Please turn in your Bibles this morning to II Corinthians chapter 5 as we look at the subject of reconciliation. To kind of set the stage for what we will be looking at, consider this:
Reconciliation is changing for the better a relationship between two or more persons. Theologically it refers to the change of relationship between God and man. We are naturally children of wrath (Eph. 2:3), and are at enmity with God (Eph. 2:11-15); but, “. . . we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son . . .” (Rom. 5:10). Because of the death of Jesus, the Christian’s relationship with God is changed for the better. We are now able to have fellowship with Him (1 John 1:3) whereas before we could not. So, we are reconciled to Him (Rom. 5:10-11). The problem of sin that separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2) has been addressed and removed in the cross. It was accomplished by God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:18).
-Source Unknown
Now here in II Corinthians chapter 5 Paul speaks of these bodies of flesh, this tent or temporary dwelling place for our spirit and soul to dwell is going to be destroyed, it is wearing down, it is decaying, it is going back to the dust of the earth. Now don’t fret because Paul also tells us that God is preparing a new body, a mansion, a body that will be eternal for our spirit and soul to dwell in.
In fact, we groan in these bodies physically as we get older and feel those aches and pains more often and more intensely. We have diseases that weaken these bodies of flesh. Not only that, but spiritually speaking we groan as we do those things we don’t want to do and don’t do those things that we want to do for the Lord! Thus, we await that glorious day when God will transform these bodies of flesh but until that time God has given to us His Spirit as a guarantee that this will take place, kind of an engagement ring that tells us Jesus, the bridegroom, is going to come back for His bride, the church one day, you can take that to the bank it is that certain!
Paul then speaks of the Judgment Seat of Christ or the Bema Seat of Christ where every Christian will go and receive their rewards, their crowns for service unto the Lord based upon their faithfulness and the motivation of their heart. It is not a salvation issue, but a rewards issue. With that as our background, let’s begin reading in II Corinthians chapter 5, starting in verse 17 and see what the Lord has for us this morning regarding reconciliation.
As I read through these verses I see this section broken down three ways, you might call them The Three M’s of Reconciliation. First of all THE MOTIVATION in
II Corinthians 5:17. Then we see THE METHOD in II Corinthians 5:18-19. And finally we will look at THE MESSAGE in II Corinthians 5:20-21. This is a glorious section and I pray it ministers to you as much as it has done to me. The reconciliation of man back to God through Jesus Christ, it doesn’t get any better than that! Thus, with the remainder of our time this morning, let’s look at The Three M’s of Reconciliation!
1. THE MOTIVATION – II CORINTHIANS
5:17
Some may wonder what kind of motivation this is? It is a very important one. You see, if you are not IN Christ you are not a new creation, your spirit is dead to the things of God and your life is controlled by your body needs, your body wants! In this condition you are spiritually dead in your trespasses and sins!
Again, some may like to argue this point, they feel that they are good and don’t need God in their life. The problem with that is the Bible says the exact opposite, that there are none who are good, not even one! That doesn’t mean we can’t do good things but God’s standard is 100% perfection and we all fall far short of that! Spurgeon put it this way as he said, “Beloved, if you have no more religion than you have worked out in yourself, and no more grace than you have found in your nature, you have none at all. A supernatural work of the Holy Ghost must be wrought in every one of us, if we would see the face of God with acceptance.”
Here is the glorious truth and motivation for us, IN Christ we are a new creation, it is a work of God. God has taken these hearts of stone and replaced them with new hearts that are made of flesh, that are sensitive to the things of God. Thus, that old life that had you in bondage, that old life that was going nowhere, that old life that had no hope has passed away, it is gone and we are new in Christ!
Remember as a kid when you played, if something didn’t work out right you would get what we called a “do over!” That is what Christ has done for us, He has given us a “do over” and we are brand new. That doesn’t mean we are perfect, but God is working. That old man, that flesh nature still tries to resurrect itself from time-to-time and thus, the flesh must be crucified, that flesh nature and that is done as we surrender ourselves to God. We crucify the flesh by feeding our spirits with the things of God!
If you were an alcoholic, a drug abuser, an adulterer or WHATEVER, as soon as you come to Christ those things have passed away and all things are new in our life. So don’t hang onto them and if you are struggling with something, you need to give it to God, don’t hold onto it, it won’t do you any good and God is not going to force it out of your hand. You must give it to Him! It is as Paul said in I Corinthians 6:9-11, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” Notice the past tense that is used, we are new in Christ, the old things have passed away, yes that was how we were, but now in Christ we are brand new!
Let me show you what God wants to do and has done with this example. We are told:
London businessman Lindsay Clegg told the story of a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash around the interior.
As he showed a prospective buyer the property, Clegg took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage.
“Forget about the repairs,” the buyer said. “When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want the building; I want the site.”
Compared with the renovation God has in mind, our efforts to improve our own lives are as trivial as sweeping a warehouse slated for the wrecking ball.
When we become God’s the old life is over (2Cor. 5:17). He makes all things new. All he wants is the site and the permission to build.
- Ian L. Wilson, Source Unknown
The motivation for reconciliation is all that God has given to us, this new life in Christ where the past struggles can be conquered and “the terror of the Lord,” His judgment upon our lives has been removed!
2. THE METHOD – II CORINTHIANS 5:18-19
Do you know what the first religion was? It was called “The First Church of the Cover-Up” and their song was, “Give Me That Old Time Fig Leaf Religion.” I think you know where I am going with this, or maybe you don’t? In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, He created man and placed him in the Garden of Eden. Everything was very good.
Then the Devil came and Adam sinned and when he did he saw that he was naked, everything was exposed before God. Thus, to cover things up, Eve sewed together some fig leaves, and I think they were called “Tommy HillFigs” and things were great or so they thought. God saw through their cover, their sin was still exposed. You see, you can’t work yourself to be righteous, work your way into heaven. Paul tells us in Galatians 2:16, “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” Thus, God made a covering for Adam and Eve from the skin of an innocent animal that had to be slain, and I believe it was a lamb!
How many people today try to work their way into heaven by being good, going to church, lighting candles, going to confession, doing this or doing that, and the reality is, you can’t get to heaven that way, it is the wrong method you might say! Job made this cry, the cry of man as he said, “Truly I know it is so, But how can a man be righteous before God? . . . Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both.” Job 9:2, 33.
Paul tells us here that it is God, not man, that has done this work, has reconciled us to God through Jesus Christ. You see, He is the mediator or bridge-builder between God and man. It is as Peter tells us in I Peter 3:18, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.”
You see, we deserve the wrath of God, the judgment of God upon our lives but God stepped in and He became sin for us so that we could receive the righteousness of God in Him! Poole put it this way, “As Christ was not made sin by any sin inherent in Him, so neither are we made righteous by any righteousness inherent in us, but by the righteousness of Christ imputed to us.”
When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming he said, “ . . . ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29. Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb that came to take away the sins of the world; He paid in full the penalty for our sins. God could not ignore our sins; forget about them because that would make Him unjust. Thus, Christ took the wrath of God, the terror of the Lord that was to come upon us for our sins, and He endured that wrath for us so we might live.
Thus, the method of reconciliation is so simple that a child can understand it and yet it is so deep that no man, no matter how long he studied it, can fully comprehend it. The method of reconciliation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul put it this way in Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
This is hard for many to accept because they feel they must do something, some kind of work, to be reconciled to God, to make it into heaven. But folks, the work has been done, Jesus Christ from the cross of Calvary cried out “TETELESTAI” which means, “It is finished!” or “Paid in full!” Think about that for a minute. Imagine if someone built for me this beautiful bookshelf out of the finest wood and he set it all up and told me, “It is finished!” But crazy me, I go over to the bookshelf and begin to sand it, put some nails in it, cut some wood, put some paint on it and-so-on. The guy who built it would be saying, “What in the world are you doing? I told you it was finished. There was no more work to be done on it.”
You see, by adding to the finished work you don’t improve on it, you only cheapen it, make it bad. Thus, why do we think we can add to the finished work of Christ? Folks, we can’t! The method of our reconciliation is ONLY through Jesus Christ for only those who are IN Christ are a new creation; only those IN Christ are saved! Jesus put it this way in John 14:6, “ . . . ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” Case closed on that!
3. THE MESSAGE – II CORINTHIANS 5:20-21
It is hard to proclaim a message when you don’t have one to proclaim. But folks, we have the greatest message to proclaim, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. And the reason we can proclaim that message is because we have received it, we have received Jesus Christ into our lives. Since we have received the reconciliation we then can proclaim the message of reconciliation to others!
Paul tells us that to do this ministry of reconciliation you need to have a PhD in the theology of reconciliation, right? That is totally wrong! Then what is the qualification to be in this ministry? You must have received the reconciliation of God in your life or you must be saved! Once you are then you are an ambassador for Christ or you go out into the world representing Him.
Think of it like this. If President Bush asked you to be the ambassador to France you would not go there with your own message although you may want to tell them a thing or two about loyalty to a nation that saved you, but I digress. You would not go there with your own agenda, your own plans. No, you would go there with the message of the President of the United States of America for you are representing him, his agenda, his plans will be spoken by you to the people of France.
That is also true for us as we are ambassadors for Christ. Too often today people have their own message, their own method, their own motivation and in doing that they are not representing the Lord. Paul put it this way in I Corinthians 2:1-5, “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” We bring the message of Christ, the reconciliation of God through Jesus Christ to the people of this world! We are His representatives, and may we not forget that as we go forward!
Of this James Packer tells us:
Paul considered himself Christ’s ambassador. What is an ambassador? He is an authorized representative of a sovereign. He speaks not in his own name but on behalf of the ruler whose deputy he is, and his whole duty and responsibility is to interpret that ruler’s mind faithfully to those to whom he is sent.
Paul used this “ambassador” image twice – both in connection with his evangelistic work. Pray for me, he wrote from prison, “that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak” (Eph. 6:18-20). He wrote also that God “gave us the ministry of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:18-20).
Paul called himself an ambassador because he knew that when he proclaimed the gospel facts and promises and urged sinners to receive the reconciliation effected at Calvary, he was declaring Christ’s message to the world. The figure of ambassadorship highlights the authority Paul had, as representing his Lord, as long as he remained faithful to the terms of his commission and said neither less nor more than he had been given to say.
- James Packer, Your Father Loves You
Folks, we understand “the terror of the Lord” or the wrath of God that is coming upon those who have rejected Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, it should cause us to speak forth this reconciliation, pleading with people to come to Christ and be reconciled to God!
It is as Spurgeon said:
It is not so much reconcile yourselves as “be reconciled.” Yield yourselves to him who round you now the bands of a man would cast, drawing you with cords of love because he was given for you . . . Submit yourselves. Yield to the grasp of those hands which were nailed to the cross for you.
- Spurgeon
There is that great Hymn called Amazing Grace that goes like this:
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!
Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come;
“Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shinning as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise,
Than when we’d first begun.
- John Newton
It truly is an amazing grace that God has given to us. Let us not hoard it, neglect it, but give that grace of God to others that they may enter in. Now some of you may not feel worthy to receive it, you look at your life and you see it as a mess and really, how can God love you? The Devil is confusing you, it is grace, it is not something we deserve, it is a free gift given to us by God! John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, was once an infidel, living a life of rebellion and sin. His mouth was foul and his behavior evil! He became a captain of his own slave ship, capturing, selling and transporting black slaves to the plantations in the West Indies and America. He lived a cruel and hard life. In 1748, during a life-threatening storm, he called out to God. His life completely changed. He left his old life and became a pastor in a small village near Cambridge, England. John Newton knew about the grace of God for when he spoke of God saving a wretch like him, he knew exactly how bad he was and how amazing God’s grace is! Thus, this Hymn reminds us “to be partakers with him of grace.”
And think about it, Christ became what we are in order that we might become what He is! Paul put it this way in II Corinthians 5:21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” The Amplified Bible puts it this way, “For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness].” And The Living Bible tells us, “For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God's goodness into us!”
So we have seen The Motivation of reconciliation, of coming to Christ, the new creation, the new work that God wants to do in our lives back in II Corinthians 5:17. We then looked at The Method of reconciliation and we saw that it is only through Christ that He alone saves. It is not by our efforts but by His finished work on the cross of Calvary that we have been reconciled to God – saved by grace through faith in Him. We saw that in II Corinthians 5:18-19. We then looked at The Message of reconciliation that God has given to us, and as ambassadors, we are to go out and represent Him with this message of reconciliation to a lost and dying world! And we saw that in II Corinthians 5:20-21.
Let me close this morning with this story to show you how precious Jesus is. We are told:
John Newton was a rough, dirty sailor with a foul mouth and an appetite for rotten living. He hated life and life hated him. He was captain of a slave ship . . . He also had the gift of a good mother who told him about the Saviour when he was young. Then someone placed in his hands a copy of Thomas a Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ and then he was saved. He went all over England sharing his faith.
Well past his “retirement” age, he had to have an assistant stand in the pulpit with him on Sundays. He was nearly blind and spoke in whispers, but nothing could keep him from preaching while he still had breath.
One Sunday, while delivering his message he repeated the sentence: “Jesus Christ is precious.” His helper whispered to him: “But you have already said that twice.”
Newton turned to his helper and said loudly, “Yes, I’ve said it twice, and I’m going to say it again.”
The stones in the ancient sanctuary fairly shook as the grand old preacher said again, “Jesus Christ is precious!”
- Source Unknown
Do not forget the Three M’s of Reconciliation: The Motivation, The Method, and The Message for we have this precious gift, Jesus Christ, which we need to share with others. So many people have such empty messages that they shout loud and clear but it is nothing, like Michael Moore and the garbage that is in his movie Fahrenheit 9/11. We have the truth, a message of life, a message of hope, and thus, let us shout it out, let people hear it!
Let me repeat what Paul has said to us this morning, and this is from The Amplified Bible, “Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself [received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself] and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation [that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him]. It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses [but canceling them], and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favor). So we are Christ's ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us. We [as Christ's personal representatives] beg you for His sake to lay hold of the divine favor [now offered you] and be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness].” II Corinthians 5:17-21. Remember, MOTIVATON, METHOD and MESSAGE- let your light for Christ shine!