From Enmity to Amity

This blog post will be on the topic of redemption and what it looks like. It won’t be an exhaustive dealing with all aspects of redemption obviously. Just two ideas that I was thinking on and wanted to express in writing.

The idea of redemption takes us from enmity with God to amity with God. The scriptures and life teach us that we are naturally at enmity with God. God, to the natural man, is his enemy. He hates God. He wishes God would be simply a figment of someone else’s imagination. We clearly see this in those who profess atheism. They literally argue that God is simply a figment of our imagination. There is no doubt that they are the enemies of God but it’s not just atheists. There are those who profess theism or even Christianity that are the enemies of God. The ultimate reality is that it doesn’t matter what you profess, it matters what you possess. Without redemption by Christ Jesus we are lost. We are all at enmity with God and enemies of God by our wicked works. Jesus, on the cross, suffered and paid for this enmity. He destroyed this enmity for those He purchased redemption for.

By His redemptive work we have been taken from enmity with God to amity with God. This word “amity” is somewhat new to me but it fits perfectly in the redemption story. This word was taken from the Latin word for “friend” which is amicus. A very similar word is used in Spanish for friend and I’m sure you’re familiar with it, amigo is the word. So what we see in redemption is that Christ, through His life, death, burial, resurrection, has taken enemies of God and made them friends of God. This is truly amazing for creatures such as us. We don’t deserve this! We actually deserve the opposite of this! We deserve to be punished for our sins! We deserve to perish under the full weight of the wrath of God! However, Jesus did this for those whom the Father chose before the foundation of the world. Jesus was treated as though He were the vilest of criminals! On the cross the Father showed Him no favoritism but He crushed Him as though He was the worst of sinners.

This is what it took to bring us rebels into a favorable relationship with God and we shouldn’t take it lightly. We should lay down our lives in gratitude to this. Remember this when you are struggling, you were once an enemy in enmity with God but because of Christ you are now a friend of God in amity with God.