Welcome to the Truth Time Podcast.
Now for a shot of truth with no chaser, here's Trey Searcy with today's podcast.
Reconciliation, its function, and how it impacts salvation.
Today is going to be the final installment in this series.
We're going to recap what we've already been talking about concerning God's requirements for salvation.
But this time we're going to do it through the lenses of reconciliation.
We'll start with the verses from our apostle which deal directly with the
word of reconciliation, the preaching of the gospel, specifically what happened on the cross, and how it pertains to the entire world.
2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 18 and 19 is really just one complete sentence.
Two verses, one sentence.
Here Paul writes, "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 not imputing their trespasses against them."
Now let's break this down word by word, phrase by phrase.
Too often we can just blow right through the verses, especially the more familiar ones.
So let's make sure that we don't do that today.
And all things are of God who, God, hath reconciled, past tense.
All things are of God because he hath reconciled.
How did that reconciliation happen?
Where did it happen?
Verse 19 answers this.
The "us" isn't just the body of Christ, it is all things, just like the verse says. It's the world, just like the next verse says.
Of course, Paul is going to include himself and any other saved person in this "us" because this is a truth that is just as true for him as it is for the rest of the world.
So we mustn't get too hung up on pronouns.
Paul knew what Christ did for him on the cross before he ever believed in Christ and happily included himself in the "us" that is the world.
We are all included in that "us," saved or not.
Keep reading, "...to himself by Christ Jesus."
"The finished crosswork made peace," Colossians 1:20, "and hath given to us," this "us" is those who know the truth of reconciliation.
We know this because of the next four words.
The ministry of reconciliation.
Now you can't have a ministry of reconciliation without understanding reconciliation. Read on, "To wit," now we're going to explain what the ministry of reconciliation is.
This is the answer to the how and where the hath reconciled happened from the prior verse. "That God was in Christ."
To wit, that God was in Christ.
Christ is God.
So of course God was in Christ.
Some try to make you believe that a degree in language arts is necessary to understand what the word "was" means here.
Was means was.
Was is past tense, and it's always going to be past tense.
The argument that this "was" is still ongoing today because it's imperfect tense.
Those making that claim do not take into account the multiple ways that imperfect tenses are used, nor account for the fact that not all imperfect tenses indicate continuums.
Sometimes imperfect tenses relate to that something ending.
Sometimes it continues but when the word "was" is involved, it is always referencing something that happened in the past, because "was" is always going to be past tense
with the current status in the subject usually being explained within the context.
There are some instances when this is not always clear in grammar.
Within perfect tenses sometimes there is a continuum, sometimes not, sometimes it isn't clear.
That's why normal thinking individuals rely on the context of what they are reading for understanding.
But you don't have to understand what an imperfect tense is to know that.
Usually you just keep reading to see if there's further information.
It's pretty simple logic.
That being said, we're talking about the fact that God was in Christ.
Since we know that Christ is God, we understand that is still the case, but the phrase isn't God is in Christ yet we know that Christ was, is, and always will be God.
So obviously this fact is a continuum that is being used to direct us to a point in time.
Now, what is that point in time?
To find out we must figure out when the "was" was and what else was going on at that time.
Now watch, watch the next five words, "...reconciling the world unto himself."
Okay, we just read verse 18 where all things are of God because he reconciled the world unto himself by Jesus Christ referenced by Colossians 1:20 when he made peace on the cross.
So how is the timing of this "was" in verse 19 anything other than the cross?
It can't be.
Is Christ still on the cross so that God can continue the reconciling and
non-imputation?
Is Christ still up there now in 2022 perpetually sprinkling his own blood on the mercy seat making atonement?
Has he been actively doing so throughout the entire dispensation of grace?
You see, that sort of thinking is illogical.
Okay back to the verse, "not imputing," not charging not counting toward, "their," that's the world's, "trespasses unto them," where? When?
On the cross when he was making peace through the blood by Jesus Christ.
Hey listen, you really have to work hard to make this to make these two verses say anything other than what they actually say.
To quickly recap here all things are of God because he reconciled all things who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.
Compare that phrase with this phrase from the very next verse, "was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself."
Clearly, the "us" that was reconciled to God in verse 18 is the same world that God reconciled past tense unto himself in verse 19.
This is almost the same wording.
How does anyone miss this?
And then we have the words "hath" and "was" both being past tense.
God reconciled all things, us, world, to himself.
How did he do that?
Verse 18, "by Jesus Christ."
Verse 19, "in Christ not imputing their," the world's, "trespasses unto them."
Again, similar phrasing in these back-to-back verses.
Also, once again, you have to go read Colossians 1:20 where peace was made through the blood of his cross.
When did the cross happen?
Answer that and you'll have the answer to when God reconciled the world unto
himself.
If trespasses are still being imputed to anyone, then peace wasn't really made by the blood of the cross now was it?
However, that's what scripture ever so plainly tells us. That would mean that all sin, including our sins right now which were not even committed yet, was not taken care of on the cross.
That's irrational thinking.
God was reconciling the world when God was not imputing trespasses into the world. The verse does not say God is reconciling the world unto himself.
God was in Christ.
That points to a specific event when he was reconciling the world by not imputing the world's trespasses unto us.
God is not continually not imputing trespasses, because the trespasses were put on Christ on the cross.
They're gone.
God has to not impute all trespasses to the world and instead place them on Christ. One time took care of all of them.
Jesus only had to complete the atoning sacrifice one time.
That earned forgiveness for the sins of the entire world.
Once was enough for God, besides, how is God going to impute trespasses that don't exist anymore as far as he's concerned.
To impute those trespasses, God would have to undo the cross work.
Go find all those trespasses so he could then be angry again.
Take all those sins, put them back to our charge, and put the enmity back up between himself and us.
The insanity of this thought process is quite amazing.
The lengths that some limited forgivers will go to try to prove their point.
2 Corinthians 5:21 is pretty plain.
It says that Christ became sin for us.
When and where did that happen? 2 Corinthians 5 verses 14 to 21 is really pretty easy to understand when you just read it straight through.
I challenge you to do so.
Don't pull verses out and pick them apart, just let it say what it says.
The context is clear.
Verse 14 talks about Christ dying for all, the world.
Verse 15 reiterates that death on the cross for all, the world, points at the status of all, the world, who God concluded under sin dead and declares the resurrection. Verse 16 and 17 speak of no longer knowing Christ after the flesh before the cross, and speaks of the new creature in Christ that we become upon belief in the gospel.
Verse 18 here continues with the cross in mind and calls the believer into the
ministry of reconciliation.
Verse 19 explains what those ministers of reconciliation are to tell people concerning what happened on the cross and that peace the peace that God made with the world through the finished cross work of his son.
Verse 20 is a call to be reconciled to God for anyone who has not believed the gospel and is the beseeching that ambassadors with the ministry of reconciliation are supposed to herald to the world.
God isn't angry with you.
He proved it.
Believe that.
Be saved.
And verse 21 concludes the beseeching of be ye reconciled with further confirmation of what took place on the cross regarding the sins of the entire world.
God made Christ to be sin for us, yet Christ knew no sin.
He was innocent, and the result of that the result of the be ye reconciled is to be made the righteousness of God in him, Christ.
My wife and I look at these verses and think, how much clearer can it get?
It's contextually perfect.
No need to parse out verb tenses to understand it.
Anyone saying you can't understand this just by a simple reading of it is lying to you.
You're plenty smart enough to understand this all by yourself.
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Now, let's tie this information in with what we've already learned in the series.
In time past, sin separated man from God so forgiveness was needed right?
What is God's prescription for forgiveness?
Atonement.
The reason we chose atonement for part one of the series is because it's the first in God's order of events.
Without it nothing else matters.
2 Corinthians 5:14, "For the love of God constraineth us because we thus judge
that if one died for all then were all dead, and he died for all that they which live should not hence forth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again."
1 Corinthians 15:3, "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures."
Romans 5:10, "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life."
Now watch verse 11, "And not only so but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the..." what? "...the atonement." There it is. Christ's sacrifice on the cross was the full totally sufficient completely satisfying atonement.
Not only was he the sacrificial lamb without spot or blemish, our sins were laid upon him just as the scapegoat.
He was also the sacrifice for sin offered outside the camp.
He paid the ransom that was owed for our souls, and he's the high priest who burned the incense, sprinkled his sinless blood upon the horns of the altar, the table of incense, and then he entered into the holy of holies to sprinkle it on the mercy seat.
His completed work was so sufficient that the earth shook and the veil of separation there in the temple y'all remember that it was rent from bottom to top.
Oh my friend, he was the final atonement once and for all for all sin.
This atonement didn't just appease God and, and act as a covering for sin, oh no, that's time passed.
No God's prescription for the forgiveness of sins was fulfilled perfectly.
This atonement took away the sin barrier between God and man.
Christ's resurrection is the proof of that.
The proof of God's satisfaction and acceptance of his finished crosswork.
No bull, no lamb, no goat, none of those that was offered for atonement has ever resurrected from the dead.
That fact alone should tell the limited forgiver something.
As we previously have proven with scripture, forgiveness is an automatic immediate result of atonement.
No belief required.
No, that's a man-made concept.
Now, back to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 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," 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."
Is it becoming more clear how God accomplished reconciling the world into himself?
Hopefully so.
He did it through the atonement.
Atonement was needed, atonement was made.
Final atonement was needed to merit forgiveness, not human belief.
God satisfied his own requirement for perfect atonement which would result in the forgiveness of the entire world.
He did so by coming down in the form of man and doing it all by himself.
Acts 20:28, "Take heed therefore into yourselves and to all the flock over the which the holy ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God,..." now watch, "...which he hath purchased with his own blood."
Whose own blood? God's.
And hey, there is now a silly rumor circulating claiming that God wasn't in Christ on the cross.
But if this verse doesn't tell you how God was in Christ on the cross, I don't know what does.
Can anyone say, digress?
Those of you who have been paying attention you're seeing the obvious digressing of the so-called grace movement.
Hey, if God is going to give instructions and create rules for what is acceptable to him in order to get sins forgiven why would he not perfectly follow his own perfect rules that he was righteous and just in creating in the first place?
To say that Christ's atonement for the world did not merit forgiveness for the world is to say that God isn't satisfied with his own work.
More insanity twistianity.
In time past reconciliation consisted of man reaching up to God in order to appease him and remove the enmity.
But now God has removed the enmity so that he can reach down to man and offer salvation by his gift of grace.
With this in mind, understand that total reconciliation is not a one-party event.
If two parties have an issue between them, both must agree to come together before total reconciliation is achieved.
TTR has always believed and taught this.
It's part of our statement of faith there at the website, and it has been ever since we've had a statement of faith published there.
And we have reiterated this with scripture time and time again for many years now,
and in multiple podcasts, starting with some of the earliest ones, all the way until now.
Regardless of what some claim, we have never taught that the entire world is already redeemed and reconciled to God.
Why not?
Because that isn't what second Corinthians 5:19 says.
This is just yet another outright lie against us from a certain limited forgiver who has a very obvious agenda toward TTR, and anyone who preaches the word of reconciliation.
No, the verse says that God reconciled the world unto himself, and we teach what that verse actually says.
It speaks only to God's attitude toward the world.
It does not speak to the world's attitude toward God.
This is once again where terminology gets conflated and blenderized.
God's forgiveness toward the world does not mean that the entire world is already redeemed and reconciled to him.
No, it means that he has reconciled himself to the world.
Just believe his word.
And there is no way that God is going to reconcile himself to a world that he is simultaneously imputing sin to.
That's why his perfect atonement was needed, so that he could reconcile himself to the world by forgiving us for Christ's sake, and ceasing the imputation of sin during the dispensation of grace.
Now, what is next in God's list of requirements for salvation unto eternal life?
Righteousness.
How does someone obtain righteousness?
Faith and obedience. Romans 4:5, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
Romans 5:19, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
Second Corinthians 5:21, "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."
To be made the righteousness of God in him, in Christ, we must "be ye reconciled to God."
Using common logic, the instruction to be reconciled to God obviously means that in order to be made the righteousness of God in Christ, we still need to be reconciled to God even though God has already reconciled himself to us.
Why?
Because, as we've already demonstrated in the series, righteousness is obtained by faith and obedience.
We reconcile ourselves to God through obedience to the gospel, which is by faith.
Now we come to the justification portion of God's requirements for salvation.
What did we learn about justification?
First and foremost, we learned that only the righteous are justified.
No one else is.
We also learned that justification is to be judicially declared righteous, therefore, being justified we are declared not guilty.
Christ's finished crosswork was the atoning sacrifice which brought about God's forgiveness of our sins.
A gift of grace toward us.
His giving of this gift was his act of reconciliation toward the world, and this gift has already been given.
Past tense.
This gift is not validated by our accepting it.
Our belief neither verifies or creates it.
It is utterly, completely, and totally unmerited.
That's what grace is, unmerited favor.
Many limited forgivers will agree with that definition until it counters their false narrative.
Someone who's already righteous does not need the gift of grace.
They have nothing to be forgiven for, and they don't need to be made righteous, grace is for the guilty, the unrighteous, the unjustified.
Forgiven people have not been declared not guilty, only justified people have.
So, the gift has been given, God's reconciliation of the world unto himself, and all we have to do is believe God, when he, through Paul, tells us that he gave us this gift.
He gave it to us for Christ's sake, on behalf of the finished crosswork of his son, at the moment we believe this glorious gospel of grace, we reconcile ourselves to God.
When we by faith obey the gospel of our salvation, we're made the righteousness of God in Christ.
To be made the righteousness of God in Christ is to be justified.
Justification is a declaration of righteousness, and only the righteous will be
justified.
Therefore, because the righteousness that is imputed to us by the obedience of the faith of the gospel, we are justified through that faith.
That's why Paul said we're saved by grace through faith.
He also said that the uncircumcision are justified through faith.
You'll find that in Romans 3:30.
He also said that God would justify the heathen through faith, Galatians 3:8.
During the dispensation of grace, for the very first time, justification is obtained
through faith, apart from works.
No works of righteousness on our part required.
Why?
Because we believe the gospel.
We're no longer identified with the unrighteous world.
We're instead identified with Christ.
By faith we're made the righteousness of God in Christ.
And through that faith, we are justified unto eternal life in Christ.
Romans 5:18, "Therefore if by the offense of one judgment came upon all men condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life."
So, it's when we're justified, not when we're forgiven, that we're declared not guilty.
Only justification can clear guilt, and only the justified are saved unto eternal life.
Titus 3:7, here's another good one, "That being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
This eternal life is our salvation from hell, to forever be in the presence of our Lord.
It is the picture of the total reconciliation between God and man.
I can't tell you how many times we were informed of some limited forgiver striving about words on social media asking the foolish question of, "If God has already reconciled all the world to himself, then why are ministers of reconciliation even needed?"
Well, hopefully this series has answered that question for those who did not already see the obvious.
But to put it in plain speech, ministers of reconciliation are needed because all the world has not reconciled themselves to God.
That's pretty clear.
There are plenty of lost people still out there who haven't heard the good news of how God reconciled the world unto himself.
Now obviously those people haven't been reconciled, you know, be ye reconciled, because they don't even know what was done on their behalf.
But to understand this, you have to understand reconciliation.
And if you do come to understand reconciliation, you're going to have no choice but to look around and realize that there are more lost people out there than you ever imagined.
True ministers of reconciliation will no longer be able to wink at the ignorance of Christendom.
Even in the so-called grace camps.
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