and all things [are] of the God who has reconciled us to himself by [Jesus] Christ, and given to us the ministry of that reconciliation
Read Full Chapter →Commentary for this Verse
Everything in God's new order comes from Him, and it reaches us through the death of His Son. The verse holds two gifts: a finished reconciliation, and a ministry given to those who have received it.
Everything Traced to One Source
The verse opens, "All this is from God" — older translations read, "all things are of God." That shuts the door on any human share in the new creation.
This is a work of God in which man can have no share. There is no human material to enter into it. All of that had already gone in death before this work was done… It is a work absolutely and entirely of God. It is a new creation, and its character is that "all things are of God." The great thought in the passage is that everything of man has disappeared from view, and only what is of God is now seen.
This is not the first creation repeated. There, too, all was of God — but of God as Maker.
In the old creation, all things were "of God," it is true; but they were of God who created them. But in the new, all things are "of God, who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ." All these will bear witness to redemption. There we will trace the blood of the Lamb of God, and not simply the power of the hand of God.
Who Is Reconciled to Whom
The verse says God reconciled us to Himself. Commentators press this direction hard, because the reverse is never written.
The testimony of Scripture is as clear as possible. It never speaks of God being reconciled to us. "If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" (Rom. 5:10). It does not say that God was reconciled to us. The death of Christ was essential to the reconciliation. But man was the enemy of God, and man needed to be reconciled.
So the first move was God's, and it was never a change in His heart.
God never needed to be reconciled. It was we ourselves, in whom there was enmity, who needed to be reconciled… The very God we had sinned against took the first step on His own side. He put all our offences away. He has now placed us before His face, justified and reconciled through our Lord Jesus Christ. God is the Reconciler. We are the reconciled.
What Reconciliation Changes
Reconciliation is not only a fact about God's side. The person reconciled feels the difference.
The simplest thought in reconciliation is this: where there was distance there is now nearness. Here is the wonderful effect in the soul. A person was once very aware of moral distance from God. Now he can come to God knowing that the distance is gone, and be at home in His presence.
Reconciled Through His Death
The verse says God reconciled us "through Christ." Writers place the work at one point, and the ministry at another.
Only death could reconcile to God those whom sin had made His enemies. Their condition is mortal because of sin. So the work of reconciliation was complete at the cross. There the suffering Redeemer bowed His sacred head and said, "It is finished," in the act of death. The ministry of reconciliation began when the Lord's first apostles, in the power of the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, preached forgiveness and acceptance in His Name — first at Jerusalem, and to the very men who had murdered Christ.
The Ministry Handed On
The same God who reconciled also gives the ministry — and not to one group of Christians only.
It is not the apostle alone who could say this, nor only some class among Christians: "He has given us the ministry of reconciliation." He has brought us to Himself and made Himself known to us. By that very fact He has also given us power to make known to others what fills our own souls, and to bring others to Him. We have received the reconciliation. What we received is not for ourselves alone. We received it to minister with it.
The message is grace, so the messenger must carry grace.
It was God who first reconciled him to Himself by Jesus Christ, and then gave him the ministry of reconciliation. It was the ministry of reconciliation. The one who carried it was not to clothe himself with the repulsiveness of God in judgment. He was to clothe himself with the attractiveness of God in grace.
Summary
- Source. "All this is from God" — in the new creation God uses nothing of man, and only what is of God is seen.
- Direction. God is the Reconciler and we are the reconciled; Scripture never says God was reconciled to us.
- Basis. The reconciliation comes "through Christ" — finished at the cross, when He said, "It is finished."
- Result. Where there was moral distance there is now nearness — a person can be at home in God's presence.
- Gift. The One who reconciled also gives the ministry. We do not keep what we received; we pass it on, in the attractiveness of grace, not the repulsiveness of judgment.