Some teachings in God’s Word really are hard and difficult to swallow. Yet, these teachings really challenge the heart and help us to see our heart as it truly is before our Creator. I found this passage so personally challenging, yet encouraging. The Gospel message is that God reconciles himself to us, through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, but also implies that Christians must seek reconciliation between us and others. If I do not attempt to reconcile with others in life, then I wonder, do I truly understand the Gospel and all its implications. What an amazing passage I found to reflect and meditate on.
The Apostle Paul says, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Co 5:18–21.
Here is also some excellent commentary on this issue of reconciliation in this passage and its implications for the Christian…
“This unit contains three key assertions. (1) God is the driving force behind the redemption of humankind. Reconciliation comes solely at God’s initiative. (2) God acted through Christ’s death, and Christ alone is the means of reconciliation. (3) God continues to act through those who have been reconciled. They have the privilege and responsibility to share in this great divine enterprise and are to call others to be reconciled to God.
Christians undermine this great calling whenever they are riven with their own irreconciliation. Paul understands that he cannot fulfill his vision of going to Spain to preach a gospel of reconciliation while leaving behind an unreconciled church where Jew does not accept Gentile (see Rom 15:24). This concern to bring Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians together is the primary motive behind the collection for Jerusalem, the topic taken up in chaps. 8–9.”
Christians undermine this great calling whenever they are riven with their own irreconciliation. Paul understands that he cannot fulfill his vision of going to Spain to preach a gospel of reconciliation while leaving behind an unreconciled church where Jew does not accept Gentile (see Rom 15:24). This concern to bring Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians together is the primary motive behind the collection for Jerusalem, the topic taken up in chaps. 8–9.”
David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians, vol. 29, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 288–289.
Pursue reconciliation, as much as is possible with you, this is Gospel living and living in obedience to Christ.
My God, and heavenly Father, please help me, by your Spirit, to be reconciled to others as you have reconciled my relationship with yourself through your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.
