What do we mean by reconciliation?
by Martin Davie:
In his opening speech in the debate on LLF in General Synod yesterday, Bishop Martyn Snow told Synod that ‘The missionary imperative for this day and age is reconciliation.’
I agree with him because the New Testament makes clear that the missionary imperative for every day and age is the ministry of reconciliation. We can see this if we turn to the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20:
‘All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.’
The important thing to understand with regard to these verses is that although the ‘us’ and the ‘we’ refer to Paul himself, this does not mean that that the ‘message of reconciliation’ is one that only Paul has been called to proclaim. Rather, just as all Christians (and not only Paul) have been reconciled by God to himself through Christ, so also all Christians have been entrusted with the missionary imperative of sharing the message of reconciliation throughout the whole world and until the end of time.
If we go on to ask about the content of this message of reconciliation which Christians are called to share, we find Paul’s most comprehensive statement of its content in Ephesians 2:11-22 where Paul writes:
‘Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.’
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