I argued that Reconciliation is a two-way, relational thing, not a state of being or status. If you deny this, you are denying reality. You short-change the miracle of salvation by ignoring the facts of the matter.False, Reconciliation in Rom 5:10 is completed, you short changing it and the death of Christ by saying it was made only possible.
Using your terminology, I maintain that Romans 5:10 is "objective reconciliation." According to this category, objective reconciliation is the divine initiative in which God, through Christ’s death, establishes the conditions for peace with humanity apart from their repentance or faith. That's objective reconciliation.
In Romans 5, Paul is not addressing subjective reconciliation, which is the personal, relational restoration that occurs only when a person responds to God’s initiative through repentance and faith.
The aorist tells you when something happened, not what kind of thing it is. The aorist in Romans 5:10 refers to God's completed act of making peace possible. It does not refer to the completed restoration itself. Paul himself proves this by pleading: "Be reconciled to God."Reconciled is aorist passive indicative. The aorist is a simple completed past tense and the indicative is a statement of fact. You are saying it isnt a statement of fact, but possible, Thats false teaching
Saying reconciliation in Romans 5:10 is not inevitable does not diminish it. it is simply to say that "God's act does not override human agency. That is not diminishing reconciliation. That is preserving the relational nature of reconciliation.
If reconciliation were inevitable, then:
- repentance would be unnecessary
- faith would be unnecessary
- Paul’s appeals would be meaningless
- relationship would be replaced by determinism