Spiraling, Glorious Truce

Second Corinthians chapter five. Second Corinthians chapter five.
We find ourselves once again in this great section. The passage
is there in its entirety, at least the portion that we’ll
consider this morning with a couple of places for notes and perhaps the extra space there is providential. You may need some extra space. We are, as I’ve said in weeks
past, we are beginning to wrap up our study of this great section. Chapter two, verse twelve through
chapter six, verse ten, which really began as a single message
designed to kind of celebrate what the Lord has done in the
church. And that was September 13th. So. I haven’t forgotten about Philippians.
We’ll get back to Philippians. We have a couple of more weeks
in this particular passage, but we’ve come to the final section. I know that I’ve been saying
that, but it’s true. We are in the final section.
If Paul seems to be wrapping up, that means that I will be,
too, in this particular study. We are in, as I said, the final
section, which we have entitled the Ministry of Reconciliation.
which Paul begins in chapter five, verse 11, and we’ll close
out not only this particular theme, but this great theme of
the ministry as well in chapter six, verse 10. Just to set the
context for where we are, I want to take you back to verse 11.
where we began to look at this ministry of reconciliation and
we considered the soundness of the source. Paul wanted us to
focus first and foremost there on cultivating genuineness in
the ministry. In verse 11, he pointed out that
his desire for integrity, his desire that God would so work
in him that people would eventually see him as God sees him, as God
would have him to be seen, Look at verse 11, knowing the fear
of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God.
And I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. Paul
wasn’t claiming a sinlessness. He wasn’t declaring that he was
perfect in any way, but rather he was expressing his desire
that God would so continue that work in him that eventually that
would be known to all. He also expressed a desire for
integrity as he goes on. Pardon me, the design for integrity
that it is not just for ourselves. It is for those who watch us,
the watching world and even the watching saints. Look at verse
12. We are not again commending ourselves
to you, but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us so
that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance
and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves,
It is for God. If we are of sound mind, it is
for you. It is always for others that
we desire integrity. Certainly there are benefits
to us in being who we ought to be, but ultimately it is for
witness sake. Speaking of cultivating a genuineness
in ministry, Paul talks not only about the desire and the design,
but thirdly, the drive for integrity. Look again at verse fourteen
for the love of Christ controls us. Having concluded this, that
one died for all, therefore all died and 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. There is to be
a soundness in the source of ministry, there is to be integrity
and godliness But Paul presses on from there to look not only
at the ministers of reconciliation, but those who are, by God’s grace,
reconciled to God. And Paul turns to the condition
of his converts, to what we call the glorious state of the saved. Look at verse 16, where Paul
looked at the occasion of this particular perspective that we
no longer recognize anyone according to the flesh. It is from the
perspective of having been saved. Once we have the grace of God,
once we have been let in on a heavenly perspective, a godly view of
saints, that’s the context that this occurs. But look at the
pattern. He said, even though we have known Christ according
to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer. We see Christ having lived the
life, but also having ascended to heaven and sitting at the
right hand of God. We know Christ to be a spiritual
being and not just an earthly example. We know Christ to be
deity. We know him to be God. We know
that full and spiritual side to Christ. And so we don’t rest.
We can’t rest in looking just at our fellow brothers and sisters
in Christ as mere men and women. But we look at them as saints
of God, as those who have been touched in a mighty way by God’s
grace. And we cannot look at them any
longer in just that normal and mundane way. We recognize no
one according to the flesh. But beyond the occasion and the
pattern, Paul gives the support for that perspective and he does
it in verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creature. And for six months, maybe more,
I’ve been looking at the banners that hang on either side of the
sanctuary, chomping at the bit for the day that I read that
to point out to you what a glorious verse that is that hangs in front
of us and in my zeal to preach last Lord’s Day. I forgot it
again. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creature. The old things have passed away.
Behold, new things have come. And what Paul does there is urge
us to look beyond the human flesh, beyond the frame, and to look
to the Spirit, to look to what God has already begun to do,
what God by His grace, purposes to do in the life of each saint.
We are to recognize their gifts and graces. We are to look to
them and to nourish that part of them that God would have us
to nourish. And not to lock in on this earthly
view of the saints. But it isn’t just the saints
that God is concerned with. God wants us to look at our fellow
brothers and sisters in Christ. God wants us to take a new perspective
of them. But God doesn’t want us to stop
there. There are others out there that God yearns for. There are
others that God has set His electing love upon. And that God, purely
and surely by His mercy, has included us in the process. God has involved us purely by
His grace in this process of calling out of this fallen and
evil world others to come to Christ, to become saved, to begin
to walk with Christ and grow in grace. And it is to that very
thought to which we come this morning. If you would look again
at the passage we find ourselves in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18. Now, all these things are from
God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the
ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them,
And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Paul wasn’t just concerned with
saints who were already saved, Paul is concerned and God is
concerned with those also who are not yet saved. And for some
reason, some reason that we won’t figure out in our humanness,
God has involved us in the process. In an instant, God could dispatch
His Spirit and save every soul that He has set His love upon.
It would take an instant. It wouldn’t even take as long
as it took creation in its entirety to be formed. It could be done
in an instant without us. And yet, God in His infinite
mercy has purposed to include us in the process. And as I began
to think on this passage and meditate on it, I just got this
image that will not go away. It even worked its way into the
title of the message this morning. I told you it would not go away. I couldn’t get rid of it. I couldn’t
get it out of my head, this image of what’s taking place in this
passage, what Paul is picturing. And I entitled it, The Spiraling
Glorious Truce. That there is a truce that has
been enacted by God Himself. It is a peace treaty that God
wrote. And He wrote it with the blood
of Christ. It’s God that initiated this peace treaty. We know it
to be a truth of Scripture, and I’ve developed that in many different
places, not the least of which was the book of Philippians.
You can look there as well. But we, in our natural condition,
are at enmity, literally at war with God. We are hateful towards
Him. We are completely and utterly
opposed to God and His plan outside of Christ. Don’t let those who
are in some sense religious and yet don’t believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ as God’s son and savior. Don’t believe that there
are multiple ways to heaven. There are not, as we’ll see today. Anyone who is outside of Christ
is at war with God. And we know that to be true.
We have only to look at our own hearts and to look back to the
day where we did not know Christ to know that that is a statement
of fact. We know that we were at odds
with God. We know that we were God haters. We know that we didn’t
love God’s way, God’s law. Paul encapsulates this thought
somewhat in Romans Chapter 1, when he says, just as they did
not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over
to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper.
Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full
of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. They are gossips, slanderers,
haters of God, insolent, arrogant. Boastful inventors of evil, disobedient
to parents without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And although they know the ordinance
of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death,
they not only do the same, but give hearty approval to those
who practice them. We are at enmity with God. Scripture
makes it abundantly clear over and over again that when we are
saved, a mighty peace treaty is enacted by God. It is implemented by God. It
was initiated by him and it will be ultimately effected by him,
if at all. We have only, as I said, to look
over our shoulders and to know what we were like. Paul, in reminding
Titus to remind the people to whom he was ministering there
on the island of Crete, he is telling them to be respectful
of their human government, but he points them back to their
own lives, their lives outside of Christ. When he says, we also
once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved
to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and
envy, hateful, hating one another. That’s what we are outside of
Christ. We are not only God-haters, we
are man-haters, but we are ultimately at war with God. There are many
battle skirmishes. There are all kinds of fronts.
people usually with whom those enmities arise, but ultimately
the foe is God. Paul says that God, for some
amazing reason, has enlisted us as a mighty force in this
army of reconciling others to Himself. And we find ourselves
on this upward spiral. This is the image that I couldn’t
get out of my head. That once we are saved, we are
placed on this upward spiral Godward. The truth has been enacted. Peace is in our hearts. Peace
has come to us purely by God. We have been reconciled to God
through Christ. And even then, We are given the
ministry of reconciliation and not only are we given the ministry
of reconciliation, but we’re given the means to affect it.
And there is in time others that we will come across and we will
introduce them to Christ and they, too, will be placed in
the ministry of reconciliation until, as the song said, the
whole world knows. We know that not all will come
to Christ, but that is the goal. There is much work to be done,
and as long as we’re here, as long as we have the freedoms
that we have in this country, the gospel opportunity, then
we are called into this spiraling, glorious truce that God Himself
has enacted. What God wants to point out to
us here is the mobilization of peacemakers. The mobilization
of peacemakers. And that we in Christ are those
peacemakers. We are those who purely by God’s
grace have been let in on this mighty army of God for the purpose
of not waging war, but effecting peace. Let’s go to the passage once
again. I want to just look at three elements of this process. in reconciling to God. God has affected the peace treaty,
as we said. But I want to go again and I
want to look at this particular passage and see what are some
of these elements of this ministry of reconciliation that God has
begun. First of all, reconciliation is to God through Christ, and
that’s it. Reconciliation is to God and
through Christ. I can remember, you know, we
were in L.A. during the riots and I can remember
seeing, you know, no justice, no peace. In the first place,
we don’t want God’s justice. Certainly, the natural man does
not want God’s justice. But secondly, the natural world
has no clue what true and lasting genuine peace is. We don’t know
what it is to be at peace. We only know relative degrees
of war and hatred towards God. Reconciliation, first and foremost. There is no peace with one another
until there is peace with God. There is no reconciliation really. There is no earthly peace without
Peace with God. So reconciliation, first and
foremost, is to God through Christ. Look at verse 18. Now, all these
things are from God. The question is, what things
is he referring to? And some looked ahead and say
that Paul is just forecasting what he’s about to speak of.
I don’t think that’s the case. What he’s talking about are all
those things that he thought that he just mentioned in the
previous verse. the new things of the Christian
life. The fact that we no longer look at anyone in the flesh. All things are new. Everything
has been recreated by God. And just as mighty a work as
the work of creation itself is done in every believer’s life. He is recreated in Christ. So the whole thing that he had
been talking about there in verse 17, the new creation that is
experienced by those who are in Christ, all of those things
are God’s work. That’s what Paul points to. 1
Corinthians 8, verse 6 says, There is but one God, the Father,
from whom are all things. And we exist for Him. And there
is one Lord Jesus Christ by whom all things, by whom are all things,
and we exist through Him. It’s the same point that Paul
makes here. Whatever good there is in life,
whatever ministry has taken place, to whatever degree we have been
touched and ministered to, if we have been saved, it is by
God. If we have been grown in the faith, it is by God. James 1.17 states the principle
more generally. Every good thing and every perfect
gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. And
by that little phrase, he encompasses all of the various heavenly lights. Not just the sun and the moon,
but every star. He is the sovereign creator of
them all. And every good thing, James says,
comes down from above. with whom there is no variation
or shifting shadow. God is the same yesterday, today
and forever. Scriptures ask, what do we have
that we did not receive? We have everything. Everything
that we ever have. Everything that we ever receive
in this world. We didn’t earn it. We look at
it from an earthly perspective and think that that’s the case.
But ultimately, it’s God and His gracious heart opening His
hands to us. One said it this way, the life
of our bodies, its health, all the things that contribute to
support and render it comfortable, the reason and understanding
of man, the power of his memory, the faculty of speech with the
knowledge that he is enabled to gain by them, the arts, the
improvements of life which arises out of them, all things, everything,
is a good and perfect gift from above. And so it is the new creation
that Paul points to. It’s not a work of man. It’s
not just spontaneous. It’s not just like magic. It’s
not just that we pray the sinner’s prayer and that suddenly we are
transformed as if from some magical source. Everything is from God. It’s God working those things
into us. It’s God that changed us. And
it’s to his glory that he did so. Paul knew this, and Paul has
echoed these very things throughout the course of this great section
that we’ve been considering. I take you back in your mind’s
eye. In 2 Corinthians 121, he said, Now he who establishes
us with you in Christ and anointed us is God. Paul was always eager
to point out the source of his transformation. It wasn’t that
he reformed himself. It’s not that he just got a hold
of some goodness and applied it in his life through his own
power. It was God. 2 Corinthians 2.14,
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ
and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge
of Him in every place. 2 Corinthians 4, 6. For God,
who said, light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who is
shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Christ. It’s God, Paul says. God gets
all the glory because God did all the work. We were talking about Romans
12 this past Wednesday. We were talking about how Paul
wraps up 11 chapters of deep doctrine. And then in Romans
12, he turns it to a practical application of many of those
things. With that undergirding of theology,
he gets very practical in chapter 12. But it’s chapter 11, verse
36 that puts the capstone on that theology. And it says this,
“…from him and through him and to him are all things.” To
him be the glory forever. And that was Paul’s constant
thought. Number one, that he wanted everybody
to know that if it had been done in Paul, it had been done by
God. And if it had been done in Paul
by God, it was to God be the glory. Everything. Paul mentions, whether it’s natural
or spiritual, all of those things proceed from God. God is the
creator of heaven and earth, but He’s also the recreator,
the author and finisher of our faith. God is the one that gets the
credit. Just as in the original creation,
all things were brought into being by the Word of God. God
merely spoke and it was so. And it was good. What Paul’s
point is here is so also in this new creation. God ministering
through His Son, who functions as the Word, as
the Word did in the moment of creation. God through His Son
is the soul and only author of those things One said it this
way, nothing is of ourselves for remission of sins, adoption,
unspeakable glory are given to us by Him. Behold, a new soul
was cleansed and a new body and a new worship and new promises
in life. All things are absolutely new. All these things, Paul says,
are from God. who reconciled us to Himself
through Christ.” Look at the passage. Now, all these things
are from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ. There
was a war. Paul doesn’t talk a bit about
the war here. And as I said, we’ve developed
it in many other places. And I don’t find many willing
to argue with the fact. You know your heart. You know
your former life. Paul says there was a war. But he’s not here to talk about
the war. He’s here to talk about the peace treaty. He’s here to
talk about the truce that God has enacted. And he says all
these things are from God. Who reconciled us to himself
through Christ, the word reconcile, we don’t use it a lot anymore.
Maybe if you have a fight with somebody, you end up saying that
you’ve been reconciled, but it’s not a real common word. But to
reconcile is to remove enmity, to remove those things that stood
in the way of a peaceable and harmonious, a loving relationship
between two people or parties that are at odds with one another.
In this case, God is the reconciler. God is the one who seeks to remove
the enmity that exists between God and man. That’s the barrier
that separates us. That’s the great obstacle between
us and a peaceable friendship with a loving God. One pastor said it this way,
he said, so long as we are under the wrath of God and the curse
of God due to us because of sin, we are aliens. and enemies cut
off from His favor and fellowship, which are the life of the soul.
Therefore, until God’s wrath and curse are removed, there
is no possibility of holiness and love. It is vain to attempt
to secure the favor of God by being holy. We must enjoy His
favor before we can be holy. There is no working ourselves
up to this. It is God who must reconcile
us. It is God who must begin that work in us. Another said
it this way, unregenerate people have no ability to appease God’s
anger. And we know that to be true.
This is what led us to Christ was our hopelessness. We knew
that there was nothing that we could do anymore. We found ourselves
to be just like the lawyer who came to Christ and said, what
must I do to gain eternal life. We know that there was nothing.
We came to the end of our own resources. We realized by God’s
grace that there was nothing we could do to secure salvation
at all. That the mountain was too high
to climb. The debt was too great to pay.
There was nothing. And in a sense, we were hopeless
before we found Christ. But we found Christ. God introduced
us to Christ. God showed us the Savior. We
came to know him. And it’s only through Christ
that any are ever reconciled to God. The question arises,
though. Who is estranged? Is it we that
are estranged from God or God from us or both? Because in the
passage before us, really only the first relationship, the first
element of relationship seems to be broken. It’s that we are
estranged from God and we know that to be true. That’s the typical
language of the New Testament. When the reconciliation is introduced,
it is between this enmity that is between God and men. It is
regarded as taking place in us rather than in God. It’s we that
are brought back to God. and not the other. In both forms of this word in
the New Testament where Paul uses it, and it appears in the
New Testament only in Paul’s writings, the word is always
used to picture God as the reconciler and sinners as the ones who are
being reconciled to God. It was human sin. that caused
the breach in the relationship, and it is God that remedies that
through Christ. But it also seems impossible,
if you think through it, to get away from this idea that God’s
attitude towards impenitent, unrepentant sinners differs from
his attitude towards the saint who has been reconciled to him.
that to point out that the alienation is on both sides. Until repentance
produces this reconciliation, until God grants regeneration
and repentance, both sides are at odds with one another. We
have taken up arms against God and God, in a very real sense,
takes up arms against us. One said it this way, rebellion
is met and matched by the wrath of God against man. God is not
the helpless victim in this mutiny of man. His supremacy is unimpaired. God is not just sitting there
on the hill taking pot shots from us. We have picked an ugly
battle as unbelievers. In our humanness, in our flesh,
we have picked a fight with Almighty God Himself And mind you, he
has the resources to win the war. Another said it this way,
while alienated from man by reason of man’s sin, God does not cease
to love him, but manifested that love by sending his Son to rescue
man from his transgressions by his sinless life, his sacrificial
death, and his glorious resurrection. And there is the hope, and it’s
the only hope. It’s Christ. Romans 5. Verse 10, if while we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more
having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. It’s the
same truth. And not only this, but we also
exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we
have now received the reconciliation. The only other passage in which
that word reconcile occurs in that relationship between God
and man. It’s used many times. It’s used
of the marriage. It’s used of believers in the
church. But here in Romans 5, Paul uses
it in exactly the same setting. That God is the one that enacted
this peace treaty. God was at war with us just as
we were at war with God. But God steps in and He interposes
Christ’s as the mediator, and He begins to draw us to Himself.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians in the same vein that he sent
Christ to reconcile all things to Himself. Having made peace
through the blood of His cross, through Him, I say, whether things
on earth or things in heaven, and although you were formerly
alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He
has now reconciled you. through His fleshly body through
death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless
beyond reproach.” You see, the need for this great
message, this message of reconciliation is seen against the background
of who we were. It’s seen against the background
of man’s alienation from God. And the cause of this alienation,
the bottom line, sin, Because of this sin, we pick a battle. We go to war with God. We become
an enemy of God. And it becomes an overwhelming
and mighty mutiny that God meets with grace ultimately. The question is for us, And this
is the question ultimately that Paul is posing through this entire
passage. It is the Ministry of Reconciliation. That’s the name of this great
section, remember? And so the question that Paul
poses between the lines on the paper. Is will we tell people
about our Savior based purely on the knowledge that we have
been saved? Reconciled to a holy God by His
mercy and grace. Will we tell people about that
Savior just purely motivated by that fact? Because there is
additional motivation. But Paul lays it out piecemeal.
I believe he wants us to savor each one of these points. That
is, our salvation is the fact that God sent His own Son to
stand in your place. Is that enough motivation for
you to just turn and speak to your fellow man and to tell them
that there is a Savior? There is a Savior who died to
end the war. There is additional motivation.
Look again at the passage. I said that there were elements
in this process of reconciliation with God that first of all, reconciliation
is to God through Christ. There is no other way. But secondly,
reconciliation is a ministry gift from God. It’s a ministry
gift from God. Look at verse 18 again. Now,
all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself
through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Now,
I suppose that we like even some of the commentators might try
to find some wiggle room in defining what us is. I sound like a presidential
candidate, don’t I? In parsing words and wrestling
with these things, is he talking only about the apostles? No. I don’t believe so. I don’t believe
that Paul would write these words in this great section called
the Ministry of Reconciliation and urge these things upon the
saints to whom he was writing and then say, yes, but only to
us has been given the Ministry of Reconciliation. This word
ministry, which we know well, It is a word that is often translated
service. It’s diakonia for you students
of Greek, from where we get our word deacons, servants in the
church. And what it points to is service
that is rendered freely and not under compulsion. And it brings
about this idea with it of diligence, And right here, it talks about
the task of proclaiming the good news of reconciliation in Christ
to the whole world. And we’re to wrestle with that
word, us, and reason away that great privilege and to say that
only to Paul, or only to the apostles, or only to a select
few, only if you’ve been to ministry or seminary, or only if you’re
one of those, But whatever you say, you reason away and say,
but not to me. I can’t believe that Paul would
be saying that. Paul isn’t saying that here.
He says it is to us, to all of us, to all of those who are in
Christ. One said it this way, in Christ,
God’s holy and loving work of reconciliation has been accomplished
once and for all. And it is because of the way
of reconciliation, it now stands wide open that the ministry of
reconciliation has been committed by God to His servants. There is no service to mankind
more crucial and more urgent than the exercise of this ministry. This ministry with its message
of reconciliation is the one thing needful in our world. More than peace, more than economic
prosperity, more than, you know, social justice, more than anything,
they need Christ. They need peace with God. And
this thing that was given wasn’t given only to the apostles. It
is a particular duty, as one said, a special duty designed
that the ministry would be proclaimed to all men, that God can now
be proclaimed by all of those who are in Christ. It’s the gospel
of the good news of Christ. And in a very real way, we have
been commissioned as his followers, as his disciples, to announce
to all of those who are around us, to every creature that we
come across, that Christ is the way, Christ is the only way,
Christ is the means of this treaty being enacted. So it is to all saints, all reconciled
people to God, that God gives this ministry of reconciliation. And what a glorious gift it is.
What a great privilege to think that once we had our backs turned
toward God, hateful, haters of God. And now God has put us on
his team, as it were. God has put us to work in this
mighty army. Going about effecting this glorious
peace treaty. Look again at verse 19. What
is this ministry? It’s as if Paul seeks to answer
his own question. God gave to us the ministry of
reconciliation. What is that ministry of reconciliation? Namely this, that God was in
Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Not counting their
trespasses against them. That’s the means that this treaty
is affected. The verse basically functions
as a confirmation or an explanation, if you will, of what he’s already
said. When he says namely in our modern
translation, he introduces the terms of this ministry. How is
it put to use? How is it made effective in people’s
lives? Namely, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to himself. not counting their trespasses
against them. There are a number of different translations, each
of them grammatically correct on how you would take this, and
it doesn’t change the meaning a bit. Some have said that it
was God, pardon me, that God was in Christ, comma, reconciling
the world to himself. Others said God was reconciling
to himself the world that was in Christ. Still others said
there was God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. And for
pages and pages and pages, men go on to wrangle about the meaning
or the various meaning of these things when it’s all one and
the same. That God was at work and that He utilized Christ and
that in so doing, He was drawing out of the world those who would
be saved. God was reconciling the world
to Himself and He was doing that through Christ. That’s the bottom
line truth. But look at this again. God was
in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. And you had people,
wrongly so, claim that some kind of a universalistic idea here
that all one day will be saved because God here says that He’s
reconciling the world, the whole world to Himself. This is common
language in Scripture. Common language, John one twenty
nine, the next day he saw Jesus coming and he said, behold, the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Well, if that’s
the case, then why are we here? If God took away the sin of the
world, then we should already be in heaven. If God took away
the sin of the world in a very literal sense like that, then
there no longer is any enmity. All are saved. All will go to
heaven. And we know that that’s not the
case. We affirm the truth of John 3.16
and John 6.33. 1 Timothy 2.4, who desires all
men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. that
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that
whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal
life. We believe in the truth behind those, but we do not believe
it to mean that all persons ever born, all persons who ever lived
constitute what Paul says here, the world. As one said, the phrase reconciling
the world cannot be understood as teaching universalism. In
other words, Christ didn’t die for all men without exception,
but for all men without distinction in the world in that general
fashion. It’s the sphere, if you will,
where reconciliation takes place. God comes and he calls out of
the world. And he does so and look at the
great means at the end of verse 19. namely, that God was, in
Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, all of those who
would ever come to know Christ, not counting their trespasses
against them. What glorious news is this? You see, the world wants to say
that you’re basically good. You really haven’t sinned. They
want to dull the edge. They want to apply circumstantial
or situational ethics and to say that there is no good or
bad. They want to dull the edge, not
God. God doesn’t deny that there were
trespasses. He doesn’t want us to deny that
there are trespasses. That’s one of the things that
you can go and assume. You can presume the fact that
they are sinners. You don’t have to point out the
fact. You don’t have to characterize it. They know their heart. God
doesn’t want us overlooking those things. But ultimately, God says
these trespasses, I know of them, but I’m not going to count them
against them. I’m not going to impute their
sin any longer to them because I’ve given it all to Christ.
I’ve put it all on Christ and He took it all to the cross and
it was all paid for. in Christ. One said it this way, this passage
explains the very nature of the process of reconciliation. It
is a very simple one. In consequence of Christ’s mediatorial
work, especially on account of the indwelling of Christ by his
spirit in the reconciled soul, God no longer imputes sin to
the man who has faith in Christ. He regards sin as though it had
not been committed. Wow. Didn’t that message, when
it first came to you, hit you like a ton of bricks, knowing
all those sins that you had committed, that God was willing to no longer
count them against you? That Christ had already paid
for those very sins? Romans 3.25, whom God displayed
publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith to demonstrate
his righteousness. Because in the forbearance of
God, he passed over the sins previously committed. Jesus paid
it all. Romans 8.1, there is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus, because God is no longer willing
to count their trespasses, count our trespasses. Against us, first,
John. Chapter two, if anyone sins,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous,
and he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not only for
ours, but those of the whole world. Ephesians 1 7 in him,
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our
trespasses according to the riches of his grace. God doesn’t stand
there with a list anymore. God doesn’t stand and get and
expect us to give an account for every sin that we’ve ever
committed. They’re all on Christ. Now, if we. Will not tell people. about our Savior based purely
on the knowledge that we have been saved, reconciled to this
holy God purely by His mercy and grace. What if we add to
that great truth the fact that God has graciously asked, asked
us to tell others by way of this great gift of ministry a ministry
of reconciliation, bringing others to a peaceable relationship that
we now already enjoy. It’s not that we have to earn
our salvation by telling others about it. We already enjoy it.
And God has humbly and graciously asked us to participate. We’re reconciled to God. We’re
commissioned to go and proclaim this great truth. We’re asked
by God to go. Is that enough? Or do we need
still further motivation? And amazingly, there is still
more motivation. Point three, we are looking at
the mobilization of the peacemakers and the elements of this process
and reconciliation with God. Not only that God is that reconciliation
is to God through Christ and a ministry gift of God, But thirdly
and finally, that reconciliation is by means of the Word. In other
words, we are fully equipped. We are fully equipped with the
message of the Gospel, having been saved, having been commissioned,
having now been given the Word. What is the Word? It is committed
to us, the Word of reconciliation, It’s a it’s a popular word with
Paul, this word logos. Ultimately, it’s a synonym for
the message of the gospel, but Paul uses it in a number of different
ways and he adds color to it wherever he goes. In Ephesians
113, he calls it this. He says in him that is in Christ
after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your
salvation. It’s truth. It is good news. It brings salvation. That’s this
word. In First Corinthians, writing
to the Corinthians, who, by the way, needed some good news, he
says the word of the cross. Not just truth. Not just a message
of good news, not just a message about salvation, but it is the
word of the cross. is foolish to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. It is
a powerful word. It’s a truthful word. So this word carries with it
all the implications of truth and genuineness. No wonder it
becomes, as it were, a synonym for the gospel. In Colossians
1.5, Paul calls it there the word of truth, the gospel. But
in Philippians chapter two, there is a further word that Paul,
more color, if you will, that Paul brings to it. Went to the
Philippians, he wrote and he said, do all things without grumbling
or disputing. And he said that to us, if you
remember. So that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and
innocent children of God above reproach. To who? To God? God
doesn’t need that proof. He says it’s before the watching
world that we need to live like that. Blameless, innocent children
of God above reproached in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation among whom you appear. And he’s talking about you and
I. You appear as lights in the world, holding fast, holding
forth like a torch the Word of Life. When Paul says, that we have, that God has committed
to us the word of reconciliation, we have the message of the Gospel,
which is the message of truth. And it is the message of salvation.
It is the message of good news. It is the message of life itself. If we won’t tell people about
our Savior, based purely on the knowledge that we have been reconciled
by God to Himself, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us and not because of anything in us. We were called to God
through our Savior, Jesus Christ. Even if we add to that the great
truth that God has graciously asked us to tell others by way
of this great gift of ministry, the ministry of reconciliation,
bringing others to the peaceable relationship that now we enjoy.
If we will not tell God, tell others about this God and about
this Savior, knowing that we have the message, the message
that the world needs to hear, the only message, the message
of the gospel, the word of the cross, the word of truth, the
word of life, We are reconciled to God. We
are commissioned to proclaim. We are equipped with the greatest
message the world was ever will ever hear. There is no and can
be no additional need for motivation. Let’s ask God for his grace to
proclaim this great savior. Our merciful king, We humble
ourselves before you and thank you, first and foremost, that
you saved us beyond far beyond what we ever deserved. You came
and sent your own son to die on our behalf. Brought us near
to yourself. Through a piece. That was brought
about by the blood of your son on the cross. And Lord, having
drawn us near to Yourself, You dispatched us once again to proclaim
the goodness and glorious nature of this message to others. Father,
You’ve given us the message of the Gospel to do that. You’ve
asked us to tell and You’ve told us what to say. God, grant us
the grace. We, whose words are few, who
seem to get jumbled, Lord, we pray that you would grant us
the words. That you would reconcile many to other many of others
to Christ. Father, we thank you and we praise
you. We ask your blessing on our day. Be glorified in it,
we pray. It’s in Jesus name that we ask. Amen. Thank you.