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Pastor Miguel Núñez, after the series of three messages by Pastor Héctor Salcedo Llibre on the book of Ecclesiastes, resumes his series Power in Weakness on the second letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, and today he preaches on verses 18 to 21 of chapter 5, which was titled: God, The Great Reconciler.
The previous message ended by saying that if we have been born again believing that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, and we are in Christ, we are new creatures, so old things have passed away and here they are made new.
In today’s passages it is said that all this comes from God, and who reconciled us with Himself through Christ without taking our sins into account, and at the same time has entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation, therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ. And in the end, Paul makes a call for reconciliation with God in the name of Christ, who knew no sin, He made it sin for us, so that we might be made God’s justice through Him.
The heart of the unregenerate is full of enmity against God, and God is justly offended with it, but our God has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ. And by His inspiration the Scriptures were written, which are the words of reconciliation, showing that peace had been made by the cross, and through it, God pleads with sinners to put aside their enmity, and accept salvation. that He offers.
Paul tangentially touches on the spiritual problem of humanity. At creation, God gave man the direction and administration of all creation, and all this only with a prohibition. However, man did not resist the temptations to violate that pact and when he fell, the relationship with God also fell, and a state of enmity began between God and man. It was God himself who took the initiative to restore that relationship, and it had to be through incarnating himself in Jesus Christ to assume sin and redeem our sins.
The text of these passages reveals 4 important aspects:
1.- The origin of the reconciliation. At the beginning of the text he mentions that all this comes from God and that God himself reconciled us to himself. God himself was the one who took the initiative, it was not man. Man did not seek God, it was God who went out to seek man. To reconcile with one another, a disposition of the heart is needed, and that is provided by God. It is a grace that God grants, it is a gift.
2.- The agent of reconciliation, the author of reconciliation. God is the mastermind, but he did it through Christ. Christ is the agent through whom the reconciliation was accomplished. Man’s debt to God was so great that he could not pay it, and the Trinity decides that God be incarnated in Christ so that He Himself can pay the debt and man is released. That is why he says that God himself was in Christ reconciling the world, creation, with himself on the cross. Christ built a bridge between God and men.
3.- Of the way in which God carried out the reconciliation. The text says that God did not take into account our transgressions. God did not take transgressions into account because another assumed them. Christ assumed them. God himself assumed them. The text says that God himself was in Christ reconciling the world with himself. Christ assumed sin without being a sinner, and that is why the treatment he received, however, this was so that we might be justice in Him, which implies having a character in Him, implies being holy in Christ, not guilty before God, but in Christ.
4.- The responsibility that those of us who have been reconciled by God have. To those who are born again, to those who believe in Christ, God has entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation, bringing the message of the Gospel, the power of God. We must go to the ends of the earth to preach the gospel. We have been appointed ambassadors of Christ.
We know that God is the great reconciler, and He does it through us by taking His word, the gospel, to all men doing the work of reconciling them with God. He is part of our responsibility and of the works for which we will be judged. We must understand this concept, because God himself puts that desire in our hearts, he is the same God who is in us when we assume the role of ambassador of Christ reconciling men with God.
Father, help us to bring the gospel of reconciliation to others. May we convince others to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior, so that his soul may be saved and have eternal life. Blessings.