Reconciled through death of Son
We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.
Romans 5:10
God was the only one who could restore the relationship with man. He told the serpent he would
"'put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed'" (Ge 3:15). Her seed
(future offspring) was Christ which is why the word is capitalized. There was enmity because "while
we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son" (Ro 5:10). God said, "'He
shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel'" (Ge 3:15).
God developed his plan through Abraham and told him "'because you have done this thing and have not
withheld your son" (22:16) "in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you
have obeyed My voice'" (:18). Then "after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise" (Heb 6:15).
God told Abram, "'Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs,
where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years'" (Ge 15:13). God has everything in control
and cites that "'when Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son'" (Hos 11:1).
Jesus remained in Egypt "until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord
through the prophet: 'Out of Egypt I called My Son'" (Mt 2:15).
There remains a rest for the people of God.
Hebrews 4:9
God led Israel out of Egypt. Even then Hebrews explains that "the gospel was preached to us as well as to them"
(Heb 4:2). Unfortunately God explains, "'It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways.'
So I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest" (Ps 95:10). "There remains a rest for the people of God" (Heb 4:9).
"But the word which they [Israel] heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it" (:2).
"He who entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His" (:10).
God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.
2 Corinthians 5:19
God's plan was implemented via Israel. Paul reminds "that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from
the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world"
(Eph 2:12). "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" (2Co 5:19). His purpose was "through Him to reconcile
all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross" (Col 1:20) which "put to death the enmity"
(Eph 2:16). "He as now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and
blameless and beyond reproach" (Col 1:22). He reconciled "both [Jew and Gentile] in one body to God through the cross"
(Eph 2:16). Paul encourages "on behalf of Christ, to be reconciled to God" (2Co 5:20). "Having been reconciled, we shall
be saved by His life" (Ro 5:10).