RECONCILIATION

2 Corinthians 5: 13–21; Colossians 1: 18–22; Ephesians 2: 11–18

AMB I have suggested these scriptures, beloved brethren, so that we might receive help together in enquiring as to this great subject of reconciliation. We will get help I trust to make it as understandable as possible. It is a fine thing to get some impression of what God means when He uses this word ‘reconciliation’ in the Holy Scriptures. I am sure as we enquire together with the help of the Spirit something of the richness and depth of what God means when the scriptures speak about reconciliation will come before us. The scriptures that we have read give us some idea of what it is. The matter of aliens and alienated is mentioned; that means set apart from and having no right in a matter. That was the condition that formerly we were in. Reconciliation answers that; it changes all of that. Instead of alienation there is suitability and citizenship. The matter of enmity and enemies is mentioned in these scriptures, and reconciliation is the answer to that, it changes all of that. Instead of enmity there is friendliness. And then there is the matter of distance, and reconciliation ends that. Instead of distance there is nearness because that is what God wants.

There is also the matter of how reconciliation is brought about; how does God reconcile us to Himself? These scriptures make clear that the death of Christ is needed. The scripture we read in 2 Corinthians says, “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in him”. The way of suffering and of death, the death of the cross, the blood of the cross, the death of His Son, all of these things underlie the blessed matter of reconciliation. I feel for myself that I do not appreciate or understand enough what it means. My exercise is that we might understand and value more God’s thought in reconciliation. It has been said helpfully that reconciliation is for God and for His pleasure, so that it might, as the scripture in Colossians says, “present you holy and unblamable and irreproachable before it”.

I wondered if in the passage in 2 Corinthians we might get help to see how we are reconciled, and what it is that is reconciled. It must be through the great matter of being “in Christ”, as a result of which there is a new creation and “all things are of the God who has reconciled us to himself’. That is where we have to start.

JS The verse you have referred to is fine, and important in this regard. In new creation, “all things are of the God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ”. You see what God has done for Himself, “to himself by Jesus Christ”. All has been effected through that Person.

AMB Yes, it has been effected “by him”, through the great moral matter that was worked out in His death. We are not reconciled to God as a result of Christ living here, blessed matter though that is, but we are reconciled as a result of His death.

JS Where we commenced reading, “For the love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this—that one died for all, then all have died; and he died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and has been raised”. It immediately brings in the love of Christ as demonstrated in His death, do you think?

AMB Yes, it is good to see the love that underlay all of this blessed work. It is also important to see that what we are after the flesh has gone. That is the force of “that one died for all, then all have died”. We are all in the state of having died—the footnote says ‘proved them to be in’. But then there is life in the believer that is brought out of the death of Christ, it is part of the fruitfulness of that blessed death.

GBG Is reconciliation one of the blessings of the glad tidings which we come into on the principle of faith in Christ? It is done outside of ourselves, therefore it is presented to us in the glad tidings, that we may move into God’s thoughts for us based on the death of Christ.

AMB That must be right. Part of the exercise in suggesting the subject today is that we might come more into the understanding and the enjoyment of reconciliation. It is done outside of ourselves and it is effected for God, but there is tremendous blessing in knowing it in the sense of understanding and experiencing something of it.

GBG It is for God, for God has persons for His pleasure. The apostle says here, “Be reconciled to God”. He is not telling the Corinthians to be reconciled to God. He is saying ‘that is our ministry’. That is the point in it.

AMB Yes, God was beseeching. “We are ambassadors therefore for Christ, God as it were beseeching by us, we entreat for Christ. Be reconciled to God”. There is an abundance of grace in that. God’s desire is that we should not remain at a distance, but that we should come close.

MGW Is it not lovely that when we get to the climax in Romans 5, verse 11, “we are making our boast in God”, but that follows the word “much rather, having been reconciled, we shall be saved in the power of his life”. Every simple believer in Jesus can say, This belongs to me. It is mine and God has done it, and in the next verse I am in the joy of it; but then we work it out through the other chapters in Romans. This is the Christian blessing that has been referred to and it is mine as a simple believer in Jesus.

AMB Yes, and the apostle in writing as he does in Romans and also in Corinthians, has the great desire that they should come into the understanding and enjoyment of it.

JSp Is that the force of new creation going along with it, a subjective work in the believer that enables us to understand and give us capacity to enter into the greatness of the great things that God has brought us into?

AMB Yes, that is helpful. New creation refers to Christ formed in the believer and the Spirit must be intimately involved in that. New creation goes further than reconciliation.

RG New creation has no connection with anything that was before.

AMB Yes, it replaces everything else, “old things have passed away; behold all things have become new”. It has nothing to do with the flesh, certainly, or of nature. This passage suggests how God starts over again in Christ. You might say that it was wonderful that He should have His answer in Christ, but He has also started over again in me, in Christ. God was so delighted with what He had in Christ as Man that He wanted to see that over again.

RG I was thinking “if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer”. You might have thought they had an advantage, but he is pointing out here that they had no advantage, so that allows us all to come in. And this is how we become one of the elite. An ambassador is an elite person, so if you are a reconciled person you are one of the elite, part of what God has purposed to have for Himself, do you think?

AMB You are suggesting we can align ourselves with Paul in being ambassadors for Christ.

JS I was thinking of how this ministry of reconciliation has come to us, “how that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their offences”. God has started afresh in Christ. His attitude, that of reconciliation, has come out in Christ as He was here.

AMB Yes, it seems to me that all that is in Christ is so pleasing to God that it is entirely suitable for His presence. It is for His pleasure and complacency too, and then as a result of the work of Christ and our acceptance of it, there is in the believer what God sees as the beginning of Christ again, reproduced in the believer. We might feel that we know very little about that, but it is God’s intention that that Christ should be reproduced in each one of us, and that that work should take place in myriads. He is reconciling it all to Himself.

JS “If any one be in Christ, there is a new creation”.

AMB Say more about what that means to you.

JS I thought that it brings out what you have been saying about what God has for Himself in persons in Christ.

AMB Yes, it is very important to see that there is nothing in me naturally that is for the pleasure and complacent enjoyment of God. It is only what is in Christ. Therefore we need to be exercised to judge ourselves, and by the Holy Spirit to give more and more place for Christ within us.

MGW Is it affecting that what we read here, “all things are of the God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ”?

AMB Yes, it seems to me that that suggests to us the necessity of Christ’s work and His suffering. It was necessary that that should take place before there could be reconciliation. Everything of the first order goes out of sight in that matter, and what comes into view is Christ.

MGW You mean that love required not reconciliation to a particular place or a particular area, or to a particular order of things, but to God Himself. His love required that. This is pure sunshine, is it not?

AMB This is what God desired. He wanted people on whom He had set His heart to be near to Him, and that required the work of Christ.

RT Is that a complete matter, “reconciled us to himself’? There is no halfway stage, is there?

AMB It is important to say that. There is nothing to be added to the work of Christ in what He has done, and God is perfectly satisfied with that work. As we come into the good of the work by faith then we are reconciled; there is no distance. I would be glad of your help about this. Do you think we need to be exercised to enjoy and be in the appreciation of the experience of reconciliation? That requires exercise on our part.

RT The prodigal has been used as an illustration. He came to himself and moved on his journey, and then he is embraced by the father. The robe, the ring and the shoes are the evidence and the tokens of the father’s pleasure in him in view of him entering the house.

AMB That is a very interesting scripture to think of. The father really removed the distance. He covered it, and then he clothed the son in the best robe, is that like being in Christ?

RT It is to impress upon him the liberty that he is brought into. It was always there for him but the father says, “Bring out the best robe”. It is experience in the soul, and we need to come to it that the Father’s attitude finds a ready reaction in me, and He brings me into the enjoyment of the house.

AMB I think what you have referred to is very helpful. It brings out the fact that reconciliation includes making us suitable for God’s presence and for God’s house.

MGW Do we see something of the vast extent of this in that it goes on to speak about how God was in Christ, not reconciling us to Himself, but reconciling the world to Himself, not reckoning to them their offences?

AMB It is very interesting to see the reference to the world. In the other scriptures there is a reference to “all things”. The extent of reconciliation is to be very wide. Of course God desires that all men should come to salvation, so He has this in mind for all men. I think the world, as you have referred to in verse 19, would be all the people in the world, not the system obviously. You get that wider thought in Colossians as to all things being reconciled, which would appear to go beyond us, and would magnify the glory of Christ to us; He has reconciled all things. There was an earlier reference to reconciliation being one of the great blessings of the gospel. I wondered if you could help us as to the matter of the ministry of reconciliation and the word of reconciliation. I have wondered about that in reading this scripture.

GBG I wondered if the ministry is “Be reconciled to God”. The apostle brought that before persons. “Putting in us the word of that reconciliation” means that such persons would come to an intelligent understanding of it. It would also include that, as the word was put in the apostle and those with him, it would become obvious that these persons who were setting forth the ministry of reconciliation were personally in the enjoyment of it in their attitude and grace towards persons.

AMB That is fine. The ministry of that reconciliation connects with what God was doing in Christ, “God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and given to us the ministry of that reconciliation”. That is God’s action in coming out towards us in Christ, but “the word” was what was in the apostle and is to be in us. It is to have its effect, so that one of the great things about reconciliation which we see most in the passage that we read in Ephesians is the effect that it has among ourselves, between believers.

RG The ministry is the extensiveness of it. It is from God’s side, and there is no limit, and therefore the whole world stands provisionally in reconciliation. But when it comes to the word, it is the practical effect that it is having on me.

AMB Ministry is really what proceeds from Christ Himself, and has what is very expansive in view. But the word is specific and personal.

JSp In 2 Corinthians 10 it says, “I myself, Paul, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ” (2 Corinthians 10: 1). Is that one who expresses the word of that reconciliation? It is in them, it is not only that they are conveying a message but they are imbued with the Spirit of Christ.

AMB It comes out in the believer who knows that God has done this, and why He has done it, and who is in the enjoyment of it. The word of that reconciliation is to come out in such persons. It came out in Paul, as you say. I think that is very helpful, and we are to understand it and to be formed by it. There is no part of the truth that is presented to us in the Scriptures that is purely objective. So that everything that is presented in the Scriptures is to have a formative effect in the believer, and that includes this matter of reconciliation.

JTB(Gr) It says, “God who has ... given to us the ministry of that reconciliation”. But it also says He has put “in us the word of that reconciliation”. Does that involve an answer to the truth as it is presented to us? What God has given to us is presented to us as light, but “putting in us the word of that reconciliation” involves a subjective answer in me to the truth of reconciliation.

AMB That very much agrees with what the brethren have been saying. In writing to the Romans, Paul refers to, “through whom now we have received the reconciliation”, Romans 5: 11. That seems to be the same thought, that something has been put in the believer and is to affect us. It must affect us towards God, but then it affects us in our attitude and relations towards one another.

MGW So we get expressions like “We are ambassadors therefore for Christ, God as it were beseeching by us, we entreat for Christ”. It is very wonderful that God has not only arranged the matter but is beseeching and entreating.

AMB It emphasises the grace that underlies it. Also, the language Paul uses suggests that he was on the inside; he was in the court of the king as it were and, as ambassador, he was coming out to draw and attract others into the enjoyment of it.

MGW His credentials were impeccable. It reminds us of the reference in Luke 15 where the father went out and besought the elder son. You marvel at the grace of all this.

AMB Yes, you do indeed. Paul was one who speaks of himself in all sincerity as the chief of sinners.

APG Can you help us about “that we might become God’s righteousness in him”? Is that more than righteousness being reckoned?

AMB I would be glad of your thoughts about it. I always found this last verse in 2 Corinthians 5 very affecting, “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us”. It is the complete taking away of our sin in a way that deeply affects us because it was laid on the sinless One. It is “that we might become God’s righteousness in him”. That is the standard of God’s righteousness. It is Christ’s righteousness that is God’s righteousness, and we become that in Christ. It seems to me a complete moral replacement, the taking away of the first order and instead we have Christ, a Man entirely pleasing to God. What would you say?

APG We read of the righteousness of God in Romans through faith. I wondered if there was a further advance on that.

JS I was thinking it really looks on to the time of display. God would bring out the saints in Christ and say, ‘There is My righteousness’.

JDG I was thinking along those lines; it is really anticipating the body of glory, which is needed for the full expression of it.

AMB Do we come into the appreciation of what God has done in making Christ sin for us?

JDG Yes, I think that should affect our souls, what the Lord had to go through with a view to the result that God desired.

RT Referring again to the prodigal, the robe, the shoes and the ring, he was in the gain of it, was he not? He was clothed in that for his own pleasure, but primarily for the Father’s pleasure. It was all necessary in view of being in the house.

AMB Yes, the result is the music and the dancing, is it not, “for this my son was dead and has come to life, was lost and has been found” (Luke 15: 24), and “it was right to make merry”, Luke 15: 32?

RT There is no liberty enjoyed really unless this is enjoyed in the soul.

AMB I am sure that is right. As we see what God has done for us in Christ in making Him sin for us, I think that must have the most profound effect on our souls. We see what He suffered in being made sin for us but that is not the end of it. The end is that we might become God’s righteousness in Him. I think it is fine just to see what God has in mind for believers.

RG Do you think the word ‘become’ is a very important word here? God’s righteousness was seen in its entirety in Christ because of who He was as the righteous One; but here the work has been so accomplished that now, as by the Spirit, we can become God’s righteousness in Him. We can be here as persons that are in the process of becoming as Christ is, for the display in glory as has been referred to already.

AMB We become what we certainly were not before because of what God has done. Is the ‘becoming’ you speak of something that is a matter of status, that is once and for all, or is it something that we grow in?

RG For myself I think it is something that we grow in. When the younger son came in, he had all conferred on him, but then he would grow in his appreciation of what was conferred on him in the presence of his father.

AMB In one sense, as soon as he came to himself, and as soon as the father covered the distance that was his position as son reaffirmed, but he was not enjoying it yet. He would grow in his enjoyment of it and his experience of it, and practically he would show it as well.

JSp Would this be the working out of the scripture in Hebrews which says, “He takes away the first that he may establish the second”, Hebrews 10: 9?

AMB Yes, in one sense that has been done once and for all, but it is worked out in believers, and it is a process in that sense. It is very good for each one of us to have in our souls the knowledge and the assurance that that is what God has done; he has taken away the first that He may establish the second. Where am I in relation to that? That is the question for me.

The scripture we read in Colossians says about Christ, “And he is the head of the body, the assembly; who is the beginning, firstborn from among the dead”. It goes on, “by him to reconcile all things to itself, having made peace by the blood of his cross”. So we have the very affecting matter of the blood of His cross coming in as the great basis for reconciliation. And “all things” are in view, “whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens”.

Then it says, “And you”, these Gentile believers, “who once were alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works, yet now has it reconciled in the body of his flesh through death”, by the Fulness. I thought we might see from this scripture what God has in view. You might say, “Why reconciliation?” The answer is “to present you holy and unblamable and irreproachable before it”.

JS That is a great change from being alienated and

enemies, to be made presentable, holy and unblamable and irreproachable before it, before the Godhead.

AMB It is the utmost blessing and we might reverently say that the whole resource of the Godhead, the fulness of the Godhead, is engaged in reconciling all things and reconciling us to Itself.

JS You made some comments at the beginning on this matter of being alienated and enemies. Can you say something more on that?

AMB As we seek to understand what this word means, we can see by the context in which it is used what God means by reconciliation. What was once alienated, that is us as away from God, without any right or title, and utterly unsuitable to His presence, is brought in in suitability and as belonging. It is the polar opposite of alienation. Where once, because of what we were, we were alienated, now we are accepted, we are suitable and we belong. And then we were enemies; it is a very sobering thing that, enemies in mind. It has been said in ministry that that cannot be corrected. It is irreparable (see FER Vol. 13, p.387). Reconciliation comes in and, instead of that, there is nearness and friendliness. Distance is gone as well. These are glorious matters. It gives us some idea of what is in the heart of God for us.

JS How it has been effected is in “the body of his flesh through death”.

AMB We do not have reconciliation referred to in these paragraphs without some reference to Christ’s death, to the blood of His cross or to His body. That underlies the preciousness of His work and His suffering love for us in dying; it underlies the fact that God is able to reconcile us.

JS I think it should really affect us that He has come into a body of flesh and blood, such a condition, in order that it should be accomplished through His death.

AMB I think that is a very important point. I understand that in the past there may have been those who taught in circles in Christendom, that Christ’s coming into flesh reconciled God to man, that there was in that life of His in flesh and blood what reconciled God and man, but that was a fundamental misunderstanding.

It is a complete misunderstanding of the scriptures—it is clear that it required His death. It required the blood of His cross and the body of His flesh through death.

GBG It says, “by him to reconcile all things to itself, having made peace by the blood of his cross”. It refers to all things and it comes down to ourselves; “And you ... has it reconciled in the body of his flesh through death”. We are involved in that when it comes down to responsible beings like ourselves who in our bodies were at enmity. Is that why it says, “reconciled in the body of his flesh through death”?

AMB It is the body in which He suffered, and in which He took away the old order of man that had so offended God, the order that was so alien to God and was at enmity with Him. It was in His body that He took that away, took it for ever out of the sight of God. So His blood accomplished redemption, and that is a very wide thought. The body of His flesh through death is what is needed for us, for you and me, and we have to accept Christ’s death in that way.

SMcL Can you tell us why he uses these three words in verse 22, “holy and unblamable and irreproachable before it”? You might think that one would be enough.

AMB What I thought as reading it, simply was the fulness and blessedness of what God has in mind in reconciling us, that as reconciled we are wholly suitable to God’s presence. We have not come into relationship yet; that is not stressed in the thought of reconciliation. But we are entirely suitable for His presence. Being holy conveys the thought of God’s eye being able to rest complacently on those who are holy; “unblamable and irreproachable” are additional thoughts.

SMcL I was thinking again of the example that has been given of the younger son in Luke 15. There was an attempt to reproach, but the father refuted that.

AMB What the elder son brought in, the father was able to refute because of what had been done.

RG In Ephesians we get “holy and blameless”. That is us in our place that was purposed for us. But here the footnote is helpful, ‘one against whom no charge can be brought’. That is unblamable and irreproachable. In the public domain that Colosse was, no one who knew them before could bring any reproach or any blame because their position was secure, do you think?

AMB So speaking simply, nothing could be made to stick against these believers. But then we are to have the sense that that is what we are to enjoy and it is what we are in the presence of God; it is a tremendous thing.

JDG I was looking at Romans 3, verse 26, “for the shewing forth of his righteousness in the present time, so that he should be just, and justify him that is of the faith of Jesus”. That is a reconciled man.

AMB And God loves to do that. He has the wherewithal because of the work of Christ.

JSp So that we are able to anticipate the whole universe of bliss. I am thinking of the scripture in James 1, verse 18, “According to his own will begat he us by the word of truth, that we should be a certain first-fruits of his creatures”. That really anticipates the whole reconciled universe, a company of saints that have been brought into this position, do you think?

AMB I am very glad that you reminded us of that because this is for God, and it is a fine thing to have our spiritual sensitivities exercised to see why it is of such pleasure to God.

This is what He has set His heart on, and what He sees in reconciled people is Christ, and He is entirely satisfied with that. We use the word ‘complacent’, meaning there is nothing to interrupt or to hinder God’s pleasure in what He sees. What you say about the entire universe, that is what God will have and He sees the first-fruits of it in the saints.

TCM Does the reference to the fulness of the Godhead, both in verse 19 and verse 22, bring out God’s will that this should be known, should be brought about and known by His creature?

AMB Yes, it seems to suggest the breadth of operations in grace, the fulness of the Godhead, God made known in that

way, as Father and Son and Holy Spirit, all in the activity of grace that this should be so. It also elevates the thoughts that are before us. I wondered if the brethren would be able to help too as to why the setting of this reference to reconciliation in Colossians is to Christ as “head of the body, the assembly; who is the beginning, firstborn from among the dead”.

MGW I have been wondering about that. What is filling the apostle’s heart is Christ.

Going through the chapter, all things have been created by Him and for Him, He is before all, all things subsist together by Him, He is the head of the body, the assembly, the beginning, first-born from among the dead, that he might have the first place in all things, the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell. Paul’s heart is full here. He is talking about the greatness of Christ and he is running on to this subject of reconciliation. It is most affecting but I do not know if that helps your enquiry.

AMB I think the apostle’s mind and heart are flowing on here, as you say. So he has the thought before him of Christ as “head of the body, the assembly”, and then as “the beginning, firstborn from among the dead”. The thought that is in the apostle’s heart seems to be the Lord giving character—as the Head He gives character. It is the body that He gives character to; and then He is to have the first place in all things. That is looking forward to everything taking character from Him. What is reconciled is all of Christ. There is nothing that is not of Christ and in Christ that is reconciled.

JS Shall we go on to Ephesians?

AMB We see another presentation of the matter here, besides the very blessed matter of being reconciled to God which we get in verse 16, “reconcile both in one body to God by the cross”. That is a reference again to the cross which we were speaking of earlier, but that He might reconcile both. Now that is Jew and Gentile. As well as reconciliation to God for God’s pleasure, there is the matter of reconciliation between the Jew and the Gentile. That is what this scripture brings before us, and that in turn makes us think of the body; for that is a great characteristic of the body, there is unity in it, reconciliation of its members to one another, and then all to be reconciled to God. That was what was in my mind. One of the great matters that God takes pleasure in, in reconciled people being before Him, is that they are reconciled to each other.

JS What is referred to, reconciliation between Jew and Gentile, that is possibly the greatest distance between man and man that has been removed. It shows that others can be brought into reconciliation towards one another, do you think?

AMB Yes, if it is possible for Jew and Gentile to be reconciled, any extent of reconciliation is possible.

RG It is easy to understand it about Jew and Gentile, but how do you apply it today?

Does it mean that it does not matter what their background has been or is, all that has to go, and does go in reconciliation, no matter how you have come, or from what ecclesiastical system you have come, or from what social class you have come, or inherent enmity you might have because of these things in others? That all goes, does it not?

AMB Everything of the flesh.

RG So that reconciliation means that as being all of one, Christ is represented, do you think?

AMB What you have just said at the end makes it all possible because if Christ is in me, and Christ is in you, then there will be no difficulty, nor hesitation about us being reconciled.

RT Does the Lord give an example of it in Matthew that if you bring your gift to the altar it is not acceptable until you are reconciled to your brother (Matthew 5: 23, 24)? So it is in view of access. You cannot have access unless you are in the gain and enjoyment of reconciliation.

AMB And generally in Ephesians the apostle has in mind what is together, what is collective. The matter of access that you refer to is in verse 18, it says, “For through him we have both access”, so the apostle really has what is collective before him. There is not to be any discord or disunity in that before God because all that enmity has been taken away, has been slain.

JS Does the forming of the “two in himself into one new man” come into this? Is it really persons who have taken on the character of Christ?

AMB Really the reason why believers can be reconciled together is that they have taken on these features. We have to learn that we have to “put on the new man, which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness”, Ephesians 4: 24. These are infinitely compatible characteristics, truthful righteousness and holiness in you, and truthful righteousness and holiness in me are entirely compatible. We will seek one another out, and delight to be together and reconciled in that way.

JS Does this element of peace come into it as well? It is quite striking that the thought of peace is brought in; “he is our peace” is a reference to Christ “that he might form the two in himself into one new man, making peace”. So that if it is based on righteousness there are conditions of peace established, would you think?

AMB It is only God who can do that, righteousness and peace, loving-kindness and truth; God has them to go together (see Psalm 85: 10), and as we work out these things practically there is what is substantially and tangibly pleasing to God in it.

GBG So is reconciliation in view of fully enjoying the access through Him by one Spirit, and is there an outflow from that also as we enjoy these eternal relationships? There is nothing better than enjoying these things together and it has an effect on us. We need to be very careful that we do not disturb these sensitive relationships, especially after we enjoy them in a collective way on the first day of the week. This access leads to outflow. We are

“fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God”, and being fitted together all suggests the flowing out of what we enjoy in privilege.

AMB I am glad that you refer to that because it is all one line to the end of the chapter. Maybe we should have read it all. What you are saying provides an example of what was said earlier about every aspect of the truth having its practical subjective effect. That is, it is to be worked out and it is to result in appreciation and enjoyment in my heart. We should be exercised that this should be maintained, as you say. I think what you have said is just a word to me; I need to be very careful that I do not allow anything in my spirit that would set me at odds with my brother or sister, and lead to something that is not suitable to the enjoyment of God’s presence or access there.

ADM Do you think Paul and Barnabas in their journey in Acts 13 really went out from a sound base in Antioch? Do you think the principle of reconciliation was working there, leading to the success of their ministry, both evangelically and ecclesiastically, in the formation of assemblies? They went out from a solid base.

AMB Yes, every nation and ethnic group seemed to be represented at Antioch, and the Holy Spirit was free there. Was that what you had in mind? They went out together. Say more.

ADM It was obvious that reconciliation had taken place because these persons were from the opposite ends of society, you might say, and there was nothing naturally to hold them together. Do you think the truth had had a practical and formative effect with them?

Earlier on it says that Barnabas went away to seek out Saul.

AMB It says, “having fasted and prayed, and having laid their hands on them, they let them go”, Acts 13: 3. It is a lovely picture of exactly what you say. Here is a local assembly that is marked by reconciliation, known and enjoyed among the saints. We can see what flows out from an appreciation of the truth. It affects us.

JS I was thinking it is in mind that in reconciliation we are brought near to God, but this scripture has in mind that we should be brought near to one another.

AMB Yes, that is for our enjoyment, but also for God’s glory and for a return to Him, this access has that in view.

JS So the idea of both having access is that we are together. Ephesians brings in the idea of being together in these things.

AMB Yes, indeed it does.

RG Just following on what has been said we are brought near to God, and we are brought near to one another, that God might be dwelling amongst us—“a habitation of God” (Ephesians 2: 22), it says. The great result is to be that God is pleased to dwell with men, do you think?

AMB I think we should finish with that thought, because it is what the scripture leads to. It has been drawn attention to, that there is a building together and it is for God’s dwelling. There are conditions that are entirely suitable for Him to dwell, and it is all His work, all the work of Christ.

Reading at Dundee
8 September 2007

KEY TO INITIALS

A. M. Brown

J. D. Gray

J. Spinks

J. T. Brown (Gr.)

S. McLaren

J. Strachan

R. Gardiner

A. D. Munro

R. Taylor

A. P. Grant

T. C. Munro

M. G. Wood

G. B. Grant