When I think of the word, “reconcile” two thoughts come to mind about the meaning of the word. First, I think of making right a wrong done in a relationship so that two people are able to reconcile their differences. They are able to forgive and move forward. The other part of the word that comes to mind for me is to make your check ledger and bank statement come into agreement or reconcile with one another.
In writing to the church at Corinth, Paul said it this way:
18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
We were enemies of God because of our sin. God and only God could work to make right what we had messed up through our sin. Through Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, we have been reconciled to God. We couldn’t have fellowship with Him, we couldn’t be in His presence if it was not for the reconciliation that Christ accomplished on the cross. He paid the debt we owed so that our ledger is now in balance with God’s ledger because God sees us through the blood of Jesus. In doing so, our relationship, more specifically, our fellowship can be made right with God. God can be around me because of the blood of Christ.
It is great that we can have this personal relationship with God knowing that He knows us better than anyone else can and He still wants to be with us. In light of the fact that He paid the price for our sins we also get to work to help others be-come reconciled to God. I get to tell others about Jesus. I get to possibly be a part of someone’s life changing for eternity. However, I hope you realize that this is for all of us. We all have a ministry of reconciliation. By taking the Good News of Je-sus Christ to those around us we can make the world a better place as people become reconciled to God through their faith. May we be faithful in the ministry of reconciliation.
