“And through Christ to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:20). Through the power of the cross, we have been reconciled to God.
“Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (II Corinthians 5:18-19).
“For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation” (Romans 5:10-11).
In all three passages above, our reconciliation with God was made possible “through Christ.” Because our trespasses are no longer counted against us, we are free to enter God’s presence. We are now reconciled to God, “through Christ” and guilt-free! The enmity between God and us is gone. We have peace with God.
“Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Our peace, our reconciliation, is received by faith. We are justified by faith. We are made right with God by faith. How does our faith enter this picture? How does our faith activate this justification?
We express our faith in Jesus and receive our justification as a one-time gift when we acknowledge our guilt, accept the free gift of Christ’s death in our place, and believe what Jesus says is true. Jesus died in my place. Jesus died in your place. When you believe that He did this for you and you receive this gift of salvation, this gift of rescue, this gift of deliverance, the power of the cross to reconcile you to God Himself goes into action on your behalf.
There is power in the cross to reconcile us to God.