Mission—Reconciliation
For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 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 men'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.
2 Corinthians 5:14-21
Should you attempt to reduce to one word the problems of history and our contemporary dilemma, you could not find a better word than rift. We live in a fragmented world, as though some cosmic giant had taken this ball we call earth and hurled it against some great mass, smashing it in pieces. We live in a broken world:
Internationally. Two great power blocs in mortal conflict, grinding between them many small nations struggling for neutrality and independence. There are two Germanys, two Koreas, two Chinas, two Europes, two Asias, two Africas.
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Racially. We of course are very conscious of the rift between the blacks, Hispanics, native Americans and whites in America, but every nation suffers this rift between its peoples.
Economically. There are the desperately poor and the exorbitantly rich and affluent, the haves and the have-nots.
Intellectually. Multiplied millions remain illiterate coincident with an unprecedented explosion of knowledge.
Industrially. The labor-management rift, still a problem in America, is fast emerging in other nations of the world.
Domestically. We see the disintegration of the family through alienation between parents and children, between husbands and wives.
And perhaps worst of all, there is the rift within man himself; fragmented personalities, a devastating civil war within men producing anxieties and fears, neuroses and psychoses.
Even the church is fragmented, and today as rarely in history she suffers relentless tension.
Here is a problem of relevance. What is the answer to this broken world? Where is there healing for this earth rent by schism? The Bible answer, the intelligent
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answer, the one adequate answer can also be summed up in a word: reconciliation. The Bible reveals that the fundamental rift in history, producing all other divisions, is alienation between man and God. Man voluntarily alienated from God is disoriented in the world God created to be his home. Lost and disoriented, man is out of gear with God's order; therefore he does not mesh with his fellowmen, individually or corporately.
To meet this tragic rift in humanity's world, God has addressed Himself in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. In the words of the text, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself: (2 Cor. 5:19). Paul records in another place, "God has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of His will, according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ" (Eph. 1:9, 10). And, "Through Christ God purposes to reconcile all things to Himself, making peace by the blood of His cross" (Col. 1:20).
Paul's statement in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 sums up thoroughly the mission of Jesus Christ in the world, and the mandate He gave His church. All Christian
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responsibility and mission begin here. This is basic to the relevance of the church to the world. Christians are to be agents of reconciliation. Paul says, "All things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their sins against them, and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation."
God has given to us the "ministry of reconciliation"; God has committed to us the "word of reconciliation." The ministry of reconciliation and the word of reconciliation." The ministry of reconciliation and the word of reconciliation are our inescapable mandate. Our lives, individually and collectively as people of God, must square with this commission if we are to be true to Christ. To make it very personal, do you have a disruptive influence where you are, or do you bring peace? Do you bring division or do you unite? Do alienate or do you reconcile? Does your life have a unifying, reconciling, uniting influence, or does it have an alienating, disruptive, dis-peaceful influence? Do you bring peace or do you bring strife as a person?
What is the word of reconciliation?
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What is essential to the understanding of this text? Unfortunately, this passage in 2 Corinthians has been one of the most misused and abused in the Bible. In the name of relevance, men have used this passage to justify programs designed only to reconcile man with man while, at the same time, ignoring evangelism and the explicit purpose of reconciling man to God. Again and again one hears this passage referred to as grounds for purely humanitarian or sociological movements in the name of relevance, thereby rendering it utterly irrelevant. The reconciliation spoken of here does not stop with individual redemption or salvation, but it begins there. All Christian sociology and ethics begin with man's rightness with God through the blood of Jesus Christ His Son, according to Paul. If men are to be reconciled to each other ultimately, they first must be reconciled to God individually. On the other hand, individual salvation which does not issue in authentic social responsibility is sub-Christian.
The Word of Reconciliation
What is the word of reconciliation? In the first place Paul says, "We thus judge if one died for all, then we are all dead, and
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that He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died and rose again" (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). This is the word of reconciliation: Christ died, Christ rose. Note the context of this passage. Paul begins chapter 5 with a gracious, thrilling prospect beyond the grave. "While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord . . . absent from the body and home with the Lord" (vv. 6,8). Then he discusses the very passion of his own life: he labors "to be accepted of the Lord" (v. 9). He speaks of the certainty of judgment (v. 10). He speaks of the "the terror of the Lord" (v. 11) which he says compels him to persuade men to be reconciled to God. This is the word of reconciliation.
Also in this text Paul says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new" (v. 17). This is the word of reconciliation — the promise of a changed human nature, power that can transform human nature from selfishness to selflessness; from self-seeking to self-sacrificing. This cannot be legislated. This cannot be done by social structures. It has been tried; it breaks down because of the stubborn fact of pride or selfishness
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in the human heart. As one man put it, "No matter how cleverly you organize bad eggs, you can't get a good omelet."
Paul, constrained by God to go to this city of sin, Corinth—the wickedest city in one of the most depraved cultures in history—faced the deplorable social and moral conditions there in this conviction: "When I came to you, brethren, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:1,2). So far as this brilliant Jew was concerned, relevance to Corinthian evil meant Christ crucified. Why? Jesus said, "It is not that which goes into the man that defiles the man. It is what comes out of the man that defiles the man" (Matthew 15:17-18). And then He added, when His disciples asked Him to amplify, that everything which defiles human nature has its origin inside the human heart. It isn't how you organize human nature; it is something inside human nature that is the problem.
In an address which Albert Einstein made in 1948 he said, "I do not fear the explosive power of the atom bomb. What I fear is the explosive power of evil in the
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human heart." What is the answer to the explosive power of evil in the human heart? Where is the answer to that within man which defiles humanity? Jesus Christ and Him crucified! This is the word of reconciliation. This is the relevance of Christ. The gospel when believed (received) dissolves enmity in the heart and replaces it with love.
On the occasion of one of Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship seminars in Washington, one of the prisoners was a former Ku Klux Klan leader from Mississippi. He had been sentenced to a long prison term for bombing a Jewish home. He despised blacks and Jews and Catholics with a vengeance in his pre-prison days. At dinner one evening he was introduced to Eldridge Cleaver, the black revolutionary activist who was an avowed Marxist before his encounter with Christ. That evening Chuck Colson, Harold Hughes, whom Colson had blacklisted as an enemy in former days, Tommy Tarrants, the former Ku Klux Klan leader who had received Christ in prison, and Eldridge Cleaver knelt together in prayer, their arms around each other. When men are reconciled to God, they find peace with one another.
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Also in 2 Corinthians 5 Paul wrote, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not holding their sins against them" (v. 19). This is the word of reconciliation, forgiveness of sin through the blood of Christ's cross.
Someone has said guilt is the most corrosive influence in life. Who can measure the inefficiency due to guilt? The breakdown of human machinery caused by guilt? Think of the multiplied millions of dollars spent to resolve the problem of guilt.
Talk about relevance! Here it is, "God has made Christ to be sin for us, though He knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (v. 21). God reconciles men unto Himself, "not holding their sins against them" (v.19). Absolutely incredible! This is the sure word of reconciliation. This is true relevance.
Finally, who is to be reconciled to whom? "As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God" (v.20). This is the word of reconciliation, "Be reconciled to God." This is the authentic Christian message — the central thrust of the church's word to the world — be reconciled to God!
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The Ministry of Reconciliation
What is the ministry of reconciliation? "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ" (v.20). This involves selflessness. We do not represent ourselves! Wherever we are, wherever we go we represent our Lord. Paul says, "We commend not ourselves unto you." We bear His message, His word; there is nothing unilateral in our mission. We are in the world on God's behalf, among those who are alien to God. We are to obey orders from headquarters. We ought to dig into our diplomatic pouch every morning to get our directions.
Being an ambassador involves diplomacy, protocol. It has been disturbing to me through the years to observe how difficult it is for some Christians to honor others. They seem congenitally or constitutionally incapable of it. They may justify it by saying James exhorts us to not be a respecter of persons, and God is impartial; but Paul commands, "Honor to whom honor is due: (Romans 13:7). I may not like the man, but I honor his office. I may not like the man, but I honor his uniform, the stars he wears as a general. Being an ambassador of Jesus Christ involves protocol. Diplomacy involves courtesy, common courtesy for the sake of Christ.
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Being an ambassador involves subtlety, "Wise as serpents, harmless as doves" (Matthew 10:16). It involves faithfulness to our citizenship in heaven. It means we are in the world to represent the best interests of our Lord. Some of us are so undiplomatic, so obvious, so naive, so violent, so arbitrary, so inflexible, so self-willed. God gave us the softness and the toughness good diplomacy requires.
Being an ambassador of Christ involves tension. We stand between two worlds, two alienated worlds. Often there is militant opposition to Christ's kingdom. Some of us are tempted to withdraw, to lay down arms, to isolate ourselves from this troubled world, to insulate ourselves against its tragedy, to ignore the live issues which keep our world in constant ferment. But these issues will not go away. They are here. They are real. They are facts of life. They must be faced in Christ's strength and wisdom.
Who are the ambassadors? We who have been reconciled. "All things are of God, who has reconciled us unto Himself, and has given to us [reconciled ones] the ministry of reconciliation," who "has committed unto us [reconciled ones] the word of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:18-19).
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We who have been made new creatures in Christ, who have been born again, born of God; we who have been twice-born are the ambassadors, which, incidentally, is one explanation for the rift in the church and her failure in the world: members, enrolled in churches, who are unchanged, unregenerate, unreconciled, who have not been born again.
What is required of us ambassadors? Paul reminds us, "He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them, and rose again" (v.15). This is very plain language. In the light of this requirement it is not difficult to understand the powerlessness of the church in the world. How pathetically self-centered we are. How desperately self-seeking. How defensive of self. Think what would happen if every Christian really gave himself away to Christ and began to live not for himself but for his Lord, who, "though He was in the form of God, thought it not something to be held onto but emptied Himself [made Himself of no reputation], became a servant and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:6-8).
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Crossless Christianity is powerless Christianity. Where there is no cross there is no power. Indeed where there is no cross there is no resurrection. Power involves sacrifice. Self-sacrifice. Much easier to sacrifice things than it is to sacrifice self. We are losing because we are struggling so hard to keep what we have and get more. We are forfeiting all we hold precious because we are striving interminably to guard it for ourselves. Jesus said, "Whoever saves his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it" (Matt. 16:25). Jesus said, "If any man will be my disciple let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (16:24). This is relevance.
This message is meaningful only as each of us takes it seriously for himself. You do not have to accept this message. You can reject it, that is your prerogative; but you will never be a disciple of Christ if you do. You will be part of the problem in our world, not a part of the answer. This ministry, this mission, is binding upon every one of us who professes to be Christian. That is very clear in the Scriptures. Think of the potential if each of us goes forth wherever duty calls—today, tomorrow—as an ambassador for Christ; living
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for Christ, not for ourselves; determined in His grace to be a reconciling influence, a redemptive force. Think of it! May God make us this kind of a people.
