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 5:16-21 NIVUK
This is no simple truth. There is nothing more practical for our society than these verses.
I lived through the 1980s. I saw the horror of bombings by both the IRA and the UVF in Ireland and parts of the UK. I live in the West of Scotland. I saw the provocative marches by both sides. At least four times a year, a football stadium in Glasgow is filled with the invective and bile of a deeply divided society on sectarian grounds.
And there is no doubt that society is racially divided. The past has become a deeply emotive issue, particularly in America. The wrongs (and let me be clear: they are profound and hurtful wrongs) of slavery have fractured communities on the fault lines of colour and background, which deeply mischievous and ill-intentioned people have exploited.
And then there is politics. It doesn’t take a genius to see how this has shattered the cohesiveness of British society.
Sometimes we want to pull our bedsheets over our head and pray that when we wake up it will all be over.
God has a solution to this endless bitter division and polarisation. He gave it to the church. It is in our heart and our hands.
It is the Gospel.
Because Jesus died to heal the divide between us and God – that much is clear – but also the divide between us and each other.
That is what these verses teach. And not only here, but in the emotional words of Philippians 2:
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Philippians 2:1-5 NIVUK
So what does it mean? And what should we do?
Let me start off with an example. Through no fault of my parents, I was raised in a tough neighbourhood. Local thugs used to love smashing the windows of our house – I think the record was three windows in one week. We’d be busy doing something, or lying in bed trying to get to sleep, and all of a sudden a small rock would strike the window, scattering sharp shards of glass all over the place.
When a window smashes, there is no point at all in getting some glue or Scotch tape and trying to stick it back together. It won’t work. You’re also highly likely to get cut.
No, the only solution is to patch up the window as best you can and then get a glazer out to replace the window.
Modern techniques at crisis resolution work at sticking pieces together. Much like the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, they ‘agree to disagree peacefully’ in the hope that somehow communities will agree to stick together and not fight each other.
It can have some success, at least for a while. But there is always the fear that some ne’erdowell could do something stupid and spark the trouble back up again.
It takes much more than that to bring lasting peace.
It takes the cross.
It takes a number of changes to our lives that come when we seek to believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The first is a new perspective. We simply see things – and people – differently.
When I was growing up, any difference at all was a cause of bullying. I needed glasses, but for years didn’t wear them because I was afraid of the reaction of my peers. However, as I got older, the muscles in my eyes were not able to adjust as much as they had been and it became obvious that I needed to wear glasses. Of course, I had also reached the stage in my life when other people’s opinions mattered less, so I just did what I needed to do. And it worked: I could see better.
Paul is saying that the same thing happens when we follow Jesus Christ.
And he should know, because it happened to him. He was a former Pharisee – among the most orthodox of Jews. But Christ came into his heart and changed it completely until this orthodox Jew became a minister to the Gentiles. His perspective was so utterly changed that he wrote these words to the church in Ephesus:
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Ephesians 2:14-18 NIVUK
In other words, because of the cross, his perspective was changed. He no longer saw Gentiles as sworn enemies, but as having the same citizenship and being members of the same church (Ephesians 2:19-22).
Let me put this plainly:
A Christian cannot be sectarian.
A Christian cannot have stereotypes.
A Christian cannot be a racist or sexist or misogynist.
A Christian cannot be a xenophobe.
These ways of thinking are utterly incompatible with the Gospel.
Why?
This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:22-24 NIVUK
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28 NIVUK
We are all sinners. We are all saved the same way – through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To separate us on any other grounds is nonsensical.
Follow Jesus and your perspective has to change.
As well as a new perspective, you also become a new creation:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 5:17 NIVUK
Do you know how else the word ‘gone’ can be translated?
Dead.
Passed away.
Deceased.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20 NIVUK
What this means is that if you believe in Jesus Christ, everything about you is new. Everything. Your old life is completely dead and buried six feet under. You begin again, with new opinions and beliefs and actions.
That new perspective and new creation leads to a new relationship – primarily with God, but also with people. The sin barrier that prevented you from intimacy with God is now destroyed by Christ at the cross.
This vertical change in our relationship with God inevitably triggers a horizontal change in how relate to others and ourselves. We love where once we hated (Luke 10:27).
And this leads to a new ministry – a ministry not of division but reconciliation; not of constantly provoking (Galatians 5:25-26) and manipulating people to get your own way, but instead seeking to serve even those who are different from you.
This ministry is underpinned by a new message – the message that the reconciliation you enjoy with God and the people around you can be received and enjoyed by others.
All of this – the new perspective, creation, relationship, ministry and message – is possible only because of one thing: the death of Christ on the cross, bearing all of our sin, and His resurrection from the dead. That and nothing else.
That is why Paul makes his appeal: be reconciled to God.
That is why Jesus Himself prays that His followers will be united (John 17:20-23).
That is why the New Commandment is that we love one another (John 13:34-35).
Because Jesus died that we might be reconciled with God and with each other.
The mind of Christ is one of reconciliation.
But there is a challenge here. How can we have the ministry and message of reconciliation if we still bear grudges, or write off sections of our community, or bear enmity in our heart towards a particular person or group?
How can we preach reconciliation if we do not live it?
Our society needs reconciliation more than it needs clean water or breathable air. We cannot make any real progress on the huge challenges we face as a species unless we are reconciled.
We Christians have the means of reconciliation in our hands and our hearts.
But first we need to be reconciled to each other.
Questions
1. Why is it so important for Christians to be reconciled to each other and the communities around them? What happens if they are not?
2. In which areas does your community need reconciliation? How can you make it happen?
3. Is there anyone you need to be reconciled with? Can you make a plan to so do?
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