by Scarlett Stough
God wants to be reconciled to every person; he has no desire that anyone perish even though we all deserve the death penalty for our sins against God and one another (2 Peter 3:9). Jesus came to earth, lived among us, and allowed himself to be unjustly convicted and executed to make that reconciliation possible.
God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:8-11
Not one person has to remain estranged from our Creator God; he made reconciliation possible by taking our punishment on himself. We can become a new creation, not subject to our own worst nature, but God wants our consent to begin that work.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 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. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
God sent his Holy Spirit to be with us and in us to change us from the inside out (Galatians 5:16-25). This is a process that will not be completed in our lifetime, but will be completed at Jesus's return (1 John 3:2-3). We must begin that process as soon as we hear and believe the message. Reconciliation with God is ours for the asking.