The Message Of Reconciliation
We
are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an
opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in
what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are “out of our mind,”
as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For
Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and
therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer
live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we
regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in
this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new
creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who
reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not
counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of
reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were
making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled
to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God.
2
Corinthians 5:12-21
Do people search you
out because of your belief in God and in Jesus Christ?
As believers we have
purpose and direction, we know where we are going, and we know how to get
there. This gives us confidence as we go about fulfilling God’s call in our
lives. When this kind of confidence is evident to others, the lost will look to
us for direction.
God has always
maintained a presence on earth so that people could find Him. The Bible is one
place. His first light for the world was the nation of
To lead
others out of the darkness of sin, let them see your light.
Our Daily Bread –