Statement:
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. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:19-20 KJV
Exposition:
Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.
2 Corinthians 5:19-20 MSG
5 comments:
Thank God for friends!! And, for not judging a book by it's cover.
Amen!
The number one job of the Church. So often it seems to miss it.
I gotta say, I thought the Message muddied it.
But it's such a powerful statement to say that"God was in Christ, reconciling Himself to the world".
Amen, Suz!
Thank you, Linda.
TB, the Church misses a lot of things. But so does the world ... and we have the responsibility to tell the Church what it's getting wrong.
Ed, I agree: the Message Bible got a bit wordy with this one. And your conclusion is spot on.
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