Christ is All I Need: Reconcile

 

And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your minds as expressed through your evil deeds, but now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him – Colossians 1:21-22

 Words are funny things. We use them all the time, and rarely slow down to consider what they mean, what is behind them, how they are formed. Take the word, “reconcile” for example. We know that throwing the prefix “re” in front of a word means to do again – to indicate repetition, reversal or restoration (1). But what does “concile” mean and how would we do it again? I don’t run around talking about “conciling”, do you? That’s because it turns out that’s not a word. The root of reconcile is actually “conciliate” which, I also have never used and didn’t know was a word, but my Grandpa taught me that I need to learn something new every day or else I’ll get old, so here goes!

CONCILIATE, verb transitive [Latin To draw or bring together, to unite; Gr. To call. The primary sense of the root is to strain, stretch, , drive or draw. Calling is a straining or driving of voice. See Class Gl. No. 32. 36. 48. 49. And See Council.]

1. To lead or draw to, by moral influence or power; to win, gain or engae, as the affections, favor or good will; as, politeness and hospitality conciliate affection.

2. To reconcile, or bring to a state of friendship, as persons at variance. We say, an attempt has been made to conciliate the contending parties.

Websters Dictionary 1828 - Webster’s Dictionary 1828 - Conciliate. (n.d.). Websters Dictionary 1828. https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/conciliate

 So, as I understand it, to conciliate means drawing things or people together that were separated. Let’s say my brother and I had a falling out. If someone were to conciliate us, they would remind us of our connection, our long history, our love for one another. Now, taking that a step further into Reconciling (reconciliating?), Webster tells us that this means “to conciliate anew.” We are being “called back into union and friendship.” This means that the union existed previously and we are being restored into it.

 What separated us from God? Where did the breakdown happen? Sin. Before we sinned, we were in good standing, perfect relationship with God. Yep, there’s a lot of theological debate surrounding original sin and its effect on us, determining at which point we lost our right standing with God (at birth or at our first sin) but either way, I think it’s semantical since we all have sinned and ended up in a place of needing to be reconciled. So, before we sinned, we were in good standing, then we sinned and were separated, then Christ stepped in and paid the price for us, reconciling us to Himself, restoring our relationship with Him – our friendship.

Here’s the Thing: What a beautiful word, what a beautiful gift: reconciliation. Setting everything back aright – as it ought to be.