What is alienation? What does it mean that we are alienated from God?

But that is not all, sin not only put every one of us in the criminals dock in God's presence, needing to be cleared from all our sins (that is to be justified), but I discovered when I was converted that there was something wrong in my own heart. The fact of the matter is that in my unconverted days I did not want God. Why not? The Bible word is 'alienated'. Paul says to the Colossian Christians, "You, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath [God] reconciled" (Col.1:21). To be reconciled is to be brought to God in such fashion that, instead of God being a terror to us, someone we want to avoid, we find our joy in Him, we are reconciled, the alienation, the disinclination to have anything to do with God vanishes. What a wonderful blessing that is, and we have it now. Every Christian knows that. If I were to go into a London street and say to a man, 'I want you to come with me to a prayer meeting' he would probably reply, 'A prayer meeting? If you had asked me to go to the theatre or the cinema perhaps even the public house, then certainly I would go, but I have never been to a prayer meeting in my life!' He is alienated. He does not want God, and if I went down into the slums, where the devoted men of the London City Mission go, and I find poor men and women there in the cesspool of sin and vice and offer God to them, I would find that they do not want Him either. They run away from Him. Immediately sin came in in Genesis 3 Adam and his wife were not prepared to have intercourse with God as they had before, they ran away and hid behind the trees of the garden, they were frightened because they were alienated, an awful breach had come in in their thoughts between themselves and God. We were all like that in our unconverted days. It is not only when we get to heaven that we Christians find our joy in God and in our Lord Jesus and in His things, it is now. We are brought to God, our whole outlook is changed. If you turn to the Saviour that is what you will find, your whole outlook will be altered.

Man's state by nature is that of spiritual death; he has "no life" in him (John 6:53), he is "alienated from the life of God." Eph. 4:18.) There is no pulsation in human nature which beats God-ward, no craving within for God, no thirst after God — the source of life and light and love; no seeking for rest in Him, who alone can satisfy the soul.

When Adam fell from his innocency, not only did he become a sinner, but the primary instincts of his fallen nature led him to shun God, and to hide himself from His presence. Centuries have rolled on since that dark day, and men still are far from God; not indeed farther from God, as to their nature, than Adam, their progenitor, for that would be impossible but, as regards the great mass of humanity, terribly farther off as to the knowledge of God, indeed utterly ignorant of Him, and living in the darkness of moral estrangement from Him.

One other passage refers to the state of alienation into which man has fallen — Ephesians 4:18. We get right to the bottom of things when we discover that we have been "alienated from the life of God." Connected with this alienation are such things as vanity, darkness, ignorance, blindness, lasciviousness, uncleanness. This is not surprising for the life of God is the exact opposite of all these things. Sin, having alienated us from God, has cut us off from all the things that go to make up life according to Him.

Alienated from God, we have naturally no desire for Him, nor for the light and life that His presence brings. This came out most clearly directly sin had entered and the alienation had come to pass. Genesis 3 bears witness to it; the action of Adam and his wife plainly declared it. Directly the voice of the Lord God was heard in the garden they hid themselves. God did not instantly destroy them. He dealt with them in mercy; still they had erected a barrier between themselves and Him which nothing on their side could surmount, and which He ratified by placing a barrier on His side in the shape of cherubim and a flaming sword.

Manifold evil has engulfed mankind as the result of the incoming of sin. Not only have we incurred guilt but we lie under a terrible bondage. Again not only are we in bondage but we have been utterly estranged from God, in whom all our hope lies. We needed justification in view of our guilt. We needed redemption in view of bondage. And because we were so wholly alienated from God we needed reconciliation. The alienation, be it observed, lay wholly upon our side. The enmity existed in our minds towards God, not in God's mind towards us; and the enmity and alienation expressed itself in wicked works. Hence we may say that, whilst there is a sense in which God needed reconciliation, we needed it in a twofold way.

Reconciliation in this passage refers more to our state than to our guilt. In that state of enmity of heart we could never have known what it was to be brought nigh to God. It involves the removal of all moral distance between our souls and God. Afar off speaks of distance, but we who once were so are now brought nigh.

The most simple thought in reconciliation is, where there was distance there is now nearness. The wonderful effect in one's soul is, that while one was very conscious of moral distance from God, one can now come to God conscious that that distance is gone and be at home in His presence.

Reconciliation is, to use familiar language, making all straight; and even primarily, I believe, used in money-changing as that which makes the sum even, so that there is satisfaction of the parties in the matter; and thence passing into the more ordinary sense of making all smooth between alienated parties, and reconciling one who is alienated or at enmity. But it is not simply the change of mind from the enmity, though that be included; nor is it justification. It is the bringing back to unity, peace, and fellowship what was divided and alienated. We must not confound in Scripture "making reconciliation for the sins of the people" (Heb. 2:17) with "reconciliation" in 2 Corinthians 5, Colossians 1, Romans 5:10-11. The former is making propitiation, atonement (ilaskesthai and ilasmos), propitiation (1 John 2:2); while on the contrary "atonement" in Romans 5:11 should be reconciliation (katallage). Compare 1 Corinthians 7:11, "Let her be reconciled to her husband." where it is not merely her mind being restored to affection and good feeling, but matters made straight between them — the relationship made good. So it is between us and God; but the alienation was on our part. It was not alienation on God's part, but righteous judgment against sin in His creature, and that righteousness must be met in order to bring back the alienated creature into relationship with God. Only now it is much more than bringing back, because of the purposes of God in Christ, and the infinite value of the work by which we are brought back to God. Still it is an establishing a blessed and peaceful relationship with God, and us in it.

Reconciliation is, to use familiar language, making all straight; and even primarily, I believe, used in money-changing as that which makes the sum even, so that there is satisfaction of the parties in the matter; and thence passing into the more ordinary sense of making all smooth between alienated parties, and reconciling one who is alienated or at enmity. But it is not simply the change of mind from the enmity, though that be included; nor is it justification. It is the bringing back to unity, peace, and fellowship what was divided and alienated. We must not confound in scripture "making reconciliation for the sins of the people" (Heb. 2:17), with "reconciliation" in 2 Corinthians 5; Colossians 1; Romans 5:10-11. The former is making propitiation, atonement, ἱλάσχεσθαι and ἱλάσμός, propitiation (1 John 2:2); while on the contrary "atonement" in Romans 5:11 should be reconciliation, χαταλλαγή. Compare 1 Corinthians 7:11, "Let her be reconciled to her husband;" where it is not merely her mind being restored to affection and good feeling, but matters made straight between them — the relationship made good. So it is between us and God; but the alienation was on our part. It was not alienation on God's part, but righteous judgment against sin in His creature, and that righteousness must be met in order to bring back the alienated creature into relationship with God. Only now it is much more than bringing back, because of the purposes of God in Christ, and the infinite value of the work by which we are brought back to God. Still it is an establishing a blessed and peaceful relationship with God, and us in it.

What, then, is meant by reconciliation? Between men who may have been at variance it is the restoration of happy relationships; it is much more than this between God and man. The enmity was in the heart of man alone; and it is not only the removal of this, but it is also bringing man to God according to the eternal efficacy of the perfect work of Christ — a perfect work as estimated by God Himself. It is a reconciliation, therefore, according to all that God is as displayed in the death of Christ, and we brought to be — to quote the words of another — "in absolute harmony with the full display of what God is in His own character and nature." It is not, therefore, merely removing the enmity of our hearts, and God fully and freely forgiving our sins, but it is lifting us up into His own presence, setting us in the light as He is in the light, bringing us to Himself, and causing us to be in harmony with the full manifestation of Himself in Christ. The apostle could therefore say, "And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation." (Rom. 5:11.) That is, the result of reconciliation is that we can joy in God, delight ourselves in all that He is, in His holiness, love, grace, majesty, truth, righteousness — in a word, in Himself. What a contrast between joying in and being enemies of God! And this mighty change has been effected by His grace.

What, then, is meant by reconciliation? Between men who may have been at variance it is the restoration of happy relationships; it is much more than this between God and man. The enmity was in the heart of man alone; and it is not only the removal of this, but it is also bringing man to God according to the eternal efficacy of the perfect work of Christ - a perfect work as estimated by God Himself. It is a reconciliation, therefore, according to all that God is as displayed in the death of Christ, and we brought to be - to quote the words of another - "in absolute harmony with the full display of what God is in His own character and nature." It is not, therefore, merely removing the enmity of our hearts, and God fully and freely forgiving our sins, but it is lifting us up into His own presence, setting us in the light as He is in the light, bringing us to Himself, and causing us to be in harmony with the full manifestation of Himself in Christ. The apostle could therefore say, "And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation." (Rom. 5:11.) That is, the result of reconciliation is that we can joy in God, delight ourselves in all that He is, in His holiness, love, grace, majesty, truth, righteousness - in a word, in Himself. What a contrast between joying in and being enemies of God! And this mighty change has been effected by His grace.