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“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.”
2Corinthians 5:20-21
Perhaps it is because I was very
young when I came to Christ, but it has always amazed me how horribly I have
sinned as a Christian. Having preached my first sermon in 1957 and having
begun a life long pursuit of the knowledge of God, you would think that I
would not be “prone to wander” and “prone to leave the God I love.”
Over the years, various Christians
in counseling have declared their anxiety over the gross sins for which they
have been guilty. Many have expressed confusion as to how they could be
such a sinner if genuinely a Christian at the time. While I certainly
understand the lack of assurance in such a circumstance, I try to encourage
the Christian that the mere fact of being concerned indicates something that
would be unlikely if they were lost.
I have talked with Christians who
“can’t forgive” themselves for the terrible things they have done and they
carry a load of guilt. They tend to go around beating up on themselves.
They have a sort of “woe is me” attitude and think it is their duty to
always abase themselves. When they pray publicly they usually spend a good
amount of time confessing how terrible is their condition and their
unworthiness.
While the entrance to salvation
begins with such humility, I suggest that such an attitude is very much
unchristian, even blasphemy against the work of Christ on the Cross. Our
text says, “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.” If that is a reality, we need to recognize it and confess
it as the truth about ourselves. We are “made
the righteousness of God in Him.”
Is that true? Are you declared “righteous”
in God’s sight? Are you “accepted in the
Beloved”? Is “Christ in you the
hope of glory”? Is there “no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus”? Have you “become
dead to the law”? Are you “dead
to sin” in Christ?
If all of these Scriptural
statements are true of you, then live in that truth. When you sin, confess,
agree with God that it is sin, and “He will
forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.” He will
do it, not you.
Yes, sin grieves us as it does the
Holy Spirit within us, but we are not to remain in that state of sorrow
because “worldly sorrow brings death.”
You are as a dead person while you are in such sorrow. “Godly
sorrow brings repentance” or a change of mind, but If you “mind”
the things of the flesh you will reap corruption and death. “To
be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
When it comes to sin in a
Christian’s life: QUICKLY IN and QUICKLY OUT. Immediately when we
sin, we should confess, admit it is a sin and move on in the reconciliation
that is ours in Christ Jesus or "BE YE RECONCILED".
“My little children, these things write I
unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” The more time you spend in
your agony, grief, sorrow and penitence (or worse: penance); the closer you
are to blasphemy against the perfect work of Christ on the Cross. Agree
with God immediately that your sin is a sin. Then “he
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.”
The way it is stated in the
Scriptures is “BE YE RECONCILED.”
Who was Paul talking to when he said, “Be ye
reconciled”? Was it to Christians or to the lost? He was
addressing Christians.
. If we will step into
that reconciliation we will never waste our time with needless, paralyzing
guilt and condemnation. "JESUS PAID IT ALL."
About this statement, "be
ye reconciled," John Calvin
wrote, “We should note that here Paul is dealing with believers and
he declares that he has to execute his commission to them every day. Christ
did not suffer just to expiate our sins once, nor was the Gospel instituted
only in order that the sins we committed before baptism should be forgiven
us, but rather, since we sin every day, so by a daily forgiveness God
receives us into His favor. The work of the Gospel ambassadors is perpetual
for the Gospel must be proclaimed ceaselessly in the Church to the end of
the world and it cannot be preached without a promise of the forgiveness of
sins.”
Calvin goes on to say, “We have here
an explicit and relevant passage to refute the ungodly teaching of the
Papists which requires men to seek the forgiveness of post-baptismal sins
elsewhere than in the expiation accomplished in Christ’s death. The
teaching common in all the schools of the Papists is that after baptism we
have to merit the forgiveness of our sins by our penitence with the aid of
the power of the keys.”
“By penitence they mean
satisfactions but what does Paul say here? He recalls us, as much after
baptism as before it, to that one expiation made by Christ, that we may know
that we always receive forgiveness by free unmerited grace,” Calvin writes.
A. T. Robinson says of this text: “Be
ye reconciled to God (katallagęte tôi theôi). This is second
aorist passive imperative of katallassô and used with the dative case. "Get
reconciled to God," and do it now. This is the
ambassador's message as he bears it to men from God.”
“He bears it to men from God”? Why
does the ambassador bear this message for men to be reconciled unto men
who are reconciled? Because we ever live in our Savior’s
finished work on the Cross. Tetelestai! (It is finished.) If we are going
to carry our own guilt, live sorrowing over our own sins, we are doing a
disgrace to the work of Christ on the Cross. We must enter into the
FINISHED work of Christ and thus live in the GRACE of Christ and
grow in that grace. Paul warned, “I do not
frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then
Christ is dead in vain.” You are saved by grace. You are being
saved by grace. It is by grace you come to the Throne that is called
Grace. It will be by grace that one day you will see Him face to face in
all His glory.
So what are we to make of this?
Just this: “There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” “If
any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
“I 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.”
Thus, dearly Beloved of God, when
you sin, do not wallow in it and grievously bear the heavy load of guilt.
Don’t try to figure out how you can “make it up to Him.” No, no, no. Rely
on the Grace of God in Christ Jesus. Stand in His finished work on the
Cross. “Be ye reconciled.” Step
back into the peace with God that our glorious Lord secured for us by His
totally sufficient sacrifice on the Cross. Do not wait any longer.
"Get
reconciled to God," and do it now.
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