Reconciliation
Reconciliation
"If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation."
When my husband and I start getting excited about some new endeavor, we get carried away talking about the plans and one of us will quote a one liner that we got from the movie True Stories, “I personally believe I can see Fort Worth from here.” It’s kind of obscure as far as jokes go, but we’re poking fun at the way our imagination starts to wander--as though saying what we’ll do makes it so. Unlike this quip, these verses in 2 Corinthians are saying we are something new and what we had been is now gone. This is a claim that seems unbelievable.
Romans tells us that Christ reconciled himself to us while we were still sinners. He took the initiative to do for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves while we were still his enemies. Christ came full of mercy, grace and forgiveness and because of what Jesus has done, those who follow him are right with God. We are in a process of discipleship, which involves following him in this by helping others become reconciled. We are to live and interact from the perspective of what we are becoming instead of who we have been. So how is this different from working to please God? In the beginning of this passage we are declared a new creation--we are given a new life before we have a chance to “earn” it. We respond to that gift by allowing him to re-order our priorities and transform our lives.
The Christian life is a process. We make mistakes, we fail to live up to expectations, we hurt other people and have trouble forgiving when others hurt us. So how do we really live like this? In addition to spiritual disciplines, we need the support of the Christian community. Ideally this would be a source of encouragement, advise, challenge and love. It’s in this atmosphere that the difficult aspects of life can be shared and worked through. That can be a tall order because it’s nice to know ahead of time if that support will be there before making ourselves vulnerable. If we can get to a place where we humbly give and receive support we not only help others grow closer to God but we ourselves will grow, we not only help others become reconciled to God but we become more reconciled to God in the process.
Let us believe what is written here about what God has done. Let us respond in humility and participate in this great calling inasmuch as we’re able.
Created about 2 years ago
