Reconciliation in the Holy Bible is reconciliation with God, reconciliation with people, and reconciliation with the human self.
If you are reconciled with yourself, you will be reconciled with God and with everyone. And today let us speak about:

Sin is enmity with God:
When you sin, you lose fellowship with God and enter into enmity with Him.
The most dangerous aspect of sin is that you enter into enmity with God.

Sin has two results: the destruction of the human soul and the angering of God. Therefore, the sacrifices in the Old Testament expressed both of these purposes, as we read in the Book of Leviticus.

The purpose of the burnt offering was reconciliation with God and satisfying His justice; therefore it was said of it more than once that it is “a sweet aroma to the Lord” (Lev. 1).

For this reason it was mentioned as the first of the sacrifices in the Book of Leviticus, and no one would eat from it because it was for God alone… The fire remained burning in it until it turned into ashes, as a symbol of the fulfillment of God’s right in it.

The sin offering and the trespass offering symbolized the salvation of man from death, which is the penalty of his sin; likewise the Passover lamb.

And the Lord Christ on the Cross accomplished both works: as a burnt offering, He reconciled God with people; and as a sin offering, He bore the sins of the people, redeemed them, and saved them.

The most important thing that should occupy your heart is reconciliation with God. Do not be like the servant who cares only about deliverance from punishment, but be like the son who cares above all to please his father.

Say to Him: What matters to me, O Lord, is Your pleasure and Your blessing. I want to be reconciled with You and to restore Your dwelling in my heart. It is not escape from punishment that occupies me, but Your love and fellowship.

Myself does not matter to me—whether I perish or am saved—but Your love matters to me. I seek Your reconciliation, and after that do with me as You will.

Do not think that Adam’s whole sin was merely eating from the tree; rather, before everything else, he separated from God. He loved himself more than God, obeyed his wife more than God, and followed the counsel of the serpent more than God. Thus he separated from God in heart and in deed.

The manifestation of this enmity was Adam’s hiding from the face of God and hiding behind the tree when he heard the voice of the Lord. Fear replaced love in his heart, and thus he began to flee from God.

Your problem in your sin is that you think you sin against people, or against yourself, or against principles, while the bitter truth is that you sin against God. Therefore the prophet David said:
“Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight” (Ps. 50).

He did not sin against Uriah the Hittite, or against his own chastity, but before everything else he sinned against God. It was his sin against God that filled his mind and troubled him, until he said to the Lord, “Against You only have I sinned.”

Sin is primarily directed against God. Likewise, when sin was presented before the righteous Joseph, he said, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Sin is opposition to God, resistance to Him, rebellion against Him, and abandonment of His love, for He said, “He who loves Me keeps My commandments.”

Sin is more serious than merely being a violation against God; it is enmity with God. Thus the Apostle says, “Friendship with the world is enmity with God.” It is separation from God:

For what fellowship has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial?

When you sin, you lose fellowship with God. You cannot say that you are in fellowship with the Holy Spirit or with the divine nature while you are in a state of sin. Therefore it was said of the prodigal son that he left his father’s house.

It is the loss of boldness before God, and the loss of divine fellowship and divine love: “I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”

Reconciliation is the work of Christ and His apostles:

The fundamental work of the Lord Christ was reconciling mankind with God.

Therefore we say to Him in the Prayer of Reconciliation, “You have reconciled those on earth with those in heaven.” Christ made peace by the blood of His Cross and made peace with God. Thus He “has broken down the middle wall of separation,” having slain the enmity (Eph. 2:14–16).

The “ministry of reconciliation” was the work of the holy apostolic fathers,
as it was also the work of their successors among the shepherds and all ranks of the priesthood.

In this regard, the Apostle Paul says in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians: “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:17–20). And he continues: “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20).

Yes, the work of reconciliation, or the ministry of reconciliation, or the word of reconciliation, is the work of the Church, which gives people the blessings of the reconciliation accomplished by Christ through His blood. The ministry of reconciliation appears in all the Church sacraments…

He paid His blood as the price for it. Yet after we were reconciled with God, we returned to sin.

The phrase “You have reconciled those in heaven with those on earth” gives us another meaning: sin is not only enmity with God, but with all the heavenly beings.

In sin we anger God and all His hosts and the spirits of the saints. See what the Lord says about the angels: “The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them.” And what about those who do not fear Him? He also says of them, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?” (Heb. 1). And what about those who do not inherit salvation?

Sin is ugly; the angels cannot bear its sight. The angels defend man so that he may not accept sin. But if he accepts it and plunges into impurity, the angels cannot endure the sight and leave him to the demons, his companions.

But if man repents and his heart returns to God, then he is reconciled with God and His angels: “There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.”

The Lord accomplished the ministry of reconciliation, and it was so important to Him that He paid His blood as its price. Yet after we were reconciled with God, we sinned against Him again and returned to enmity. Therefore He sent to us His servants of every rank calling out, “Be reconciled to God.”

This ministry of reconciliation is the work of the prophets, the apostles, and the shepherds. It is the work of the bishops, the priests, the deacons, and all the servants. They have no other service but this.

God seeks you in order to reconcile you. He knocks at the doors of your soul saying, “Open to Me, My sister, My love, My dove, My perfect one, for My head is covered with dew, My locks with the drops of the night.” But we often grow lax, refuse the work of grace within us, and resist this ministry of reconciliation. Then afterward we regret and say, “My beloved has turned away and gone; I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.” These are the feelings of enmity with God.

God desires to reconcile you through all the means of grace, but there is a condition the Lord asks: “My son, give Me your heart.”

Reconciliation is not merely external practices and formal worship, prayers and fasts, but giving the heart to God. The Jews offered these worship practices without heart, so God rejected them and said in rebuke to them:
“This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.”

Therefore the Lord said to them, “When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear” (Isa. 1). Why, O Lord, this enmity? Because they did not give their heart to the Lord.

And what if the heart is far away? The Lord says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you” (Ezek. 36:26).

Therefore we pray and say, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.”

The word “create” has a deep meaning. It is not merely repairing an old heart, but an act of creation anew.

Reconciliation takes place inside this heart; it is not an outward reconciliation.

You say to Him, I fast for You two days a week and give tithes of all my possessions; “I give You tithes and firstfruits and vows and incense and veils, and deliver my body to be burned.” He says to you, “My son, give Me your heart.”

Is the heart then all that God asks in reconciliation? No. He also asks for the will. For love is not in word, but in deed and in truth.

God does not force people to love Him; their will must move. “How often I wanted… and you were not willing.” And as Saint Augustine said:

“The God who created you without you does not will to save you without you.”

There is a word Christ used to say to those who came to Him for healing:
“Do you want to be made well?” “Do you want to be cleansed?”

The importance of the will appears in the Lord’s saying, “If anyone opens to Me, I will come in and dine with him.” If he opens—if his will moves.

It is not enough to love God and desire reconciliation with Him; present your will.

Is there a third condition besides the heart and the will? Yes: faith.

Your heart may be unable to love, and your will may be weak; then your faith enters: your faith that God is able to save you and to work in you both to will and to act. Therefore pour yourself out before God with all determination, wrestle with Him and say to Him:

If I, O Lord, do not love You nor give You my heart, You are able to pour Your love into me through the Holy Spirit.

If my faith is weak, You are able to strengthen my weak faith. And if my will is weak, my strength is from You.

In reconciliation You will give me a new nature: “Renew a steadfast spirit within me.” “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”

Among the results of reconciliation is this renewal, as well as sanctification and justification. Among its results also is forgiveness.

In reconciliation God wipes out our sins and remembers them no more. He accepts those whom He reconciles, “not imputing their trespasses to them.”

As one of the saints says, “Repentance makes adulterers virgins,” that is, as though they had never sinned nor been defiled.

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An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in El-Keraza Magazine – Year Seven (Issue Forty-Seven) – 19-11-1976.

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