Reconciliation is often undertaken between our bookkeeping records and bank statements. When we create a record of our deposits and withdrawals, we believe that our record is perfect and accurately represents the money we have available. However, when the bank statement is received in the mail, we reconcile our records to the statement. Even if our records are off by five cents, there must be a change in our records for reconciliation to occur.
In reconciliation, there is understood to be (1) an error or breach and (2) repair of the breach. Wrapped up within reconciliation is the correction or adjustment necessary to conform to an objective standard.
As a tax professional, I often find it amusing when a business client tells me that their bookkeeping records are ready for tax return preparation. When I ask if the records were reconciled against the bank statements, sometimes the answer is, “What is that? We do not know how to reconcile.” Then, I will perform the reconciliation, and of course, find a few errors. Sometimes, the errors are big amounts, and other times the errors are slight. However, an error is an error.
Self-righteousness operates in a very similar manner. We believe ourselves to be righteous before God and that our conduct, behavior, and attitude are acceptable. However, only when we are measured against a standard are we able to see where we have fallen short.
God’s law is accepted as our moral standard, and any reconciliation occurs in the breach between our conduct and God’s law expressed in a moral standard. It is in reconciliation that we can understand repentance.
Two representative Bible passages are Colossians 1:18-23 and 1 Corinthians 5:16-20.
In Colossians, it is written, “you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard.”
Reconciliation involves (1) holy and blameless conduct as compared to God’s moral standard, and (2) continuing in faith, which again teaches us freedom of the will.
In 1 Corinthians 5:17, we read, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” This is a familiar verse for many, and in it we find contained a similar teaching. Namely, there is a death to the old creature (i.e., sin/evil) and life to new things (i.e., holiness and blamelessness in Christ).
Reconciliation teaches us that something must change in order for us to conform to God’s expectations, much like adjusting bookkeeping records to conform to the bank statement. This change is brought about through repentance, which literally means to turn. Repentance is an Old Testament teaching. The New Testament opens with John the Baptist’s calls to repent, and repentance is a theme throughout the New Testament. In the New Testament, repentance involves a change of mind, which is based on turning.
Repentance is separate from, although part of, penitence. 2 Corinthians 7:10 teaches us that Godly sorrow produces repentance. Likewise, in Psalm 51, the Psalmist expressed sorrow over sin. Penitence should produce repentance, but repentance itself is separate from sorrow over sin.
Christ is always drawing us. John 12:32 We primarily are brought to the point of repentance through the word of God (the Bible). Romans 10:17 Repentance, then, is the result of having a heart softened by Christ drawing us and understanding the breach between us and God caused by our sin. We do not generally repent on our own. There is a work of the Lord occurring within us before we turn and change our minds. We understand that work through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, also known as the conscience, guilt, and shame. John 16:8
In reconciliation and repentance, there is a turning to God and away from sin. We would consider it to be absurd, after reconciling our checkbooks, to reinstate the error we just corrected. Once an error is corrected, we move on and do not look back again to restore that error. In the same way, reconciliation to God seeks to maintain fellowship with God once it is restored. While we can look back and turn back to sin, an obligation within reconciliation and repentance is that we hold fast to God once the breach has been repaired.
In Luke 3:8, we are called to “bear fruit” in keeping with repentance. In Hebrews 6:1, we read, “Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.”
On Romans 12:1, Joseph Benson writes, “Dedicated to God entirely and irrevocably; (for in the ancient sacrifices, the animals were wholly given, and were not taken back again).” By irrevocable, he does not imply eternal security. Rather, his comment is illustrative of a sacrifice given for sin is not taken back. It would have been incredibly awkward for someone to come to the temple with a lamb, offer the lamb to the priest, and at the moment the priest is prepared to take the lamb’s life, the individual cries out, “Wait! I changed my mind. I want to remain in my sin and be at odds with God. Please let me have my lamb back.”
A person may also have given a lamb to the priest with an insincere heart and not have been truly penitent over sin or intend to repent. This is a blatant affront to God. While the intentions may not manifest themselves immediately, the intentions will be evident over time.
We are to regard repentance as irrevocable, though it is possible to go back to a life of sin. The Bible is very plain about this possibility. Therefore, as in Luke 3:8, the fruit we bear is to be consistent with one who has put off the old and put on the new.
Sin causes a breach, therefore, new sin causes a new breach. Thus, bearing fruit in keeping with repentance means that we are not engaging in the practice of sin. We might still sin, however, sin is not the normal practice.
Such teaching has been distorted by heresy and false teaching. In eternal security, for example, one danger is that a person will have a relaxed attitude toward sin believing that salvation once assured cannot be lost. Thus, any conduct becomes permissible because salvation cannot be lost.
In the predestination of souls to heaven and to hell, a similar belief can arise. If one believes that he or she is elect and predestined, what does it matter whether our conduct is righteous or unrighteous? Luke 3:8 is a pivotal verse because it exhorts us to live consistent with our repentance. Likewise, in our study on 1 John, this is the thrust of chapter 3, namely, that an individual once in Christ intends to make righteousness the practice of life and does not intend to engage in sin.
In James 3:9-12, we are again exhorted to a life consistent with repentance. While we may see a double standard and hypocrisy from Christians, this is not to be our practice. The example James gives is that water cannot be both salty and fresh at the same time. Thus, blessing and cursing are not to come from the same tongue. A room cannot be dark and light at the same time, and neither can the soul.
The idea that, once in Christ, we can live in any manner we so please or that it is impossible for us to sin has its origins in Gnosticism. We will tend to justify ourselves and live self-righteous lives. We want to vindicate ourselves, and the early Gnostics took self-righteousness as a core principle in their teachings. We would do well to be sincere in our repentance.
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