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The Message of Reconciliation
2 Corinthians 5:18-6:2
Take your Bibles and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter five.
This morning we will focus on verses eighteen through verse two of chapter six, as we continue our series called “Represent.”
Up to this point in our study, we have learned from the scriptures the motives for representing Christ.
Last week we learned about the marks of a representative for Christ; that is characteristics that should be evident in the lives of those who are new creations in Christ.
This morning we turn our attention to the message of the representative of Christ, which is reconciliation.
In our passage, Paul reminds us what the message of the church is all about, and the responsibility we have with the message as Christ’s representatives.
In these verses Paul uses one word to describe the message and mission of the church: reconciliation.
In verses eighteen through twenty-one of chapter five you find the word used five times.
Paul uses one word, reconciliation for the mission and message of the church.
We learn from the first part of verse eighteen that God the Father is the source of reconciliation.
1. God the Fatheris the sourceof reconciliation
“All this is from God.”
This statement is referring to the preceding verses.
Verse seventeen says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”
Paul is referring to the transformation that comes to the believer in Jesus Christ.
If you are in Christ, you have a new purpose for living, a new perspective towards people, a new position in Christ, and a power that transforms.
In other words, you are a new creation.
God the Father is the source of this new life in Jesus Christ.
He as brought this new life about through reconciliation.
When it comes to our salvation in Jesus Christ we must understand that God is the one who takes the initiative in salvation.
The Bible teaches that apart from Christ we are dead in our trespasses and sins.
Because of our sinful condition and our sinful conduct we have been separated from God, condemned and objects of God’s wrath.
On account of our sinful nature we don’t seek God, at least not on his terms.
Scriptures says, “no one is righteous, no one seeks God.”
If God left salvation up to us, we would not take the initiative.
We would not seek him.
Therefore, it is God who acts to reconcile us to himself.
God is the one who seeks us.
Before the foundation of the world, God decided that he would seek out a sinful humanity.
When Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis, they didn’t seek God; they ran from God.
It was God who sought out the sinners.
In Ezekiel, the Lord told Israel that he would seek them out.
Jesus said of his earthly ministry, “I came to seek and save the lost.”
Salvation is not about man getting to God, it is about God getting to man.
Salvation is God-centered, not man-centered.
God takes the initiative to reconcile man to himself.
How? God provides reconciliation through Christ.
2. God provides reconciliation through Christ
Eighteen through twenty-one of chapter five shows us how God reconciled us and made us new creations in Christ.
Verse eighteen; “All this is from God, who through Christ has reconciled us to himself.”
God’s goal is salvation is to reconcile us to himself.
Three questions we need to answer to understand how God has reconciled us to himself.
Fist, what is reconciliation?
a.
What is reconciliation?
The Greek word we translate “reconcile” is “kattallage.”
In its most basic meaning it means to “exchange,” or “substitute.”
It was often used outside of the Bible for the exchange of currency.
Metaphorically it has been used to describe the exchange of peacefor war, of love for anger, or friendship for hostility.
The apostle Paul is the one New Testament writer to use this word.
In using it, Paul wants to communicate a profound theological truth.
When a person is reconciled to God, an exchange takes place.
I have often thought that something was restored when we are reconciled to God, but that would presume that a previous condition existed.
That is not the case.
When we are reconciled to God, something is replaced.
Reconciliation through Christ exchanges our hostile relationship with God with a friendly relationship with God.
So here is a definition for reconciliation:
The exchange of hostile relations with friendly relations.
Next question is:
b.
What does it mean to be reconciled?
Verse nineteen expands upon verse eighteen, itwill show us what it means to be reconciled to God, “That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.”
The reason that we no longer have a hostile relation with God through Christ is the fact that he no longer counts our sins against us.
Paul uses an accounting term here, “Logizomai.”
It means to put something down on someone’s account.
That means that God, through Christ, does not debit sin to the Christian’s account.
To be reconciled means that God does not hold our sins against us.
It means:
§ God forgives you of your sins.
When we are forgiven of our sins, it means that God does not hold us accountable for our sins.
We often think that God forgets our sins; that is not an accurate description.
God doesn’t forget, he chooses not to remember.
There is a difference.
The older I get the more I see the difference because I have hard time remember things, and that is not what I choose.
This brings us to the third question:
c.
How did God provide reconciliation through Christ?
Verse twenty-one provides the answer, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
This one verse shows how Christ provided reconciliation.
It came through his atoning sacrifice on the cross of Calvary.
This verse is the heart of the gospel message.
It reminds us that God the father is the source, “He made him.”
He is referring to God the Father.
He reminds us of the substitutionary death of Christ, “made him to be sin who knew no sin.”
Jesus Christ was the God-man, fully God, fully man.
He was without sin, lived a sinless life.
When he went to the cross, the sinless Christ was putting himself were we belong because we have put ourselves in the place where only God belongs.
When Paul says “he made him sin,” he is not saying that Christ became a sinner.
He is saying that the sinless Christ had our sins charged to his account.
Christ took our punishment for sins upon himself, and there on the cross, God the Father unleashed his wrath upon our sins that were charged to him.
He did this for our sake, and it only affects those who believe in Christ.
As a result of believing in Christ we become the righteousness of God.
Here is how God provides reconciliation through Christ:
§ God credits the believer’s sin to Christ, and Christ’s righteousness to the believer.
Thus, our hostile relationship with God is exchanged with a friendly relationship with God.
We have peace with God.
The Christian then becomes God’s representative for reconciliation.
3. The Christian becomes God’s representative for reconciliation.
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