How often is it said by those exercised about their soul’s salvation, “that they have been entreating, or must entreat, God to be reconciled to them.” At once this is a miserable, common, and great mistake, and really infidel in itself; involving as it does the denial of the truth of God, as well as the great exhibition of His love to man in the Cross, together with an absolute insubjection to what He has made known in His word. Yet I must say that in most cases, ignorance of the ways of God and the Cross is indeed the cause of it. And yet is it not deplorable that such palpable ignorance should exist to such an alarming extent, even among the vast majority of professing Christians, and even be expressed in some of the most popular of their hymns? Yet how clear is the word of God on this point; and may God be pleased to use these lines to the enlightening of the mind of some dear, perplexed soul, in ignorance of the glorious revelation of God’s love in Christ.
Before proceeding I would ask two questions, and then answer them from the word of God, which is indisputable. Is it true that the sinner has to beseech God to be reconciled to him? or is God, who, in the greatness of His love, on the ground of the death of His Son, is beseeching the sinner to be reconciled to Himself? We cannot fail to see the immense difference between these two questions, the answer of which involves the clear understanding of the Gospel. Is it God or man beseeching?
Let the Scriptures decide.
In what condition does the Gospel suppose man since the Cross? “Dead in trespasses and sin” (Eph. 2:1); “an enemy of God” (Col. 1:21); in allegiance to the great foe of God—Satan (Eph. 2:2, 3). The Cross proves this; for it was an expression of the human will against God— “We will not have this man to reign over us.” But now, even as to Christ’s life we read, “That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them” (2 Cor. 5:19). If the law which was before Christ, under which Israel was for 1500 years, demanded what they could not give, and enforced what they never did fulfill, Christ, when He came, was expression of Divine grace to man—not demanding, but in grace giving; not judging or cursing, but not imputing their trespasses unto them.
Man could gaze upon the expression of God in grace in a man—even in Christ. Oh, what a sight! Man was fully tested in the presence of perfect and absolute grace and love, in Jesus, the Son of God. What was the result? They hated Him, and slew Him between two thieves!
How this makes one bury his face with shame!
And how contemptible to God must be all the pretended goodness of man since that awful event, when he dared to spit in the face of the Lord of Glory—the expression of God in grace—and nailed Him to the tree and exulted in his doings. And remark, the glorious Gospel of God’s grace is preached since man did that, since, by the Son of God’s presence here upon earth, man was tested to the full, and proved to be an enemy of God. But observe, even in this passage, as far as we have seen as yet, it was God that was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; not man—the rebel man, or convicted sinners—beseeching God to be reconciled to them. It is here we see the aboundings of grace—the rich development of that which God is essentially—Love.
Since the death, resurrection, and ascension of God’s Son, how is man addressed? Oh, the marvels of God’s grace, His infinite love, His rich mercy! The Cross of the blessed Lord has only extended infinitely, the ground of God’s action, and the sphere of the blessed operations of His love, grace, and mercy. If the Cross was the fullest expression that God ever gave of His love, it also formed the imperishable ground of His acting in abounding grace and mercy to the world, and rendered to Him an undisputed title to justify the ungodly who believe.
Accomplished redemption, with the glorification of the One who has accomplished it, is the broad and blessed ground upon which God now stands, and displays the majesty of His love. Ile beholds the world lying in wickedness, with Satan its professed and acknowledged god. And now the Gospel becomes the expression of the yearnings of God’s heart toward man—to poor rebel man. Observe, not man’s desire God-ward, nor his love to God, but God’s desire toward man, and the extending of boundless love and mercy to him who is guilty. God defers His judgment—his strange, though sure, work—and now delights Himself infinitely in displaying the riches of His grace, and bringing poor sinners to know its power and the sweetness of His love thereby glorifying His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now God calls out individuals, makes them His servants, and gives them a ministry—the ministry of reconciliation. They proceed from the presence of Him who has commissioned them to a perishing world, charged with the word of reconciliation. They gather the multitude, and their words are, “Now, 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. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:20, 21). Oh, the triumph of grace! Oh, the super-aboundings of mercy! Oh, the unfettered delights and operations of God’s love since the death of His Son!
If the dark clouds of Divine judgment enveloped God’s Lamb upon the Cross, now they are passed and gone forever, and the bright beams of the glory of God encircle that thrice blessed One where He now is on high, and the Father has infinite delight in Him.
True, he had perfect delight in Him as He lay in His bosom from all eternity; but now He has fresh and new delights in Him. And why?
Because He has, by His own death and resurrection, removed the barrier to the outflow of His love to man, enabling. Him to carry out His blest and eternal designs of having poor simmers washed from their sins, and brought into hallowed and eternal relationship with Himself. Quite true is it that God’s most cherished object is the glory of Christ; but next to that is man’s eternal blessing in and through the Lord Jesus.
How true it is, then, by the last quoted text, that it is not man beseeching God to be reconciled, but the reverse. It is God—by His grace, through His Gospel beseeching man to be reconciled to Him. The ground is that of righteousness “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” May not one fairly say it is God beseeching, and man rejecting those beseechings of grace. How few receive the Gospel! Behold the vast company on the broad road that leads to everlasting destruction! What are they doing? They are despising the beseechings of God in grace—and yet they are besought, and yet they despise. Consummate folly; mad fatuity! Surely they are damners of their own precious souls. Omnipotent Love—stop them, and give them to bow to the power of grace and be reconciled to God “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” —1st Tim. 2:4-6.
Ah! yes, it is this: there is man in his sins and guilt, an active enemy of God, and feeling the very opposite of good with respect to Him. The Gospel is borne by the Spirit of God to him, which informs him of all this, and makes him sensible of his guilt and enmity to God; also of the love that God has shown him in the gift of His Son, and it beseeches him to—work? Nay! To cry to God for mercy?
Nay! What then? To be reconciled to God for he hath made Jesus to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that those who are thus reconciled might be made the righteousness of God in Him might, in Christ, God’s righteousness, stand in Divine favor, delighting in Divine love, and rejoice in prospect of eternal glory.
Hearkening to the beseechings of Divine grace, and being reconciled to God, is obeying the Gospel. Alas! we know what will be the terrible position of those who do not obey. If they will not have grace in its fullness, they will have judgment in its fullness, “For the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” —2 Thess. 1:7-9.
Tremendous fact! Stupendous and unfailing truth! May you, beloved reader, be brought (if unsaved) to be reconciled to God, who waits to receive and pardon you; and, as in the case of the Prodigal (Luke 15:22), clothe you with heaven’s best robe, viz., all that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
E. A.