The Word Of Reconciliation

(love...) “...does not take into account a wrong suffered.”

People, hear me when I say, the only living being from eternity to eternity who has ever or will ever have justification in claiming that he has been wronged, is God.

It would be interesting to know how large a percentage of our lives; our time, our breath, our energies, are spent from birth to the grave, whining about how much we’ve been wronged. I needn’t elaborate on that further; probably half of this congregation today, at some point between the time we awoke and right now, have for some reason, large or small, felt wronged...if not by a family member, perhaps by that clod who pulled out in front of us on the way to church, and proceeded to drive 5 miles per hour. It is part of our fallen nature. It is a symptom of the boastful pride of life.

Besides, we live in a time when the popular worldly philosophies are fairly screaming at us from every quarter, “Protect yourself! Stand up for your rights! You’re special! (but not as special as me) You’re worth it! Be proud! Never give an inch!” and the list could cover pages.

But the fact is my friends, we are deserving of death. There is nothing we have; no comfort, no need met, no pleasure in life, not life itself - neither the air we breathe or the blood that courses through our veins, nor the joy of loved ones, or anything else our imaginations can name, that we do not owe entirely to the love and mercy of God.

Only God is perfect and perfectly holy and infinitely right, and therefore deserving of never having been wronged.

But He is wronged. He was wronged from the beginning by the very first man he created, and He is automatically wronged ever since, by every son or daughter of Adam’s race who opens the womb because we have all inherited Adam’s fallen nature and by our existence in the flesh, we wrong God.

Ever wonder if small children have a sin nature? If you do wonder, or if you think they do not, you have never had children and you don’t remember your own childhood.

God is the only, truly, wronged entity in the universe, by virtue of the fact that He is the only One who absolutely deserves to not be wronged.

Yet He was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, NOT COUNTING THEIR TRESPASSES AGAINST THEM...NOT TAKING INTO ACCOUNT A WRONG SUFFERED.

Now take care not to miss this point! He was in Christ, RECONCILING THE WORLD TO HIMSELF.

It doesn’t say He was reconciling believers to Himself. For while we were yet helpless, sinners, enemies of God, Christ died for us.

He was reconciling the WORLD! Yes, only those who come to Him by faith in the shed blood of Christ will appropriate to themselves that free gift of right standing with God...

...but God was reconciling the WORLD to Himself.

This ‘reconciling’, is the healing of a breach, or a break in fellowship and relationship. When a married couple has a disagreement, they must eventually be reconciled to each other in order to maintain a healthy relationship. The thing that caused the strife, the contention, must never be allowed to become more important in their minds than their relationship to each other. If it does, then the relationship ends, the fellowship is broken, and in most cases the thing that caused it becomes a moot issue by virtue of the fact that they are no longer together.