The redemption accomplished by the Lord Jesus—the work of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ—must be received by faith. And faith is not merely acknowledging Jesus’ status as Lord and Savior. Faith is not only an activity of reason or thought, but an action. Because of this misunderstanding, de facto, many Christians have not truly been saved or genuinely reconciled with God. That is why Paul says, “Be reconciled.” If Paul says this, it means there must be effort on the human side to create that reconciliation.
To understand this, we must first grasp what is meant by “being reconciled.” What does it mean? Reconciliation means peace with God. Reconciliation is an act of restoring a relationship that has been broken, damaged, or fractured between two parties so that it may be reestablished as it was originally or according to the purpose for which the relationship existed. This aligns with the meaning of salvation: God’s work in restoring humanity to His original design. The purpose of restoring humanity to God’s original design is to enable humans to be in a condition that can restore their relationship with God. The one at fault is not God, but humanity. And humanity is unable to carry out reconciliation or make peace.
Praise be to God, salvation is God’s initiative. He sent His only Son, the Lord Jesus. However, this does not automatically trigger reconciliation. The coming of the Lord Jesus allows us to be regarded as righteous first, even though we are not yet truly righteous, and then to be brought before the Father in heaven. For the relationship to be truly restored, humanity, which has betrayed God, must change. In reconciliation with God, the one who must change is humanity, because it is humanity that has lost God’s glory. God has not lost His glory; humanity has. That is why, in the process of salvation, believers must truly know the nature of God and strive with all their effort to partake in His nature (2 Peter 1:3–4).
That is why, in 2 Corinthians 5:9–10, Paul says, “So we make it our aim, whether at home in the body or away from it, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” Why must we please Him? Is it to be saved? Certainly not. Salvation is God’s initiative. God provides the way of salvation—“not by your own efforts” (Ephesians 2:8–9)—but through faith. Faith is the response to God’s saving work.
If Christians are “parked” in the understanding, “you have already been reconciled, you are already saved,” and then, in the church liturgy we follow and in the songs we sing, we praise and worship God, glorifying Him for the salvation He has given, so that reconciliation is considered to have already taken place, this is not wrong. However, the question is: have we become people who possess the potential for a harmonious relationship with God? For this to happen, our nature must change. This is the essence of the Christian life journey. We, as believers, must change ourselves so that we can correspond with God in true reconciliation.
Simply put, when we are hostile toward someone, we may fight, quarrel, argue, or clash with them, and then be reconciled so that we can have a relationship as before, or according to the purpose for which the relationship was established. This means that the relationship must continue to be maintained. It is not like people who fight on the street are reconciled and then go their separate ways. With God, we must continually have fellowship as children, and God is our Father. Reconciliation can only occur with change.