Why is reconciliation such an important Biblical concept?

At some point in our lives, most of us have unfortunately experienced estranged relationships. Regardless of the negative circumstances that lead to such broken relationships, there’s true Biblical hope to be found through Biblical reconciliation.

It literally all started when Adam and Eve broke their close fellowship with God in Genesis chapter 3. A good definition of what being reconciled means could be, “Restoring a relationship, the act of making amends with someone or a group after a disagreement or conflict. It can involve forgiveness, understanding, and a willingness to move forward.”

God’s call for reconciliation is the major theme of the Bible, as we see here in 2 Corinthians 5:16-20 when Paul says, “So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So, we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

Paul says in Romans 5:9-11, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Jesus says in Matthew 6:14-15, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Remembering that the Lord has forgiven us of our sins whenever we’re offended to the point of estrangement by someone and refusing to forgive them, should be motivation enough to immediately forgive them and to seek reconciliation.

It’s incredibly freeing to choose to no longer count people’s sins against them when they’ve wronged us, as well as to truly forgive like Jesus does! I once heard it said, and it bears repeating in the context of this conversation … “Situations like these don’t build character, they reveal it.”