The Door of Reconciliation
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:18
Inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland, there’s a door that tells a five-century-old tale. In 1492 two families, the Butlers and the FitzGeralds, began fighting over a high-level position in the region. The fight escalated, and the Butlers took refuge in the cathedral. When the FitzGeralds came to ask for a truce, the Butlers were afraid to open the door. So the FitzGeralds cut a hole in it, and their leader offered his hand in peace. The two families then reconciled, and adversaries became friends.
God has a door of reconciliation that the apostle Paul wrote passionately about in his letter to the church in Corinth. At His initiative and because of His infinite love, God exchanged the broken relationship with humans for a restored relationship through Christ’s death on the cross. We were far away from God, but in His mercy He didn’t leave us there. He offers us restoration with Himself—“not counting people’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19). Justice was fulfilled when “God made [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us,” so that in Him we could be at peace with God (v. 21).
Once we accept God’s hand in peace, we’re given the important task of bringing that message to others. We represent the amazing, loving God who offers complete forgiveness and restoration to everyone who believes.
By Estera Pirosca Escobar
REFLECT & PRAY
God, thank You for not leaving me in a place of no hope, separated from You forever. Thank You that the sacrifice of Your beloved Son, Jesus, has provided the way for me to come to You. To learn more about forgiveness, see bit.ly/2F5wVhT.
What does God’s offer of reconciliation mean to you? How will you extend His offer to those who need to hear it today?
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
A key element of this important text is found in verse 20: “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” Tyndale Bible Dictionary defines an ambassador as a “messenger or envoy officially representing a higher authority.” It explains that an ambassador in the Old Testament was “a messenger, envoy, or negotiator sent on a special, temporary mission as an official representative of the king, government, or authority who sent him.” This description gives us a valuable backdrop to the challenge to Paul (and to us) to be God’s ambassadors to our world. Our mission is to officially represent the highest of all possible authorities—the Creator of the universe—and to present His message to those we encounter in His name. Bill Crowder
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