TO BE RECONCILED TO GOD IN CHRIST

 
You can, if your Christian formation has been poor, talk grace and then add something to it. You might find yourself saying, ‘Sure we are saved by grace’ and then move straight into adding to grace all those iconic additions and behaviours that you know as your church’s distinctives. The trouble is, that attachment to these defines us as purveyors of a non-Christian gospel.

HOW ARE WE RECONCILED TO GOD?
Thomas Torrance writes, “There are two possible ways. The way of Cain in which man offers of the fruits of personal labour to God, the way of man from man to God. Man provides a personal offering, a personal sacrifice.

ABEL
“The way of Abel is one in which God provides the sacrifice, the sacrifice of another. Abel followed God in his sacrifice of animals to cover - in Old Testament language to atone for - Adam and Eve's sin and shame. Abel let God provide the sacrifice and offered it to God.

LAMB OF GOD
“So, in Abraham, who would offer his best, his only son, we see that his offering is displaced by God who himself provides the lamb. Substitution and free grace are identical.

CAIN HYBRID
“Cain's way of approaching God runs against God's grace, even though it uses God's gifts. It is rejected. Abel's way is accepted, because it is God's gracious provision. It is the way in which God comes in pure grace to gather frail humanity into covenant and communion with himself, and even provides for man a covenanted way of response to God's grace. Man responds by faith, but in faith relies upon a divinely provided way of approach and response to God in the covenant.” (1)

The New Covenant is the guarantee of inclusion in God that is ours in the person of Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the New Covenant But it’s more than words. It is the result of atonement and with it incarnation – Christ in us expressing His Person in Jack, Jill, Sam and Mavis. The new covenant lived is Christ come in our flesh – the eucharist as a way of life instead of just a rite. The New Covenant is not a theology as some argue. It is our inclusion in God in the person of Jesus Christ. If your church knows nothing of the New Covenant it may be that it is not really a Christian Church.
(1)    Thomas Torrance. The Incarnation. P 40