Reconciliation and Encounter
(Romans 5:1-11)

The life of humans is nothing but encounters; encounter between spouses, encounter between parents and children, encounter between brothers and sisters, encounter between neighbors, and encounter between enemies. Despite the importance of encounters like this, we do not make special efforts for good encounters but just let nature take its course nor to have good conversation with one another. We neglect large and small discord without trying to make encounters great. As a result, a little discord become a spiritual cancer and brings about enormous unhappiness and failure. The single most important and meaningful encounter in our lives is that with God.

1. Humans who were created in the image of God
1) To be in love with God
2) To meet and converse with God
3) Humans would have been in enormous happiness and joy living with God

2. The rupture with God due to sin
- The opposite of encounter is rupture, leading to anxiety, unhappiness, and agony.
1) Due to the wrong encounter with the devil, humans became enemy of God being a captive of curses, diseases, poverty, death, and so on.
2) Unless we meet with God, we cannot find the purpose of life. And everything is in vain and meaningless with nothing left but despair and death.

3. The devil who tries to destroy us and his kingdom
1) The whole world became a nation of darkness controlled by the rules and authorities of the devil while humans became the people of the devil’s kingdom.
2) Humans who became slaves to sin were held up by the hand of the devil, the master of sin.

4. God who wanted to reconcile us
1) The birth of the sinless human and His ministry of dying on humans’ stead
2) Jesus who came as a human and the payment of sin
3) The reshuffling and confrontation on earth between the powers and authorities
4) The power of the devil lost its legitimate existence and was dispelled.

5. The start of reconciliation
1) God wanted to reconcile us in Jesus Christ.
2) God who reaches out His hands of reconciliation to us amid the heartbreaking pain and death on the cross
3) The devil who stopped reconciliation and everything including sins and disobedience are settled.
4) No matter how horrible a sinner we are, no one can stop us if we count on Jesus.
5) Do not be fooled by the devil ? Let’s march toward God in Jesus where we will find reconciliation, love, peace, and joy.

We ought to reach out a hand of reconciliation to our neighbors in abounding love, joy, and happiness through reconciliation with God. Since the reconciliation is so large and great, we can embrace any sort of discord and change it.