Reconciliation
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
All things are become new. And one of the grandest “new” things….is that we are reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 “And all things are of God, Who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
It is interesting to note that reconciled and reconciling are one Greek word….while reconciliation is another.
Reconciled and reconciling means to change mutually together.
When Christ died and paid the penalty for our sin….at that moment, we were forgiven our sins,….and were reconciled to God…in Christ Jesus.
God in Christ was by that very sacrifice reconciling the “world” (those that would trust in Christ)…unto Himself….that is Christ and us were changed mutually together….placed together—never to be separated.
Romans 8:35, 37-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This is what God did in Christ Jesus. We come by faith….and He does this! Amazing work! Amazing love!
“…and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;” “…and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
The word “reconciliation” means “to exchange or an adjustment to the divine favor”.
And Paul is stressing that this is something we do….for God has given us this ministry and word.
(Years ago there was a movement in the church that stressed…”the exchanged life”. This is basically to…
….”Deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow the Lord. To lose our life in ourselves….our habits, and plans, and desires….to find our life in Christ.” (Matthew 16:24-25)
It stressed a call to discipleship….or a life of “exchange”, or adjustment to God’s Will and Way….the divine favor.
And let’s face it, there are many things in our life, even after being born again….which needs to be adjusted to God’s Way of doing things.
We exchange our will, for His, we exchange our plans, for His,….and mostly we come to love Him fervently….for we exchange what we loved before, for Him….Who becomes our all in all.)
Paul stresses this “strengthening with might by HIs Spirit…in the inner man”….and what He produces within us….”to be filled with all the fullness of God”.
Ephesians 3:16-19 “That He would grant you,…
(and a grant is given with the expectation that it will be used and improved upon)
….according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man;
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;…
(this “dwell” is in reverential awe, it is not for salvation, but for living)
…that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
May be able to comprehend with all saints what in the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
(In Romans, Paul says God gives this to us….and here, he says we can come to truly know it in our everyday lives!)
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
Paul wants the churches to know God’s great work of reconciling us to Himself by Christ….and our work of reconciliation to God’s Will and Way, by the Holy Spirit.
God has given each of us “the ministry of reconciliation, and the word of reconciliation”….for we do not go through this world alone.
We are to use what God has given us and keep ourselves in His divine favor, and speak to others that they might, by faith, come to Christ and be reconciled in Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21 “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who know no sin: that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead:
And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.”
God hath reconciled us in Christ….we can never be separated from Him….
….but we are to seek the reconciliation of our life with HIs, practically.
And, to know the love of Christ which passeth understanding….and pass it on.
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 