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Ring of Truth provides 366 daily ‘proofs’ that the Bible is consistent throughout from Genesis to Revelation, and relevant for our lives today!
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2 Corinthians 5:17-21
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sin against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Changed.
New birth brings new Creation. It’s vital that we understand this.
New birth is not turning over a new leaf; it is turning over to a new Master. It is not a case of making this life everlasting; it is a case of changing this carnal life for Eternal Life, energised by the Holy Spirit of God. It’s not a need of ‘mind improvement’; it is a need of a ‘heart transplant’. We have to die so that we may live, not in our strength but in the resurrection power of God. The old has got to go; the new has got to come.
Notice the new is nothing to do with us outside of deliberate choice. All this is from God. You see, even once we are saved, we still have to make choices. We either carry on ‘our way’ or give over to ‘God’s way’, which is by God’s grace and through His eternal plan.
God reconciled us to Himself through Christ. That is the Gospel in a sentence, in a nutshell. God made us – we turned away from Him and He paid the price to bring us back – through Christ’s death and resurrection. The fulfilment of Genesis 3:15.
Why has God done it? To reconcile us to Himself – to bless us and bless Him? Yes, but that is not all.
“We have been blessed to be a blessing” (see Genesis 12:2). It’s a ‘Ring of Truth’! “He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” Reconciliation between God and us and amongst ourselves. The two are interlinked. It’s the picture of the Cross. We are reconciled to God vertically, and reconciled to one another horizontally. Without the Cross we can’t be either of them. That is why unsaved people have so many struggles with one another. We cannot love our fellow men without first being reconciled to God, but we cannot pretend to love God unless we are reconciled to our fellow men (see 1 John 4:20).
It is interesting to note how the subject of reconciliation has come to the fore in these days – between ethnic groups, between Christians of different denominations, and between nations. But we still need to see greater reconciliation between husbands and wives, between fathers and sons and mothers and daughters. Society is still hurting underneath and reconciliation to God and one another is the only solution – it comes to us only through the Cross – yet so often it is seen as an optional add-on.
Listen, God has given us the message of reconciliation. As with most of God’s messages, it is not just given with the tongue – it actually has to be lived out.
“We are… Christ’s ambassadors.” We represent Him. An ambassador basically tries to bring reconciliation between his authorising nation and his ‘host’ nation. So our job is to bring Heaven to earth so as to reconcile the people of earth to the God of Heaven. Our job is to usher in the Kingdom of God where He has placed us.
How can we do this? Because God has already made the way possible. He made the Sinless die for the sinful so that the sinful would be considered sinless. We are made righteous in God’s sight. All they and we have to do is believe and accept it.
The interesting thing is that just as with spokes of a wheel – the nearer we get to the hub, Jesus – the nearer we get to each other.
It’s called reconciliation and is possible only through the power of the Holy Spirit of God.
Who is the one God wants you to be reconciled with?
Who are the ones you need to help to get reconciled to God?
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