GOD'S RECONCILIATION

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV) “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

RECONCILE (def) 1.To re-establish a close relationship between (two parties or individuals); 2. to settle or resolve.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 tells us about what God did to bring about reconciliation between His creation and Himself. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, the only one who was sinless; the spotless lamb, as it were, to satisfy the Levitical Law (OT) …

Leviticus 23:12 (NIV) “On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the LORD a lamb a year old without defect, … “

… was made sin. He took on all our sin. Think about that. The weight of our own sin times infinity … an incalculable number of sins. This is a weight not one person should have to bear, yet Christ bore it voluntarily. Now I can think of many things that I would volunteer for, some things perhaps not all that pleasant, but I don’t know that I would voluntarily take on the punishment of even ONE person, let alone the punishment for all mankind. I don’t even think I can imagine in my wildest dreams what that must have been like. We try to comprehend, but I think we are incapable of understanding.

What Christ did for us has a value so great that nothing on this earth can compare to it. We need to take the journey to the cross in our minds to even begin to see all that Christ did. Carrying a heavy wooden cross through streets with crowds both weeping for Him and hurling insults at Him … and this was after He was scourged.* He was made to carry the cross after a large amount of His blood had already been spilled. He was weakened by the loss of blood and had to receive relief, as His cross was carried the rest of the way for Him. As if He was not in enough pain, He was nailed to that cross with steel spikes. They pierced His flesh. He did not have just a few scratches on His body like He had just fought with a cat and gotten clawed badly. He was beaten black and blue and had His flesh torn and lacerated. We don’t want to think about the gore involved. We don’t want to have to look at it. But I believe it is important to not just glance at Him in His beaten and bloodied state, but study Him. See the peace that He exudes in the face of such brutality. May we never, ever have to endure anything near as gory and inhuman as that.

Study the death of Christ so you know and never forget all that was paid for your salvation. Your reconciliation to God was grace and mercy personified. We must allow ourselves to be compelled; we must allow the Holy Spirit to gently grab a hold of us so that we can see with the eyes of our spirit the immense price that was paid for our sin. It is no wonder to me that to reject Christ results in being cast into the lake of fire for all eternity. Ponder these things, for they are weighty issues. Know that God does not wish that anyone would perish, but that all would have eternal life. Do not turn a deaf ear and blind eye to what is being written here. Your future depends on it.

WALK WITH THE KING TODAY AND LISTEN TO HIM INTENTLY.

* A scourge was a whip with leather strips that were covered with beads of lead,and jagged pieces of bone and metal. It was a weapon of cruelty. When Christ received 39 lashes the jagged bone and metal dug into His flesh and violently tore out chunks of His flesh. It had been determined by the Romans that 40 lashes would kill a man, so they gave Jesus 39 so that He would still be alive when they hung Him on their cross.