2Co 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;…
Break it down. All things, de panta, everything is of God. He made everything.
He has reconciled us. Past tense. That would be those who now believe. By Jesus Christ. It is only by Jesus life, death and resurrection that we have been reconciled by God through Jesus.
He has given to us, believers, the ministry, or service, or task of reconciliation. We are to carry the good news of the reconciliation that Jesus has accomplished and extended to the world.
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. Nothing is impossible with God and if God sets out to do anything, it will be accomplished in perfect completeness and absolute perfection. God is not like a man, that He should fail at any task He sets Himself to.
Not imputing… impute verb1. to attribute or ascribe (something dishonest or dishonourable, esp a criminal offence) to a person.
Not attributing or ascribing their trespasses unto them.
We get to share the great news of the reconciliation God has provided in Jesus to the world. There is a way to have all your trespasses overlooked, and to be reconciled … reconcile - 1. To reestablish a close relationship between.
I dare say none of us even remembers having a close relationship, but that doesn’t mean God doesn’t remember.
Ps 139:15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand…
Now, it is His desire and plan to reconcile with each one of us. Every human being is his very own child, though we have all gone astray, and taken up residence in any variety of families, He has done the legal work for us to return to Him fully forgiven, fully cleansed, and fully restored. You can return now, or you can stay in your prodigal pig pen for now and return later. The legal work has been accomplished. Why wait? He is calling you home.
Mt 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Joh 7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Re 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
5 comments:
"God is not like a man, that He should fail at any task He sets Himself to."
This is false . . . once again we return to Matthew 23:37-38
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."
He wants they to come, they do not want to come. They win (and of course lose in the end)
We also return to sin . . . which God does NOT want us to do. If He accomplishes all He wants, then none of us sins. Otherwise you have to make sin God's will, in which you make God a liar.
Example again
Jeremiah 32:35 "And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin."
Jeremiah 44:4 "Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending [them], saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate."
He sent prophets and told them His will was that they did not do the abomination . . . which He hates. But they did it anyway.
Tim: I applaud your zeal, but even a surface level consideration shows that God does not get everything He wants. You will argue that "He gets them in the end" . . . but the fact is that what He wanted (no sin) did NOT happen. If He does not control the short term, He most certainly does not control the long term, for the long term consists of many short terms.
Any exception disproves your theory.
He is indeed the Promised land we want to move into! The Life of Christ is ours to possess now, ours to move into, to discover, to find refuge. Today is the day of salvation. Good thoughts, Jack.
Alfred,
Look at the end of each post. You will find the phrase "posted by" followed by a name. This should help your confusion as to who is posting a bit.
The "posted by" is completely false on Facebook, of course . . . When creating there, and copying here, well, hard to tell . . .
So far, all of these facebook posts have originated here on God Sized Hope. Hope thid helps you solve the mystery. Tim has every post here automatically placed on his Facebook page, and I don't think he has posted anything directly there, but if he does, just check here and if it isn't here then it's Tim. If it is here, then see who it's "posted by" and you will then know who you are responding to.
The other way you can tell is, if its creative and pleasantly written it's Tim. The rest are mine. Still, coming here (God Sized Hope) and skipping to the end and referring to the "posted by" comment is probably your most reliable route to identifying the author of each new post.
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