Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 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 people’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.
I have always loved this passage called the Ministry of Reconciliation and just the wonderful picture of God’s grace it provides. I recently ran across a great explanation of this passage from J. I. Packer in his new book “Weakness is the Way.” In the book, he says:
“The method of God’s reconciliation is here revealed, then, as a two-‐way transfer, or exchange. On the one hand, the Lord Jesus as our substitute took our place and tasted on our behalf the penalty – that is the death and banishment into hell – that we deserved. On the other hand, we are made sharers of the Father’s eternal approval of and pleasure in his always loyal, loving and obedient Son, who now has borne, and borne away, the sin of the world. Retributive justice has been done, once for all, and just justification – justification, that is, on the basis of justice thus executed – is now ours for the taking.
Well may we speak of this double action on God’s part as the great exchange, the wonderful exchange, and as I like to do for maximum emphasis, ‘the stupendous exchange.’ It is overwhelmingly awesome, almost beyond belief. It is holy love in action – the holy love of the Father, who sent his Son into this world to die for our sins; the holy love of the Son, love for everyone whose sins he bore; and the holy love of the Holy Spirit, who works in our hearts to create and sustain the faith that brings the blessing of reconciliation and acceptance home to us as the supreme gift of divine grace.”
Father, we thank you for your ministry of reconciliation and the grace offered divinely so that we might be reconciled to you; that we might be in right relation to you for all eternity. Amen and amen!
Grace and Peace!
No comments:
Post a Comment