“God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. ... 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” (2 Cor. 5:19-20).
Man has departed from God and become His enemy. He needs reconciliation. Satan seeks to lead the sinner to believe that God is against him and that He needs to be propitiated by good works — hence the vast amount of religious doings in the flesh. Thousands seek to reconcile God by their fleshly efforts to be good and religious. But the Word of God shows clearly that it is man, the sinner, who needs reconciling to God, and not God to the sinner. There is a vast difference between the two.
Man’s Enmity
The full enmity of man against God, in the person of Christ, came out at the cross. Put to the proof in various ways for some four thousand years or so, the cross fully manifested the sinner’s condition as an enemy of God. While God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, we find the world at large refused the goodness of God and crucified His Son. And while the cross of Christ, on the one hand, seals the world’s condemnation, on the other, it is the expression of the wondrous love of God to man. It is the basis upon which God in righteousness now sends forth the word of reconciliation. Paul and others declared it in the early days of Christianity, and it is the privilege of God’s servants now to announce the same blessed tidings to all, according to the ability given.
Hence God in grace has now taken the attitude of beseeching sinners to be reconciled to Him. The Apostle, coupling his companions with himself, says, “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” (2 Cor. 5:20). The sinner must be reconciled in the day of His grace or come before God in judgment in the future in his sins. It will be too late to be reconciled then. “Behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).
God Glorified
God, having been glorified in the finished work of the cross, raised His Son from the dead. Grace now reigns, and all who come to Him in self-judgment, by faith in the name of His Son, are justified and reconciled. When on earth, our Lord gave us a striking illustration of the manner of our reconciliation to God, in the story of the prodigal son. In this dissatisfied, ungodly worldling, Jesus illustrated the moral condition of the publicans and sinners of that day, but it also sets forth the state of the unconverted world without God at the present time. Reduced to beggary and misery through his own sin and having failed in his own efforts to remedy his condition, he made up his mind to return to his father and confess his sin. “He arose, and came. ... But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). Lovely picture of the sinner’s reconciliation to God! Take your place before Him, like the prodigal son, in self-judgment and confession, if you have never done so before, and you will be reconciled in like manner. If you seek to justify yourself, you are like the Pharisees and scribes who are illustrated in the elder son, and you will be found outside the place of blessing. But if you come to God, like the prodigal arose and came to his father, you will find yourself the object of His love and His Spirit bearing witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. And, henceforth, “Abba, Father” will be your cry.
The Manner of Reconciliation
Let us dwell a little upon the manner of this reconciliation. Five things may be especially noted. The father saw, was compassionate towards, ran to meet, embraced, and kissed his son. “When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him.” Occupied with his long lost one, he was on the lookout for his return. His eye lighted on him in the distance. Recognizing the well-known form, the heart followed the eye and was filled with compassion toward his son. Love immediately sped the feet, and he ran to meet him. And there, just as he was in all his wretchedness, love satisfied itself by folding the lost one in its fond embrace. His eyes saw, his heart was compassionate, his feet sped, his arms embraced, and his lips covered him with kisses.
The son confesses his sin, but he is interrupted by the father before he can talk about being a hired servant (Luke 15:18-23). He was welcomed and treated as a son. Not a word of reproach escaped the lips of his loving parent. His return and his confession were a witness to his repentance, and immediately a heart of love lavishes its all upon the object of its affection. This is the way of love.
Blessed triumph of grace! Lovely picture of the grace of our God! What do you know of all this? Have you judged and confessed the past? Do you know what it is to be reconciled to God, folded in His everlasting arms? Have the kisses of peace and reconciliation been imprinted upon your cheek? “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Rom. 4:7-8). Do you know, too, the blessedness of being included in that precious verse, “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” (Rom. 5:10)? If so, you too can join with all His own in adding, “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation” (Rom. 5:11 JND).
And the father said to the servants, “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry” (Luke 15:22-23). Grace abounds. Only the best of everything for the reconciled one will satisfy a father’s heart. It was not a question of his merits, but a heart of love finding its gratification in the blessing of its object. Wondrous grace! And this is the way of our God! All that love can devise and grace bestow is lavished upon every sinner who returns to Him. Clad with heaven’s best robe, sealed with the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption, fitted to walk before Him, it is now the joy and privilege of every child of God to feast with a loving Father upon the exceeding riches of His grace. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:20-21).
This is the manner of the sinner’s reconciliation to God. Are you reconciled? “If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” (Psalm 130:3).
E. H. Chater