Reconciled & On Mission

Being “on mission” is not just about running out there and talking a lot about Jesus—God’s mission and ministry is one of reconciliation.

In 2 Corinthians 5, the Apostle Paul sums up the big picture of God’s mission with one key word: reconcile.

THE RECONCILED BECOME RECONCILERS

God did two things for Paul. First, he reconciled Paul to himself through Christ, and second, he gave him “the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18).

This is an amazing statement. The reconciled become reconcilers. Reconcile means “to bring back to friendship after estrangement, to harmonize.” The picture is to re-establish an original peace that once existed.

In Paul’s writings, God is always the reconciler. Those in need of reconciliation are hostile human beings—us (2 Cor. 5:18–19; Romans 5:10–11). The initiative is with God who changes a relationship of enmity to one of friendship, and this is accomplished through Christ, through his death on the cross.

GOD INITIATES RECONCILIATION

The essence of the message Paul proclaimed as a minister of reconciliation is spelled out in verses 19–20: “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ . . . ” The text can mean, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself” or “God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ.” The first focuses on the incarnation (“God in Christ”) and the second stresses redemption (“God was reconciling”).

Either way, one thing is emphatic: “God was reconciling to himself.”