THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION
Let me begin by saying verse 17 should read, “If anyone be in Christ, there is a new creation”.
On a previous occasion we attempted to present new covenant ministry from chapter 3 of this epistle: we would like now to say a few words about reconciliation.
The great point in new covenant ministry is, what God is towards us in His love, only as we remarked the thought in ministry is not merely the setting forth of things, but that by which the things set forth are made good in our souls. Nothing could exceed the importance of new covenant ministry, because the great point is, it is on God’s part. He is revealed in all His love toward us, and on our part, we come to know Him as thus revealed. I would like to make that emphatic. It is a serious mistake to think that any other ministry could possibly exceed new covenant ministry. Indeed, but for new covenant ministry the ministry of reconciliation would not be possible, nor would there be any necessity for it. Yet the two are distinct, and I have no doubt of the divine order in which it is given, You get in the end of the first Epistle to the Corinthians the ministry of the gospel, not merely what is set forth, but what is made effectual. You remember the opening of chapter 15, there is not only the setting forth of facts—“Christ died for our sins”, &c., but there is the careful statement of the effect of the ministry. “By which also ye are saved”. Then in 2 Corinthians 3 we have new covenant ministry, and here, chapter 4, the ministry of reconciliation, I repeat, I have no doubt that it is given in divine order. In the order of the work of God in our souls we begin with the gospel, we go on to the new covenant ministry and then to the ministry of reconciliation. There is one very encouraging fact (though we speak of it as threefold ministry, and we are free to do so, for scripture abundantly warrants our distinguishing the threefold ministry), it is all about Christ—it all has to do with God as revealed in Christ, so that there is nothing to perplex or to divert us, no multiplicity of objects; but still I would like to point out the distinctions.
In the ministry of the gospel as in that of the new covenant God comes out and approaches man in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is what God is in His grace and in His love toward us; but in the ministry of reconciliation it is what we are toward God.
We never learn truth by regarding ourselves. The whole truth of Christianity has been set forth perfectly in the Lord Jesus Christ as a Man; we learn it in Him. We know the difficulty that is encountered by many souls in connection with the gospel; but it can invariably be traced to one simple fact, and that is, souls try to learn the truth of the gospel in connection with themselves: it can never be learned in that way, we must learn it in connection with Christ, it is set forth in Him. Romans 5: 5 is a striking illustration of what I say, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts”, but we do not learn the love of God by studying our hearts. Introspection in Christianity is a most pernicious thing. Having told us that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts the Spirit of God turns our attention to the evidence of that love. It is outside ourselves; it is in the death of Christ that we learn everything in connection with Himself. It is so with the ministry of reconciliation.
Now let me name a point of importance (it is nothing new, you will find it plainly set forth in the writings of Mr Wigram, Mr Darby and Mr Stoney; they put it in very clear form years ago), speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ as a divine Person, scripture says of Him, “The Word became flesh”, John 1: 14. No human book ever put it like that; that is the divine way—the perfect way. There is His place as Man in connection with the revelation of God; the setting forth of what God is in righteousness and grace. The law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by and subsists through Jesus Christ, and in the new covenant you get the perfect setting forth of it in righteous power. Love is absolutely set forth in Him. It is wonderful to apprehend and appreciate what He is as Man and as Revealer of God. He perfectly sets forth what God is towards man.
Now the second point is not so readily apprehended: I refer to the place which the Lord Jesus has taken as a Man Godward. We see His place on God’s side manward much more readily; saints are generally clear on that side, but what about His place on our side Godward? Now it is in this that we come to reconciliation and new creation. New covenant ministry involves the work of God in us, but nowhere are we told that it involves new creation. “If anyone be in Christ, there is new creation”. That is a momentous expression. In Christ you have new creation. The apostle here speaks of the individual. “If anyone”, but he does not say that the person is new creation, he says of that person, “there is a new creation”, Darby Translation. “He is” is an incorrect and unfortunate addition to that scripture. The excellent translators of the King James’ Version had no spiritual apprehension of new creation, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” will not do. Reconciliation involves being in Christ and new creation.
Hence it involves the body of Christ. You do not get one body in new covenant ministry. In Romans 12: 5 (Romans is fundamental) you get “one body in Christ”. In Ephesians 2 you get both Jews and Gentiles reconciled to God in one body; and then again there is something else connected with new creation, and that is the new man. You get it in both Ephesians and Colossians. Take Ephesians 4: 24, it is not an exhortation, it is not put in that way. We are not exhorted to put off the old man and to put on the new. The fact is stated that you have put off the old and put on the new. You get the same thing in Colossians 3. The point is the new man. What about him? “Which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness”, Eph 4: 24. In Colossians 3: 10 we get, “according to the image of him that has created him”. It is a new man, a new creation of God. In Ephesians it is not simply, as in Colossians, the thought of freshness and brightness, but it is that which never existed before—a new creation of God in truthful righteousness and holiness. I may put it in an awkward way, but I hope you will get hold of the thought of God in it.
Reconciliation is presented in Christ as Man on our side Godward. If you take the thought of His death there is no more simple statement of it than “He hath made him to be sin for us”, but what a marvellous statement it is! It is carefully added, “who knew no sin”. There are three statements made of the Lord in respect of sin, “He did no sin” (1 Pet 2: 2), “who knew no sin”, “in him is no sin”, 1 John 3: 5. Of course we know that He never sinned, but there it is a stronger statement, because under certain conditions believers do not sin, “He that abideth in him sinneth not”. 1 John 3: 6. But mark what is said of the Lord, “in him is no sin”. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves”, 1 John 1: 8. God has put that stamp on every one who says he has no sin. I was once well acquainted with people who went in for two applications of the blood of Christ. Their idea was as if they were always lying in a brook which was always cleansing them. They would say that their inward sin was cleansed out like a washed garment. Every bit of that kind of thing is outside of scripture. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves”. But what about the Lord? “In him was no sin”. Adam was created in innocence. You and I have to go back to natural birth, like the Psalmist—shapen in iniquity, conceived in sin (Ps 51: 5)—that is the characteristic condition; we spring from a man whose fall has corrupted the race. But as to the Lord, it was not only that He did, no sin, or that in Him was no sin, but He “knew no sin”. He was the holy One of God. When in 1848 it was propounded that the Lord Jesus Christ as a Man was, in virtue of identifying Himself with Israel, subject to God’s governmental wrath—at a distance from Him!—it was a good thing for us that J N Darby stood for the truth of His Person; had it been otherwise we should not have the rich heritage of the truth of God which is ours today: He “knew no sin”, otherwise He could not have been made sin; His qualification was His absolute perfection, His unsullied holiness. “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”. That is reconciliation. In Him man is made perfectly suitable to God, so that God has perfect complacency, perfect pleasure in man. Take the opening of Luke; the angel announces the birth of Christ, and suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”, Luke 2: 14. That is the point in reconciliation. Read that side by side with Genesis 6: 6, “it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart”. Think of that! Then look at that blessed One under the eye of God, a babe in swaddling clothes, all heaven in accord, the angelic host sweeps down from the plains of light and glory praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”. That is the idea of reconciliation. Then that blessed One goes into death; He becomes the sin-offering. That is the point in Romans, “God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh”. God has laid the foundation of reconciliation in the death of Christ. “He hath made him to be sin for us”. Mark those two words “for us”. You might have said, “‘It is wonderful, but who is it for?”’ Do not hesitate to put yourself in the portion of that “us”, you have a place there; that little word “us” embraces every beloved believer.
Well, beloved, there is the foundation, there is the basis, but now I would like to shew the effect of it and in what connection it stands. It is not a question now of what God is for us, but of what we are for God. Reconciliation is on that side. It is set forth in parable in Luke 15; the father had compassion on the younger son—he ran and fell on his neck, and (the way it is put in the Greek is beautiful) “covered him with kisses”. Actions speak louder than words. Is there any need for the father to say, ‘I am glad to see you’, when he was on his neck kissing him? How the father’s joy and delight at his return must have spoken to the heart of the young man, and then he can confess his sin. When he was hugged by his father it was easy to him to confess. He says, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight”. Now we get reconciliation; the father speaks, not now to him but to the servants, “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet”. What is all this for? He is to be made suitable to his father. The best robe is reconciliation, and the ring and sandals are the accompaniments of reconciliation. Paul felt the pressure of the ring when he wrote the end of Romans 8. Thank God there is something in Christianity that has no end. Put sandals on his feet—that is sonship. These are the accompaniments of reconciliation. The object is that when the son finds himself face to face with his father, the banquet on, he is perfectly at home; that is where reconciliation comes in. Do you know what it is to be perfectly at home in the presence of God? If we were more in the good of reconciliation we should have more freedom as worshippers, we should be so at home in the very presence of God.
Then there is another side, “That he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross”, Eph 2: 16. How does it work out now? In relation to each other, just think of fifty or a hundred saints in the good of reconciliation! there would be no trouble among them. The thing that is at the bottom of trouble is the flesh; the flesh is gone in reconciliation. New creation is not a mixture of iron and clay and no cohesiveness; is “created according to God in truthful righteousness and holiness”, Eph 4: 24. Ah, beloved! if we knew more about it we should be beyond all suspicious fear of each other. By-and-bye we shall be actually—not only in faith—but actually apart from the flesh; we shall get along all right then, but we may get along all right now. Look, beloved, we may get our heads filled with doctrine, but it is one thing to have one’s head filled, and another thing to have divine things in spiritual vitality in one’s soul. We need the ministry of reconciliation. What for? Is it simply to sit down in rhapsody? We need it that we may be here for the pleasure of God, for the pleasure of Christ, walking in happy relations together. We should be walking like trained soldiers, keeping step, “think the same thing, joined in soul”, “having the same love”, Phil 2: 2. The ministry of reconciliation will bring this about. And let me say the ministry of reconciliation is for all saints. May the Lord encourage our hearts with regard to it.