Footsteps #176

If our lives are re-created, do we get any credit – No! God acted first; He sent His Son to the Cross, and at the Cross Jesus satisfied God’s wrath toward sin, taking our sin upon Himself. Jesus made it possible for God to declare us His friends instead of His enemies. The tendency of religious people everywhere is to try to earn God’s friendship by showing Him how much we love Him or how faithful we are. But that is backward. The Gospel does not call us to do something for God that He might save us; rather it announces what God has done to save us in order that we might trust Him! 

But God has given us a part to play in this drama of reconciliation. The last half of v18 says that He has given us “the ministry of reconciliation,” This ministry of reconciliation involves taking the amazing message of reconciliation to God’s enemies. (v18-19) There is a very real sense in which the most important message we can possibly convey to people is that God wants to be their friend! You wouldn’t know that from a lot of Gospel presentations. Sometimes the message is one of hellfire and brimstone – believe and accept Jesus, or be roasted alive for trillions and trillions of years. People come away feeling that God is harsh and the worst of terrorists. At other times the message is one of reluctant mercy. God will accept you if you repent and jump through a lot of ritual hoops, but you sure don’t deserve it, and you’d better not mess up or He’ll zap you! BUT the message of reconciliation is that God wants to be friends, and He is willing to go so far as to give His most precious possession, His one and only Son, in order to establish that friendship. What exactly is the message of reconciliation? V19 answers that question: “That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” God reconciled the world to Himself when Jesus died on the Cross. What exactly happened when Jesus died on the Cross?  Stay tuned!