Tag: be reconciled to God
Compelled by love!
Scripture reading for August 4th: 2nd Corinthians 5
Paul was writing to his beloved church family in Corinth. He had encouraged them to live by faith in Jesus Christ and expect some persecution and suffering, possibly even death! They were to have no fear because of the sure promises of Jesus! “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” (2nd Corinthians 5:1) Death is not the end, but a new beginning of our eternal dwelling that Jesus went ahead to prepare for us. We have God’s promise in the Holy Spirit who now dwells in us, preparing us for that purpose!
Because of our guaranteed future home in heaven and our coming new body, we make it our goal to please our Lord by finding out what pleases Him and doing that! Without faith, we cannot please Him! (Hebrews 11:6) “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Since, then we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men.” (2nd Corinthians 5:10-11)
God will reward each believer at the judgment seat of Christ for their works motivated by faith. This should cause each believer to have a holy fear of Christ. We are motivated by His love and Word to obey His command to reach the entire world and especially those God puts in our path! “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again.” (2nd Corinthians 5:14-15)
New Creation Realities!
Scripture reading for November 27th: 2nd Corinthians 1-5
Many Christians don’t realize who they really are in Christ. They struggle with low self-esteem and feelings of inferiority. They try to be different and keep the rules or commandments but always fail or fall short. “Try harder!”, some well-meaning saints encourage! But the harder they try, the more frustrated they become. The secret is in knowing who we are in Christ.
When we are truly ‘born again’, we are transformed inside by the Holy Spirit into new creations. (John 3:3-8) (2nd Corinthians 5:17) As God blew breath into Adam and he became a living being, so the breath of God comes into us by the Holy Spirit and we become alive to God! We haven’t just added a set of rules to live by. We don’t just learn a creed of ethics that makes us different from other religions. We don’t just go to church and sing songs and learn traditions. Our life is brand new at it’s core, in our heart and spirit! We now have an eternal relationship with Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2nd Corinthians 5:17-21
We have a new identity! The new creation that is formed in us by the Holy Spirit is reconciled to God. We are no longer cut off from Him by sin. God did this work of reconciliation at the cross. He put our sins on His Son and the Son paid the penalty. We are adopted into God’s family and given the task of appealing to others on Christ’s behalf. Our position is “ambassador” of Christ. We are to implore men and women to be reconciled to God. We have a divine purpose and our identity is with Christ instead of self and sin. Low self-esteem is an old thing that is vanquished! The new has come and is from God!
What a blessing to be forgiven! What freedom to know eternal life and a relationship with our heavenly Father! These new creation realities must be appropriated by faith and lived out daily. Our God is for us and now we are for Him! Appropriate your “ambassador” status today and implore someone you know to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ! It’s who you really are and your divine purpose!