Cross Talks #5

THE “IFS” AND “BUTS” OF

THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

Very early on Sunday morning, a group of women left the city carrying armloads of spices. When they arrived at the place of burial, they noted that the sun had peeked over the horizon casting a golden hew on the scene. The birds had been singing their morning song for an hour already. A gentle mist floated above the ground where some soldiers slept. Two other soldiers stood guard outside the tomb of the one the women sought.

            A heavy stone overwhelmed the entrance to the tomb. An unbroken imperial seal of Roman origin indicated that the stone had not moved. The guards themselves appeared gruff and unwelcoming. Would the guards help them move the stone to anoint the body with perfumes and spices? Trembling, they broached the question. No, the soldiers replied, this tomb will not be opened for anyone, by order of the governor.

            With ceaseless sorrow added to sorrow, the women left the tomb and headed home, leaving the one they loved uncared for in a borrowed tomb. Jesus of Nazareth was dead. And he did not rise on the third day, as he said he would.

            That’s the story of Jesus’ death without the resurrection. Makes for a depressing story doesn’t it?

            What if Jesus was not raised from the dead? This sounds like a question born of doubt. But it is actually a biblical question. Paul uses the word “if” to show us how much hangs on the bodily resurrection of our Lord. This little word, “if,” challenges us to think of the possibilities.

            What difference would it have made if Jesus had not risen from the dead?

            We talk about the cross of Christ, his death and what that accomplished. But what does the resurrection add to the redemption story? Paul presents us with a problem in 1 Corinthians 15:12-13, then gives us six history-changing facts if Jesus was not raised. Let’s explores the “ifs” and “buts.”

The Problem: What if there is no resurrection?

The Corinthians had a peculiar issue with the resurrection of Jesus. They believed that Jesus had risen from the dead, but they did not believe that there was a general resurrection where they would all rise from the dead. It seems strange to us that they would accept the first part but not the second. We see them as linked. But according to Paul in v. 12 that is exactly what they are saying.

            Paul just finished writing to them about the death of Jesus, as foretold in the prophets, and that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures. They believed that, but they didn’t believe that Christians would one day rise from the dead. There were several reasons for this: false teaching, a faulty understanding of the Second Coming of Christ, etc.

            But Paul contends with their faulty logic. If you believe that Christ was raised from the dead, is that not evidence of the resurrection of all people? If you deny the resurrection of dead there are serious consequences to that thinking. “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised” (13).

            Paul’s logic is clear. The two facts are woven together. If human bodies cannot survive death, then Christ’s body did not survive death, because having a human body (flesh and blood) just like ours, you can’t argue, “Well, he rose, but we can’t.” If Christ was not raised from the dead there is no hope for our resurrection. But if Christ was raised then we will be raised from the dead also. The two cannot be separated.

            Underlying their logic was Greek thinking. Greek philosophy taught that all things physical were evil or corrupt. The Corinthians thus could not fathom that these bodies were of any use after we died. All things physical were but a shadow of the spiritual reality in heaven. Why would God want to raise our sinful, dying bodies from the grave after our death? But if these bodies are worthless, of no use in the spiritual realm, then Christ has not been raised either.

The Consequences

Paul continues to unpack their faulty logic with “if” statements. What would the world be like if Christ had not been raised? What if the women had found the tomb as I described it in the beginning? What would the church be like today without the risen Christ?

            There are six consequences of such a scenario:

1. Our preaching is a waste of time – Paul uses the word “vain” which means “empty” or “having no substance.” All the messages you have heard, all the services you have attended, all the Christian books you have read – all of it – would be a total waste of time if Jesus was not raised.

            But some would say that we still have Jesus’ teachings. The Sermon on the Mount is good ethical stuff – how to treat each other. Jesus would have died for our sins, even if he is not alive, right?

            Trouble is, Jesus said he would rise again. He said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will build it again” and he was talking about his body. So since he did not rise again he’s kind of a liar, or deluded. And that makes his teaching null and void.

2. Our faith is useless – If we say that Christ died for our sins, but the resurrection is just a bonus, we miss out on a huge piece of the gospel. If Christ died for our sins, how do we know that his death actually accomplished anything? If Christ remained in the tomb, we would never know if God had accepted his sacrifice. The atonement would be without validation.

            Why go to church if our faith is only about ethical living? Why study the Bible if it’s just a book of outdated rules? Why pray if we don’t have access to God through Christ? Our faith is pretty flimsy.

3. We are false witnesses of God – As one writer put it, if the resurrection never happened, the apostles are the world’s greatest liars. And preachers, we are telling people that Jesus rose from the dead. Well, if God did not raise Jesus from the dead and we are telling everyone he did, then we are obviously saying things about God that aren’t true. Paul himself declared, “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful” (4:1-2). This is a serious charge of slander, in that case.

4. We are still sinners – Now it’s getting personal. If Christ has not been raised from the dead “your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (17). If there is a God, we will have to stand before him and be judged because without the resurrection there is no forgiveness of sins. Paul makes the argument in Romans that Jesus “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (4:25). Without the resurrection there is no justification – our sins have not been dealt with. As a result, there is no mercy for you and me. And without the living Christ, there is no advocate before the throne of God to defend us from Satan’s accusations, to say “I’ve paid the penalty.”

5. Our loved ones are lost forever – Paul says that those who have died have “fallen asleep in Christ.” The Greek word for “fallen asleep” is koimao, the root of koimeteria, from which we get the English word “cemetery.” So “cemetery” means “the sleeping place,” something deeply significant for Christians who believe in the resurrection. When you go to sleep, you expect to wake up. Christians have this hope that dying is sleeping, and sleeping we will awake to the Day of the Lord, the day of resurrection.

            But if Christ has not been raised, everyone who dies perishes. You can take that different ways. To some “perish” is to cease to exist; to others it is an eternity of torment. Either way it does not give us hope for a good post-death experience.

6. We are pathetic – Finally, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (19). If Christ has not been raised from the dead, why are we following a man who lied to us? Let me ask you this: Would you still be a Christian if there is no resurrection?

            If Christ has not been raised, then we have no message to preach.

            If Christ has not been raised, there is no God to hear our prayers.

            If Christ has not been raised, we are not saved.

            If Christ has not been raised, we might as well bring the missionaries home.

            If Christ has not been raised, Christianity is a joke and a farce that no one should even consider.

“BUT” – The Great Reversal

Paul has made his point. He has dismantled the foolish argument of a limited resurrection. And he turns this whole thing on its head when he says, “BUT in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (20).

            You have heard of the term “firstfruits” before; it refers to the first part of any harvest. For the Israelites in the OT, it meant the first part of the barley harvest or some other crop that was offered to the Lord. It was a day of thanksgiving and gladness because it meant that there was a bigger harvest yet to come. What the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead means then is that one day all who have died will be raised to life.

            Paul makes it very clear in the following verses of 1 Corinthians 15 that death will be destroyed (26) and that our bodies will be raised up and transformed (35-41). A lot of Christians look shocked when I tell them this: God’s not done with your body. We put it in the ground when you die, but, Paul says, at the sound of the trumpet, we will be raised with imperishable bodies (52). Heaven is not going to be full of disembodied spirits floating around; we will have bodies. We will have bodies because Christ’s body was raised to life. (And we won’t be living in heaven – heaven is the dwelling of God. We will be living on the new earth, which will somehow overlap the new heaven: Rev. 21:1-4).

            All of this will happen because Jesus is alive. The resurrection of Jesus is the exclamation point of God’s joy and celebration of what Christ did in dying for humankind. Christ is alive – he lives for us, to deliver us powerfully from sin and death.

            So because of this great reversal, all the “ifs” are turned over by the joyful “But in fact…” Therefore:

Our preaching has purpose. Testify about the hope we have in the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

Our faith is powerful. Believing in the risen Jesus gives credibility to our faith.

We testify that God raises the dead. And we are not misrepresenting God because he had done it.

We are forgiven and free. We are no longer slaves to sin. Jesus has set us free by his death AND resurrection. That is the whole gospel.

Our loved ones in Christ ARE with the Lord. We do not grieve like the rest of humankind that has no hope for we believe that Jesus is coming back to raise the dead from their sleep.

We are to be envied for the hope we have in Christ! For there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved in such an awesome way.

Timothy Keller said of the resurrection: “If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said. If he did not rise from the dead then why worry about any of what he said. The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching, but whether or not he rose from the dead.”

What more can I say?

            “Up from the grave He arose

            With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,

            He arose a victor o’er the dark domain,

            And He lives forever with His saints to reign!

            He arose! He arose!

            Hallelujah! Christ arose!

                                                AMEN 

Cross Talks #4

HOW THE CROSS IMPACTS YOU TODAY

What does the cross mean for you?

            We see it on a building we call “the church.” We see it hanging from necklaces and emblazoned as a tattoo on the skin. We see it as earrings or bumper stickers. Sometimes we see the cross hanging from the ear of a heavy metal singer. I’m not sure what the cross means in any of those places.

            The pop singer, Madonna, once said, “It’s sexy to wear a crucifix because there’s a naked man on it.” Her statement reflects a sick movement in secular rock music to empty the cross of its meaning. Unfortunately, the movement began in the church. The cross used to stand for Jesus – the suffering of Jesus. Now it adorns business cards and buildings for an institution that is often afraid to speak of the cross.

            What is the cross? It is a horrid form of execution. Thousands have died on that rough instrument. But one man died on his cross and forever changed its importance to the world. Now it is the center of the universe, the nexus of history, the most meaningful event that ever took place. Someone went so far as to say the crucifixion of Jesus is the only thing that ever really happened.

            The Son of God died on a cross. No one dies that way anymore. Jesus did. What does this mean for you?

            The crucifixion event was 2000 years ago, you say, what does it matter today? That is a really good question. I am glad that Jesus died for me on that horrible cross so that I could be forgiven. But that’s a past event. How does the message of the cross impact my life today and every day? Does the cross of Christ have a daily affect on my life?

            To answer this question we will turn to three passages in Galatians that will bring the cross forward to 2017.

 I have been crucified with Christ

If you could choose one verse to sum up your life, what would it be? If you could choose a verse for your tombstone, or if someone wrote a biography of your life and put one verse at the top of the preface, what verse would best summarize your experience as a Christian?

            Out of all the great verses in the Bible, I would like to suggest Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Memorization may have gone out of style but this is one we ought to know by heart.

            The first phrase “I have been crucified with Christ,” answers the question posed by Paul’s audience in Galatia: What do I need to do to maintain a relationship with God? In verses 15-16 we get the impression that some people were pressing for rules to be set up so that Christians would live the “right way.” You know I am talking about the Jews and their law. But you also know that we as 21^st century Christians also like to set up rules to determine who is in and who is out as far as authentic Christianity is concerned. I am guilty of this; we are all guilty of this.

            So Paul’s answer to the need for a righteousness that comes through the law and doing the right things is this: I have been crucified with Christ. But what does that mean?

            A young man approached AW Tozer and asked, “What does it mean as far as this life is concerned to be ‘crucified with Christ’?” Tozer replied, “It means three things: (1) a man on a cross is facing in only one direction; (2) he is not going back(goodbye to the past and past life) ; and (3) he has no further plans of his own.”

            What Tozer identified in crucifixion is the “death” aspect. When a man gets nailed to a cross he is going to die. And when he is dead, his obligations and debts and expectations of the past life are null and void. Dead is dead.

            Paul writes that to put our trust in Christ is to die with him. We join him in his death on the cross; we join him in the tomb; and we join him in his resurrection. This is what baptism symbolizes according to Romans 6:4-6 (read).

            That’s fine, you might say, we are figuratively dead, but you and I know I am very much alive. I haven’t actually died. No, but by believing in Jesus and identifying with his death on the cross in the past we receive the spiritual benefits of the cross as a present reality. We are dead.

            What does that mean? It means that you are dead to the law and there is nothing you can do or need to do to make God love you any more than he already does. You no longer live in frustration; Christ who perfectly satisfies the Father lives in you. Now we live by faith in the finished work of Christ and not in our feeble efforts.

I am daily crucifying my sinful nature

Now that we are united with Christ in his death, the old life is finished. You are a new creation. As a new creation you do not want to continue living as you did before. You have a new life through faith in Christ. With Christ living in us, he gives us new desires for holiness, for God, and for God’s kingdom. It is not that we cannot sin again – we certainly can and do. But we don’t want to.[i]

            Our second verse from Galatians explains the result of being crucified with Christ. “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (5:24).

            Note the difference in actions. “I have been crucified with Christ,” denotes a perfect tense where being crucified is something that was done to us through faith. Here, we are the ones doing the crucifying. We are crucifying the flesh, or the sinful nature, that inner desire to do what we want when we want no matter who it hurts, God included. We are killing that nature.

            Paul is borrowing this imagery from Luke 9:23 where Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Jesus uses a vivid figure of speech to talk about self-denial. The intention is that we will take up our cross and not only walk with it, but make sure that the execution takes place. We are to take that sinful self and nail it to the cross.

            What attitude ought we to have in the crucifixion of our flesh or sinful nature? There are three aspects of this attitude:

1) A Christian’s rejection of the old nature is to be pitiless. This Roman form of execution is not nice and it was not administered to nice people. It was reserved for the worst criminals. To crucify the old self means to treat the old tendencies ruthlessly and deserving of crucifixion.

2) A Christian’s rejection of the old nature will be painful. Breaking away from the past and old habits that have become a part of your old lifestyle or rituals will not be easy. Crucifixion is painful.

3) A Christian’s rejection of the old nature is to be decisive. Crucifixion was a lingering death, but it was a certain death. Criminals nailed to a cross did not survive. We will not succeed in destroying the old nature in this lifetime, but we have nailed it to the cross. And if it slips off, we nail it back on.

            The reason Jesus said that we need to take up our cross daily is for this very purpose. We must renew every day this attitude towards sin. Paul implored the believers in Rome to reject sinful practices as those who have been crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:12-14).

            Some sins we will defeat in this life; others will entice us till we die. Our sins want to be justified. We nailed them to the cross but they question our resolve, “Was it really a sin?” Sin wants to be let loose because “it’s not that bad” and “there are worse things.” But you know in your heart that it is sin and you must resolve to leave the nails in its hide.

I am crucified to the world

If the effect of being crucified with Christ is that we want to crucify the old nature, we are also essentially cutting ties with the world. By “the world” I mean the spirit of the age that rules how people think and act.

            Paul concludes his letter to the Galatians with this very thought, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (6:14). That means that as a person who has Christ living in me, I don’t have to live according to the standard of the world. I don’t have to act like a person driven by the ambitions and desires of the world.

            To “boast,” as Paul puts it, has no English equivalent. It means to “glory in,” “trust in,” “rejoice or revel in,” or “live for.” The object of our boast fills our horizons, engrosses our attention, and absorbs our time and energy. In short, our “glory” is our obsession.[ii]

            What are we obsessed with? Money? Business? Does your work consume your schedule? Power? Do you want to be in control? The false teachers in Galatia were obsessed with their number of converts (6:13).

            Ed Neufeld shocked his audience at the SBC Leadership Conference last March when he declared that Paul never told the churches in the NT to evangelize. Paul was never concerned with numbers. But Ed did say that Paul was concerned about the believers being faithful. Churches today are obsessed with numbers; Paul was concerned with faithfulness. True church growth has to do with following Christ, not a program for retaining newcomers.

            A man once asked D.L. Moody, “Now that I am converted, must I give up the world?” “No,” answered Moody, you need not give up the world. If you give a ringing testimony for the Son of God, the world will give you up pretty quick. They will not want you around.”

            We don’t want to purposely turn people off. But if crucify the values of the world and live by Kingdom values there will be an obvious discrepancy in how they live and how we live, the choices they make and the choices we make. If we live by the cross we will be peculiar. Not to make peculiarity the goal of our faith, I do have to ask, does the cross of Christ make us stand out from other people?

            I am crucified to the world. Dead to it. So I take on a different view of the meaning of life and the pleasures therein. Consider John’s warning in 1 John 2:15-17. If we are dead to the world and alive to Christ, this world has less of a hold on us.

What does the cross mean to you?

            I am embarrassed to tell you that I wear a gold cross around my neck. I’m embarrassed because it really doesn’t cross my mind (no pun intended). My cross hangs beside a symbol of my 2010 grad and my 2016 grad. What does that symbolize? I don’t know. I think I wanted a reminder of my faith poking me from time to time (when I played hockey, the cross would sometimes turn sideways and stab me).

            Perhaps we need to be stabbed now and then. Wake up! We are driving the vehicle of faith in neutral. The violence of the cross is jolting. It is not stainless steel symbol that we can swipe a Clorox wipe over and clean it up. It is messy and bloody and costly and real.

            Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He wants us to come and join him in dying to this world. He wants us to live the new and abundant life of the resurrected. Will you pick up your cross and follow after Him?

                                                                        AMEN

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[i] John Stott, The Message of Galatians BST, 66.

[ii] John Stott, The Cross of Christ, 349ff.

Cross Talks #3

RECONCILED

“Reconciliation” is one of the sweetest words in the context of relationship. Anyone who has suffered a disruption in relationship longs for reconciliation. “Reconciliation” is also often misunderstood.

            Two people who have not seen each other for years because of job or distance or other circumstances cannot be said to be reconciled when they finally meet. That is not reconciliation; that is reunion.

            And if you have a friend or family member who has wounded you somehow and they don’t admit it, and you decide to pretend it never happened, you are not reconciled. You might call that forgiveness, but it is not reconciliation. The issue has not been confronted; the matter is not settled.

            To “reconcile” is to bring enemies into a state of friendship, to overcome alienation, and to create a mutual compassion. Reconciliation is the healing of broken relationships, the settling of the cause of their hostility so that they can live together.[i]

            If you have been alienated in some way, and known the cold shoulder and icy remarks of one you formerly loved, and if you know that insurmountable chasm that separates you from your friend, sister, brother, etc., then you long for reconciliation.

            And this is why, of all the metaphors for the application of the cross of Christ, reconciliation is the most popular image. We get it. “Propitiation” is temple language; “redemption” is slave language; “justification” is legal language – but “reconciliation” is the most personal. This is heart language; this is the language of home, of family, or of relationship.

            So the question we want to look at this morning from 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 is this: How does the image of reconciliation help us to understand the impact of the cross of Christ in our lives?

God Made the First Move

The first thing we need to know about reconciliation is that we have been reconciled to God. Our relationship with God was disrupted by sin. And sin rendered us powerless; it stole our desire to come to God; sin made us resistant to God’s person; and therefore we were hostile to God. We were enemies of God. The result of our sin may surprise you, but God was not too happy with us. We were his enemies.

            Here is where things get quite odd. God is the offended party. The problem of sin is incomparably more serious on his side than on ours. If I were an offended party, my natural human reaction would be to wait until the offender apologizes and makes amends. But God doesn’t do that. God makes the first move. God initiates reconciliation.

            Paul uses clear language to tell us this: “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled himself to us…” (18a) and “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself…” (19a). God is the subject of these verses; God does the acting. God reconciles; God gives; God appeals. We may feel some remorse and want to apologize, but in reality we were powerless to do so. We have nothing to offer, to contribute, to plead – God does it all. The only thing I can contribute to reconciliation and my redemption is my sin.[ii]

            God is the author of reconciliation. And since we were in a helpless position, only God could remove the cause of his own anger against us. And he did this when we were his enemies, (see Romans 5:8, 10-11). How remarkable is that?

            In 1492, two Irish families, the Ormonds and the Kildares, were in the midst of a bitter feud. The feud became an all-out fight, with the Kildares besieging the Ormands. The Earl of Ormand and his family finally took refuge in the chapter house of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. But the Earl of Kildare realized that the fighting was getting out of control. These two families worshiped the same God, in the same church, but were trying to kill each other. Kildare called out to Ormand and promised not to seek revenge or try anything nasty. He wanted the feud to be over. But the Earl of Ormand thought it was a trick and refused to come out. So Kildare used his spear and hacked a hole in the door and thrust his arm through. After a tense moment, his hand was grasped by another on the inside. The door opened and the two men embraced, ending the feud.

            God took the initiative and chopped a hole through the hostility that separated us from himself and offered his hand.

Christ was the Means of Reconciliation

If God was the author of reconciliation with us, Christ was the means through which he accomplished reconciliation.

            Again, the language Paul uses clearly makes Jesus the agent of reconciliation. “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself…” (18b).

            Notice that the event of reconciliation is past tense. We have been reconciled to God through Christ.

            The first thing to note affirms what we have already said: God was doing something here and he did it through Christ.

            The second thing we should note is not detectable in English. The tense indicates that the work of reconciliation is a finished work. It’s complete. There’s nothing more to add. It is not something which is being done (like sanctification) but something that is simply done – finished. What Christ did on the cross was more than enough to bridge that chasm, that mountain, that obstacle that kept us from God. It is no wonder that Jesus cried, “It is finished!”

            Once more, as if to emphasize the point, Paul reiterates that God accomplished reconciliation with Christ as the agent. “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them…” (19a). This is almost word-for-word with v. 18 but with subtle differences.           Paul first said “through Christ” but now says “In Christ God…” inferring that this act was a Father-Son work. It would be wrong to think, as some have thought, that God’s anger would not be satisfied until his own Son hung grotesquely bleeding from a cross. Jesus did not have to die to convince his Father to stay his wrath from us. Rather, we see a mysterious oneness in Father and Son as they work to bring reconciliation to bear.            Of Christ it is written, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:19-20).        

            That Paul now references the world reveals that God’s intention was that reconciliation was meant to be universal. The hand thrust through the door of reconciliation must be grasped, however. You and I must receive in faith what Christ has done.

            But wait, what has God in Christ done for us? Paul wrote, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin…” (21a). To be honest, I either forget this profound truth or cannot grasp the impact of it in my life. So I don’t blame you if you struggle with this concept. Christ became sin, not that he sinned, but took on our sin and became as one who bore all our sin.

            A young monk was struggling with his own sins and was quite distressed. Martin Luther wrote to this monk and said this, “Learn to know Christ and him crucified. Learn to sing to him and say ‘Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You took on you what was mine; yet set on me what was yours. You became what you were not, that I might become what I was not.”

            How do you grasp that? Yet here it is. Our sins are not counted against us. The Psalmist said, “If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O LORD, who could stand” (Ps 130:3). Jesus became sin “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (21b).

            I believe Luther’s advice is worth meditating upon.

We are the Medium of the Message

Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “the medium is the message.” You may have heard of this before. It means that the medium conveys the message so closely that the characteristics of the medium reflect the message itself.

            That’s kind of what Paul means when it comes to the ministry of reconciliation. First he says, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (18). Then he adds that God entrusted “to us the message of reconciliation” (19c). And finally, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (20).

            What does it mean to be an ambassador for Christ? It means to represent Christ with authority. That authority comes not solely from presenting the King’s message, but more so from being the King’s message. On the one hand, yes, we proclaim that God in Christ reconciled the world to himself. But on the other hand, we demonstrate what that means in ourselves.

            Paul said, “Be reconciled to God.” That’s the first step. Then the second step is to show that we have grasped the meaning of reconciliation in our own relationships. For you see, it is impossible to be reconciled to God while remaining unreconciled to one another.

            Remember Jesus’ parable of the unmerciful servant (Mt. 18:21-35)? The king forgave the servant’s debt amounting to millions of dollars, but this servant turned on a fellow servant who owed him only a few bucks. What he demonstrated was a failure to appreciate mercy by showing mercy to others.

            In the same way, God has shown incredible love by reaching out to us through Christ, paying the price for our sin on the cross, and reconciling us to himself. We cannot be the church of Christ, proclaim the message of reconciliation, without being reconciled first to God, and then to each other. To live in estrangement from fellow believers alienates you not only from those people but from God as well. That’s the negative angle.

            The positive angle is that when we do forgive one another, make peace in our relationships, and walk together in love, we become the message of reconciliation. People will see that we are followers of Jesus when we love one another.

There is a difference between reconciliation and forgiveness. On the cross, Jesus provided for the forgiveness of everyone. But not everyone will be reconciled with him because they will not accept what Christ is offering them.

            The same is true for you and I. You can forgive someone who hurts you, even if they don’t seek reconciliation. But there won’t be reconciliation unless you can overcome the enmity that exists between you.

            If we follow God’s model – and it won’t be easy – we will reach out to the one who offended us and talk, work it out, and find resolution. You might wait a long time for the other person to apologize if you don’t reach out.

            I think that pride blinds us to the reality of most situations. Unlike God, we are not totally without blame. In fact, because of misunderstanding or missing facts, we all share in the causing of the wound. Because I have a sensitive conscience, I have at times been racked with conviction. I have felt more righteous than I should. Then, when I can’t stand it anymore, I go and apologize for my part in the trouble. I don’t like being wrong. But I often have something that I am wrong about in those situations. My belief is that both sides need to come clean and forgive each other.

            How does the message of reconciliation help us to understand the impact of the cross? It is life-changing. It can free you from your sin and guilt when you realize how much God loved you even when you were his enemy. And it can free you from the unnecessary antagonism you feel in so many of your relationships. Let me say this: In this church, there cannot be unreconciled relationships. Be reconciled to God; Be reconciled to each other, in the name of Christ.

                                                            AMEN

           

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[i] Derek Tidball, The Message of the Cross  BST (adapted), 219.

[ii] John Stott, The Cross of Christ, 197.