Ministry of Reconciliation

From the Pastor: Dr. M. J. Seymour, Sr.

“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 unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” (II Cor. 5:18-19)

Through the years I have heard many folk speak about having been given by God a “ministry of reconciliation”. Absolutely every time they were referring to bringing men into reconciliation with each other. Perhaps that sounds good to some people, but it reveals their ignorance of the true meaning of these passages. So, let us take a moment to understand the Biblical precept of reconciling.

The issue is God “hath reconciled us to himself by (dia – through) Jesus Christ.” We did not reconcile ourselves to God and no man reconciled us to God; God reconciled us to Himself through Jesus. The word used here in the Greek means that only one party is doing the acting; it is not a two party working out of disagreements. Man is at enmity with God and is dead in his trespasses and sins. He is unable to act in any manner which would bring into a right relationship with God. Thus, God must act solely and independently upon the sinner to bring him into eternal favor with Himself. He does this through Jesus; that is God washes the sinner in the blood of the Lamb that was slain for the penalty of his sins. God erases the state of enmity by the blood of Jesus. This is an act no man can perform. As father Abraham could not enter between the sacrifices to make an eternal covenant with God, God solely enters between the slain sacrifices with Himself only and makes the unbreakable covenant. God is the only acting party in the reconciliation process.

“The ministry of reconciliation” is “To wit”, or “namely” that we are to be telling others that God was acting alone in erasing the enmity of sinners by bringing them through the blood of Jesus. No one else has any involvement in the act of reconciling man to God.