Christ, the Reconciler to God

Jesus Is Lord
Imitating Jesus
The Supremacy of Jesus Christ

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

The Message

^16-20 Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.
²¹ How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.

For Reflection

Many people think that Christ died only so that our sin could be reconciled and we could enter an afterlife in the presence of God.  This point of view seems a bit restrictive.  The previous passages expand reconciliation to include the transformed people in the here and now.  God calls us to set things right with each other.  He calls us to start a new life with Him as our best friend.  He calls us to represent him, persuading others through our prayers, and action and enter God's work to reconcile the world to him.  He calls us to love each other, to champion justice, and to be compassionate. Christ also died so that we could be free to represent God in His effort to transform the people of this world, here and now.

 

Pray

that you will put aside your petty assumptions about each other and seek the higher goal of reconciliation.  Pray that you will see all people through compassionate eyes. Pray that you will answer the call to represent God in all that you think, say and do.