We see Jesus,

who was made a little lower than the angels

for the suffering of death,

crowned with glory and honour.

Hebrews 2:9

Reconciliation

Notes of an address by

D W Paterson

Newcastle-upon-Tyne

1982

Part 2 of 5

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2. The ministry of reconciliation - 2 Corinthians 5:

Verse17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;

We will not understand the ministry of reconciliation until we get our eyes open as to the one who brought us the ministry or reconciliation and that is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

The key to every topic in the scripture and at all times is Christ.

I would like for a moment to consider something of the utter contrast of man as seen in Adam and the new intervention of the person of the Lord Jesus come into manhood. How precious He is. You will remember how not only heaven was aster on the occasion of His birth but on the mount of transfiguration the heaven was opened and the Father declaring that this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Now if we can have the Lord before our souls and understand how precious He is in the sight of heaven, if we can understand the complacency of love in a man down here we will make a lot of progress in understanding the truth of reconciliation.

That is the ministry of reconciliation. When the Lord was here in all of the perfection of His manhood He announces His mission that He has come into the world not to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.

In 2 Corinthians 5 we read that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.

Remember how in John 8 in that marvelous scripture where the Lord Jesus stooped down and wrote upon the ground. The woman that was taken in adultery in the very act. Remember He lifted up Himself and He said, woman, where are those thine accusers hath no man condemned thee? She said, “no man Lord”. Then He went on to say neither do I condemn thee go in peace.

Now here is an illustration of the ministry of reconciliation and the context shows us in a picture form how it is done. It is the writing on the ground. You might say what does that mean? I am going to use great plainness of speech and I am going to give you another example of the ministry of reconciliation.

You will remember in the twenty third chapter of Luke verse thirty four you come to these wonderful words - Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. What is the context? Why the context is the cross. And this is a matter we must get a hold of if God is going to approach man in grace seeing in how desperate a need man is. The only way in which it can be done is through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This ministry of reconciliation is continued with the apostles right down to the present time. This takes us to the next heading.

The word of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:

Verse 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

It is the testimony. It is all on the basis of the cross. Now I will say that the only place for effective testimony is to be found near to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul could say to the Thessalonians, “So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.” (Ch 2:8)

Now this is the only effective way, I believe, in which the testimony can be carried forward.

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Yours in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Don Lewis