2 Corinthians 5, 17-21 says,
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. And all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation, to 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. Every one for whom the Lord would
have this is here, 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. 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." Now contained in those five verses is in reality probably a summation
of the gospel as clearly as it could be set forth. It answers
many questions that people raise, not the least of which is this
one, that shall we sin that grace may abound? Now that is a question
that is always on the lips of those, especially those who would
oppose the preaching of the gospel of grace. They are constantly
worried that if we declare that salvation is of the Lord, that
that will encourage men to embrace sin and neglect to seek to follow
the way of the Lord. Paul puts that to rest over and
over again in the Scriptures, but it is nowhere more clearly
set forth than right here when he says, Therefore if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold,
all things are become new." Now, the preaching of grace acknowledges
that there is nothing that a man can do to deliver himself out
of the sin and condemnation that he is under by nature. There
is not a thing in the world he can do about that. But it also
declares that the Lord, who is rich in mercy, does indeed deliver
men from that condition by His own purpose and according to
His own grace and mercy. And that is His prerogative.
Now some men seem to have more confidence in the power of the
flesh and they would rather have all of that be left up to men. And they somehow think that makes
it fair if it's all up to men. But anybody that knows the condition
of his own heart knows for a fact that he would never seek the
Lord if the Lord didn't seek him. And I believe that's a testimony
that anybody who's ever come to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith
by the mercy of God will testify. that if God hadn't sought him
out, he would have never come. Now, why it is that some men
can say that in one breath and then turn around in another and
try to make it out to be all of men, I can't comprehend it.
I don't know it. But I've been there myself. And
so I know that such confusion does reign. And sometimes, you
know, I don't know why. I can't explain that. Now, there are wise men probably
that can, but I can't. But I can tell you this, that
beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the only way that a man
is ever going to be saved, delivered, It's going to be because God,
who is rich in mercy, came down and arrested him on the road
to Damascus just like He did the Apostle Paul. That's the
only way it happens. It might not happen in such a
dramatic fashion as that. It might not happen as suddenly
as that. But it nonetheless occurs in
exactly the same fashion for every one of those who are brought
out of darkness and into the light. Because that's the only
way it can occur. And if that does occur, when
that occurs, now the Apostle Paul, now let me ask you a question. When that happened to the Apostle
Paul on the road to Damascus, could he, would he, did he get
off later on and decide, well, you know I'm not going to do
this. I think I'm going to change my mind. You think he did? Well, of course
he didn't. Why didn't he? Because he was
changed. Something happened to him. He
didn't know what it was at the time. He couldn't have explained
it to you in any stretch of the imagination. He didn't understand
it. Now the Lord came along and took
him into the wilderness. and met with him, and he taught
him all these things, and his eyes were opened, and he could
come to the place where he could articulate exactly what did take
place. And he's setting it forth right
here before us. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. He said, that's exactly what
happened to me since I was born again. I was made into something
that I never had been before. See, that's what a new creature
is. It's a creature that didn't exist before. Now, that must
happen if a man is going to enter into the kingdom of heaven. He must be made into something
that he has never been before. Now, you can look at a man that's
been born again and you can't tell a lick of difference about
him. Just looking at him. But I'm telling you there is
a difference in him because his whole outlook has been changed,
his desires have been changed. Not perhaps in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, but there has been given to him a spirit
that he had not had heretofore. And he is made into a new creature
who is now inhabited by the Spirit of God. Old things have passed
away. Paul said, I am crucified with
Christ. He said the old man is dead. The new man is alive. And that's
what he said. We are new men in Christ. We've
been made new creatures. We have different desires. And our desire now is to walk
in a manner pleasing unto the Lord. And our lament is that
we are hindered in that by our sinful flesh. Now, the man who
is in the flesh, he's hindered by religion. He's hindered by
the things that people tell him he can't do. And it aggravates
him sometimes, and he wishes he could just go on out and do
it. You know, I mean, he wants to do it. Now, that's not a lot
different, is it, from the things that the flesh tells even the
child of God who is born again? Paul said, the things that I
don't want to do is the things that I do. He said, there's often
times when this flesh, it is fighting, well, it does always
fighting against me. And it's seeking to prevent me
from going the way that I want to go. Now that is what a new
creature is. You see, he is a man who is conflicted
deeply because he wants to be found pleasing in the sight of
the Lord. He wants to be numbered among
God's people. He wants to be found in the kingdom
of God. His chief desire is to be numbered
among the saints of God. He has a great struggle, however.
Because He has that flesh that wants to tear that down. And
will do everything it can. And would tear it down. Because
you see, tomorrow, if it was not that the grace of God did
sustain us and keep us as new creatures, we would turn away.
See, when the Scripture says that we are new creatures, it
does not mean that now we are all off on our own, does it?
It means that we are now inhabited by the Spirit of God, and it's
the Spirit of God that works in us both to will and to do
of His good pleasure. It's not us in the flesh. Our
flesh never changed. When we were born again by the
Spirit of God, our flesh never changed. But you see, we've been
given the mind of Christ, haven't we not? I mean, has not the Spirit
of God come within us? And He's given us a different
set of desires. And we're creatures that we were
not prior to that. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. Now of course, that's not absolute
in either sense. Old things are passed away. But
it's having to do with the heart, with the mind. Whole things are
passed away, and all things are become new. Now, as far as the
struggle with the flesh is concerned, there are things that are still
the same, but they can never be the same, because at one time
when we were faced with the desires of the flesh, the only thing
we thought about was fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. I mean, we might have been thinking
about, well, our mama told us not to do it. We might have knew
that society would frown on it or whatever, but we weren't compelled
from within that these things were evil in the sight of God
and that the honor of Christ would be brought into question.
We were never worried about that, were we? But you see, when a
man has been made a new creature, he does consider those things.
He can't help it. He can't help it. Any more than
the man who is not born again can help his way. I mean, you
can tell him all day long what he's supposed to do and what
he's not supposed to do, and that's not going to change anything.
But you see, the Word of God, it bears upon the hearts of God's
people because all things are become new. And all things are
of God. Now that sums it up, doesn't
it? All things are of God. Everything
we're talking to you about is the work of God. He did these
things. We didn't do anything. He did
it. All things are of God who hath
reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. He did it. Now, there's
often a misunderstanding of this particular concept of reconciliation. Some people have the view that
God was setting up in heaven. First off, they start off by
thinking that man messed up the plan of God, made
him mad in the beginning because man didn't do what he told him
to do. And that made God have to go to plan B and come up with
the plan of redemption. in order to try to rescue as
many of them out as he could, because he knew he wasn't going
to get them all, but he'd try to get as many as he could. Now,
that's kind of the way that this starts off. And so then they
say, well, man is... God's angry with men. He's just
decided to send the whole bunch to hell unless, unless they'll
do this one thing. And that one thing is, If they
will accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, then
He won't be mad at them anymore. He'll turn the heat down and
He'll receive them in. Now that's what most people think
about when they think about that God reconciles to Himself. Well, if it means here that God
reconciled all men to Himself, In that picture, then he did
too much, or either the reconciliation wasn't much good, because there
were a lot of people that it didn't take with it. But you
see, it says, what does it say there? He said, he hath reconciled
us to himself. It doesn't say he tried to reconcile
us to himself. It says he reconciled us to himself. Now, we need to understand what
it is here. We talked about this matter of
reconciliation and the settling up of accounts, because reconciliation
is an accounting term. And so it basically means to
bring justice, okay? And so when the Scripture speaks
about God reconciling, us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath
given to us the ministry of reconciliation." He's talking about two aspects
of this thing. Now, we've said this before and
this is a true thing. The people of God have never
been the objects of God's wrath. Those whom He chose in Christ
from before the foundation of the world, those whom He chose
before Adam ever did one thing, before there ever was an Adam,
He chose His people in Christ. He loved them from the beginning.
Now when is the beginning? I don't know. But I can tell
you this, there was a beginning. And before the beginning, the
Scripture says, before the beginning, from the beginning, from before
the foundation of the world, he loved his people in Christ.
His people have always been his people, insofar as we can speak
about always. I mean, see, when we say always,
that doesn't mean the same thing as when God says always. See,
God's eternal. And we're creatures of time.
Now, when we're speaking about time and creatures of time, and
we say always, that's really not the same thing as it is God's
always. I mean, God is always. We're
always as far as we have any comprehension of what always
is. But the people of God have always
been the people of God. They didn't start being the people
of God when they did something. They are the people of God. It
says here that He has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. Now the only way that man has
ever been in an unreconciled state before God is not due to
his wrath, but is due to his law. And there is a difference. You see, the wrath of God exists
apart from His law. The law is simply that that demonstrates
and sets forth the outpouring of His wrath, because it is because
of the broken law that His wrath comes. But the law is not His
wrath. It is the occasion upon which
His wrath is demonstrated, is the breaking of the law. So God's
people have never been appointed unto His wrath, but they were
subjected unto vanity and placed under the law of God. Now God
could have, if it so pleased Him, He could have just said,
well, I'm going to do away with the law in their case. What could
we have said about that? Could anybody have said anything
about that? No. He could have done that if He
wanted to. But you see, in order to demonstrate His justice, He
gave the law, He put man under it, and then He satisfied that
law. You see, it was not enough that
He just decreed us to be saved, but He actually demonstrated
His mercy and the appeasement of His justice in descending
forth of His Son as the reconciler of His people. So we have been
reconciled. Our account is settled in the
courts of heaven as far as the justice of God are concerned.
The Scripture says that He would be both just and the justifier
of them which believe in Christ. And so that is the work that
He has done. He settled that account. And
when he settled the account, remember what we talked about
in that illustration a while back? If the bank says that you've
got zero dollars in your account, then you don't have any money
in your account. I mean, you can complain all
you want to. Or if it says you've got $100,000
in your account, And you say, well, I can't have $100,000.
Now, you probably wouldn't say anything if it said you had $100,000. But if they say you've got $100,000
in your account, guess what? You've got $100,000 in your account. Now, the Lord has reconciled
the account of His people. And He said, you're free and
clear. Your account is settled. It's done. It's done in Jesus
Christ. He has reconciled us to himself. Now listen to what he says here.
And he has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Now, what
does that mean? Now, does that mean he has sent
us out into the world to try to get folks to get their accounts
settled with God? Now see, that's kind of how some
people picture salvation, is it not? Well, you come and believe
and then at that point in time, your account will be settled.
No, brethren, if it's not settled before you believe, it's not
going to be settled after you believe. Because Jesus Christ
has reconciled us to Himself according to what it says right
here. And He has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
Now what is the ministry of reconciliation? We can't redo what He's already
done, can we? So the ministry of reconciliation
has to be something that is different from the reconciliation. Because
the reconciliation was what He did in Christ, was it not? I
mean, did He not do that? He said He did. Now here is the
ministry of reconciliation. Here it is. This is plainly set
forth to wit or to witness. That is, look right here. I'm
going to tell you what it is. That's what that means. If you
read that in the contract, if it says to wit, that means to
witness. This is it. Look at this. You
better pay attention to this. We've been given the ministry
of reconciliation to witness. Now this is what the ministry
of reconciliation is, that God was in Christ reconciling the
world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto men, unto
them, and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now
this is what we are to witness. And this is what we are sent
forth with a ministry. to set forth what reconciliation
is. And this was it, that God was
in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Now, the world,
a lot of people say that means everybody in the world. Well,
if it means that, if it does mean that, then that's going
to blow a hole in the preaching to men that they need to do something
in order to be saved, is it not? And here is the rub, and here
is what they are actually preaching, unless Christ didn't really accomplish
anything. Because if Christ accomplished
something, and then we're going to go forth in the ministry of
reconciliation as we're going to try to get men to do something
in order to be reconciled with God, then Christ evidently didn't
do it, did He? But if Christ did it, as it plainly
says that He did, then the ministry of reconciliation is the testifying
to the men of this world that Christ has reconciled the world
to Himself. Not every individual in the world.
But we know that the Scriptures plainly teach that not everybody
will enter the kingdom of heaven. I mean, as plain as the nose
on your face, if you read it, everybody is not included among
God's people. So the world that he speaks about
having reconciled to himself is the world in the sense that
the world was created for this reason, that God might demonstrate
His redemptive work, His love of His people, and in that way
He has reconciled the world. Not every person in this world
is reconciled to God, nor will be. But those for whom He ordained
this salvation and this reconciliation, they have indeed been. So in
Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself by how? Not imputing
their trespasses unto them. Now how did He not impute their
trespasses unto Him? He could have just said, I'm
not going to impute your trespasses to you. Couldn't He? I mean, couldn't God have done
that? He could have just decreed it. But that's not what He set
out to do, and it's not what He's done. Because the Scripture
again says he would be both just and the justifier. So he would
justify his people. And the manner in which he would
impute their sin to Christ, is that Christ would become the
sacrificial lamb. He would become their substitute.
He would become their mediator. He would become their performer.
He would become their satisfier of the law. And thus it is that
this is how the imputation of Our sin was given to Christ.
He gladly took it upon Himself. As we read right down here, as
Paul sums it up, it 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. And so He is not imputed. our
sin unto us, but he has imputed to us the righteousness of Christ,
while he has imputed our sin to Christ. He took our sin and
he gave us his righteousness, not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and hath permitted unto us the word of reconciliation. Now, the ministry of reconciliation
and the word of reconciliation are not necessarily the same,
but they encompass the same goals. Now, the word of reconciliation
which is given to us is that when the Lord has been pleased
to send forth the gospel into the world to be preached unto
the world, to be preached by those whom He has sent. How shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless
they be sent? And so the Lord sends His men
into the world. Now, they are not men that meet
certain qualifications. They are not men that decide
they are going to preach. They are just men the Lord sends
according to the good pleasure of His will. And they cannot
any more decide to be a preacher than they can not decide to be
one. Paul said, Woe is unto me if
I preach not the gospel." Now, everybody does not have that
burden put upon them. And there's nothing wrong with
that. You see, a lot of people think
that that's a great blessing, and I guess in some ways it is.
But I'm telling you, it's a great burden. It's a great heartache. It's a great struggle. It's a
great trial. But the Lord sends men to do
that. They can't take any glory from
it. They can't boast about anything. They're just messengers. I mean, the Lord could raise
up a rock out here in the yard and send it if He wanted to.
It's just according to the good pleasure of His will. And so
they don't need to be patted on the back. But He has sent
forth, the Scripture says, He has committed unto us the word
of reconciliation. There is a manner in which all
of God's people are sent with this, this word of reconciliation,
that is, the telling of others that Christ is the Savior. You
see, that's what we bear witness to, is that Christ has imputed
the sin of his people unto himself, and he has imputed his righteousness
to them. We are ambassadors for Christ
as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's
stead be you reconciled to God. Now here is the preaching of
the gospel. We are not trying to get people to do anything,
but we are declaring what Christ has done. in the hopes and the
belief that this is a true thing, that those who are the sons of
God will be reconciled unto Him. Now see, here is the aspect of
reconciliation that we have been sent into the world to declare
about. Surely that Christ has satisfied the claims of the law.
But you see, man is in rebellion against God, is he not, by nature? And the thing that the Lord would
send us forth to do is to preach peace and comfort to those who
are in places of rebellion. Lay down your arms! Quit fighting! Paul, why are you kicking against
the pricks? Why are you warring against me?
Don't you know that I love you? And I've loved you from before
the foundation of the world. Why are you rebelling against
me, Paul? You see, that's the word of reconciliation. That's the ministry of reconciliation. It is that the Lord has indeed
satisfied the claims of the law for His people's sake. Paul said, we pray you in Christ's
stead as if Christ was sitting here. Be ye reconciled to God. Lay down your arms. Receive this
thing as the glorious truth that it is. Quit trying to please
God. You can't do it in the flesh. Quit thinking that your religious
activity is going to enhance your standing with God. Be reconciled
to Him. Now, that is a strange message to
the religious world. But you see, it is not a strange
message to those who have been made new creatures in Christ,
because it is glorious. that Christ has satisfied the
claims of justice. Not only has He satisfied the
claims of justice, but He has laid up for us treasures that
we cannot even imagine. He has given us a bounty, as
He said to His disciples, I go to prepare a place for you
that where I am there you may be also. Oh, this is the word
of reconciliation, dear brethren. We are telling the sons of God
that He has done it all, that He has satisfied the claims of
justice. Reckon yourselves dead indeed
unto sin and alive unto God. See yourselves for what you are,
freeborn sons of God. You have been set free in Christ. You have been made new creatures. 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 we can ever by His grace wrap our mind around
that truth, that's the most glorious thing that a man can ever come
to grips with. He hath made Him to be sin for
us that in turn we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Paul summed it up in Romans 8 verse 1. For there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, to them
who walk by the Spirit of God. For the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Now
dear brethren, that is the message of reconciliation. There is nothing
left to be done. Christ did it all. Now, that's
a glorious thing. Now, if a man can, in seeing
that with his whole heart and mind, then go out and say, well,
man, that's great. I'll just go out and just live
like hell. I'll just do whatever the old flesh tells me to do.
If he can do that, then, dear brethren, he's never been born
again. Because, you see, this is a humbling message. There
is forgiveness with God that he may be feared. I mean, this
has caused a man to stop and tremble when he thinks that Jesus
Christ, the perfect Son of God, came into this world and became
sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,
owing to nothing but His mercy and His grace. Now, that's a
glorious message, is it not? And does that not constrain us?
Does that not bind us? Is that not what Paul meant when
he said the love of Christ constrained us? Because you see, Christ is
our Redeemer. He is that One who gave Himself
for us. And this is the message of reconciliation,
that we preach and hope to preach with every breath that we breathe
till the Lord takes our last breath from us. May that be the
word upon our lips and the declaration of our heart.