Our subject tonight is RECONCILIATION. I want you to see from the Scriptures what reconciliation is, how it is accomplished, when it is accomplished, and that (like all other aspects of salvation) it is altogether the work of our great God. Our text is 2 Corinthians 5:17-18.
As we read the text together, you will notice immediately that there is a sense in which the reconciliation of God's elect is already finished and a sense in which, at least or some, it is yet to be finished. It is both a thing done and a thing to be done. That is because our reconciliation to God in Christ involves all three Persons in the sacred Trinity. As Paul tells us in verse eighteen…
PROPOSITION: Sinners are reconciled to God by the work of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ. Look at 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 with me.
1. Here is A GLORIOUS PROMISE.As I look at verse seventeen, I really do not know whether it is best to call it a promise, or a statement of fact. Really it is both, and whichever way you read it, it is glorious!
2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
If we are in Christ by the experience of God's grace, in Christ by the new birth, in Christ by faith, then the Holy Spirit declares that…
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; (19) To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation."
In the preaching of the gospel, we do not offer reconciliation to sinners, or set before men terms and conditions of reconciliation. We proclaim reconciliation accomplished.
His thoughts toward his elect were thoughts of peace from eternity. In so far as God's purpose is concerned, this matter was settled in eternity, in the everlasting covenant of grace and peace made between the three Persons of the Divine Trinity before the world began (2 Sam. 23:5; Rom. 8:28-31; Eph. 1:3-6).
In verse nineteen Paul explains what was going on at Calvary, when God sacrificed his own dear Son in the place of chosen sinners. He says, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world (THE WORLD OF HIS ELECT) unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them."
The reconciliation accomplished by the shed blood of the Lamb of God was a reconciliation made for sin and for sinners, to make atonement for sin and to bring chosen sinners into an everlasting union of peace with God.
Daniel 9:24 "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy."
Romans 5:10 "For if, WHEN WE WERE ENEMIES, WE WERE RECONCILED to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
Ephesians 2:16 "And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby."
Colossians 1:20-22 "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (21) And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled (22) In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight."
Hebrews 2:17 "Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."
When he gives life and faith to chosen, redeemed sinners, sprinkling their consciences with the sin-atoning blood of Christ, he graciously causes those who are by nature children of wrath, even as others, those who are by nature enmity against God, to be reconciled to him by the blood of Christ. Look at Colossians 1:20-21 again. If you are in Christ, if you trust the Son of God, it is because there came a time when God sent a gospel preacher to you, to proclaim to you in the power of his Spirit the word of reconciliation. And he reconciled you to himself. Had he not done so, you would yet be haters of God.
Colossians 1:20-22 "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (21) AND YOU, THAT WERE SOMETIME ALIENATED AND ENEMIES IN YOUR MIND BY WICKED WORKS, YET NOW HATH HE RECONCILED (22) In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight."
Let me remind you of how God conquered your heart, subdued your spirit, brought you to your knees, and reconciled you to himself. Look at verses twenty and twenty-one.
3. Here is A GRACIOUS PERSUASION.2 Corinthians 5:20-21 "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. (21) For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
May God the Holy Spirit make this gracious persuasion an effectual persuasion to you who are yet enemies to God in your minds and alienated from him.
DIVISIONS: Let me show you three things about this matter of reconciliation. May God the Holy Spirit speak to our hearts and instruct us in the knowledge of Christ.
1. We are all by nature, since the sin and fall of our father Adam, the enemies of God.
2. Reconciliation is the restoration of fellowship, communion, and peace between enemies.
3. The only way sinners could ever be reconciled to God is by the precious shed blood of his own dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I. SINCE THE SIN AND FALL OF OUR FATHER ADAM, WE ARE ALL BY NATURE ENEMIES OF GOD. (Rom. 8:7; Eph. 2:3; Col. 1:21).
This is just as true of God's elect in their natural state as it is of the reprobate. We are all by nature haters of God.
Romans 8:7 "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
Ephesians 2:3 "Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."
Colossians 1:21 "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled"
A. First, In Romans 8:7, The Spirit of God tells us that there is in every Son and daughter of Adam A HEART ENMITY AGAINST GOD.Every one of us is in his heart, not only the enemy of God, but enmity itself against God. What does that mean? It mans that all men and women by nature hate God. Our natural hearts of flesh despise him.
1. The very Being of God is obnoxious to fallen man.We all naturally either deny or misrepresent the attributes of his holy Being, and frame an image of him in our minds as one altogether such as ourselves.
4. The purposes and decrees of God, which men cannot bear, they insolently denounce.
5. The providences of God we charge with inequality and unrighteousness, as though we were the judges of the Almighty!
6. The natural heart is no less insolent and hateful toward Christ.
Everybody loves baby Jesus in the manger. But everybody despises Christ crucified, the gospel message of Christ crucified. Everyone loves the risen Jesus at Easter. But everyone despises the enthroned God-man, the sovereign Monarch of the universe.
We live in a day of such religious nonsense and foolishness that Pentecostalism has become accepted as the norm of religion. That ought to tell you something about it! Everyone loves the spine tingling, tongue twisting, trance enhancing spirit of antichrist. But f you speak to religious people for just a few minutes about the sovereign Holy Spirit, whose grace and power are always effectual, irresistible, and saving, you will discover that their sweet disposition of religion is just a covering for the acid hatred they harbor in their hearts against God. They do not know him. They will not receive him. And those things taught and revealed by him they consider foolishness.
8. This hatred of God is manifest openly in the hatred of all men for God's saints in this world.
John Gill wrote, "There is an old and implacable enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent; the saints are hated by the world, because chosen and called out of the world."
God's elect are themselves, until they are born of his Spirit, like Saul of Tarsus, hateful and hating one another.
B. The Scriptures also tell us that there is an external enmity against God, which is manifest by wicked works and sinful actions openly committed (Col. 1:21):
These outward acts of hostility against God are contrary to his nature and will, and are violations of his holy law. They are abominable in his sight provoke the eyes of his holiness. Men's sins stir up his wrath and cause it to be revealed from heaven against the children of disobedience.
We all deserve God's wrath. Sins are breaches of the law of God, rendering all men liable to the curses of it, and to death itself, which is the sanction of it.
Our sins set us afar off from God, so that the natural man has no communion with, or access to the holy Lord God.
C. There is an enmity on the part of God to fallen man.There is a declared law enmity them. They are declared by the law of God as enemies; traitors, and rebels to him. Even God's elect were considered as such when Christ died to make reconciliation for us. It is written, "while we were sinners Christ died for us, and when we were enemies we were reconciled to God, the death of his Son" (Ro 5:8,10).
This law enmity is what was slain by Christ, and removed at his death. There was never any enmity in the heart of God against his elect. He loves us with an eternal, everlasting love. But the law had been broken and had to be satisfied. Therefore, we could never approach or be accepted by God until the broken, violated law of God was satisfied.
II. RECONCILIATION IS A RESTORATION OF COMMUNION, FELLOWSHIP, AND PEACE BETWEEN THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN ENEMIES.
III. THE ONLY WAY SINNERS COULD EVER BE RECONCILED TO GOD IS BY THE PRECIOUS SHED BLOOD OF HIS OWN DEAR SON, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21 "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. (21) For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
2 Corinthians 6:1-2 "We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (2) (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)"
By observing what reconciliation signifies and imports: there is something similar and analogous in a case when it is made between man and man, though not altogether the same; and some caution must be taken, lest we go into mistakes: reconciliation between man and man, supposes a former state of friendship subsisting between them, a breach of that friendship, and a renewing and restoration of it: and there is something like it in reconciliation between God and man; man, in his primeval state, was in strict friendship with God, not only Adam personally being made after the image, and in the likeness of God, having dominion over all the creatures, made for his use, and which were brought to him, to be named by him; and having an habitation in a most delightful garden, where he was allowed to eat of all kind of fruit in it, but one; and where he enjoyed communion with God: in all this honour he was; and not he only, but all his posterity, considered in him, as their head and representative, were in a state of friendship with God; hence the covenant made with him, in which he was their federal head, is rightly called by divines, "foedus amicitiae", a covenant of friendship: but man abode not long in this state; sin, that whisperer and agitator, soon separated chief friends; alienated man from the life of God, caused him to apostatize from him, and to become a traitor to him; filled him with enmity to him, and set him at a distance from him; and in this state of alienation and enmity, all his posterity naturally are; with respect to the elect of God among them, Christ has interposed, appeased justice, satisfied the law, and made reconciliation for them, and brought them into an open state of friendship with God; so that they are considered, in consequence of this, as Abraham was, the friends of God, and are treated as such, James 2:23 Sol. 5:1 John 15:15 have the blessings of divine favour bestowed upon them, and rich communications of grace made unto them.
But here we must proceed warily, and observe some things to prevent mistakes and misrepresentations; for perhaps there is not one thing in the whole scheme of evangelical truths more difficult rightly to fix than this. It should be considered, that properly speaking there are no passions nor perturbations of mind in God, who is a spirit, simple and uncompounded, and not capable of such things; when therefore displeasure, anger, provocation, resentment, &c. are ascribed to him, it must be understood after the manner of men; that he says something in his word, and does something in his providence, and the outward dispensations of it, which is somewhat similar to what men say and do, when the above is the case with them; otherwise we are not to conceive that God is in a passion, and is ruffled, and his mind disturbed, as they are. Nor are we to imagine there is any change in God, as in men, who are sometimes friends, then enemies, and then friends again; he changes not, there is no variableness nor shadow of turning in him; he may change his voice to his people, and speak comfortably to them in his gospel, who before spoke terribly to them in his law; he may change his outward conduct and behaviour towards them, and carry it friendly to them, when before as at a distance: but he never changes his mind, counsel and affections to them; his love is everlasting and invariable; he ever rested in it, and nothing can separate from it; his love is never changed to enmity, and from enmity to love again; his special secret favour, as it is never lost, needed no recovery; nor did Christ, by making satisfaction and reconciliation for sin, procure the love and favour of God to his people; for Christ's being sent to be the propitiation, his sufferings and death, sacrifice and satisfaction, were the fruit and effect of the love of God, and not the cause of it, John 3:16 Rom. 5:8 1 John 4:10. The reconciliation made by Christ was not to the love of God, which was never lost, but to the justice of God, offended by sin; the flaming sword, which turned every way and threatened vengeance, was plunged into the heart of Christ, the surety of his people, which was done to declare the righteousness and satisfy the justice of God; and to open a way for mercy to display itself, and turn its hand upon the little ones; and thus justice and mercy happily met together, and were reconciled to one another in their different pleas and demands, Zec. 13:7 Rom. 3:25,26 Ps. 85:10. The reconciliation made by Christ is for sin, to make satisfaction for it, Dan. 9:24 Heb. 2:17 and on that account it is a reconciliation of sinners to God, he being thereby pacified towards them for all that they have done; being well pleased with what Christ has done and suffered for them; he is well pleased with him, and with all that are considered in him, who are accepted in him the beloved, and are admitted into an open state of favour; which is meant by their having access through Christ into the grace wherein they stand, Matt. 3:17 Eph. 1:6 Rom. 5:2 for though the love of God to his elect is invariable and unchangeable in itself, yet the manifestation of it is different; and it may be distinguished into secret and open love; there are obstructions by sin thrown in the way of love, which must be removed, in order to enjoy open favour and the blessings of it, and which are removed by Christ; thus Christ was made under the law, to redeem his people, that they might receive the adoption of children; and was made a curse for them, that the blessings of grace love had provided in covenant for them, might come upon them; and he was made sin, and a sin offering for them, that they might be made the righteousness of God in him; and be brought into a state of open fellowship and communion with him, who before were kept at a distance. Thus David, though he most affectionately loved his son Absalom, and longed for him, when for an offence he fled; and though through the mediation of Joab he was allowed to return to Jerusalem, yet the king would not suffer him to see his face for the space of full two years; when by the mediation of the same person he was admitted into the king's presence, taken into open favour, and kissed by him, 2 Sam. 13:39 14:1,21,24,33.
3c. Thirdly, the means by which this reconciliation is made, are the bloodshed and death of Christ; he only is the reconciler and peace maker; a sinner cannot make peace with God or reconciliation, that is, satisfaction for his sins; not by his works of righteousness, which are impure and imperfect; nor by repentance, which the law does not admit of, nor is it any satisfaction to it; nor by faith, for that does not make, only receives the atonement made by Christ; there is nothing a sinner can do, will make peace and reconciliation for him; and what will, he cannot do; which is no less than fulfilling the whole law, and answering all the demands of law and justice, Rom. 8:3,4 death being the sanction of the law, and the wages of sin, there is no reconciliation to be made but by death; not by the death of slain beasts, which could not take away sin; nor by the death of the sinner himself: the Jews having lost the true notion of the atonement by the Messiah, fancy that a man's death atones for his sins; but it is a false notion, there is no other way of peace, reconciliation, and atonement being made, but by the death of the Son of God; who being God as well as man, could and did give virtue and efficacy to his blood, sufferings, and death in human nature united to his person, as to make them adequate to the said purposes.
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