RECONCILED US TO HIMSELF

Apostle Paul, writing to the Romans, said: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one" (3:10-12). This was the result of original sin: man became rebellious towards God, he became his enemy.

Writing to the Philippians, Paul said, "For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ" (3:18). Later, on another occasion, this same Apostle wrote to the Christians of Colossae: "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior" (Colossians 1:21).

In addition to man having become an enemy of God, after the first sin, another great consequence came upon him: death appeared in humanity. Before Adam sinned, there was no death in the world. The Apostle Paul, writing to the Romans, talks about this issue: "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned" (Romans 5:12).

But what does this mean, sin? From the sacred text, it can be inferred that to sin is to act contrary to the original nature, with which the human being was created. It can also be understood as man acting outside the divine purposes for which God created him. Thus, in this act, a deep conflict of idiosyncrasy is observed, capable of altering the primary essence of man. For this reason, original sin cannot be understood as something simple.

That act extinguished man's communion with God. It constituted an offense of the creature to the Creator. The original pure, holy, and perfect self died and man plunged into an existence marked by evil, violence, and death. Look at the history of humanity if that's not the case. Look at today's world, marked by hatred, intrigues, wars and barbarism. Not a few reject God, and if there are religious people, they love their religions more than God himself.

Jesus Christ never defended religion; on the contrary: in the three years of his public ministry, he worked to deconstruct the religious system of Israel, of his time, which distanced people from God. But, like God, He said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). Paul also said that Christ Jesus, "being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness..." (Philippians 2:5-7) to save man.

Humanity lives, today, unaware of its state of rebellion in relation to God. Men do not imagine the danger they are in because of this fact. Living contrary to the divine will, which is expressed in His Law and which reflects man's way of life before sin, men walk towards eternal death. Therefore, they need to be reconciled to God, but this is impossible for them. Sin, within them, prevents them from returning to God.

It was for this reason that the Apostle Paul said that God "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 people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18, 19). How to understand this? How did Christ reconcile fallen humanity to God? What did He do?

After the Fall, that is, after original sin, man began to live contrary to the divine will. God then gave his Law to man. It represents man's holy way of life before he sinned. But because of the evil that has entered into it, in the act of original sin, man is unable to fulfill it. That is why Paul said, "...that a person is not justified by the works of the law" (Galatians 2:15). Why? James explains, "...for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it" (James 2:10).

For this reason the Son, the second person of the Trinity, entered the world. Being of "flesh and blood" (Hebrews 2:14), Jesus Christ, "was has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin." (Hebrews 4:15).He lived, among sinful men, the way of life that was lived before original sin, that is, in a holy way and in accordance with the will of God. To save us, He gave Himself to God, on the cross, for us sinners, fulfilling the condemnation that was upon us.

For this reason, the Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, said, "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 5:21). In this way, those who surrender to God are justified from their sins by the sacrifice of Christ. Paul explains, "For if, while 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!" (Romans 5:10). That is, we are saved by the death and resurrection of Christ.

Antônio Maia – Ph.B., M. Div.

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