a caterpillar, people remember what they have done. Therefore, to my mind, our reconciliation with God equates to a person's court record being expunged. We get a second chance to get things right with God's help; but we'll always be the human being who has done wrong in the past. That's where our perspectives are shaped and our lessons learned. This, in turn, determines what we need in order to succeed in our Christian life. 

So are we butterflies or are we human beings with clean slates?? 

Thanks for listening...

As it turns out, my response on Quora was accurate. Let me show you why...

To begin with, let me just say that, as a child who grew up in both Church and a Private Baptist School, I am very familiar with the idea of justification being taught as "just as if I never sinned". Those of us who know a little something about our Salvation understand that the terms "justification" and "reconciliation" are interchangeable, right?? Because both mean that our record is clean and good fellowship is restored. You're just talking Legal vs Accounting analogies, although I admit to mixing my metaphors here in my email above, talking about reconciliation in Legal terms of record expungement. At the same time, it's inherently part of our acceptance of Salvation that we repent of our sinful ways. This means turning 180 degrees and moving in the opposite direction with new, improved behaviors that replace the old ones. Reconciliation through Salvation is OFFERED to everyone; but only those who ACCEPT it will achieve a position of reconciliation. And that brings to mind another analogy I've often used. Salvation is like a 401k plan. Just because the boss offers it doesn't automatically mean everyone receives it. You have to sign up for yourself in order to get the benefits.

That being said, the Quora person's comment, befitting of the butterfly analogy is a nice picture of New Life and New Beginnings; and yet it doesn't fit the reality of reconciliation.

My title above uses yet another analogy. This is something I thought of just when I sat down to type this and needed a good, alliterative title, as many of my other articles have. In order to understand more about why I used it, you need to know that I once dreamed of becoming an Interior Designer/Decorator. That's where the thoughts of renovation vs restoration came to me. But it totally works, because when you think about it, everyone's belief systems in the Body of Christ treat Salvation in one of these two ways. While some focus more on behavior modification, or "putting on appearances" (renovation)*, others understand the deeper truths of relationship (restoration). And isn't that what we read throughout Scripture?? That God is working to restore all things unto Himself??

Now I will cover my notes from both the portion of the message delivered in church and the podcast that directly apply to this article.

As noted in my email above, our Scripture for that week's sermon was from 2 Corinthians. Turn there with me, if you will, so you have it in front of you as we continue here.

2 Corinthians 5:14-21

New International Version

¹⁴ For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] 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. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin^[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Although we are focusing on verse 17, I just thought it was important to have a bit more context as it gives a better perspective on what's going on here.

As we see, Paul repeats the word "reconciliation" no fewer than 5x in 3 verses!! It seems to have been a fairly important point, wouldn't you say?? ;) Since we have already done a bit of defining the word itself, let's explore what it means for us as Christians.

Although it will mean bits of repetition, I'm going to share from the sermon notes first; then cover the podcast material. It's just going to be easier since I didn't redo everything specifically for this article. At the same time, it's all important, so the repetition could be seen as a good example taken from Paul. :D

The first point made here was that reconciliation is really more about relationship than about transaction. In other places, Paul talks about how we start out as enemies of God, in a position of hostility, and become Family in Christ. (Romans 5:10, for one) In relation to this, Pastor Matt brought out the point that this evokes an image of humble response to a loving God as opposed to how people in other parts of the world see things as having to appease their gods/goddesses. He shared about a time in India when he and his wife were visiting a young couple who had recently accepted Salvation. Before they went down to the Ganges to be baptized*, they removed every idol from their house, put them in a large burlap bag, tied it up, and threw it in the river. Later, despite considerable pressure from their families when it came to starting a family, they never relented. We don't know whether or not children resulted from their faithfulness, but their dedication to God is the most important thing here.

At the same time, we can look back in our Bibles to the Old Testament and see how God continually restores Israel after times of exile. This shows us that, in the ENTIRE HISTORY of World Religions, Yaweh is the ONLY ONE to reach out first. I was going to give a reference here to show that God put our imagination for Him in our minds, but I can't find anything right now that applies to that. (At least as it refers to everyone and not just the Jews. There IS Psalm 37:4, but that's about how God puts His desires in our hearts, not the idea of Himself as a supernatural entity.) The point is, literally ALL other gods have been proven to be nothing more than people's attempts to make sense of the world around them.* This explains why various cultures around the world seem to have a god for every different thing. For example, in Pastor Matt's story above, they have a god of fertility. Conversely, we Christians have just One God for everything.*

The next idea brought out is that New Creation means that we are in a place where we live in the "already, but not yet" reality of the Kingdom of God. While it's true that Jesus already died for our sins, our Salvation is not yet complete until after the 2nd Coming and the Final Judgement of God. (In thinking about this over the past day or 2, I came up with yet another analogy. Our Salvation in Christ is like a Will. Our inheritance has already been provided for in Jesus' Sacrifice, so there is already a death that has happened. We accept the terms. The only difference is that we don't receive the full amount until either WE die, or Jesus comes back. The inheritance still exists whether we accept it or not, and is irrevocably ours once we do.)* Therefore, we have the PROMISE of Salvation although we will not "officially" be Saved until the end. Meanwhile, we live accordingly; struggling against our human nature to follow Him, knowing that we have the hope and expectation of our own future resurrection/Salvation.

Scripture tells us that Jesus was the "firstborn of all Creation" (Colossians 1:15)*. Another verse says, "firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29) Both of these clearly indicate that more were to be expected. That would be us, my friends!!

At this point, I will share my notes from the podcast, which was in direct response to my question above. Are we, as someone suggested, people who have never sinned, like the butterfly who has no memory of life as a caterpillar, or just human beings whose court records have been expunged??

Pastors Matt and Joe's conversation here has many of the same basic elements of their previous sermon, but with other perspectives added in.

As before, Pastor Matt's opening thought was that the main framework of reconciliation is more relational than judicial. It's about covenant rather than government.* In either case, we move from a position of alienation to one of reconciliation; but in relation to God, it's a matter of love as opposed to law.*

Once again, they also mentioned about how God's relationship with Israel works. They rebel and get exiled, God rescues them, ad infinitum... because God never gives up on His plans and purposes, no matter what. The aspect they were looking at here, however, was that of Identity. For the people of Israel, their relationship with God is the very core of who they are as a nation. It's not just a facade like putting new doors on your cabinets. (Idk how to do the accent, sorry) The Israelites were specifically FOUNDED by God through the Abrahamic Covenant, and grown in number until the time of Moses. They were then matured until the time of David.* This sense of Identity in Christ and the privilege of partnering with Him in God's mission to reconcile all things to Himself, is the invitation the Gospel both provides for and offers. The difference for us is that, since Jesus died once for all (Hebrews 10:10), that means ALL are invited. (And it's not that we weren't anyway, it's just that it was supposed to be the Israelites who did the inviting.)

Next, the fact that forgiveness of sin is relational was brought out. I would add here, that, while it's true that we consider certain things like financial debts as "forgiven", God's forgiveness is not the same. The difference lies in the relationship, and therefore motivation of the forgiveness provided. In a financial situation, it's nothing more than a business transaction, most likely between strangers. In that scenario, someone else has paid the amount due, and your account is cleared in their ledgers. With God, we are sons and daughters. (See John 1:12 and Romans 8:16) It's a Family thing. The Father has so much love for us that He sent Jesus to pay our debt of sin. (John 3:16) In doing this, He was the One to reach out for reconciliation first. This supports the idea of reconciliation with God being more about relationship than a business transaction or human legal status. We don't have to appear in a Court of Law and stand on trial before a jury of our peers. God is our only judge, jury, and executor of reward or punishment.

In looking at verse 21 of our Scripture above, when we look at both the Ancient Hebrew and the Greek words for "sin", we find that they are talking about the same thing. Therefore, we can conclude that Jesus' Sacrifice, as a "sin offering", clearly indicates the forgiveness of sin. Besides which, Jesus said as much during the Last Supper when He instituted Communion. (See any of the Gospels, as well as 1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

As Pastor Joe continued in the conversation, he emphasized the fact that the New Testament was not written in a vacuum. Rather, the authors were consistently referring back to the Old Testament from which they took many of their clues toward Jesus' being the True Messiah.* One place we can see this is in the book of Isaiah. While there are numerous references throughout, the portion he focused on was from chapter 53 where Isaiah is prophesying about Jesus as the Suffering Servant. (See also Psalm 22) The implication here is that the New Testament authors used both a cultural and historical context that was, as Pastor Joe phrased it, "pre-loaded" in reference to Christ.*

In connection to the fact that God has extended His invitation of Salvation from including only the Jews and adding the Gentiles into the mix, we get that previously mentioned aspect that ALL are welcomed in the Kingdom of God. So this means that every Believer in God is in that place of waiting. We are all in that time period of "already - not yet" reality of the Church Age. The Holy Spirit is in our hearts as an "advance" on our Eternal "paycheck", if you will. A stipend to help us through until we receive our full inheritance. (Not to diminish His power, of course. Only to further illustrate the point.)

Other points of relationship to which Pastor Matt referred were that we have been transferred from darkness to light (Colossians 1:13), and that we were dead in sin and are now alive in Christ. (Romans 6, among others)

The truth is that, although all things things have been accomplished in Jesus' death and resurrection, spiritually speaking, they are not yet a reality for our flesh. For now, we still have to contend with our sin nature. As Pastor Matt explained it, reconciliation is a dichotomy of physical experience versus spiritual position. This is where that person on Quora got it wrong. Once again looking to Romans 6, we find that, although Jesus' Sacrifice effectually disarmed the powers of sin, the reality is that we still wrestle with them in our human weakness. (See Romans 7) At the same time, he mentioned that some of us even try to wrestle Scripture into our views.* The most important view of our sin, however, is God's. We find in places like Psalm 103:12 that God removes our sin, "as far as the east is from the west and remembers them no more.".

Finally, from my notes on yesterday's sermon, Pastor Matt mentioned that Jesus' resurrected body still bearing the holes of His Crucifixion shows that healing doesn't mean the harm was never done. It simply means that we move forward with the scars.* The truth of this is supported both medically and psychologically.

This all proves, in the full context of Scripture, that we are indeed human beings whose records have been expunged rather than butterflies with no memory of having been a caterpillar. I pray that this helps someone to understand better what reconciliation really is and what it means for us as Christians. As our title reflects, reconciliation is about our core identity as image bearers of God and His restoration of us to that end rather than just a newly remodeled facade.

Now, as Paul goes on to say, it is our responsibility to be Ambassadors of the Gospel as we live our lives out in our position of reconciliation with God. May you do so with the help of the Holy Spirit.

-- God Bless!!

Footnotes:

1. Our pastors usually deliver messages individually, but sometimes, they bring two stools to the platform and sit at a bistro table and deliver the sermon like they're having a discussion. Also, I specified that it was my local church because when I'm visiting my boyfriend in Vermont, I usually attend a church in his town.

2. As I blog all my sermon notes, you can find the Sermon Summaries either here, on the original blog page, if any are left, or go to the Groups page where everything was moved in a Wix remodel.

3. I actually just viewed the podcast for the first time this past week when I was looking for the answer to my emailed inquiry. Fair warning, there is no video. You only hear their voices and see the captions.

4. Those who embrace the renovation concept as opposed to restoration are the Legalistic ones who focus on rules over relationship. They are the modern, Gentile equivalent of the Pharisees and Sadducees whom Jesus was consistently berating for their hypocrisy of law without love. They would be the Older Brother in the Prodigal Son story.

5. For more on Baptism, and the fact that we don't actually need it, Biblically speaking, see my article on this page.

6. To my knowledge, the one POSSIBLE exception to the idea of all other gods being the product of man's efforts to understand the world around them MIGHT be the Greeks. There is footnote in my NKJV Study Bible that suggests that the Nephilim MAY HAVE BEEN the Greek gods and "heroes of renown". The truth of this may never be confirmed this side of eternity. It just seems to make the most sense in the full context of both the Bible and History.

7. For more on the truth of the Trinity, see my article on this page.

8. For more on the truth of Eternal Security, see my article on this page.

9. See Trinity article for the truth of Jesus' eternal existence.

10. The idea of covenant vs government is mine.

11. The bit about love vs law is mine.

12. The progression of Israel's founding and growth is mine.

13. I have to specify True Messiah, because during that time, there were others who were claiming the title; but were decidedly not worthy.

14. The fact that the Old Testament is "pre-loaded" with references to Jesus negates some people's idea that we have to "retrofit" Old Testament passages to match New Testament beliefs. This is where the full context of Scripture is absolutely critical. Without it, you get the wrong answers.

15. Once again, the full context of Scripture is important so that we DON'T wrestle Biblical truths into our false perspectives.

16. The fact that we move forward with scars reminds me of the song, "Circle of Life" from the Lion King.