Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen
Paul writes:
And you who were once estranged and hostile
in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through
death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him—provided
that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without
shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been
proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this
gospel.
In Ephesians the
2nd Chapter he also writes:
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were
far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made
both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the
hostility between us. He has abolished
the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself
one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one
body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he
came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were
near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and
aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household
of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ
Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
And finally in 2
Corinthians Paul writes:
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new
creation: everything old has passed
away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to
himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that
is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their
trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
There is a theme
here, a consistent message that runs through all of the Apostle Paul’s
teaching.
Though it has
been proclaimed as the Gospel throughout the ages, it remains one of the
hardest things to believe, and even harder to embrace.
It is done.
We didn’t do it.
We cannot do it.
But Christ can
and has.
You who were once estranged and hostile in
mind, doing evil deeds, (Christ) has now reconciled in his fleshly body
through death.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were
far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
All this is from God, who reconciled us to
himself through Christ.
One interesting
thing to note about this is that Paul writes in the past tense.
This
reconciliation has already happened.
There is no
expectation placed upon us regarding our future actions, because the reconciliation
has already been accomplished in Christ.
We still to this
day tend to fall prey to the belief that somehow, in some way; our salvation
depends on what WE do.
What?
Is the work of
Christ not enough????
Christ reconciled
you so that he might present you to the Father, “holy and blameless and irreproachable”.
“He has abolished the law with its
commandments and ordinances.”
“In Christ God was reconciling the world to
himself, not counting their trespasses against them.”
If our status
before God depended on our ability to obey the law, we would all be doomed to
condemnation.
We would remain “estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil
deeds.”
But God would not
allow this to happen.
He went about the
work of reconciling the world to himself that we might be in him.
It is done.
We didn’t do it.
We cannot do it.
But Christ can
and has.
And he has done
it for you.
That is the first
message of the Gospel for us to embrace.
Everything is “cool”
between us and God.
The second aspect
of the Gospel that challenges us, perhaps even more, is to recognize that we
are not the only ones Christ has reconciled.
To them God chose to make known how great
among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ
in you, the hope of glory.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were
far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has
made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is,
the hostility between us.
In
Christ God was reconciling the world to himself.
You have been
saved.
God took care of
that.
But you are not
the only one God chose to save.
So get over any
notion that you alone have been reconciled to God.
Paul’s biggest
challenge was not with those who had never heard of God and salvation.
Quite to the
contrary, among the Gentiles his message of the Gospel was well received.
Rather it was his
own people who struggled to accept that Christ’s reconciling work might extend
beyond Israel.
Having been
reconciled to God in Christ we are no longer on the outside looking in. We have been “brought near” by the blood of
Christ.
But now that we
are part of the inner circle, we look at others as ‘outsiders’, failing to
realize that the same grace covers them, as covers us.
The temptation is
to think that those people, those who are different than us, must repent of
their sins and become “holy and blameless
and irreproachable” before they might become part of the body of Christ.
How is it that we
who understand that we are saved by grace, and not by anything we have done,
can look at our neighbor and insist that they, on the other hand, must do
something in order to be saved??
This is the
thing.
The same grace
that covers our sins, covers our neighbor’s sins, regardless how different our
neighbor may be from us.
In Christ God was reconciling the world
to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.”
God was not just
reconciling us.
As Paul writes in
Galatians the third chapter:
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no
longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are
one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's
offspring, heirs according to the promise.
And again, those
words from 2 Corinthians:
All this is from God, who reconciled us to
himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that
is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting
their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation
to us.
There is a
message that has been going viral on Facebook.
“I’d rather be
rejected for who I accept, than accepted for who I reject.”
The point is that
our ministry, if we are faithful to Christ, is a ministry of reconciliation.
It is about
bringing people together who once have been estranged and hostile to one
another, and to God.
And we do so, not
because all people have been, or even could be righteous on their own accord,
but because God’s grace is sufficient for all.
And that, my
friends, is the most controversial thing you will ever hear me preach.
It is what makes
the Gospel itself so offensive.
God’s grace is
sufficient for all.
God’s grace is
sufficient for me.
God’s grace is
sufficient for you.
God’s grace is
sufficient for my neighbor.
God’s grace is
sufficient for those far off.
God’s grace is
sufficient for those whose sins are quite evident.
God’s grace is
sufficient for those whose sins are deep secrets.
God’s grace is
sufficient no matter who you are or what you do.
God’s grace is
simply sufficient.
For you.
For me.
And for ‘them’
whoever ‘they’ might be.
Amen
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