Reconciled to God

God created us to be in relationship with him. Sin broke that relationship, but through Christ we can be reconciled to God!

Scripture:

2 Corinthians, chapters 3-6

2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (NLT):

And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Observations:

Reconciled to God

I think these verses often get swallowed up by verse 17 – “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life has gone; a new life has begun!” But as Paul goes on, he makes it clear in the next few verses what this “new life” is all about. God…brought us back to himself through Christ. God created us to be in relationship with him, but sin broke that relationship. We couldn’t fix it on our own, but God has opened the way through Jesus.

Reconciled to God through Christ

For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them.Sin broke the relationship, but God cannot just ignore sin, because he is holy. So he needed to do something to address our sin – and that’s what he did through Jesus. For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

The impact of what God has done through Christ is that he no longer counts our sins against us. He doesn’t say “that’s okay, do whatever you want.”  He doesn’t pretend that sin isn’t bad. God’s way is still right, and God still calls us to obedience. And when he no longer counts our sins against us, that means that he forgives the sins that we have committed.  He doesn’t give us a blanket “get out of jail free car”” for future sin. Instead, he calls us to “go and sin no more.”  And because of the Spirit’s cleansing, empowering presence, we are able to “go and sin no more.”

Calling Others to Be Reconciled to God

And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. What an awesome responsibility! God is making his appeal through us.We are the evidence of what reconciled to God looks like.  And Paul reminds us in verse 20, “We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’” All of us who have been reconciled to God are called to be ambassadors, to share that message.

God wants people to be reconciled to them, but that reconciliation comes through Christ. Christ is not just “one way” to be reconciled to God; he is the way (John 14:6). Those who have been reconciled to God understand that there is no other way. We tried to find peace and wholeness and forgiveness in our own ways, but we could not. For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the sin offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Application – Reconciled to God to Tell Others

I think God is reminding us of a couple important things today.  First, we are reconciled to God through Christ. If we believe what the Bible teaches, we understand that Jesus is the way to the Father. Jesus himself said it; Paul reinforces it here in 2 Corinthians 5. Three times in this passage Paul affirms that we are reconciled to God through Christ:

• “All of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ” (v 18)
• “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself” (v 19)
• “God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (v 21)

The other thing that God is reminding us is that we are called to share this message of reconciliation. We are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” Do we share that message actively and intentionally? Are we passionate in pleading with others to come back to God? Do we understand that we are representing Christ? Can others see the reality of being reconciled to God when they look at us?

Prayer:

Father, thank you for reconciling us to you through Jesus. It is incredible to realize that he became the offering for our sin! As we remember that, inspire us to share that message with others. May our words and our lives bear witness to the reality of being reconciled to