What is the meaning of reconciliation according to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones?

According to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the word "reconcile" used by Paul in Ephesians 2:16 includes several important meanings:

1. "It means, first of all, a change from a hostile to a friendly relationship. That's the simplest meaning."
2. "It does not merely mean a friendship after an estrangement, but it means really bringing together again to reunite and to reconnect."
3. "It is a word also that emphasizes the completeness of the action... it isn't patching up a disagreement. It isn't a compromise."
4. "It implies that it's one of the parties that takes the action, and it's the upper one that does it... It suggests this action that comes down from above."
5. "The word carries the meaning that it is a restoration of something that was there before."

Lloyd-Jones emphasizes that this reconciliation involves restoring the fellowship between God and humanity that was broken by sin.

Why do both Jews and Gentiles need to be reconciled to God according to the sermon?

According to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, both Jews and Gentiles need reconciliation to God for different reasons:

For Gentiles: - They were "aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel" - They were "strangers from the covenants of promise" - They were "without God in the world"

For Jews: - "All the levitical sacrifices... were rarely not sufficient. It was merely a shadow of something that was to come." - "The blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer really cannot cleanse the soul. It covered over the sin, but it didn't rarely deal with the problem." - The Jews "had so completely misunderstood what God had done" and "thought that the mere fact that they were physical descendants from Abram in and of itself saved them." - Their attitude toward Gentiles was "terribly sinful. They regarded them as dogs. They despised them."

How is reconciliation to God achieved according to Dr. Lloyd-Jones?

According to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, reconciliation to God is achieved:

1. Through Christ alone: "The reconciliation is achieved and produced by the Lord Jesus Christ... There is no hope from men apart from him."

2. Specifically through the cross: "There is no reconciliation apart from the cross." Lloyd-Jones emphasizes that it is "by the cross" and "by the blood of his cross."

3. By Christ slaying the enmity: "The teaching is that before reconciliation is possible, something has to happen on God's side as well as on our side... The enmity has been removed."

4. Through substitution: "God took your sins and mine, and he put them on the head of Christ. And then as the lamb of God, he slew him... he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

5. In one body: "He might reconcile both unto God in one body" - both Jews and Gentiles are reconciled in exactly the same way.

What is the relationship between sin and broken fellowship according to the sermon?

According to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, sin fundamentally breaks fellowship with God:

1. "The most appalling thing about sin. The devastating thing about sin is that it means breaking fellowship. It means that we are cut off from God, that we are out of relationship to God, that we are without God."

2. This broken fellowship was the original tragedy in Eden: "Man was made for God. He was meant for fellowship with God... But alas, sin came in. And... the terrible thing about sin was... that it broke fellowship."

3. Sin produces enmity: "Sin is that which produces enmity between men and God, and that, according to this teaching, everywhere is the condition of man in sin."

4. The real problem is not just forgiveness of actions: "It isn't just the question of our being forgiven for the particular actions. That isn't the problem. Only the problem is how can this fellowship be restored?"

5. Christians should view sin in terms of relationship: "The sooner the better, my friends, we begin to think of sins not in terms of actions which are bad, but in terms of our relationship to God."

How does Lloyd-Jones explain the connection between the divisions among people and separation from God?

According to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, all human divisions stem from our separation from God:

1. "All the minor and secondary divisions and separations and quarrelings among men are ultimately due to the fact that they are all together separated from God."

2. The world is full of divisions: "Countries, nations, blocks, groups, curtains one side, the other side in the nation, classes, industrial groups, capital, labor, master and employer and servant, and so on."

3. The root cause is our fallen relationship with God: "All these minor secondary, third rate, fifth rate, 10th rate divisions and separations and quarrelings are all of them due to one thing only, and that is that all men are separated from God."

4. Unity is only possible through reconciliation with God: "Unity, therefore among men, is only possible as men are reconciled together to God."

5. The vertical relationship must precede the horizontal one: "Man has to be right with God before he can be right with his fellow men and women... You can't do the second until you've done the first."

This is why Lloyd-Jones believes it is "a sheer waste of breath and of energy and of time to try to get christian behavior from people who are not Christians."