Reconciled to Him
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19) We are reconciled to God through the atonement of Jesus Christ, whose blood erased the stain of our sin and the tragic record of our past. We are "new," untainted, unencumbered, and set free from a debilitating record of moral and spiritual failure, and the Gospel speaks to the new creature. Religious dogma will convince us that a cleaned-up version of ourselves is sufficient, but it clearly is not. God would have us move and think differently — not in religious terms, but spiritual terms. Our preaching is not to focus on how sad and sinful men are, but how good and gracious our God is. We are walking, loving, and living examples of what the Lord desires to do...