As believers in Christ, we have been initially reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, but now we need to be further reconciled to God by being brought into God to be in God and one with God practically.
We were born in our sins and offenses, enemies of God and strangers to the covenant of the promise. But when we heard the gospel and believed into the Lord Jesus Christ, we were saved by faith in Him, and He justified us before God, covering us as our righteousness, and we were reconciled to God.
Now we are no longer enemies with God because of being sinful and unrighteous, but we have peace toward God through Jesus Christ, and we are reconciled to God. This is the first step of reconciliation, to reconcile sinners to God.
But we need to be reconciled to God even further, that is, we need to be brought into God and be made fully one with God, so that we may be in God and God would be in us, and we and God would have one life and one living.
This week we want to see the matter of, Being Fully Reconciled to God and Enlarged in Heart to Represent God Rightly in His Economy.
We need to realise that we can represent God to the extent that we express Him; if we don’t express God in Christ in any given situation we are not representing Him, but we may actually misrepresent Him.
The Lord Jesus, the first God-man, was a God-expressing man who lived under the authority of the Father and therefore represented Him. Now He as the life-giving Spirit is in our spirit and wants us to take Him as our person, so that He as the God-expressing and God-representing Jesus would live in us.
We need to allow the Lord to make His home in our heart by taking Him as our person.
The Lord wants to transform us into the same image as Him, 2 Cor. 3:18, so that we may express Him and represent Him. He needs to do a particular work in us all so that we can represent Him.
Paul could say of himself that he was an ambassador of Christ, an official representative of Christ Himself, and he was entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation in two steps.
First, Christ died for our sins to reconcile the world to Himself, and when we believe into the Lord, we are reconciled to Him and are now much more saved in His life.
Second, we as believers need a further step of reconciliation by being brought into God to be in God. Christ died for our sins to reconcile the unbelievers to Himself, and He died for us, the persons, to reconcile us to God.
Today we all are in the process of being fully reconciled to God until we are fully one with God. Any element in our being that is contrary to the Lord is eliminated, and Christ is wrought into us to make us one with Him. This is how we can shepherd according to God.
To be reconciled to God also means that we are fully subdued by Him, not merely defeated by Him. To be defeated means that someone else overpowers you, but you may still plan to fight back. To be subdued means that there is no resistance or any kind within us.
We need to be those who represent God by being one with Him and by being brought into God and God into us, so that His thoughts would be our thoughts, His views would be our views, His will shall be our will, and His feeling would be our feeling.
We have been Transferred into the Second Man, Christ, who Expresses and Represents God
God desires to have on earth a realm where He is expressed in His glory and where His will is done through the exercise of His kingly authority. For this purpose, He created man in His image to express Him and gave him His dominion to represent Him.
But Satan, in his opposition to God and His will, injected himself as sin with his evil nature into the first man, thus corrupting and ruining him.
The two definitions of sin in the New Testament correspond to the two aspects of God’s purpose in creating man – image and dominion.
In Rom. 3:23 it says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; sin is to fall short of expressing God with His image. Anything we say or do, especially as we live in our old man, does not express God but the self. Sin nullifies God’s expression, and fallen human beings just express themselves.
1 John 3:4 says that sin is lawlessness; this is the principle of rebellion, rejecting any law of limitation. This is versus being under God’s authority and representing Him.
After the fall of man, Satan seemed to be victorious; but according to Paul’s word in 1 Cor. 15:47, Christ came as the second man out of heaven, and He expressed God and represented Him fully. He expressed God in His human virtues and represented God with His authority.
He didn’t seek His own glory but did the Father’s will, He didn’t speak His own words but did the Father’s work, and when people saw Him they saw the Father.
When the centurion met Him and asked Him to heal his servant, he told Him, I am also a man under authority, therefore say a word… He realized that the Lord lived under God’s authority, so He could represent God with His authority.
Because the Lord lived under God’s authority, He could represent God with His authority; He could cast out demons, rebuke the wind and the waves, etc – for He was a man under authority, a man obedient unto death.
On the cross, Christ as the second man died for our redemption; He terminated the first man and created in Himself the new man. The second man died for us, He terminated the old man, and in Himself He created the one new man, bringing forth this new man in resurrection.
The first Adam is the beginning of mankind, and the last Adam is the ending. As the first man, Adam is the head of the old creation, representing it in creation; as the second man, Christ is the head of the new creation, representing it in resurrection.
There are only two men in the universe in God’s eyes: the first man, Adam, with all his descendants, and the second man, Christ, comprising all His believers. We believers were included in the first man by birth, but praise the Lord, we were transferred into the second man by regeneration and baptism!
This is what God is after, the one new man, the enlargement and reproduction of the second man, Christ. Just as the second man personally expressed Christ and represented Him, the enlargement of the second man – the one new man – will also fulfill Gen. 1:26 by expressing God and representing Him.
Thank You Lord for coming as the second man to terminate the first man and transfer us into Yourself to make us Your enlargement and duplication for God’s expression and representation. Hallelujah, through regeneration we were begotten of God to be part of the new creation, part of the enlarged second man, to be the one new man that expresses God with His image and represents Him with His dominion. Lord,
Being Fully Reconciled to God by being Brought into God to be One with the Lord
In order for us to properly represent God in His economy as His ambassadors, we need to be fully reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20).
The apostle Paul said he received mercy to be a pattern to all those who will believe; if such a one who breathed out murder and wanted to destroy the churches could be fully reconciled to God, we can also be fully reconciled to God.
We were initially reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ; when we repented and believed into the Lord, His blood washed away our sins, we received God’s forgiveness, and we were justified by God and reconciled to Him.
Now we need to be further reconciled to God by being brought into God to be absolutely one with the Lord, even to be in Him.
If we look at our daily living, are we in Christ as we do our job at work, when we’re at home, or when we talk to others? Are we brought into God as we speak to our spouse or as we travel to work? Do we have the assurance that we are in Christ?
There’s no neutral ground: we are either in Christ or outside of Him. According to the Bible, to be reconciled to God means not only to be brought back to God but to be brought into God and be made absolutely one with Him, even to be mingled with Him.
The Lord Jesus said, Abide in Me and I in you (John 15:4); He didn’t say, “abide with Me and I with you”.
Until that time that we are wholly one with the Lord, being in Him and allowing Him to be in us absolutely, we shall still need the ministry of reconciliation.
Also, just like Paul, we are commissioned by the Lord to preach the gospel to reconcile sinners to God, and to minister Christ to others for them to be brought into God and be made one with the Lord.
Because we are not yet fully brought into God, we still have problems; because we are still outside of Christ in our daily living, we still have worries, problems, issues, and different situations that are not so positive.
Many things in our daily life and even in the church life are a sign that we are not absolutely in God.
Paul’s burden and our desire should be that we would be further reconciled to God until we’re fully reconciled to God by being brought into God to be one with the Lord in a practical way, so that we are in Him and He is in us in our daily life.
Yes, there is an advance in our Christian life from the time we were born again, but we cannot say that we are absolutely brought into God; we are in the process of being fully reconciled to God day by day.
Lord Jesus, thank You for reconciling us to God from sin by justifying us and making peace between us and God. Hallelujah, we have peace toward God, and in peace we can come to enjoy God and be in His presence! Amen! Lord, reconcile us further to Yourself – reconcile us fully to God until we are brought into God to be one with the Lord in our daily living. We want to be wholly one with the Lord, being in Him and allowing Him to be in us absolutely. Amen, Lord, reconcile us further with Yourself!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 2 Corinthians, msgs. 37, 39 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking Christ as our Person and Living Him in and for the Church Life (2018 spring ITERO), week 7, Being Fully Reconciled to God and Enlarged in Heart to Represent God Rightly in His Economy.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Thou, “Last Adam” wast entitled, / And wast called the “second man”, / Head of all the new creation, / Better than the first man. / On this earth in life and conduct / Thou indeed wast Son of man; / Now in heaven with this nature / Thou dost still appear as man. (Hymns #62)
# To God I’m reconciled, / His pardoning voice I hear; / He owns me for His child, / I can no longer fear. / With confidence I now draw nigh, / And Father, Abba, Father, cry. (Hymns #300)
# God realized by us, / With Christ identified— / God reconciled us to Himself, / Now Christ, identified! / Born into Adam, we— / But transferred now to Christ; / Made one with Christ, as baptized ones, / Growing togeth’r with Him. (Song on, With Christ Identified)
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