And all things are of God,
who hath reconciled us to himself by
Jesus Christ,
and hath given to us the ministry of
reconciliation; to wit,
that God was in Christ, reconciling the
world unto himself.
2 Corinthians 5:18,19
The goodness of God and His mercy is not
due to some insensibility on His patience. God being pure goodness cannot
produce from any weakness of resentment, patience. God is slow to anger but
this does not mean that He is incapable of anger, or that He cannot discern
what is a real object of anger. What it implies is; He takes every
consideration of every provocation, yet is not hasty to discharge any anger
upon the offenders. God sees all, and hears all, and it is His omniscience;
that excludes any ignorance, so that every step and motion, all that is
included in every aggravation He sees from beginning to end. God knows the
completion of all things, He knows our every thought and sees all our sins and
the sinner: at the same time. Remember, there is no time with God for He is
eternal, no beginning or end and while we live in sequential time, God does
not. God can see the abhorrence of sin and know how that how that abhorrence of
sin will affect the sinner, and while God may have pity on the sinner He is not
hasty in discharging His anger against the sinner and sees what is needed for
all, in all time, and in every circumstance. God allows that which He allows so
that His purpose will be carried forth and His children will receive not only
His blessing, but this world will know that He is God and they with all their
intelligence would not come to Him unless He draws them. God sees theirs, and
our, iniquities and His hatred is edged against them, yet He stands with open
arms waiting for the penitent to return to Him. God will set in order all things
and His silence will not be silent forever. This we wait for in expectation for
His return and the completion of His justice upon this world. We must not
conclude that God is slow as one who is inapprehensive and we must not conclude
that His deferring of punishment is from some stupidity by that which affronts
Him. God is a God of Goodness, Mercy, and Patience.
The opening Scripture tells of God
mercy and patience inasmuch as we are told that all things are of God and that
God is the One Who has reconciled Himself to us, not that we reconciled first,
rather that God reconciled us and gave to us the Gospel, that is the ministry
of reconciliation. To be reconciled is to be brought into agreement, to be made
harmonious, and compatible and that is that God reconciles us in Jesus Christ.
When it is said that God is reconciling the world into Himself many believe
that it is everyone, at least everyone who believes in Jesus Christ, but this
is not necessarily so; Kosmos, the Greek word can mean the who world, but in
its primary meaning it is: an order, a regular disposition, an embellishment.
It can mean the aggregate of sensitive existence (1Corinthings 4:9), it can
mean the public (John 7:4), it can mean, the present order of things, (John
18:36). It can mean all this and yet it
rarely means the whole, everyone, on this earth. God is reconciling to Himself
His children those He has drawn and enabled (Read John 6). This is a great
mystery inasmuch as it is the head of the Gospel. God’s reconciling to Himself
those to whom He calls and gives faith, enables and draws comprehends the
counsels of eternity and the transaction of time. It is a wonder in heaven and
God did this by means of His patience, His mercy, and His grace by bringing
forth a male–child, to be a propitiation for sin. Oh! How this was a stumbling
block to the Jews and for the Gentiles and is for many today who act as did
those people of old in the days of Jesus Christ and before for they: “For
Jews request a sign, and Greeks seed after wisdom; but we preach Christ
crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to
those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the
wisdom of God” (1Corinthians 1:22–24).
God descends to man by this in acts of wisdom and grace and man ascends
to God in acts of faith and love. We see this narrated to us in the vision of
Jacob and the ladder he say with angels descending and ascending from heaven to
earth and back to heaven. If there by any mystery in regards to God, His
patience and His reconciliation, there is none more admirable than this for in
all its various and incomprehensible engagement of God towards man, all was
done through Jesus Christ.
Reconciliation is given by the death
of Jesus Christ from which it was obtained. This is the ground of God’s laying
aside His anger: it is reconciliation by means of His law. A legality that God
extends to all His children and all this has its completion by faith. All this
is by God laying aside His enmity, and imputes sin no more to the person. God
is willing to take men into His favor (1Corinthians 1:20). God has the right of reconcilement. The
Gospel contains the articles of peace, and the counsels and methods of God
about it. It is the copy of God’s heart from eternity. We must, that is we must
allow the faith given to us by god to accept the terms of reconcilement. We do
have a part in this, for God will not cast us from salvation but will not
override our will in the matter of how we accept or not accept His reconcilement.
Think upon this: God accepts us into His favor, and gives to us non–imputation
of our sins: How? “And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the reconciliation” (Romans
5;11). God’s patience is great and He gives reconciliation. The question
for us is: what are we going to do with this reconciliation, this message of
reconciliation that we are to live by and to preach to the world?
Therefore
we were buried with Him through baptism into death,
that just as Christ was raised from the
dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life.
Romans
6:4
Accept
that gift of God today
Richard
L. Crumb
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