The Ministry of Reconciliation

Transcript

GR 1809
05/31/2015
The Ministry of Reconciliation
2 Corinthians 5:19-10
Gil Rugh

We are going to 2 Corinthians 5. The Bible tells us all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable. Indeed it is. So since all Scripture comes from God, is God's Word, it is all important and we grow and learn from it. But there are certain portions that have a more special significance and importance because of the content. We are in one of those portions at the end of 2 Corinthians 5 where in a very condensed and concise way God unfolds the truth concerning His work of reconciliation in the world. And we get a clearer, fuller perspective of what is involved in our salvation. And we must never grow weary or tired of the wonder of our salvation. Every time we come to these portions I am amazed and in awe of what God has done, the depths of His provision, the completeness. And yet we never exhaust our understanding of it. No greater truth in the world than “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.” Here he is going to unfold the truths that are contained in that one verse. We've been looking at 2 Corinthians 5:14.

In verse 14, just to overview what he has presented to us so far, the sum and substance of it is Christ died for all so that those who enter into life by faith in Him would live new lives. One of the foundational things to understand God's work of salvation is that it totally transforms a life, makes a person new, they are never the same. It's just not a decision made to settle an eternal destiny and we get on with life. It is the beginning of a new life, lived differently with different motivation, different purpose, a different lifestyle, if you will. So he said in verse 14, “The love of Christ controls us,” the love that Christ has is what controls us, shapes us, directs us, “having concluded this, one died for all, therefore all died.” These are verses we have looked at. Note “He died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” See the inseparable connection between Christ dying for us so that we might live for Him. We no longer live for ourselves. Stop right there. Who do you live for? For whom are you living? If you are living for yourself, you have never experienced the power of God's transforming salvation because Christ died for us so that when we place our faith in Him we might enter into new life, become new creatures as he'll say down in verse 17, no longer living the way we used to live—for ourselves, but for Him.

That changes the way we see others, it changes the way we see Christ. Now we look at people through the perspective of what God has done in them. That's what he said in verse 16. Then in verse 17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ,” that becomes key as we talked about, to be in Christ, entered into a relationship with Him and the provision He has made by His death for all. “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away,” we no longer live for self and all that goes with living for self, that selfish, self-centered life and lifestyle. New things have come. Crucial here that we are clear. Some people criticize Christians, they just are focused on spiritual things, heavenly things. There is a world that needs to be improved, we need to get involved in our culture, our society. We need to make a difference. You are doing the most important thing in all the world when you bring the Gospel to someone. That's what changes a life, that's what this passage makes clear. We are not here to try to get people to live a little better, not to do some of the bad things they do. I'm not saying sin is not sin and we don't point sin out, and sin indeed is a reproach to any nation, it's a disgrace on the nation. And we become so open and flagrant in our rebellion against God and what He has said. But we're not here to try to clean up a lost world, we are here to bring the message that will enable individuals to be made new. And until that's done, nothing is done. “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things,” only God knows it, Jeremiah 17 says. And until we have been changed in the heart, made new within, nothing has changed. You might clean up an area of your life, but the foundational point is you are still living for self.

So he is going to move on in verses 18ff, and talk about this whole subject of what God has done for us in Christ. There are going to be two parts in verses 18-21. The first is God's work of reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, that work of reconciliation that God did when His Son died on the cross and was raised from the dead. The second thing he will emphasize is God's work through His appointed ambassadors in bringing the message of reconciliation to the world. Important that we see both sides. God has provided reconciliation and He has appointed that his messengers bring this reconciliation to the lost of the world. That's what is in view in these verses.

You'll note he begins 2 Corinthians 5:18, “Now all these things are from God.” The source of all that he has said in verses 14-17 is God. He is the source, He's the cause. Salvation in its provision and in its application is a work of God. The death of Christ, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” the work of God, bringing of that truth to the heart of a person is a work of God. All these things. How can a person be made new? Remember when we were studying these previous verses we went to John 3 and Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. Nicodemus says, how can I be born again? That's what is being unfolded, you are born again by the living and abiding Word of God. The truth of God's provision of His Son to be the Savior, you believe in Him and salvation comes.

“All these things are from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.” Remember we said there are two things in view in these closing verses. Here is the first one, God reconciling. The second thing, “He gave us the ministry of reconciliation,” appointing ambassadors who will carry the truth concerning God's work of reconciliation to the lost. He'll go back and forth on those two points through the rest of this chapter. God reconciled us to Himself through Christ. And here you have the work of reconciliation brought to the individual. Reconciliation, key theological word. When we talk about God's salvation we think of justification, sanctification, glorification. But there is more. We talked about regeneration in connection with verse 17, “If any man is in Christ he is a new creature,” a new creation. He's been born again, made new. Propitiation. “He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.” As he'll say in verse 19, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” And the word reconciliation, a word only used by the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. Used 13 times in Paul's writings, 12 of those are in a theological context, one of them, 1 Corinthians 7:11, it's used in the marriage context of being reconciled to a spouse. We all know we use the word reconciliation the same meaning to day. It implies that there is enmity, there is hostility, there is conflict. Two people that get along and are doing fine and have a good relationship, you don't say, I have to reconcile them. But two people who have had a conflict, a disagreement, there is enmity between them, hostility. You say, I'd like to see them reconciled. In other words I'd like to see the problem between them resolved, settled, so that instead of being in a relationship of conflict and hostility they are in a relationship of peace and harmony.

So when we talk about the word reconciliation, we bring into the picture hostility, enmity, conflict. The opposite of peace and harmony. That's what we are talking about with reconciliation. “God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.” Now the amazing and unique thing about reconciliation is talked about in the New Testament, is its uniqueness. Among the Jews, the Greeks, the Romans of biblical time, similar to where we are, it was not conceived of that the offended person would accomplish what needed to be done for reconciliation. It's always in the context of the person who is guilty has to deal with it. Here the amazing thing is God is the One who has been offended. People are at war with God. He is their enemy and they are hostile toward Him. And yet He has taken the initiative to do what can resolve their problem so that they can be in right relationship with Him, its unique reconciliation. The God who was so grievously sinned against has done what only He could do so that our guilt, our enmity could be cared for. That's what we are talking about with reconciliation. Important to understand this doctrine. Sometimes we present salvation as though it is just a somewhat passive loving God there, just hoping people will say I'm going to believe in Jesus. And God says, thank you for doing that, now you can be My child. That's not the way it is. What God has done is a work of reconciliation. It reminds us we were God's enemies, we were at war with God. That meant we were the objects of His wrath. The situation was so serious God says the only solution is the giving of His Son. And if you don't respond to that provision of reconciliation, you will be sent to hell forever. That's how serious the situation is.

People think, I don't know that I want to tell people that they are sinners, that they are God's enemies. That doesn't sound right, people don't like to hear that. You can go and talk to somebody you work with or a neighbor and say, did you know God loves you? They'll say, yes, I think God loves me. Have you ever believed in Jesus? Well if he is a Catholic he'll say yes, if he's a Protestant he'll say yes, if he's a Hindu he might say no. But most people who are Protestants or Catholics say yes, I believe in Jesus. They might even say I believe He died on the cross. Do you know what is missing? Unless a person understands something of the seriousness of their sin and guilt before God, they cannot be reconciled to God. That's part of understanding the Gospel. We must be clear on this. It's not just telling people to believe in Jesus. You must understand why you have to believe in Jesus. God has done what is necessary to reconcile you to Himself. You say, “I don't think I need reconciliation.” Most people, you talk about being sinners, they are all right with that as long as you don't make too clear what it means to be a sinner. Remember the Pharisee? I thank you, Lord, that I am not a sinner like other people. That Jewish man knew he was a sinner. He'd go into the temple, he's making sacrifices, but I'm not a sinner like other people. Most people, religious people, we're going to limit it to Protestant and Catholic just for the context, do you know you are a sinner? Yes, I'm a sinner. Do you think you are going to heaven? Yes. Wait a minute, sinners as sinners aren't going to heaven. I go to church, I've been baptized. Do you believe in Jesus? Of course I believe in Jesus. Okay, then shake hands, I'm glad you are a Christian. No. That's the whole doctrine of reconciliation. Did you ever understand how lost you were? Have you understood that you are a sinner, you are God's enemy, you are justly the object of His wrath? We talk about John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” but you know that chapter goes on to say, “He that has the Son has life, but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him,” remains on him. That's it, God's wrath, a wrath that will send people to an eternal hell and as Revelation 14 says, the smoke of their torment ascends into the ages of the ages. Serious business.

So he says, verse 18, “all things are from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.” God has done what was necessary for His enemies to be brought into right relationship with Him. I have a position, not everyone agrees it is true, the Bible never speaks about God being reconciled to man. There is nothing that had to be done with God, the change had to take place in us to bring us in line with God. He has reconciled us to Himself through Christ. Now note verse 18 goes on, “and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” This becomes key. God has accomplished the work of reconciliation. We saw in verse 14, “Christ died for all;” verse 19, “He was reconciling the world to Himself.” I think that is universal provision for every single human being. But that doesn't mean every single human being is reconciled. He has done the work but for that to be applied a person must hear and believe, as we will talk about.

So he has given those who have responded to the message of reconciliation the responsibility to pass it on, if you will. We've noted Paul has himself at the fore view so we could understand and recognize I've been reconciled through faith in Christ. Is there anybody who has been reconciled to God who couldn't tell someone else what happened? If not, you ought to stop and say, maybe I was never saved. I can't tell someone if someone were dying in the aisle next to you, could they say, tell them how to get to heaven. I don't know, what would I say? They are dying. What do you mean, what would you say? How did you get saved? That's the point. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Who? Those who have been reconciled to God through Christ. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation, telling people how they could be brought into right relationship with God. That's the ministry of reconciliation.

We want to connect this with what Paul has been saying. You'll note the word ministry there, “He gave us the ministry.” We are familiar with it, the basic word here is we get the word deacon from it, to mean a servant, nothing wrong with the word ministry, not talking about formal, ordained ministry. He gave us the ministry, the service of reconciliation. That key word. We have just translated it over as deacon in the New Testament, put different endings on that, diakon, and then depending on the ending we get different forms of the word. Paul used that repeatedly, leading up to this.

Back up to 2 Corinthians 3:5 where he says “not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from our ourselves. Our adequacy is from God.” That fits with what we saw, all these things are from God. Same thing he said earlier in chapter 3 verse 5, our adequacy doesn't come from ourselves, it comes from God. “Who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant.” That word servants is the same basic word translated ministry. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 3:6, “He made us adequate,” you could say as ministers of a new covenant. Same thing. So that ministry He has given us is the ministry of the new covenant which is talking about the salvation provision of the new covenant that God had promised that was accomplished in the death and resurrection of Christ. Down in 2 Corinthians 3:8, “How will the ministry of the Spirit,” there we are, the ministry of the Spirit, same word, ministry, “be even more with glory.” Down in verse 9, the last part of the verse he talks about the ministry of righteousness. Same word, ministry, of righteousness.

So we've talked about a ministry of reconciliation, but leading up to that he talked about the ministry of the new covenant, the ministry of the Spirit, the ministry of righteousness. Then in 2 Corinthians 4:1, “Since we have this ministry.” What ministry? The ministry of the new covenant, the ministry of the Spirit, the ministry of righteousness. Then you come down to 2 Corinthians 5:18, “He gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” That ministry of reconciliation we're talking about the ministry of the new covenant, the ministry accomplished in the power of the Spirit of God who makes us adequate. As the new covenant promised, I will put my Spirit in their hearts. It's a ministry of righteousness because it is how an individual can be declared righteous and receive the righteousness of God as he'll talk about in verse 21. This is the ministry we have, our salvation.

Different words and they overlap because it's all within the framework or the sphere of our salvation. But each of these brings a little different insight into it. We talk about justification, being declared righteous; and here reconciliation, being brought into a relationship of peace with the God who was our enemy. What a wonderful, awesome salvation God has provided for us.

Back in 2 Corinthians 5:19, now he is going to back and we're going to go back and forth. God's work of providing righteousness, God entrusting to us the ministry of reconciliation. Verse 19, “Namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” And then the last part of the verse he'll go back, “and He committed to us the ministry of reconciliation.” But first, what was involved? “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” That's the message we have. We can talk to a person, do you know what was happening when Jesus Christ came and died on the cross? God was doing a work of reconciling the world. What do you mean with that? Well, do you know what reconcile means? When a person is your enemy and is at war with you, something has to be done to resolve that. Do you know what God says about us? We are His enemies, we were at war . . . Well, I don't think I am. When you stop and think about it, it doesn't matter what I think about it, does it? Or you think about it. This is what a holy God says. “There is none righteous, no not one.” Then we present to them the truth and what it means to be a sinner. People think it's a light thing. I take sin seriously, that's why I go to church, that's why I was baptized, that's why I partake of the sacraments, whatever they do. No, you don't take it seriously; if you took it seriously, you would believe what God said. There is nothing you can do on this earth to bring about forgiveness before a holy God. “All your righteousnesses,” God says, “are like filthy, polluted garments.” All you can do is accept by faith what He did. That's the point.

God was in Christ reconciling the world. Now I think it's a disaster that some people try to limit this context, we call it limited atonement, they like particular redemption. I think when the Bible says something, we ought to believe it, accept it for what it says. Not bring a theological saying so we can help God out of a conflict. We create a dilemma supposedly that God is in that we created and was never there. It says in verse 14, “Christ died for all, therefore all died.” And He died for all. That doesn't mean all are saved, but it does mean what it does say—He died for all. If He died for all, why aren't all saved? Because God has ordained the means as well as the end, Christ dying on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin. But that is not applied to my account until I respond in faith.

Any illustration becomes trite because this is of such magnitude. But if all of us here have debts, some of us do and some of us don't, but we'll say each of us owes $100 million. And one of these fantastically wealthy people worth $100 billion comes and says, I paid for all your debts. I'm free. No, you'll have to sign here, accepting my payment. Well I thought you said you paid it. I did, but you don't receive the benefit until you sign the paper saying you received it. I will not sign that paper, you are not going to tell me what to do. I throw it down on the ground, I stomp all over it. I guess I showed you. That's basically what God says happens with the death of His Son. Remember we went to Hebrews 10. Think of the severity of the wrath those people will endure who have trampled underfoot the blood of Christ and have treated as worthless the death of God's Son. I mean, that's how God views it. I had My Son come and die for you and you treat it as worthless, you treat it as something to be discarded. That's what people do when they say I've been baptized, I go to church, I think I'm good enough. In other words, they’re saying I don't need what God has done. Yes, I believe that but I believe there is more to it. Then you don't believe that and God says there is nothing more to it. You can't add to it, you cannot take away from it. And when you do you are cursed to hell. That's what the Scripture says, that's what God says. Paul says anyone who adds anything or takes anything away from the Gospel that I preach is anathema, cursed to hell, Galatians 1. We get this idea, they are good people, they have good hearts, I think they mean well. God says they are my enemies. They don't mean well, they mean to be at war with Me. I don't think that's what people think, God says that is where they are in their heart.

Look at our society. Isn't it amazing how quickly people's attitudes change about sin? As soon as enough people say it is acceptable, everybody thinks the thing to do is not only to say it is acceptable, but to promote it. Then it becomes something. Aren't we wonderful people, so tolerant, so loving, so understanding. We are simply saying how defiant we are against God. The heart is a bottomless pit of sin and wickedness. That's why God says no human being really understands how bad the human heart is. “It is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things.”

“God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” 1 John 2:2, “He is the propitiation for our sins, not only our sins but for the sins of the whole world.” And you can go through 1 John, I encourage you to do it, mark every time world is used and evaluate what do those passages mean. So He died for all, He died for the world. What does it mean He was reconciling the world?

Next statement, important theologically, “not counting their trespasses against them,” not counting their trespasses against them. One commentator said this is the clearest definition of forgiveness in all the New Testament. What does it mean when God forgives us? He is not counting our trespasses against us. What a statement. To be reconciled, you see you put it in the context—our trespasses, our offenses, our sins. That's what it means. God has resolved the enmity, He has forgiven our offenses, the record is clean. We looked back in chapter 3 and noted Paul is talking about the ministry of the new covenant. That's where this concept comes. God was in Christ reconciling the world, not counting their trespasses against them.

Let's go back to Jeremiah 31, this is where the prophecy of the new covenant is. We looked at this when we were studying 2 Corinthians 3. God promises a new covenant in verse 31, then note the provision of that new covenant, the end of verse 34 is what Paul has in view. “For I will forgive their iniquity, their sin I will remember no more.” That's what he's talking about, I'll forget it. What does that mean? I won't remember it anymore. Does that mean God forgets? I thought He was omniscient. But remember it means it is forgiven.

I was throwing out some old bills, receipts from way back to early in our marriage. I found a receipt for a car. Do you know what happened when I paid for that? I got something in the mail stamped “Paid in Full.” What did that mean? The debt was no longer owed, it was paid in full. It's like somebody gave you a gift and you had that huge debt and he hands you something and he says, paid in full. You no longer owe the debt.

That's the point, I'll forgive their iniquity. Their sin I will remember no more. It will not be brought up, it has been dealt with, it is done. That's the point, that's the provision. That's why Paul says He has given us the ministry of the new covenant, God declaring I will forgive your sins, the enmity has been dealt with.

Back up to Psalm 32, we love the Psalms. And the new covenant in Psalm 32 may have been in Paul's mind because we'll see he used it in the context of reconciliation in the book of Romans. Psalm 32:1, “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” Do you want God's blessing? Receive by faith the work of reconciliation He did in Christ. That will bring blessing. “How blessed,” spiritually prosperous, “is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity.” For God, the One who has been offended, to declare me absolved of guilt, He won't impute any iniquity to me, my account is cleaned, stamped “Paid in Full.”

Come over in the New Testament to the book of Romans. I mentioned there are 13 times, 12 theological times, Paul uses the word reconciliation, various forms of that word. We are only going to be looking in three major passages, two in addition to 2 Corinthians. Romans 4, reconciliation won't be used here but you'll see. He quotes in this context where we are going. He talked about the provision of righteousness beginning in Romans 3:21, by the death of Christ, and he used that word propitiation that I quoted from 1 John 2:2 in verse 25, “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.” Propitiation, satisfaction, satisfying the requirements of a holy God by His death. It comes to us through faith, and we've looked at these passages in our previous study. In verse 28, “We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.” And that's the only way of salvation, verse 30, because there is only one God.

You come down into Romans 4 he uses Abraham as an example. What does the Scripture say about Abraham? “Abraham,” verse 3, “believed God, it was credited to him as righteousness.” Believing God, that's how the righteousness of God is credited to my account. Sin has been paid. And then you come down to verse 6, “Just as David speaks of the blessing on the man whom God credits righteousness apart from works.” How pathetic that some people think that by their good works, by keeping the Ten Commandments, by being baptized, by going to church, by partaking of the sacraments, some mixture of those things God is going to declare me righteous, when the Scripture is so clear. David a thousand years before Christ pronounced blessing on the one who is declared righteous by faith, not by works. Then we have quoted Psalm 32, what we just read. “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.” Some people think they got saved without ever confronting the reality of their sin and we think we want to work our way around the issue of their sin and their guilt. You have experienced that if you read the testimonies of those who go through our city sharing the Gospel. You see reaction when you get to the issue of talking about their sin and guilt. People don't want to hear it. We all are offended by that. We think we are pretty good people, and those people out at that church, they think they are the only ones going to heaven. We don't, but we think there is only one way to heaven because God says there's the only way. It's the only way He has provided, it's the only way He accepts. Blessed on that man.

He goes down through Romans 4 to talk about faith. This is an aside. Reformed theology runs off the rails because they think the death of Christ saves those that He died for. The death of Christ saves no one apart from faith in that death. The death of Christ is not saving. He died for all but no one is saved by that death until they believe. That's the whole argument in Romans 4 and the reason God had it so clearly written in Genesis 15:6, “Abraham believed God, God credited to him as righteousness.” Romans 4:23, “now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered because of our transgressions, raised because of our justification.” Could it be any clearer? It is credited by faith. Where do we get this idea that if Christ died for them, they have to be saved. Not one drop of the blood of Christ be wasted. They ought to be taken out to the woodshed and worked over with that kind of goofy reading into Scripture. The Scripture is clear, He died for all, He died for the world and you better not trample underfoot the death of the One who died for you because that just stirs the anger of God to a greater depth. How much more severe punishment in an eternal hell do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, count it as an unholy thing that Christ would die. I don't need that, I have my church, I have my way, I'll do it my way. That shows the enmity, hostility toward God. God is not there saying we'll work it out, let's talk about this. There is nothing to talk about, this is the way it is. That's his point.

“Therefore,” Romans 5:1, “having been justified by faith,” not by the death of Christ but by faith in the death of Christ. I realize we can talk about the death of Christ saves us but we are putting that in the context of you believed. I can tell a person Christ died for you and you are on your way to hell. Why would he let that happen? God says He wants to stamp your account “Paid in Full” and you say no. That's where we are. “Having been justified by faith we have peace with God.” So he doesn't use the word reconciliation but you see what happens when we are justified—we have peace with God. What does that imply? There was no peace before that. It isn't said specifically here, but it is said in other Scripture.

Then you come down to Romans 5:6, “Therefore while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. One will hardly die for a righteous man though perhaps for a good man someone would dare to die.” Note this, “God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Remember, Christ died for all. God was in Christ reconciling the world, He died for us when we were sinners. Verse 10, “If while we were enemies we were,” here's our word, “reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by His life.” He was raised from the dead and lives now and represents us at the right hand of the Father, Hebrews 6, “ever making intercession for us.” “He who has begun a good work in you will continue to bring it to perfection until the day of Christ Jesus,” Philippians 1:6 says. We were reconciled through the death of His Son, while we were enemies. Well, everyone for whom Christ died, they are saved. No. Did you read Romans 4? I mean, we take this Scripture and we just massage it and work it around. The tragedy of it is He did die for you and you continue to view it as something worthless. You continue to shake your fist at God and say, I'll do it my way. I have my church, I have my belief, this is what my priest, my pastor, whoever tells me. Will you choose Him to be your God? God says you deserve an eternal hell. I did what had to be done, I offer to you as a free gift and you insist you will do something. Either you take My free gift or you get nothing.

So in Romans 5 that reconciliation. Verse 11, “Not only this, but we also exalt in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” How do we get it? Through Christ, through faith in Him. Then he is going to go on and talk about the one and the many. We'll talk about this when we look at the closing couple of verses of 2 Corinthians in our next study.

Come to one more passage, Colossians 1. The three main passages on reconciliation using the term—Romans 5 where we just were, 2 Corinthians 5 and Colossians 1. Again reconciliation is talked about in other passages but these are the main ones. Colossians 1, and the context here, the work of Christ. Verse 16, “By Him all things were created and all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.” Verse 19, “For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.” What does that mean? Colossians 2:9, “For in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and in Him you have been make complete.” Back to Colossians 1:20, “And through Him,” who was fully man and fully God, “all the fullness of deity dwelt in that human body.” And He was fully man. “Through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” So you see that concept of peace. How do you make peace? Verse 21, “Though you were formerly alienated, hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death to present you before Him, holy, blameless, beyond reproach.” We were alienated, verse 21, we were hostile, we were engaged in evil deeds. We looked in Romans. We were called sinners. We were called enemies. We play down the seriousness of sin when we talk to people, as though this is something, we're all sinners, none of us is perfect, I know. I just want you to know about God's love for us. I want you to know how hopeless your situation is, not because I was any less a sinner than you are. I was just as helpless and hopeless as anyone on the face of the earth, but by God's grace someone told me that the Son of God died for me and God is offering me a free gift of declaring my account “Paid in Full,” He'll credit me with His righteousness. I jumped on that, said receive it by faith. I'm telling you it can happen to you, too. God has provided reconciliation. I don't like to think of myself as God's enemy, I think I'm pretty good. Then you can't be saved, you are on your way to hell. Who are you to judge me? I am no one, I'm just telling you what the One who will judge you says.

“He that has the Son has life, he who does not have the Son of God will not see life. The wrath of God abides on him.” Do you know what the wrath of God is? Ultimately it is an eternity in hell. I mean, this is serious business. The church is floating around, trying this and that, doing things that people will appreciate us and like us and respect us. He'll get into this when he'll go on to say we are ambassadors for Christ. I am just simply here to tell you what I've been told to tell you. The ministry of reconciliation.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 5. We're not going any further but just note we'll go back and forth. In verse 19, “namely God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them. He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” That's why I'm here telling you and you go and tell someone else, someone else tells . . . And everyone who is here who has been reconciled to God has been reconciled by God in His grace had someone tell you, give you a piece of literature and you read it and realized you were hopeless and helpless and lost, the object of God's wrath. And you recognized Christ is the Savior, He, the Son of God, is God's plan. He came, He took my place. He died. He paid my penalty. Now God says here it's a free gift, sign; believe that He did it for you. No thanks. It just shows how stubborn and sinful we are.

So you have to ask yourself, when were you saved? When did you really realize that you were a lost sinner? You may have been raised in this church, you have been here ever since your parents brought you home from the hospital and put you in the nursery. And I don't know anything else, I'm a good person. There is none good, no not one. When did you recognize you were a sinner? When did you understand that you were God's enemy? It doesn't have to be in those words, but the reality of it is. I'm lost, I'm on my way to hell, recognize Christ died for you. That's what it means to be reconciled, the enmity is resolved. We should never cease to wonder at that. Think of it. I was once the enemy of God, now I'm His beloved child. I was once on my way to an eternal hell, now I'm on my way to glory and the place He has prepared for me. It gets no more awesome and wonderful than that. I was saved ten years ago, that's wonderful, and on with my life. Life is never the same. We are living today. I don't care if you've been a Christian for a week or sixty years, it's no less wonderful. The new life is no less a new life.

Paul has to remind the Corinthians of this and reminds us as well. We have a great salvation, we have a great Savior. I hope you know Him.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for Your work of reconciliation. You did for us what we could never do for ourselves and You did it for those who were Your enemies, at war with You, hostile toward You, living for ourselves, enjoying the world, the flesh and the devil, disregarding and uncaring the God who loved us. Thank You for Your love, thank You for Your provision, thank You for bringing us together today to hear the message of Your work of reconciliation. I pray for any who are here who have not experienced life-changing reconciliation, being made new in Christ, that by Your grace this may be a day of salvation for them. Lord, may we who have experienced that reconciliation, the power of Your salvation never grow tired of praising You, never grow tired and weary of living for You. Use us to honor You and bring this message to others. We pray in Christ's name, amen.