Rejection to Acceptance

"My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"  The greatest evil known to man is to be excluded and separated from God, the source of life.  We were designed to be connected, to be in relationship as part of the family, part of the team where we work, involved in what God is doing, a signficant person that gains value from connecting to the lives of others.  However, man's fallen nature separates us from God, and ultimately others.  This is due to the nature of the fallen man, our flesh, which is a rebel that cannot be reformed or submit to God (Romans 8:7) and continually resists the very purposes of our creation. There is only one solution to the old man, the flesh, and that is to put it to death.    

Notice how Ephesians 2:12 describes the old man "that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." We were without Christ, clearly sin separated us from God and we did not have Christ who is the only One who could bring us back to God.  We were aliens or strangers to the family of God where there is love, joy, and peace.  The promises of God did not apply to us, so we had no hope or future.  We were without God in the world so our entire existence was without purpose or meaning. 

Let's reflect for a second.  Nobody likes to feel like the black sheep of the family.  Often displaced people groups forced to leave their country suffer from a sense of not belonging and no place they can call home.  We may have been at gatherings, parties or meetings where we just simply didn't fit in and nobody even bothered to talk to us.  No one wants to be the odd man out.  How much worse when we consider such a state of total rejection and alienation for eternity. 

Good News: Jesus came to rescue and restore.  He became sin so we could become the righteousness of God.  He paid the just punishment for sin so we could be holy and blameless before God (Ephesians 1:4) and broke down the barrier that separated us from God.  His good pleasure, His perfect will, was to take upon Himself all the misery, pain, and rejection that sin caused, and cause us to be "accepted in the Beloved."  He makes all things new.  When we accept what Jesus has done for us, the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, declaring that our life is now hidden in Christ.  We are eternally joined to Him.  In other words, through faith we have died (I have been crucified with Christ.). Through faith, we have been buried with Him in baptism (Romans 6), and finally "were raised with Him through faith in the working of God." (Colossians 2:12).  We are united with Him in His death (death to self, the old man, the rebellious flesh) and then united with Him in the resurrection.  What an awesome God whose amazing love has taken us from rejection to acceptance in the Beloved!

Secondly, He has given us the Spirit and the Word to reveal and establish this truth in our hearts and lives.  The Holy Spirit teaches us all truth and brings to our remembrance what Jesus taught.  Romans 8:11 declares that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead gives life to our mortal bodies.  Likewise, by the Spirit we have power to put to death the deeds of the body. (Romans 8:13)  In other words, He enables us to put away all thoughts and feelings of rejection and the guilt that separates us from God and others.  Now we can walk on the earth with the life and love of Jesus, or as Galatians 2:20 says "the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me."  Nothing can separate us from this abundant life.

Today, Good Friday, as we gratefully acknowledge Jesus taking our place on the cross, may the Spirit freshly reveal to each of us that everything that separated us from God has been removed, and that we have total acceptance before God forever.  God's ultimate purpose for us has been accomplished and it is His pleasure to unite us to His resurrected life where we experience perfect love and acceptance.  Isaiah 43:1 decribes Jesus' heart toward you this way, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine."