The True Meaning of ‘Reconciliation’: A Biblical Response to the Church of England’s Latest Error

Feb 29, 2024 by Dave Doveton

By Rollin Grams, Bible and Mission.

Having pressed ahead with its blessings of homosexual unions,[1] the Church of England now wants to repair the disunity this has inevitably rendered in the denomination. The words ‘love’ and ‘faith’ were used to enshroud this rejection of God’s commandments on gender, sex, and marriage. Now the word ‘reconciliation’ has been introduced to attempt to rally unity between the orthodox and heretical groups despite fundamental disagreement. The baker has followed a faulty recipe, the cake has flopped, and now he imagines he might repair the mess he has made with a pretty icing. Theological terms—nice-sounding terms—like ‘love’, ‘faith’, and ‘reconciliation’ are used in feigned spirituality, devoid of their Biblical meanings, in order to drag Christians along a heretical path.[2] The overseers of a Church that they have abused and diminished[3] cajole faithful believers for not supporting their wayward ways.

‘Reconciliation’ is a term found in Paul’s writings, and if Scripture is to be referenced at all, one needs to begin with passages like 2 Corinthians 5.17-21; Romans 5.1-10; Colossians 1.15-23; and Ephesians 2.11-21.[4] Paul’s theology of reconciliation is rich, and it reaches back into Old Testament eschatology even though one will not find the word ‘reconciliation’ used. In the Old Testament, a theology of reconciliation is the third leg of salvation history. The first is sin, the second is judgement, and the third is reconciliation. This pattern is repeated again and again in Old Testament narrative and theology. As a narrative, the three are, of course, sequential. Reconciliation has to do with God’s forgiving a repentant Israel that has been judged. Israel’s story in its post-exodus history is one that repeats this plot in the minor narratives of various judges and kings. When Israel divides into ‘Israel’ as the northern kingdom and Judah as the southern kingdom, the plot continues for each: sin, judgement, a promise of reconciliation. Ultimately, judgement becomes exile, and the vision of reconciliation that the prophets foretell is of a return from exile that includes unity between the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah and an inclusion of Gentiles into the people of God.

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