And all things of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
18. all things are of God ]Whether natural or spiritual. He is the Creator of heaven and earth, Gen 1:1, as well as of the work of redemption and of the new heart of man. chap. 2Co 1:21, 2Co 5:5; 1Co 3:23; 1Co 15:28; also John 3:16; Romans 5:8; Romans 8:32. Christ came only to fulfill His Fathers Will (John 4:34; John 5:30; John 6:39-40). The Father and He were one in love to the human race as in everything else, John 17:21-23. “All the life of God is a flow of this Divine self-giving charity. Creation itself is sacrifice, the self-impartation of the Divine being.” Robertson.
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ ]We have to observe here that not only was man estranged from God, but God from man. “We cannot imagine that God, Who is essentially just, should not abominate iniquity, yet there is no incongruity in this that a father should be offended with that son which he loveth, and at that time offended with him when he loveth him.” Bp Pearson. “God is angry with the wicked. For Christ was the representative of God under the name of Humanity. Now Christ was angry. That therefore which God feels” or rather the relation in which He stands towards sin “corresponds with that which in pure Humanity is the emotion of anger. No other word then will adequately represent God’s feeling” (or rather attitude). Robertson. But the reconciliation was God’s work of love, carried out by Jesus Christ, Who came to reveal His Nature and beneficial purposes to mankind, and to accomplish them by taking our mortal flesh, by His pure and stainless life, by His mysterious Death upon the Cross for our sakes, by His Resurrection from the dead, as well as by His sending His Spirit to work out His blessed Will in us. This is ‘reconciliation by Jesus Christ.’ the words reconcileare deliberately preferred by the translators of the AV to the word atone, atonementwhich is only to be found as an equivalent for the Greek word here used in Romans 5:11. see Romans 5:10; Romans 11:15; 1Co 7:11as well as a similar word occurring in Ephesians 2:16; Col 1:20-21. See also notes below.
the ministry of reconciliation ]Literally, the reconciliation, ie that which has just been mentioned. Cf. ch. 2Co 3:3, where St Paul describes the Corinthians as an Epistle of Christ ministered by him with the Spirit of the living God. The word ministry means service rendered freely, not of compulsion. It carries with it the idea of diligence, whatever derivation of the Greek word we take. It was the Apostles’ task, voluntarily undertaken by themselves, to proclaim the good tidings of reconciliation through Christ throughout the world, and thus to put it in men’s power to accept and act upon it. Tyndale, followed by Cranmer and the Geneva Version, render and hath given unto us the office to preach the atonement.
Source: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And all things are of God – This refers particularly to the things in question, the renewing of the heart, and the influences by which Paul had been brought to a state of willingness to forsake all, and to devote his life to the self-denying labors involved in the purpose of making the Savior known. He makes the general statement, however, showing his belief that not only these things were produced by God, but that all things were under his direction, and subject to his control. Nothing that he had done was to be traced to his own agency or power, but God was to be acknowledged everywhere. This great truth Paul never forgot; and he never suffered himself to lose sight of it. It was in his view of him a cardinal and glorious truth; and he kept its influence on him always before his mind and his heart on him. In the important statement which follows, therefore, about the ministry of reconciliation, he deeply feels that the whole plan, and all the success which has attended the plan, was to be traced not to his zeal, or fidelity, or skill, but to the agency of God; see the note on 1Co 3:6-7.
Who hath reconciled us to himself – The word us here includes, doubtless, all who were Christians – whether Jews or Gentiles, or whatever was their rank. They had all been brought into a state of reconciliation, or agreement with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Before they were opposed to God. They had violated His laws of him. They were his enemies. But by the means of the plan of salvation they had been brought into a state of agreement, or harmony, and were united in feeling and in aim with him. Two people who have been alienated by prejudice, by passion, or by interest, are reconciled when the cause of the alienation is removed, on whichever side it may have existed, or if on both sides, and when they lay aside their enmity and become friends. Then forward they are agreed, and live together without alienation, heart-burnings, jealousies, and strife. So between God and man. There was a variance; there was an alienation.
Man was alienated from God. He had no love for Him. I have disliked His government and laws of him. He was unwilling to be restrained. I have sought his own pleasure from him. He was proud, vain, self-confident. He was not pleased with the character of God, or with his claims of him, or his plans of him. And in like manner, God was displeased with the pride, the sensuality, the rebellion, the haughtiness of man. He was displeased that his Law had been violated, and that man had cast off his government. Now reconciliation could take place only when these causes of alienation should be laid aside, and when God and man should be brought to harmony; when man should lay aside his love of sin, and should be pardoned, and when, therefore, God could consistently treat him as a friend. The Greek word which is used here ( katallasso) means properly to change against anything; to exchange for anything, for money, or for any article – Robinson. In the New Testament it means to change one person toward another; that is, to reconcile to anyone; see the note on Romans 5:10.
It conveys the idea of producing a change so that one who is alienated should be brought to friendship. Of course, all the change which takes place must be on the part of man, for God will not change, and the purpose of the plan of reconciliation is to effect such a change in man as to make him in fact reconciled to God, and at agreement with him. There were indeed obstacles to reconciliation on the part of God, but they did not arise from any unwillingness to be reconciled; from any reluctance to treat his creature as his friend; but they rose from the fact that man had sinned, and that God was just; that such is the perfection of God that He cannot treat the good and evil alike; and that, therefore, if He should treat man as His friend of him, it was necessary that in some proper way He should maintain the honor of His Law of him, and show His hatred of sin, and should secure the conversion and future obedience of the offender.
All this God proposed to secure by the atonement made by the Redeemer, rendering it consistent for him to exercise the benevolence of his nature, and to pardon the offender. But God is not changed. The plan of reconciliation has made no change in his character. It has not made him a different being from what he was before. There is often a mistake on this subject; and people seem to suppose that God was originally stern, and unmerciful, and inexorable, and that he has been made mild and forgiving by the atonement. But it is not so. No change has been made in God; none needed to be made; none could be made. He was always mild, and merciful, and good; and the gift of a Savior and the plan of reconciliation is just an expression of his original willingness to pardon him. When a father sees a child struggling in the stream, and in danger of drowning, the peril and the cries of the child make no change in the character of the father, but such was his former love for the child that he would plunge into the stream at the hazard of his own life to save him. So it is with God. Such was his original love of him for man, and his disposition of him to show mercy, that he would submit to any sacrifice, except that of truth and justice, in order that he might save him. Hence, he felt his only son to die – not to change his own character; not to make himself a different being from what he was, but in order to show his love for him and his readiness to forgive when it could be consistently done. God so loved the world that he felt his only begotten Son of him, John 3:16.
By Jesus Christ – By the agency, or medium of Jesus Christ. He was the mediator to interpose in the work of reconciliation. And he was abundantly qualified for this work, and he was the only being that has lived in this world who was qualified for it. Because:
(1) He was endowed with a divine and human nature – the nature of both the parties at issue – God and man, and thus, in the language of Job, could lay his hand upon both, Job 9:33.
(2) He was intimately acquainted with both the parties, and knew what was needed to be done. He knew God the Father so well that he could say, No man knoweth the Father but the Son, Matt 11:27. And he knew man so well that it could be said of him, he needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man, John 2:25. No one can be a mediator who is not acquainted with the feelings, views, desires, claims, or prejudices of both the parties at issue.
(3) He was the friend of both the parties. I have loved God. No man ever doubted this, or had any reason to call it in question, and he was always desirous of securing all that God claimed, and of vindicating him, and he never abandoned anything that God had a right to claim. And he loved man. He showed this in all his life of him. I have sought his welfare from him in every way possible, and gave himself for him. Yet no one is qualified to act the mediators part who is not the common friend of both the parties at issue, and who will not seek the welfare, the right, or the honor of both.
(4) He was willing to suffer anything from either party in order to produce reconciliation. From the hand of God he was willing to endure all that he deemed to be necessary, in order to show his hatred of sin by his vicarious sufferings of him, and to make an atonement; and from the hand of man he was willing to endure all the reproach, and contumely, and scorn which could be possibly involved in the work of inducing man to be reconciled to God. And,
(5) He has removed all the obstacles which existed to a reconciliation. On the part of God, he has made it consistent for him to pardon. He has made an atonement, so that God can be just while he justifies the sinner. He has maintained His truth, and justice, and secured the stability of His moral government while He admits offenders to His favor. And on the part of man, He, by the agency of His Spirit, overcomes the unwillingness of the sinner to be reconciled, humbles his pride, shows him his sin, changes his heart, subdue his enmity against God, and secures in fact a harmony of feeling and purpose between God and man, so that they shall be reconciled forever.
And hath given to us – To us the apostles and our fellow-laborers.
The ministry of reconciliation – That is, of announcing to people the nature and the conditions of this plan of being reconciled. We have been appointed to make this known, and to press its acceptance on people; see 2Co 5:20.