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given to him (and to us also) “the ministry of reconciliation,” i. e., He had appointed Paul to be his ambassador to go out and reconcile others. The substance of the mes sage of this ministry of reconciliation is, “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses.” It was by Christ that God was reconciling the world, viz., at the cross (v. 21; cf. 1 Peter 2:24). But that was not all. God was actually “in Christ” (cf. 1 John 10:38; 14:10; 1:1, 14): Christ was God manifest in the flesh (Col. 2:9). The atoning act on the cross was not the act of a third party whereby one, the offending party, is propitiated toward a second person, the offending party. It was the loving act of the offended party Him self, substituting His atoning action where by He expressed His hatred toward sin for His punitive action, whereby He might have expressed the same thing. The atone ment did not cause God to love us, but the atonement arose in the love God already had for sinners (John 3:1,6; Rom. 5:8). Notice it was the world, not merely the elect, or believers, that God was reconcil ing to Himself in Christ. Provision has been made in Christ for every son of Adam (cf. .1 John 2:2). That provision is effective to a certain extent to every man, even though he has never heard of it, and even though he rej ects it. God deals in mercy with every man, even with the most ignorant heathen who has never heard the name of Christ, and with the most outrageous infidel and blasphemer on the ground of Christ’s atoning death. If it were not for that death all God’s dealings with man must be in judgment. But He shows mercy unto all men, “not reckoning- unto them their trespasses” (cf. Matt. 5 :45). But then that is not all. On the ground of the atoning death of Jesus Christ every man, including even the persistently and eternally impenitent, get resurrection from the death that was the penalty of sin (1 Cor. 15:22. See notes). But that atonement is fully effective, brings all the abundant blessings there are in it, only to those who
with Him, to live in Him, to have the roots of our life in Him, to be drawing our life from Him as the branch draws its life from the vine (John IS :l-7). Every one is either in self or “in Christ.” When one renounces self and all its life and all its strength and accepts Christ to be His life and His strength (Col. 3:4; 1 Cor. 1:30), then he is “in Christ” (John 1:12). When one is thus “in Christ” “he is a new creation (or, there is a new creation) ; the old things are passed away; behold they are become new.” There are new thoughts (new thoughts of Christ, cf. v. 16, new thoughts of God, new thoughts of self, new thoughts of sin, new thoughts of every thing) ; new desires, new joys, new hopes, new purposes, new ambitions, new. ideals, and there is a new eternal world, for he sees it through new eyes. This is what it means to be born again (cf. John 3:3, 5; Titus 3:5;' Eph. 4:23; Col. 3:10, 11), but “the (there is a the in the Greek, though it is not given in either the Author ized or Revised Versions) all things (all these privileges and glories and new things in Christ) are of (out of) God.” He works them, not we. They are the gift of His unmerited and boundless favor. (Eph. 2:8-10). The basis of His giving us all these things is that He has “recon ciled us to Himself,” i. e., He has restored us to His own favor. “Reconciled” here, as is clear from v. 19, does not mean brought us into a state of mind where we are no longer hostile to Him: it is for us to give up out enmity against Him (v. 20), that is our part. “Reconciled” as _used here means to restore to favor (as in 1 Sam. 29:4) to put out of mind the wrong that the one to be reconciled has done, “not reckoning unto them their trespasses.” This God has done for us. He has of His own sovereign mercy restored us sinners to His own favor. He has done it “through Christ,” i. e., on the ground of the propitiatory death of the Lord Jesus Christ (v. 21; cf. Rom. 5:10; Gal.. 3:13 ; Isa. 53:6). Not only had God reconciled Paul, but furthermore, He had
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