“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.” 2Cor5:18-19
The word ‘reconciliation’ is very important. It means the re-establishing of cordial relations, to reestablish friendship between; to settle or resolve a dispute. There can be no reconciliation if a dispute hasn’t been solved.
The matter or issue that caused enmity between God and man was sin. Man’s sin and transgression of God’s law. Man’s rebellion against God’s righteousness. God took it upon Himself to settle this issue once and for all. Even though He was the aggrieved party. Even though it was man that had caused all this bad blood. And the way God chose to reconcile with man was by sacrificing His Son for man.
On the Cross, God in Christ reconciled the whole world unto Himself. He punished His Son Jesus with all the punishment that we deserved and made peace between us and Himself. It is done. We are reconciled unto God. God has made peace with us. God is no longer angry.
God poured out all His anger and judgment which man deserved upon Jesus. Once He did this He declared us righteous before Him. He justified us by the sacrifice of His Son. The enmity was abolished, the dispute was settled, and the conflict was resolved. Now we are friends once again. God is our friend. He is no longer our enemy. We are no longer His enemy.
And now after making us friends He has given us the work of making friends of enemies. To proclaim this to the whole world. That God has made them friends. That He is no longer angry. That He has justified them. This is the gospel of peace that we are sent forth to preach. The good news of Jesus Christ.
We have now received the ministry of reconciliation. We are in the ministry of reconciling people to God. This ministry is based on the fact that God through Jesus has made peace with all men. He has imputed all their sins upon Jesus and is no longer imputing them to people. Jesus has taken them away as far as the east is from the west. This is the word of reconciliation.
GOD DIDN’T SEND HIS SON TO COLLECT OUR DEBT, HE SENT HIM TO PAY OUR DEBT. Now He says to us, PAID IN FULL, LET’S BE FRIENDS
“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.” 2Cor5:20
An ambassador is a messenger or a representative. An ambassador represents somebody or a nation and acts on behalf of that person or nation. He does not act on his own authority nor deliver his own message. As ambassadors of God, He is speaking His good news today through us to all men everywhere. Wherever we go as preachers of the good news, we are representing God. And this is the message we are giving them.
BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD
It is one thing for God to be reconciled with us. He knows He has forgiven us, He knows He is at peace with us and He knows that He is no longer angry at us and wanting to punish us and destroy us.
The problem is many of us don’t know or believe this. We need to know and believe what God has accomplished at the Cross. We need to hear the gospel of peace and believe it. It is us now who need to get reconciled to God in our mind and in our beliefs.
We need to understand in our heart that God is at peace with us. This is what produces faith in us. God has already been reconciled with you, the question is have you been reconciled with Him? have you heard and believed the gospel of peace?
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