What is reconciliation?

26-10-2025 - Posted by Geert-Jan

Originally posted on May 13, 2006 – by Andre Piet

Summary of the second study, held on 13 May 2006 on the theme “what is reconciliation?”

The concept of reconciliation appears only in Paul’s letters. Although we also encounter the word in countless other places in our Bible translations, this is entirely incorrect. Reconciliation has everything to do with enmity and nothing to do with sins.
Sins are covered; enemies are reconciled. 1 Corinthians 7 is the only chapter (of the total six) where reconciliation is spoken of in an “everyday” context of human relationships. It concerns a woman who has left her husband and should remain unmarried so that she may be reconciled with her husband. 1 Corinthians 7:11

We are used to thinking that the eating of the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden was disobedience. And that is correct. But why was man disobedient? What caused that disobedience? Because they believed the serpent, who portrayed God as hostile (“…for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened…”). Since that lie, man has distrusted God. All religion is based on fear of a hostile God. God must be reconciled (appeased) – so goes the thinking in every religion. But it is precisely that idea that is the essence of estrangement! Genesis 3:5

Most atheists are afraid that God is hostile. The existence of evil in the world (suffering, pain, death, etc.) reinforces that fear. By reasoning God away, they suppress that fear. Nowhere does Scripture teach that God had to be reconciled or was reconciled. On the contrary: it is man – or the world – that is reconciled to God. Not the other way around. God has never been hostile toward man(kind).

Romans 5:10 (“…being enemies, we were conciliated to God…”);
2 Corinthians 5:18 (“…God, Who conciliates us to Himself through Christ…”);
2 Corinthians 5:19 (“…that God was in Christ, conciliating the world to Himself…”);
Colossians 1:20 (“…to reconcile all to Him…”)

From the garden of Eden onward, God has been accused of being hostile. If God were to suffice with merely eliminating the sinners, the echo of that accusation would forever linger. If an accusation is the cause of enmity and estrangement, then there is only one way to undo the enmity: to refute the accusation! Only by providing the compelling proof of His love can God win the heart of estranged humanity – in other words: reconcile the world to Himself.

In Romans 12 we read:
“…Now if your enemy should be hungering, be feeding him; if he should be thirsting, be giving him drink, for in doing this you will be heaping embers of fire on his head.”

It is impossible to maintain enmity when your “opponent” gives you food when you are hungry. Where your enemy is vulnerable and helpless, the ideal opportunity presents itself to dismantle his enmity. That is exactly what God does. He gives Life (bread, drink) to a hostile and dying world. Romans 12:20

The word for reconcile in Greek (katallassō) is composed of the words “down” and “change.” The idea is that the one who reconciles humbles himself before the other. Paul writes that someone might still have the courage to die for a good person. That already goes very far. But God goes to the extreme. He lets His Son die for the irreverent and for sinners. That is the proof of His love. Romans 5:7,8

In orthodox theology, it is presented as though God must be reconciled. Calvin wrote: “God has been an enemy to man (…) God the Father is satisfied and reconciled by Christ’s offering; His wrath is stilled by this Intercessor.” In this view, God is the enemy, and Christ is the One who, like a “lightning rod,” deflects God’s wrath. Against the background of such a view of God, the translation in Romans 5, “…we are glorying also in God…” is often rendered as “even” (“even glorying in God”). But “even” is incorrect. It should say “also.” Reconciliation is precisely God’s initiative! He had His Son crucified and did not reckon it to the world. Romans 5:10,11; 2 Corinthians 5:19

In Romans 11:15, Paul writes:
“…For if their casting away is the conciliation of the world, what will the taking back be if not life from among the dead?”

Their casting away refers to the Jews who, as a people, are enemies of the Evangel. In the book of Acts, we see how Jerusalem rejects the Evangel of the risen Messiah. Very officially so, when the Sanhedrin stoned Stephen. Stephen means “crown” and represents the proclamation that the King was about to return. That is why Stephen saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God… But Israel rejected this Evangel, and at that very moment, Saul of Tarsus appears for the first time. He watches over the cloaks that the leaders had temporarily laid at his feet. How illustrative!

In the Bible, the cloak stands for glory. Well then, by rejecting the Evangel, Israel stripped itself of its glory. Temporarily, the glory ends up with Saul from (Gentile) Tarsus. The message of the revelation of the Kingdom makes way (temporarily) for the message of Paul. The conciliation of the world is the current Evangel in our days –
however much it is rejected and condemned… even (especially!) by Christendom.

Romans 11:15, 28 (“…They are enemies as to the evangel, because of you…”); Acts 7:56–58;
the cloak as a symbol of glory: (among others) Genesis 37:3; Joshua 7:21; 1 Samuel 15:27–28; Ezra 9:3

“For the love of Christ is constraining us, judging this, that if One died for the sake of all…” writes Paul in 2 Corinthians 5. Why did He die? From man’s perspective, Christ died as the victim of enmity. But from God’s perspective, Christ died… to be roused (“…He who died and was roused for their sakes…”). Through Adam, death came to be the portion of all humanity. Through Christ, the last Adam, that same humanity receives Life. 2 Corinthians 5:14,15; 1 Corinthians 15:22

How does God reconcile the world to Himself? Paul gives the answer:
“…God was in Christ, conciliating the world to Himself, not reckoning their offenses to them…” The world unjustly condemned Jesus. They beat Him, scourged Him, mocked Him, nailed Him to the wood, etc. But from the cross came the plea:
“Father, forgive them, for they are not aware what they are doing…” Indeed, they did not know what they were doing. But God did know what He was doing. He gave over His Son to deliver the ultimate proof of His love. He is not reckoning the world’s offenses to them, because it is precisely this way that He intends to give Life to humanity! In doing so, God heaps fiery coals upon the head of a hostile world.

2 Corinthians 5:19 (paraptōma literally means: to fall beside. In Romans 11:11 it is translated as “fall.” The word transgression, as in Romans 4:15, is a different word);
Luke 23:34; Romans 12:20

The undoubtedly most beautiful illustration of reconciliation is found in the story of Joseph, who is of course a type of Christ. Beloved by his father, rejected by his brothers, he ends up in a pit (> grave), is presumed dead by Jacob, remains incognito outside the land, and there reaches a position at the top. Eventually, driven by famine, the brothers come to Egypt—and Joseph gives them bread… After much back-and-forth, Joseph finally reveals himself and says to his utterly perplexed and frightened brothers:

“…Now do not be grieved, nor let it be vexing in your eyes that you sold me hither, for for life’s sake Elohim sends me before you (…) So Elohim sends me before you to establish for you a remnant in the earth and to preserve many survivors for you.

So now, not you sent me hither, but the Elohim…”

Joseph did not reckon the crimes of his brothers to them, for it was precisely through their wrongdoing that God would save them. God had the direction perfectly in hand – down to the very last detail.

Christ had to be crucified. It was “in the specific counsel and foreknowledge of God.”
God needed the darkest, most hostile backdrop (the cross) to provide, once and for all, the irrefutable proof of His love. Luke 24:26; Acts 2:23

The most grotesque distortion of reconciliation comes from the realm of orthodoxy:
God is portrayed as an enemy who demands satisfaction. The suffering of Golgotha is seen as retribution (= the reckoning of transgressions), in which God finds satisfaction and becomes reconciled.

But God is not an enemy! On the cross, nothing was paid to God, but by God.
At Golgotha, God was not being reconciled; God was at work reconciling the world to Himself.

The cross is God’s means of reconciling the world to Himself. Reconciliation will only be complete when there is no more enmity and every tongue will acclaim to the glory of God the Father. 2 Corinthians 5:19; Philippians 2:11

In the prison epistles, Paul uses a word for reconciliation not found anywhere else in Greek literature: ‘apo-katallassō’. Literally: reconcile from (or: completely), Dutch NBG translation: “to reconcile both.”

In Ephesians 2, Paul writes that God abolishes the enmity between Jew and Gentile (symbolized by the soreg, the dividing wall in the temple courtyard):
“…and the two He should be creating in Himself into one new humanity, making peace; and should be reconciling both in one body to God through the cross…” So not only reconciliation with God, but also reconciliation among each other. That is ‘apo-katallassō’. Ephesians 2:14,15

In Colossians 1:20, most translations read: “…having made peace through the blood of His cross, to reconcile all to Himself…” However, “having made peace” is in the aorist – a verb form without reference to time. Aorist means: without horizon. God has not made peace through the blood of the cross – He is making peace through the blood of the cross. That is: through the cross, God is reconciling all to Himself. The cross demonstrates a love before which all enmity collapses!

With a view to the reconciliation of all, believers are those who already now are reconciled (both vertically and horizontally). They already acknowledge the grace of God in truth. Colossians 1:21; 1:6

‘Apo-katallassō’ in Colossians 1:20 refers both to vertical reconciliation (“all to Himself”) and to horizontal reconciliation (all enemies among each other). Behold the all-encompassing effect of the cross: Not just a reconciliation of all enemies on earth,
but also of those in the heavens – including all hostile sovereignties and authorities in the celestial realms. God reconciles not a little, not even a lot… but “all.” Colossians 1:20; Ephesians 6:12

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