GENTRY — “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 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.” 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
What is the Gospel which we proclaim? Is it “God will pardon and forgive us if we believe”? Or, “God has pardoned and forgiven us for Jesus’ sake; believe”?
This very issue has been hotly debated by Christians for centuries, with one side saying that God, through the innocent sufferings and death of His only begotten Son, has reconciled or pardoned and justified the entire world of sinners, and the other side saying that God only forgives and pardons sins when one first comes to faith in Christ Jesus.
This may seem like useless wrangling, but it is all important to every human being and determines the message to be proclaimed in the pulpits and on the streets and byways as Christians go into all the world to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
To answer this question, we look to the Word of God. What does God say is to be preached and proclaimed? What is the ministry of reconciliation?
The sacred text begins: “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them….”
We are reconciled to God through the innocent sufferings and death of God’s onlybegotten Son who came into this world a true man and fulfilled all the righteous demands of God’s law for us and then bore our punishment when He suffered and died upon the cross. But not only are believers reconciled, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them….” The entire world of sinners was reconciled unto God. God, for Jesus’ sake, pardoned their transgressions and sins and no longer imputes or holds their sins against them because Christ has paid in full and is risen again in victory.
How important it is for you and I to know that our salvation is finished, completed by Jesus Christ! He paid for the sins of all, and God accepted the sacrifice of His Son as full atonement for the sins of the entire world. Thus, we proclaim sins paid for and forgiven and God reconciled and reaching out to the entire sinful human race with love and mercy and forgiveness in His heart toward mankind.
We don’t proclaim that God will be reconciled when and if we believe. We proclaim God as reconciled toward us for Jesus’ sake and call upon all to believe and take comfort in this accomplished fact. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:16).
O Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You for paying in full for our sins and the sins of the entire world and appeasing God’s just wrath against us. Amen.
[Devotion by Randy Moll. Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.]
Opinion, Pages 5 on 03/17/2010