BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD

BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD

II Cor 5: 17 - 21

You remember when Christ took Peter, James and John up into the mount of Transfiguration. That is where Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ in glory, and they spoke of his DECEASE (death) and what he (would) ACCOMPLISH. They spoke of Christ's death as an ACCOMPLISHMENT.

The sixth utterance of Christ from the Cross was, "It is finished." The (root) word He spoke was "telos", which means "accomplished". From the Cross Christ announced that ALL the will of God (all that God had purposed and predestined) "was ACCOMPLISHED". And! That ALL the OBJECTIVE benefits of salvation for God's elect (Redemption, Justification, Sanctification, Reconciliation, Forgiveness of sin), ALL were ACCOMPLISHED.

Today we are going to be looking at one of those benefits - the Biblical doctrine of Reconciliation. How and when are sinners RECONCILED to God? HOW, upon what basis; and WHEN, when was the work accomplished? Here is what we will see: the REALITY, the BASIS, the TIMING, and the ENCOURAGEMENT of RECONCILIATION.

But! Let's first consider this word RECONCILE. This word means to BRING INTO agreement/_____conformity/_____harmony things that are OUT OF agreement/_____conformity/_____harmony.

Reconciliation between two differing parties is usually accomplished by both parties working together, (maybe each compromising), until they reach an agreement. ILLUS: Change at a grocery store.

But! Biblical Reconciliation is a little more complicated. ___ involves restoring (back) INTO favor that which has (fallen) into DISfavor. It is complicated for two reasons: 1. It is between two parties that by all logic and reason APPEAR TO BE incompatible.

2. The ones fallen into DISfavor have NO ABILITY to contribute toward their restoration.

How can sinners who never do anything but sin, be Reconciled to a Just, and Holy, and Righteous God? How can sinners be Reconciled to a God whose justice demands their eternal death? What can sinners contribute toward this Reconciliation?

NOTHING! If God does not Reconcile sinners to Himself, there can be NO Reconciliation. If God does not do EVERYTHING to restore sinners into His favor, they remain in DISfavor. They remain UNreconciled.

Now! This grates against man's natural religion. Their message is all about what sinners need to DO to "get right" with God (straighten up, read your bible, go to church, believe on Jesus). When the Gospel comes along with a (finished) RECONCILIATION, and exposes all such attempts to be dead works and evil deeds, men get angry.

But! Biblical Reconciliation is NOT about what sinners need to do to "get right" with God. ______ is about what God HAS DONE through the person and work of His Son to RECONCILE a people unto Himself.

Biblical Reconciliation is about the work Christ FINISHED at the Cross and what that work ACCOMPLISHED on behalf of every sinner He died for. _____ is about Christ completing the will of His Father and ACCOMPLISHING (all) the OBJECTIVE benefits of salvation for His sheep (including RECONCILIATION). Let's see if we can understand something about this Biblical Doctrine.

Read verse 17: "Therefore, if any man IS in Christ AS a new creature: the old things ARE passed away; behold, all things are become new."

This verse describes a TREMENDOUS change. I'm going to call this change the REALITY of RECONCILIATION.

"Old things" ARE "passed away". Aorist tense. Point action verb. At a specific time these "things" "passed away". They are not PASSING away. They are not going to PASS away. They are PASSED away. The action was complete.

"All things are become new". Perfect tense. At a specific time these "things" BECAME new and they CONTINUE to become new (continuous action).

WHAT? Are the "old things" that "passed away"? These "old things" are the VERY reason sinners (MUST BE) RECONCILED to God.

First, these "things" are not "old" because they have been around a long time. They are "old" because of their relation to the "things" that "are become new".

They are that "old" STANDING every one of God's elect had in Adam based on his sin imputed to them. They are the guilt, the just condemnation, and sentence of death that accompanied that STANDING.

Rom 5: 12. "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all, in whom all sinned."

When Adam sinned, all he represented sinned. We all became sinners by imputation. And! Imputed sin CHANGED our STANDING before God from righteous and upright to guilty and condemned. In this STANDING we owed a debt of obedience to God's law we could not fulfill and a debt of punishment to God's justice we could not pay.

With this STANDING before God, we became the "enemies" of God. We became the "enemies" of God's Justice. And, as "enemies" we needed to be RECONCILED.

Listen to Rom 5:10, "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." WE WERE ENEMIES (in need of RECONCILIATION)!

But! At a specific point in time ("by the death of his son", i.e. at the Cross), _____ God RECONCILED his elect unto Himself. The "old things PASSED AWAY" They no longer exist. They are gone FOREVER. And! With these "old things" GONE, we ceased to be God's "enemies". "We were RECONCILED to God by the death of his son".

"Behold, all things ARE BECOME new" At the SAME point in time, God's elect were given a new STANDING before God. We became unchangeably Justified. Our STANDING of just condemnation CHANGED to unchangeable Justification.

"All things are become new" to God's elect the moment we received this new STANDING. "Are become new" is a Perfect Tense verb, which means CONTINUOUS results. "All things" CONTINUE to "become new" BECAUSE OF this STANDING. They will continue to "become new" until our final glory in heaven.

We have spoken of a tremendous CHANGE for God's elect. We WERE guilty and defiled because of Adam's sin imputed to us. We WERE justly condemned because of that sin. And! In that STANDING we were under God's Just Judgement. We OWED a debt of obedience to God's law we could not fulfill and a debt of punishment to God's justice we could NOT pay. And! With all that, we WERE the "enemies" of God's Justice in need of a RECONCILIATION we could have no part in bringing about.

But God! In his infinite mercy and grace "RECONCILED us to himself by the death of his son". That is the REALITY of RECONCILIATION.

Next, let's consider the BASIS of this REALITY, the BASIS of RECONCILIATION. You will see here a WORK that sinners have NO PART in.

Read verse 21: For him who knew no sin God made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

God caused the (sinless) Christ to become sin. He caused Him to become what He was not, NOT by imparting sin TO Him, or infusing sin IN Him, BUT by imputation. Christ bore the imputed sins of His elect as the sacrificial lamb bore the sins of Israel under the Old Covenant. He died "the JUST for the unjust". ( I Pet 3:18). He "through the eternal spirit offered himself WITHOUT SPOT to God". (Heb 9: 14).

Christ's obedience unto death satisfied divine justice for (in the behalf of) EVERY sinner He died for. He payed the penalty God's Justice demanded of them in full. He discharged the sins of his elect. With the debt paid in full, they could NEVER be charged again.

At the same time He established the R. of God, which gives His elect a fixed/UNCHANGEABLE standing before God.

"that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Subjunctive mood. The mood of condition. When the condition is met, the MIGHT is taken away. And! The thing becomes reality. On the condition that Christ discharged the sins of his people and established the R. of God, ARE MADE; we HAVE Become, (NOT might become), but HAVE become the R. of God in him.

This (simultaneous) DISCHARGE of sin and CHARGE of Righteousness AT THE CROSS is the BASIS of RECONCILIATION.

Next, let's consider the TIMING of RECONCILIATION. Let's go back to the first PART of verse 17

"Therefore, if any man IS in Christ, AS a new creature...." There is a REFERENCE POINT when our STANDING in Adam (and all that STANDING involved) "PASSED AWAY". There is a _____ when our unchangeable STANDING of Justification in Christ (and all that STANDING involves) began. WHAT is that _____? WHEN do these things take place?

Was it in ETERNITY? That is what those who contend for ETERNAL Justification would have you believe. They say that because God sees everything at once, when he elected us, (i.e. when He chose us in Christ in eternity past), he also justified us, giving us all the benefits of salvation. But, God's word will not support their theory.

Verse 17 does NOT say that "if any man is (Chosen) in Christ" that "old things are past away and all things are become new". But, "......... AS A NEW CREATURE."

Our debt to God's holy law and inflexible justice had to be paid. Our STANDING of just Condemnation had to be dealt with. We did not become "new creatures" UNTIL that debt was paid; UNTIL that STANDING was dealt with.

WHEN do these things take place? IS it at regeneration? That is what free willers and many in sovereign grace circles contend. God's word will not support their theory either. Neither E. Justification NOR J. at Regeneration are supported by God's Word.

WHERE does God put the REFERENCE POINT? WHEN does God's Word say that all the Objective benefits of salvation were ACCOMPLISHED for God's elect? And, for this lesson, WHEN did God RECONCILE his elect unto himself? WHEN do sinners become "new creatures in Christ"?

Remember Rom 5:10? "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God..." WHEN? "by the death of His son" - NOT in eternity. NOT at regeneration. But, AT THE CROSS.

Read verse 18: And all things are of God, who was reconciling us to Himself BY JESUS CHRIST, and was giving to us the ministry of reconciliation.

"God was reconciling us to Himself and giving to us the ministry of reconciliation." WHEN? by Jesus Christ - AT THE CROSS.

Read verse 19: How that God was IN CHRIST reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, committing unto us (or PUTTING IN US) the word of reconciliation.

"God was reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, putting in us the word of reconciliation." WHEN? In Christ - AT THE CROSS.

ALL of God's elect lost our (upright) STANDING before God at the SAME time, IN ADAM (at the fall), based on his sin imputed to us.

ALL of God's elect BECAME "new creatures" at the SAME time, when Christ delivered us OUT OF our STANDING of just Condemnation and INTO a STANDING of Eternal Justification. It was AT THE CROSS that this work was FINISHED. _____ was ACCOMPLISHED.

In time each of God's elect is awakened out of Spiritual death, "AS new creatures". It is NOT at this "awakening" that we BECOME "new creatures". We BECAME "new creatures" when Christ changed our STANDING before God from Condemned to Justified, (as I have already said), AT THE CROSS.

YES! That means we ARE "new creatures", (ALREADY possessers of ALL the benefits of salvation), BEFORE we know anything about it. Because! It was ACCOMPLISHED, (NOT by anything done BY us, nor by anything done IN us), BUT, by what Christ (our Representative) did FOR us.

And! We are "awakened" (at Regeneration) AS the "new creatures" we ALREADY are by virtue of the work Christ finished and accomplished FOR us AT THE CROSS.

When God directed my mind to this truth - Justification (and RECONCILIATION) at the Cross, a year or so ago, I saw it as (sort of ) a SIDELINE issue. But, under the preaching of this Truth from God's Testimony (by men who understand it much better than I do), I am beginning to see it in a much DIFFERENT light. I am beginning to see it as the ONE issue that divides all men in religion.

WHAT (you say) Christ actually ACCOMPLISHED AT THE CROSS determines whether you are preaching the truth of God's Word, or a suttle (but deadly) deception.

I hope God stirs your mind to (truly) consider (and bow to) what His Word says on this IMPORTANT issue.

Now! Let me say a short word to the two groups that oppose Justification at the Cross. They are those who believe that God justified His elect in Eternity and those who believe He justifies them at Regeneration.

To contend that God DISCHARGED sin BEFORE there a just satisfaction (a just payment), as those who support Eternal Justification do, is an affront to God's Justice. Such theology directs men's minds to what (They Say) God did in eternity. But, this Word directs men's minds to Christ, to His Cross, and to the work He ACCOMPLISHED there.

ILLUSTRATION: Most have morgages. Call the bank tomorrow morning. Tell them to send you the title. What do you think they will say? NOT until the debt is paid. God's Justice held its claim UNTIL Christ paid the debt - AT THE CROSS.

The supporters of E.Just. would have you believe that God discharged the debt BEFORE it was paid. They believe He counted it PAID while it was still OWED.

On the other hand: To contend that God CONTINUES to charge sin when that sin has been punished and put away by Christ at the Cross, (as those that support Justification at Regeneration do), makes God UNJUST (continuing to charge sin where He HIMSELF says it has been discharged)

And!. It ROBS Christ of the glory He earned (and certainly deserves) because of what He has (already) ACCOMPLISHED at the Cross. Those who support Justification at Regeneration point men's minds to Regeneration (what God does IN you), rather that to the Christ who ACCOMPLISHED (all) the benefits of salvation AT THE CROSS.

ILLUSTRATION: Suppose you paid off your morgage. BUT! The bank REFUSED to give you the title to your property? How just would that be?

Supporters of J. at Regeneration would have you believe God CONTINUES to charge the debt ALTHOUGH it has been paid in full. They say God WITHHOLDS the benefit UNTIL God does something IN the sinner.

When God charged Christ with sin and He paid its penalty, that sin was DISCHARGED from His sheep. In a simultaneous act God charged Christ's sheep with the R. He earned FOR them, Eternally Justifying them before God. NOT in Eternity and NOT at Regeneration. But! AT THE CROSS.

We have looked at the REALITY, BASIS, & TIMING of RECONCILIATION.

Last of all, let's consider the ENCOURAGEMENT of RECONCILIATION.

Read verse 20: "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God was exhorting you by us, we pray (ask or beg) you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."

Sinners who are privileged to hear this message are to be ENCOURAGED by the REALITY of RECONCILIATION. It is a Biblical fact. God has RECONCILED a people (of every kindred, tougue, and nation) unto Himself by Christ AT THE CROSS.

"God WAS in Christ reconciling the world unto himself". NOT the world without EXCEPTION, but the world without DISTINCTION ( i.e. those from all over the world). For them "old things have passed away, behold, all things are become new." They are NO LONGER justly Condemned but eternally Justified. That ought to ENCOURAGE every sinner who hears what God's Word says about Reconciliation.

And! Sinners under this message should be ENCOURAGED by the TIMING of RECONCILIATION. Having heard this message, (and carefully considered it in light of what you once believed), can you imagine God RECONCILING His people at any other time than AT THE CROSS?

Can you imagine Him attributing to his people benefits that Christ had NOT YET paid for, (i.e. while the debt was still owed)? _____ NOT attributing to them the benefits Christ purchased by His blood (withholding these PURCHASED benefits from Christ's sheep until He did something IN them)? We ought to be ENCOURAGED by the work Christ ACCOMPLISHED AT THE CROSS.

But! the (greatest) ENCOURAGEMENT comes from the BASIS of RECONCILIATION. Can you imagine God DISCHARGING sin on any other basis than the just satisfaction Christ made to God's law and justice by His obedience unto death? _____ DECLARING (any) sinner Righteous on any BASIS other than the Righteousness of God revealed by Christ's resurrection from the dead?

What we have considered in this message are the LEGAL matters involving RECONCILIATION. _____ are what Christ dealt with AT THE CROSS. There is another matter that I spent another (whole) message dealing with. There is the matter of bringing those Christ RECONCILED to God AT THE CROSS into the knowledge of (that) RECONCILIATION; of awakening them from Spiritual death, giving them eyes to see and hearts to respond and enjoy what Christ ACCOMPLISHED for them by His work on the Cross.

Col 1:21 says, " And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameagle and unreproveable in his sight:" Those (already) RECONCILED are not born knowing of (that) RECONCILIATION. That is what verse 20 is talking about. That is why we preach this message of a (finished)/ACCOMPLISHED RECONCILIATION.

"We are ambassadors (representatives) for Christ." We are "exhorting" (ENCOURAGING) those who hear us. "Be you RECONCILED to God" This is an imperative. It is a command. And! It (literally) says, "Be you (having been) reconciled to God"

What does that mean? Be RECONCILED to God on the basis of the RECONCILIATION he has ACCOMPLISHED in Christ AT THE CROSS. BE RECONCILED on the basis of Christ's (accomplished) RECONCILIATION.

Rom 5: 11, "And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the reconciliation."

The command is, Receive (God's) RECONCILIATION. Count yourselves RECONCILED by that RECONCILIATION Christ has ALREADY accomplished and God has ALREADY accepted. And! Having BEEN RECONCILED, continue to let your mind be changed, by the Gospel (the Word of _____).

All of God's elect were RECONCILED by God AT THE CROSS through Christ's finished and ACCOMPLISHED work. We are to seek to bring our thinking in line (on every issue) to (that) RECONCILIATION preached out in the Word of RECONCILIATION.

BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD. I trust that God will enable His people to be obedient to His command.

--- Mark Pannell