Being Reconciled to God and Working with God to Reconcile Others to God

All the believers in Christ who are saved and regenerated by Him are qualified to be ambassadors of Christ, those who have the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20).

First of all we need to be reconciled to God, and reconciliation is a process that is taking place our whole life.

We were initially reconciled to God through believing into Christ, and through our regeneration we were brought into God. But daily, in all aspects of our living and work, we are being further reconciled to God by being brought further into God!

To be reconciled to God is not only to be brought back to God in peace but further to be brought into God and to be made one with God.

This is what God desires, to bring man into God and make man one with God, and then organically commission this man-mingled-with-God to bring others into God through the ministry of reconciliation!

This is our salvation, or daily-being-saved: to be reconciled to God and bring others to where we are, where they are also one with God and are IN GOD!

Lord, further reconcile us to Yourself today! Thank You for initially reconciling us to God. Continue to daily bring us into God in all aspects of our being, our living, and our work!

The Ministry of Reconciliation

As we see in 2 Cor. 5:18-20, the ministry of reconciliation entrusted both to the apostles and to us is not only to bring sinners back to God but also to bring the believers into God and to make them absolutely one with God!

This oneness is not merely of the oneness seen in the marriage life, where the two are still distinct yet somehow corporately one.

God wants to bring us into an organic union with Himself, a mingling of God and man, as seen in John 15:4 – we are branches in the vine, and we abide IN Christ and He abides IN us.

Through the ministry of reconciliation, God wants to bring man into Himself and make man one with Him. All our problems are due to the fact that we are not absolutely in God and one with God. We are saved and born of God, but we don’t live one with Him or in Him.

This is why we need to be further reconciled to God organically that we may enter into the Holy of Holies, where we have only God! We need to be reconciled to God to a higher level, to a further degree, and in more aspects of our daily living.

When we are brought into God to a further degree, we can also bring others into Him in this ministry of reconciliation. Only a person who is in God can bring others into God also.

Our closeness to God and our intimacy with Him is the measure of the result of our work.

The extent to which we can bring others to be reconciled to God is the extent to which we also are reconciled to God! Our ministry of reconciliation results of our daily living and work of being reconciled to God further ourselves!

Working With God to Reconcile Others to God

The Apostle Paul was working with God to reconcile the believers to Christ – he didn’t say he was “working for God” but “working WITH God”.

When someone works FOR God he is still apart from God, and since many times this is our case, we may even like this. But to work together with God is something else – we first need to be in God to work with God!

The only way we can help others be reconciled to God is not by us doing our best to work for God but by being in God ourselves. Only when we are in God by exercising our spirit to be one with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17) can we bring others also in God.

If we are far away from God, if we are not in touch with the Lord right now, it is very difficult to bring others to God. But if we are those who are one with God, we can work with God to bring others also to the place where we are, that is, in God!

We first need to be further reconciled to God by being much more saved in His life (Rom. 5:10), and then we can cooperate with the Lord by working together with Him to bring both believers and non-believers to be reconciled to God.

It’s really not a work – it is the issue of our being reconciled to God. As we go on with the Lord and grow in life, as we are being reconciled to God further, we enter into God and we are one with God.

In oneness with God, we work together with Him to help others be reconciled to God!

Lord, make us one with You! Bring us further into God. Fully reconcile us to Yourself. Grow in us, Lord. Have more ground in us. Bring every part of our inward being with all our daily life and activities into God. We want to be in God that we may work with God to reconcile others to God!

Be Reconciled To God!

I have been praying this short sentence this whole morning. This is Paul’s cry and this is the Lord’s cry to all God’s people, Be Reconciled to God!

Yes, we do have peace toward God through the death of His Son – we are not God’s enemies. But we need to be further reconciled to God!

How about our time in the morning? Our time before going to bed? What about our attitude toward our classmates or our workmates? Are we in God, one with God, as we go to school or to work?

As we travel on the public transportation or as we drive, do we advance in the process of being reconciled to God?

We can’t help others to be reconciled to God unless we as ambassadors of Christ are firstly reconciled to Him to a deeper level and to a higher degree. Just tell Him,

Lord, reconcile me further to You. I don’t want to remain the same. Make me Your ambassador who carries out the ministry of reconciliation! Save me much more in Your life. I want to be one with You, Lord. Bring me further into God in all the aspects of my living and work. Day by day and moment by moment, Lord, mingle Yourself with me more. Fill me with what You are, and cause me to absorb all Your riches that I may be filled and saturated with You! Reconcile me further to You, Lord, that I may work with You to bring others to be reconciled to You!

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from, Life-study of 2 Corinthians (msg. 39), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery, week 4 (entitled, Ambassadors of Christ with the Ministry of Reconciliation and Co-workers of God with an All-fitting Life).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # The new covenant ministers are ambassadors of Christ / Carrying out the ministry of reconciliation / To bring us into God and to make us one with God.
  # I praise Him for the cleansing blood, / What a wonderful Savior! / That reconciled my soul to God, / What a wonderful Savior!
  # It is God’s intent and pleasure / That His Christ be wrought in me; / Nothing outwardly performing, / But His Christ my all to be.
• Picture source: sunrise (via this FB page) and 2 Cor. 5:20 (by a friend on Facebook).