RECONCILIATION

^[p. 367] RECONCILIATION

Romans 11:15; 2 Corinthians 5:17 - 21; Colossians 1:19 - 22; Ephesians 2:16

These scriptures furnish instruction as to the great truth of reconciliation. The subject has especially in mind to bring God before us as seen in connection with this great matter, the matter of reconciliation to Him. It is said of the Corinthians that some were ignorant of God and, of course, that statement has great significance today, for ignorance of God marks the whole profession of christianity. But there are those who know God, who are not ignorant of Him, but as knowing Him, love Him. “Lovers of God” is one of the finest phrases. It is said of them that they should shine as the sun in its might. “Let them that love him be as the rising of the sun in its might” (Judges 5:31). They do so now morally and will do so actually presently. They will shine in glorious brilliancy and power with Christ. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory”. So that in saying that ignorance of God marks the profession, one makes full allowance for those who know and love Him. It is said that if any man love God, the same is known of Him; not that God does not know everyone, He does. He knows me, He knows you, He knows everybody else and many, alas, who are rejecters of Christ. It is said, “If any be ignorant, let him be ignorant” (1 Corinthians 14:38), a very solemn statement, it is judicial. “And let the filthy make himself filthy still” (Revelation 22:11). The judicial dealings of God go on; we may not be able to meet them in detail but they go on, and many are known in the sense that they are in the book — in His book — out of which their deeds are judged. Terrible thought! Not the book of life. They are known of God in that sense, each having his record down, each to be judged according to his works. Let there be no mistake ^[p. 368] as to that. But then it says, “But if any one love God, he is known of him” (1 Corinthians 8:3). It means that he is known in His book of life. He is known of God in that sense. Heaven knows him; if he appeared in heaven at any time, he would be known — blessed thought! There will be no confusion there; the names are written, and everyone would love to appear as known of God. God takes account of them as those who love Him. They are among the hosts in the book of life. Just as great distinguished persons are known in every realm, so these persons are known as lovers of God. Well, that is the class we belong to, dear brethren, as lovers of God, that distinguished class that God has recognised as among the living.

Well now, this matter of reconciliation serves to bring God before us peculiarly, and first in His relation to the world as it is seen according to this verse in Romans 11. In the casting away of Israel judicially, God is not casting away for ever, only temporarily, thank God. Elymas the sorcerer typifies Israel in that way. God will return to His people. He has not cast them off finally, but they are cast away and made void for the moment, in order to bring the world in provisionally — that is in the position of reconciliation. Now this needs to be understood by us or it will be very defective in our view, and I would explain it, dear brethren. When Scripture speaks of the world in reconciliation, it is not the world in a moral sense in all its lusts and wickedness, that is not the thought. Scripture says distinctly that that world lies in the wicked one. It is out of that world we are to be delivered. Christ died for our sins that He might deliver us out of this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father, that is morally. Salvation from the world is in a moral sense, but the world has to be viewed in another sense; that is, it has to be viewed creationally or physically. The world was made by Christ, but then it goes on to say, “The world knew him not” — that is, the moral side of it did not. So we have to understand every word or we shall be mixed in our understanding. The world therefore is in mind as God’s creation, and the men upon it are God’s creatures, viewed from another angle, being in a world alienated from God by wicked works, but still being God’s creatures, divided up into nations under the government of God, according to Genesis 11. “Scattered over the face of the whole earth”, we are told, a statement that invites inquiry and investigation, for it provides for all the continents and the isles of the sea as we know them, how God has scattered the races judicially, setting their bounds. As Paul says, “Having determined ... the boundaries of their dwelling”. They are under His eye, the bounds are set, and they were set in relation to His ancient people Israel. But then the time came when Israel was cast away — a strong word — but not finally, only temporarily, beloved. God has not cast away His people. They are in mind and continued in a remnant, as it were. Paul says, ‘I also am in line with that remnant’; moreover he said, “Our whole twelve tribes serving incessantly day and night” (Acts 26:7). We wonder why that might be; the Spirit of God records it, so that they have an acceptance in that sense; and publicly they will presently come up. “Can a land be made to bring forth in one day? shall a nation be born at once?” it is said (Isaiah 66:8). All Israel, that is His own, not every Israelite, not every person known as a Jew, none but His own Israel, no other Israel will be blessed of Him, whatever their profession. Therefore they are going back to their land, as they are. God will make His own selection; it will be God’s Israel. So that all Israel, says the apostle, shall be saved; that is the whole nation, the nation of purpose; God will do that. He can do all things.

^[p. 370] Well now, this thought of reconciling the world has in mind the nations as God divided them up, and as His creation, the earth itself. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof” (Psalm 24:1). He has never given up His rights in this respect. When has He given up His rights in the human race? The human race belongs to God, so that in Mark, according to the Lord’s own words, the gospel was to be preached to all the creation. The preachers were to go into all the world, that is the place of possession — the moral side of it — but the preaching was to be to all the creation. God holds on to that. The wickedest man in this town God holds as His creature; He sends the rain and the sunshine upon him, but there will be nothing like that in hell — no, nothing, no favour at all; it will be utter abandonment from God. But the world is in a different position now; the Jews have been cast off. God said that the nations are now to come in and take that position, viewed as nations, viewed as belonging to Him; it is the time of the reconciling of the world. Then in connection with this, God has set up authorities, governments, as represented in Nebuchadnezzar taking the place of Israel. Speaking of one of the powers that be, the apostle says it is “God’s minister to thee for good” (Romans 13:4). All that is in keeping with the reconciliation of the world, which is only provisional; the whole position will be changed. God will be against the world as it will then be. The beast and the false prophet will have their place in it, and there will be open opposition to God and to Christ, open war between God and the world. It is not so today, God is against it in a moral sense, against sin, but He is not against it as viewing the world as His creation, and it is as viewed as His creation that it is in reconciliation. He looks at it as in favour in order that it should be saved. That is the present object, “not imputing their trespasses”. It is a remarkable ^[p. 371] thing, how that God was in Christ reconciling the world, not simply taking it abstractly reconciled, but actually doing it through the ministry of the gospel: how that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses. Well, that is the first point I touch on, dear brethren. Abraham represented the thought in the book of Genesis. He is said by the apostle to be the heir of the world, that is, of the nations of the earth; every family is to be blessed in Abraham the heir of the world. Well now, being heir of the world he would save it if he could, and so today every one of us, reconciled as sons of Abraham, will save it if we can. That is our attitude; if that is not our attitude, we are defective. So that when Sodom came into mind Abraham would have saved it if he could. He did his best through solicitation and prayer to save Sodom; he appealed to God. Now he says, Jehovah, You are the God of all the earth, You are the Judge of all the earth, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). God liked that, God loves His people to tell Him the truth and even about Himself. Abraham says something about Him, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”. God liked that and He listens to him. God had already said Abraham is a judge too, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? ... For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of Jehovah, to do righteousness and justice” (Genesis 18:17,19). He had in mind that things would be right, and as far as his power went, he would have things right. So among the nations, he was among the Amorites and was concerned to see a right rule maintained as under the rule of God. So God tells Abimelech about Abraham. He calls the attention of the monarch to Abraham. Today, of course, it is monarchs or presidents or rulers of the earth. God speaks to them; let us not think that He does not.

^[p. 372] You may think of some of these rulers that they are so wicked that God would not do anything at all for them, but He does. They are in the place of rule. How they got there in detail is not the point, God sees that they are there. God says, I am looking after them, their hearts are in My hands. “The king’s heart in the hand of Jehovah is as brooks of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Proverbs 21:1). And here is one monarch to whom God speaks about Abraham and fixes that man’s name in his mind. He says, You are ill-treating him; you have taken his wife wrongfully — Abraham, he is the heir of the world — I do not say God said all that, but that is in God’s mind. What God did say was, “He is a prophet, and will pray for thee”. That is to say, the prophets of God, the priests of God today pray for the rulers. They do not look upon them as enemies. It is entirely wrong to look at a ruler as an enemy. Government is of God; we respect them, and we pray for them; that is the important point. They are ministers of good to us; they may not mean it, but they are; the Lord sees to that. Even a man like Pilate, miserable politician as he was, is the governor. Matthew stresses the fact that he is the governor. The Lord Jesus recognises him as the governor and He speaks to the governor. “Thou hadst no authority whatever against me if it were not given to thee from above” (John 19:11). So you see the Lord looks at the world as set up of God, and even Pilate who condemned Christ to death is the governor, and only as such possesses that power from heaven. That makes a great difference if we understand it. If they distribute benefits to God’s creatures, well, that is from God; they are ministers of good to thee. Why should I despise that? I am despising the ordinances of God if I despise that. If a politician comes and offers me a benefit then I would not take it. From a government or a king or a president, however, I must take. All such ^[p. 373] benefits are of God, as it were, the best He has. God is always dispensing bounty. The sun shines and the earth is yielding its increase; that is all from God. God gives it today; God is infinitely active in His creation for good, so that I am to understand this great provisional position. Christ has not come yet to reign; the day has not come for that. It is the gospel day, and God has ordained all this, so as to give room for the gospel to show the wonderful disposition of God. That is what it involves. God wants to save you, but He is not going to pass over any trespasses nor will He pass over anyone. We have to judge our sins and confess them, but still God is not challenging you about your sins first. He is offering Christ to you. God is in Christ, He has come down Himself in Christ. God is in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Paul sees that I get that ministry. He is peculiarly the minister of reconciliation, how God is in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses. So that, dear brethren, it is well to get into this line of thought. Abraham represents it; how he prayed for Abimelech, and God answered his prayer. That is an evidence of what he was; he was anointed of God, a prophet and priest. It is priests that pray, and we are all priests, as it says, “A holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).

Now I come to the second scripture I read. It begins with the idea of new creation, that is, “If any one be in Christ”. “In Christ” is not a theoretical idea. “If any one be in Christ, there is a new creation”. That is, God has taken over the work again in that man. New creation is an additional thought to reconciliation. Reconciliation is always viewed as applied to us in the past, that which has happened to believers, it is not what is happening to believers. Believers are characteristically reconciled ^[p. 374] to God, reconciled according to Romans by the death of His Son, and so it is in our passage “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us”. How affecting that is! “That we might become God’s righteousness in him”. It is not the grace of God there, but the righteousness of God, as if God would challenge and say, There is the wickedest man, and that man is converted. Paul is converted, the thief is converted, and millions of others like them. God says, That is My righteousness. Now that the righteousness of God has appeared, not only are we constituted righteous, but we are made the righteousness of God. Think of the result of the death of Jesus; it is all a question of God, how He regards and feels in respect of the sacrifice of Jesus. How liberating to the conscience, how establishing to the conscience, not only I am accounted righteous but made it! The righteousness of God in Christ, that is the line of reconciliation. New creation is another thing. Reconciliation clears the way in the soul for new creation. Reconciliation, so to speak, deals with what is historical, and God can look at the wickedest man and say, ‘That is My righteousness’. You may say, ‘No, it is Your mercy’. ‘No!’ God says, ‘It is My righteousness, it is perfectly, infinitely right to look at that man as righteous on account of the value of the death of My Son’. God made Him to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Well, new creation is another matter, it is not what we were historically, it is wholly new. God has cleared the ground: no one can challenge what He has done, everything is a question of righteousness. Reconciliation is a question of righteousness through the death of Christ, but new creation is another thing. Reconciliation having been effected, righteousness having made it effective, God can begin all over again, so there is no past when it comes to new creation. What He sees of {375} ^[p. 375] earlier days is gone; no past, nor will there be eternally, heaven would not be heaven were we to recall what we used to be. We know all this as we begin over again. God begins over again in new creation. God stands on that. “If any one be in Christ ... a new creation”. It is as new created we belong to the assembly. Even heaven itself will be new created. “New heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13) — everything is to be that. But I cannot proceed on that line, I can only touch that thought. It is, “if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation”. “There is” is not in the original, it is just simply “a new creation” as if God stands on that thought; “if any one be in Christ ... a new creation”; it has already begun.

Well now, I go on to Colossians so as to bring out how the Godhead is emphasised in Colossians. The passage I read in the Authorised Version is not a good translation but I just deal with the facts as presented in it, first that it pleased the Father that in Him all the fulness should dwell. Now “the Father” is not there, “In him all the fulness ... was pleased to dwell” is really the proper thought. Similarly in Hebrews 1:3 where it says He “set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”. The right hand of the greatness, we know what that means; the noun is made personal, it is what God is in greatness. So here it is what God is in fulness, all that could be predicated of the Deity as showing it dwelt in Him, “All the fulness ... was pleased to dwell” there. How it brings out what He has drawn our attention to! It is the Deity that is in mind. The Deity has undertaken to reconcile all things, and persons, to Itself. It is an immense thought, dear brethren, and God means it to affect our minds. The Deity, the Godhead had in mind to effect the reconciliation of all things as well as persons, but first of all it must be as in keeping with Colossians that all the fulness was ^[p. 376] pleased to dwell in Jesus. Think of how great He is! “All the fulness”, not only that It was there but that It was pleased to dwell there — as if It were restful! All that God is, was restful in that Man. How great that thought is! It is the Deity undertaking through Him, by Him to reconcile all things to Itself, things on earth and in heaven, but it is through the blood of His cross. As you will observe, “By him to reconcile all things to itself, having made peace by the blood of his cross”; that is, peace is the foundation of it. God is restful in the whole scene “by the blood of his cross”. It is the supreme thought of the cross, it is the blood of the cross, it is enlarged on; we have to understand that it is the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. Let us not forget that it was there that man was judged, where our old man was dealt with in a most minute way, in sacrifice at the cross. It was with blood, the blood of the Christ, that blood which carries with it the most ignominious judgment as to myself. Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20); that is the judgment I have got of myself, that is what I deserve. One is so thoroughly self-judged that he sees that he is only fit for that, and the blood of the cross has met him at that point, so that God can proceed with His great thought of reconciliation — reconciliation of things on earth and in heaven, and of persons. Who are the persons? The Jews and the gentiles — ourselves. You can see now, dear brethren, how the thing has become very concrete and real; reconciled through the body of His flesh through death to present you holy in His sight. How real that reconciliation is! That is very different from the reconciliation of the world provisionally, for that is only for a time, but our reconciliation is final — to be presented to God without reproach — “Holy and unblamable and irreproachable”. Now that is God’s thought and every christian here can take it to himself. What a mighty ^[p. 377] power it is in the soul that God presents me to Himself in the power of reconciliation! There is not a shade of thought in His mind against me, I am perfectly agreeable to Him. You say, ‘That is new creation’, but it is not, it is reconciliation, there is no question of new creation at all, it is what God has effected “by the blood of his cross”, and “in the body of his flesh through death”, in the death of Christ. Would that God would give us grace in our souls to take it in, it is the test of everything! God is dealing with us now as those He likes. We are material suitable for Him, He is not displeased with us, He is working with us as material. The effect of that is that, as in His counsels, He is pleased with us. You should take that in, that God has not a thought against you, He is pleased with you in the death of the Lord Jesus, through the blood of His cross, and then to emphasise it, it says, “In the body of his flesh through death”.

There is just another final thought in Ephesians, and this brings me to what is collective. I take it from the verse, as you will observe, “That he ... might reconcile both in one body to God by the cross”. Now this raises the whole question as to my relations with the brethren. So far the word has not been stressed as to our relations; it is what we are severally through the death of Jesus. Here it is what we are severally too, but each of us viewed as in one body, Jews and gentiles, of course, but both allied here together; Jews and gentiles because they represented what was diverse from one another. The woman of Samaria says, “The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans” — no dealings — she voiced what has come down to ourselves in the history of God’s people. Christians have divided into sects, each having his own view; it is like the garments of Christ “to every soldier a part”. Public profession is like the garments in which Christ appeared, but how unrepresentative it is! “The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans”, says the woman. Let us come down to ourselves, alas! often among those who have the truth it works out thus. Although we may sit down together and break bread, some of us may have no dealings with the others. How displeasing it is, dear brethren; it is utterly inconsistent, because that one loaf which we break denotes our unity, not only unity, but our being the body in organisation. The figure denotes that we are bound up with joints and bands. An organism is the idea, not simply unity. Unity is right to a point but not good enough, the assembly is Christ’s body of which He is Head. There must be an organism, and “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” That word ‘communion’ does not refer to the loaf only, it is what we break, it refers to the fact that we are in the fellowship of it. The word ‘communion’ is fellowship. We leave the room after the Lord’s supper, it may be, and some of us have no dealings with the others. That is most distressing, most inconsistent; it is abhorrent to the mind of heaven, it is destructive of the truth of the assembly. If there should be any such feeling it should be remedied at once. So in Matthew 5 we have, “If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift” — do not take it away — a gift is not to be recalled, it is right to bring the gift but wrong to offer in the sense that your brother is not with you. In the working out of this, brethren, I know full well our experience is that discipline is required. We have to regret if brethren are not subject to discipline. Discipline is discipline and if anyone attempts to override the judgment of the assembly and assume that he is more gracious than the assembly, he is in a false position, he had better take care, God will have to say to that. I am not ^[p. 379] interfering with that thought of discipline, but the Lord is speaking about a certain thing in chapter 5: “If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift”. I want you to understand that the Lord is speaking abstractly, because there are other things, as I have said. But underneath the offering the Lord imposes upon us a sense of obligation that we must have our brother, we cannot get along without him, we cannot offer without him. To say we have no dealings, or to act in that way, is to have our dealings under discipline. But the Lord is speaking in general terms and in an abstract way, and it underlies the whole position — I must have my brother. I must have him in heaven, I am not at home without him, as offering I must have him, I must have his sympathies. The body cannot exist practically unless I maintain this, and so in Ephesians it brings us to the highest level in this matter, as in all matters; we are reconciled in one body, not by the blood of the cross but by “the cross”. How could Jew and gentile be brought together save as by the mind of God both came to understand His will in the cross, and that will imposes death? “The word of the cross” brings the understanding of it to me. So I understand now that I cannot do without my brother. Though I may fail, abstractly I must never give him up. The Lord does not contemplate that he is irreconcilable; if he understands reconciliation to God he is not irreconcilable, I am likely to get him. Leave your gift and go and be reconciled. He does not say, Let him be reconciled to you; that is not it, but you be reconciled to him, that is the great principle of reconciliation as viewed as affected by reconciliation to God. So I say to myself, I must be reconciled to my brother; that is the thought in ^[p. 380] mind, it may take years but I must see it through. I must have my brother. You understand me now. I am not overlooking discipline and the instructions we get as to discipline, and how that if a man be called a sinner I am not even to eat with him. If he does not work, I am to shrink from him; if he does not work he does not eat either. I am not ignorant of that; I am speaking of the abstract way the Lord said, ‘You must have your brother’; the purpose of God requires it, and so the most alienated people, Jew and gentile, are reconciled. God has done it by the cross, and how? In one body. That is, He has brought us together vitally by the Spirit, the word of the cross entered into that in the complete demolition of both, according to what we are characteristically, complete demolition of them by the cross of Jesus, so that He may reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross.

That is all I had to say. May God help us that He may have a greater place as to public matters, as to assembly matters, and individual matters, that God may be all in all.