With regard to reconciliation, as in 2 Cor. 5:19,19To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19) as you say, we are nearly at one; for you admit that the world is not (in the usual and literal sense of the word) reconciled to God, but the very opposite. The only difference seems to be about the grammar and the construction of the passage—whether was ought to be looked at as joined with in Christ or with reconciling: you say the latter: I say the former. Where was God? “God was in Christ” in contrast with law. What was God’s gracious object when He was here “in Christ?” “Reconciling.” But was the world reconciled, then, when He was here in that mind and attitude? No. It refused the reconciliation through a living Christ and rejected and slew Him.
This closed God’s dealings with the world, or in other words with man in the flesh, as if he were recoverable: for so bad had man proved himself to be, being utter enmity and opposition to God, that there was no hope for him but through Christ’s death, which ended man and his world, and that God, rich in mercy, began a new work on the basis of the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus; and then a new ministry goes out from a risen and glorified Christ, telling of life and righteousness brought to us, and that we are “reconciled to God through the death of his Son.” The basis of reconciliation is no longer Christ in life with us, displaying God in His goodness and grace, but the death of Christ whereby all that God is has been glorified, and man has been redeemed and brought into the presence of God on an entirely new footing.
But where many seem to stick fast in traditionary teaching is that, as God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, the world was, in point of fact, reconciled (whatever is meant by the word), whereas Scripture informs us that the very opposite took place—they killed the Prince of life, the divine agent in this gracious mission of reconciliation. “Now is the judgment of this world” not its reconciliation. “God was in Christ” in the spirit of reconciliation seeking in divine goodness to break down man’s enmity, but when on man’s side there was refusal and the display of man’s utmost enmity, God’s attitude could be only that of judgment; and there remained nothing for it but the execution of judgment had there not been the coming in of the further grace of Christ giving Himself for God’s glory and our redemption, and being made sin for us that we might be the righteousness of God in Him. The ground of the reconciliation is shifted; man in himself being proved incorrigible, Christ dies and rises for us; and, in resurrection, and on the ground of new creation in Christ, we are reconciled to God, being brought into a state of happy and peaceful relationship through the death of God’s Son, and in view of all God has made Him to be unto us—wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, in order that we might glory in the Lord.
I believe that what you say about the reconciliation of enemies being by the death of God’s Son has led to the seeking to find a meaning for it very much the same as propitiation. But is this not a mistake? The word will not admit of such a meaning. It would entirely change the doctrine of Scripture by taking away from the precision of its language. Reconciliation is neither atonement, propitiation, nor justification. It is an actual bringing back into friendly and peaceful relationship those who were formerly in an alienated condition (see Jew and Gentile, Eph. 2). But with regard to God and us the enmity and alienation were on our side, not on His. Hence we are said to be reconciled: He is not.
If you admit two proposals of reconciliation on two different grounds, all is plain. (1) God was in Christ reconciling; and, on account of man’s incorrigibleness, this reconciliation of the world through a living Christ came to nothing. It failed on man’s side as the law had done: but (2) The ministry of reconciliation from the place where Christ now is in glory as put in the apostles—the whole being in God’s hands and the basis the death of Christ, and the power to effect all being that of a glorified Christ in the ministry of the Holy Ghost, there is no failure; for all believers whose sins Christ expiated by His death are reconciled to God. All is made smooth with God through Christ’s death for our reconciliation, and this must be apprehended by faith before there can be a making of our boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation, i.e., this bringing back of us into a happy state of peaceful relationship with God as the One who loves us and has brought us to Himself through the death of His Son—redeemed, forgiven, justified, sanctified, and having the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father. Then neither has God been reconciled nor the world: only believers., And if the theologians say (altering the meaning of the word) that God reconciled the world to Himself, meaning by this that Christ bore its sins, and that God is not now imputing them, and will not condemn for them, then I would affirm, that there is not a line of Scripture for this that I can see.
This is indeed true, that the blood of the Mediator is now on the mercy-seat before God so that any sinner may come to God through that blood and Him who shed it and be pardoned and saved. The sin-question was fully gone into and settled forever between God and Christ when He shed. His blood on Calvary’s Cross, and that both according to God’s nature and the requirements of His throne, and the need of guilty sinners who are to be brought into the enjoyment of all the effects flowing from it. He is not only the propitiation for our sins, but also for the whole world, because this respects the great work of Christ God-ward, and the blood put upon the mercy-seat: but only such as believe are entitled to say Christ bore our sins. Propitiation is one thing, and substitution is another.
But I fear, when the doctors in the Lutheran Church say that Christ reconciled the world, they mean that Christ bore its sins. If so, then the whole world must be saved. But this will not do, for there is no reconciliation without faith in what God has wrought in Christ and in His death. But being dependent on faith and having no existence where faith is not reconciliation could not possibly have taken place when Christ died, any more than justification. Does not this dispose of this thought? The work wrought by grace in me by faith in the death of Christ is, though connected, not the same thing as the basis of God’s providing for His own sake, on which the reconciliation takes place. Propitiation and reconciliation are intended to convey different thoughts, and we dare not alter Scripture, but must abide by the divine intention.
I observe that you still write “was reconciling,” and of this I would say again, that it is unexampled in the New Testament, and probably in the Greek language to join was with reconciling, severed as they are not only so widely but especially by a phrase like in Christ, in which is the true complement of the verb (was). Is this not so? What you say is quite true that what God was doing when in Christ was—reconciling. That was the bearing or tendency of the Incarnation. But He was also the Lamb of God, and as such the taker away of the sin of the world: but that both things were not done is obvious; for the world’s sin is not taken away it is as full of it as ever—neither is it reconciled to God. The conclusive proof that the world was not reconciled to God by Christ’s death lies in the same passage: for what sense would there be in sending out a fresh ministry of reconciliation if the world had been reconciled?
I refer to 2 Corinthians 5:19,20,19To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:19‑20) “putting in us the word of the reconciliation.” Then verse 20 ends with “be ye reconciled to God” as the purport of their beseeching a very strange proceeding this if the world were reconciled. And it were surely an unworthy as well as unscholarly expedient to say that reconcile means one thing in 2 Corinthians 5:1919To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19) and another thing in verse 20th, that it means atonement in verse 19th and reconciliation in its literal and proper acceptation in verse 20th. It is quite obvious that verse 21St gives the divine basis in God’s work for sinners in Christ, on which the reconciliation takes place. And so also all the other passages which refer to the death of Christ contemplate it as the new divine basis of reconciliation; the reconciliation through a living Christ having been definitively refused, there was no other way left but through a dead Christ, and redemption accomplished in His death. Hence we find in 2 Corinthians 5:14,15,14For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:14‑15) the death and resurrection of Christ presented as the only means to ensure living to Him under the power of His constraining love. And verse 16th states that we know Christ now no longer as an Incarnate Messiah displaying God in goodness on the earth, but we know Him as risen and become the Beginning and Head of the new creation; and “if any man be in Christ, there is new creation”—and “all things therein are of God, who hash reconciled us to Himself” [“by the death of His Son.” Romans 5:1010For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Romans 5:10).] “Old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new.” The place where reconciliation takes place is that of “new creation:” for no man not “in Christ Jesus”— “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus”—will ever lay aside his enmity and alienation, and love God and recognize the happy, peaceful relation subsisting between God and His redeemed and emancipated people, and act upon it.
I note your words: “Therefore, the word must, as far as I can see, imply that God through the death of Christ took away the sin that drew on it the holy wrath of God, and so prepared the way for the sinner being in his heart reconciled to God.”
I have written enough to show these two things, 1, that no such meaning can be fixed on reconciling, and 2, that a something was accomplished through the death of Christ which, while it has not removed the holy wrath of God from the world, yet has so glorified God about sin and put the blood on the mercy-seat that it is now consistent with God’s righteousness to justify the believer in Jesus (Rom. 3:21-2621But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:21‑26)). We are at one in the main, but not so in the way we reach our conclusions for instead of wrath removed by Christ’s death I hold with Romans 1 That it is “revealed from heaven” against all unbelievers (see this more fully explained in Romans 2:5-165But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; 6Who will render to every man according to his deeds: 7To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life: 8But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 9Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; 10But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: 11For there is no respect of persons with God. 12For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; 13(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 14For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) 16In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. (Romans 2:5‑16)), “And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” There is no Scripture that seems to favor the view that the world’s sin is taken away.
Do you mean that Adam’s sin is taken away by Christ’s death? If so, Christ is not said to have died to remove it: at least, I have not read this. “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son.” The Son of man, must be lifted up that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish but have eternal life. God freely loved sinners and provided the sacrifice for sin in the Son of man lifted up, and He is now held forth as a propitiation (a propitiatory, Rom. 3:2525Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (Romans 3:25)) through faith in His blood to any sinner in all the world (1 John 2:22And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)), that he, believing in Him, might be justified from all his sins. But no sin is taken away by the death of Christ in the case of an unbeliever. “If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” I know of no such statement in the word of God as this: “that the guilt of original sin is taken away by the death of Christ.” I think we may with certainty affirm that there is no such thought in God’s word. God does, indeed, deal with our nature in Christ’s death; but it is to condemn it to exterminating judgment like Sodom and Gomorrah (Rom. 8:33For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Romans 8:3).) “Sin in the flesh” is the nature: sins, the works of it (see Gal. 5:19-2119Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19‑21)). Romans 1 to verse 11 treats of sins and God’s provision for removing the guilt of them: Romans 5 to Romans 8 treats of sin or the nature, and God’s provision for dealing with it. The sins are expiated by the blood, and there is forgiveness and justification from them: but we die with Christ to sin. “Our old man is crucified together with him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is justified from sin” (Rom. 6:6,76Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7For he that is dead is freed from sin. (Romans 6:6‑7)). He who is alive is “justified by his blood” from his sins: but “he that is dead is justified from sin.” Christ died for my sins, but I died with Him to sin (Rom. 6:10,1110For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:10‑11)). I may get my sins forgiven; but there is no way of putting off a nature but by death as we read— “the putting off of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ” i.e., His death. I think this is true that, although it was when Christ was made a sacrifice for our sins that God condemned “sin in the flesh,” it was not atoned for so that we might have it forgiven; but, condemned, judged, annulled—that in view of Christ’s death to sin once we should reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin. It is to me, as a believer, not the nature in which I live, but one which to faith I have put off in Christ’s death, Christ being now my life: not Adam fallen, but Christ risen from the dead and glorified. I am in Christ, the new Head of believing and risen humanity: and the old man is gone in the death of Christ. “With Christ I have been crucified; live then no longer I but there liveth in me Christ” (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)).
I do not doubt that reconciliation has to do with the death of Christ: this is its holy basis (as has been repeatedly said), but every passage where it occurs spews that the persons are in presence who are to be sought to be reconciled, who are reconciled, or have been reconciled, and that only believers are so on being justified by God’s grace and Christ’s blood. And I think it most important and very material to hold this uniform teaching of Scripture on this subject; and that the translations of the New Testament Scriptures which teach another doctrine should be corrected. Luther’s version has it “for God was in Christ and reconciled the world with himself,” which is a statement that has no manner of warrant in the Greek, and it is contrary to the fact.1 If I quote the passage “that was the true light that lighteneth everyman that cometh into the world,” this is not the same as to affirm that He has done it: which would be contrary to the fact. The Apostle Paul’s ministry after that was “to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light” (Acts 26) and he says to the saints “ye were once darkness but now are ye light in the Lord.” “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness.” “I am the Light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.” Now all but Christ’s followers abode in the native darkness of the world, notwithstanding that He the Light was there, having it as His mission to be the world’s light, and having in Himself all competency to give light to every soul in it. But the world was enveloped in densest darkness when Christ died, so great was the power of Satan in blinding men that it could only be symbolized by the darkness that fell upon the dread scene of the world’s deepest guilt.
This will help to throw light on our passage: “God was in Christ” [this is the historical fact] “reconciling the world to Himself” [this was the mission – the object, purpose, intention] but the world gave sad proof that it was incapable of being reconciled by God in goodness in a living Christ, and the proof culminated in the rejection and killing of the Reconciler; and so, instead of being reconciled, as Luther’s German New Testament says, it entirely fell through. It would have been nearer the truth to have said God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, and the world was so exasperated that they rose up against Him, and, as far as it was in their power, turned Him out by crucifying Christ. At first man sinned and God drove him out; but when God in Christ came into man’s world seeking, in goodness, to win back man’s confidence and affection, man rose up against Him and said, Away with Him—away with Him!
But God rose in love and grace above man’s enmity and wrought such a work of accomplished righteousness in the death of Christ that He could send forth the apostles to continue the embassage of reconciliation, founded on the death of Christ, which should not fail of its purpose: for “He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might become God’s righteousness in Him.”
That “the reconciliation” is of us—not of God—and that it is a present blessing God’s word uniformly affirms in such passages as Colossians 1:21,22,21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: (Colossians 1:21‑22) “yet now hath he reconciled” 2 Corinthians 5:1818And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; (2 Corinthians 5:18). “Who hath reconciled us to himself”: Romans 5:1010For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Romans 5:10) “when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son”: verse 11, “through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”1