The Good News of Reconciliation – Defining Our Terms

The Good News of Reconciliation – Defining Our Terms.

“Therefore, anyone who is united with the Messiah is a new creature; anyone who is in Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone, a new life has begun, and that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, fresh and new things have arrived…” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

“In Christ“:  Literally participating inside the life of Christ; living in union with Jesus; united as one with God; inseparably joined with Christ; when we started trusting in Jesus, His Holy Spirit hand-delivered each of us into the very Person of Christ; we are tightly wrapped into His nature and essence; our spirit is inside His Spirit, and He is inside of us; our human identity is hidden within Christ; we belong to Him, and He is in possession of each of us; by uniting with Jesus, we married into His family, and are embraced within the fellowship of the Trinity; we are not ‘lost in the cosmos’ but instead have a permanent location within Christ. Inside of Christ, we go wherever He goes, including His death, resurrection, ascension, and now in the heavenly realms. We were baptized into the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19), are united with Him, and thus our union with Him enables us to be with Him right now seated with Christ at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 2:4-7). Being in Christ, we live inside His heart of reconciliation, and we participate in His desire for all of creation, including humanity, to be reconciled and restored to God and each other.

“A New Creature”: Before Christ, we had the spiritual DNA of the old Adam. But with Christ, we have the spiritual DNA of the New Adam. We have been re-created, born all over again and given the chromosomal makeup that we have inherited from Jesus Christ. We have been birthed into God’s family. God has shared His nature with us. We have become children of the Lord, sons and daughters of the Almighty God. We now share family characteristics, and holiness has become a family tradition. The Father has imparted His spiritual genetic framework to us, placing us in His heavenly gene pool. We now partake in His divine nature by being born again through the Spirit in union with our brother Jesus. New spiritual genes, new spiritual DNA, new creature. And by becoming a new creature we are participants in the beginnings of God’s restoration of the whole new creation, the full reconciliation of the broken universe with its Creator.

“… All this is a gift directly from God who has restored us to friendship with Him and reconciled us to Himself through Christ. Moreover, God has given us a partnership with Him in the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, just as through the Anointed One God is reconciling the people of the world to Himself, not counting their wrongdoings against them, so also He has entrusted to us the Word of reconciliation to share with others.” (2 Cor. 5:18-19).

“Reconciled”: The heart of the good news, the Gospel of Jesus, is reconciliation. The Cross of Christ is the centerpiece of reconciliation… the vertical reconciliation with God in heaven and the horizontal reconciliation between His people on earth. (1.) The Greek term was used in diplomacy for a peace treaty brought to the table by a mediator in a political or personal dispute. Paul transformed this term to refer to God (the offended party) graciously sending the Mediator (Jesus) who then pays whatever penalties were due to the offended party. In other words, God wants so badly to reconcile with the wrongdoers in the dispute that He not only sends His Son as His special Mediator, but He has this Mediator atone for the broken relationship and pay the costs of the peace treaty; (2.) to restore what was broken, bringing back together what was once in one piece; (3.) to mutually change in a decisive way down to an exact point, such as agreeing to change from enemies to friends; (4.) a term used for the exchange of coins and broadened to mean to exchange commitments of peace with another party, or to exchange our sins for Christ’s righteousness, our guilt for a clean slate, or our certain spiritual death for God’s eternal life. “While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God.” (Romans 5:10).

“Ministry“:  The Greek term that produced the idea of ‘deacon’, and means active service; purposeful work; a God-given mission; to tend as a servant in coming to the aid of others in need; a Christian responsibility for the sake of the Kingdom.

“Word”: The Greek term used here is “logos” and refers to message or communication. This use of logos in the passage implies that what we say and how we say it reflects the spirit of Jesus, the supreme Logos, full of grace and truth. The message of reconciliation is offered with clarity, compassion, patience and godly insight. The logos Word is infused with hope, with the promise of God’s favor being recovered.

“… Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, confident that God is making His appeal through us. We urgently plead with you, on Christ’s behalf: Make your peace with God and be reconciled to Him! Come back to God and be reunited to Him through the Anointed One!” (2 Cor. 5:20).

“Ambassadors”: In Greco-Roman government, ambassadors were high-ranking diplomatic agents who were sent to represent the sovereign and authorized to speak and act on his behalf. Ambassadors were official representatives of the king and established statesmen who had the king’s trust. This special envoy from the court carried the weight of the king who commissioned him and was expected to obey the king’s orders and follow through on his desires. The ambassador was charged to be loyal to the kingdom’s best interests and reflect well on the qualities of the king. Citizens were expected to treat the ambassador as they would treat the king himself since he represented the king’s presence. This is a vivid picture of the role of every follower of Christ… to represent King Jesus and His Kingdom on earth; to obey the wishes of the King; to announce the urgent desire of the King to reconcile and make the peace with Him; to remain trustworthy and loyal to the King while carrying out His delegated work of reconciliation; to reflect the character qualities of the King; to be His emissary in peace-making between others; to be the gracious and truthful voice of the King and worthy of the responsibilities of Kingdom work; to effectively use the royal power that was invested in the position through the power of the King’s Holy Spirit. Since sometimes, when the ambassador is in a foreign land where the people might “shoot the messenger,” ambassadors should be prepared for hardship from people or even warfare from spiritual enemies. Ambassadors need to prepare for spiritual resistance by putting on the armor of God (Ephesians 6) when on duty, which is always. When people or demons hate the King and wish for His downfall, then they will treat the King’s representatives with that in mind. Nonetheless, when we follow Jesus, we are following God’s Original Ambassador, and as He said, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” (John 20:21).