JOHN 20:21
21 So Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you!
As the Father has sent Me, I also send you."
The dictionary states that to reconcile means to re-establish friendship between; to settle or resolve, as a dispute. The key to reconciliation is to effectively deal with the enmity, ill will, hatred, or hostility that caused the dispute, in the first place!
The enmity between man and God was a sin. God took the initiative to remove this barrier through the means and agency of Jesus Christ, thus leaving man and God as friends once again.
We have received the ministry of reconciliation. That means we are in the ministry of reconciling people to God. Much of what people call the gospel today is actually alienating people from God.
True, we need to show people their need for God - to get them to receive His forgiveness and reconciliation, but the angry and bitter attitude some people have when confronting the sinner is not correct.
{The better consideration is to seek to love one another!}
Imputing people's sins unto them was not the way God used Jesus to reconcile the world unto Himself. We should not focus on the problem of sin but on the answer to God's grace - Rom. 5:20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,.
When you read a newspaper, you read about things that have already happened. They are not reporting prophecy. They are reporting the news. So our real job as ministers of reconciliation is to announce the good NEWS, which is an accomplished fact - that sin has already been dealt with through the person of Christ.
We should say, "Now we beseech you, be ye reconciled to God. Change your mind and believe the gospel so that you may partake of what has already been done on your behalf."
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