Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20).
This verse appears in the context of having to stand before the judgement seat of Christ and give an account. We know that our bodies are mortal and that we will eventually have to fold up these tents and move into our eternal dwellings. But this does not mean that it doesn’t matter what we do while we are in the body. We will give an account for what we did while in these earthly vessels. There have been those who teach that the body does not matter, everything is purely spiritual, and so we can do whatever we want with our bodies. But the body belongs to the Lord. He has purchased us, including our earthly bodies, at a great price. So our bodies belong to God and are not to be used for selfish and sinful desires. The body is for the Lord, not for pleasure. Those who live in the body only for pleasure will have to give an account to the Creator for squandering His gifts. So as we remember the death of Christ we must think about the fact that our lives are not our own, to do as we please, but we have been purchased by the body and blood of Jesus. And eventually we must all stand before the Lord who purchased us. We want that day to be one of glory and salvation instead of condemnation and sorrow.
The reality of the coming judgment should be sobering and could be fearful. When our physical bodies and the rest of this physical cosmos have all melted away, we will stand before the Lord naked and completely exposed as we really are. There will be no place to hide from the Lord on the Day of Judgment. Many people spend their whole lives attempting to hide from God, just as the parents of the human race did after they sinned and realized that they were naked. Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves with fig leaves, a woefully inadequate covering. And so men and women still try to cover themselves, hiding their shame and nakedness. We cover ourselves with material things, entertainment, careers, education, and all of the pleasures and distractions an affluent society has to offer. Not all of these things are inherently wicked. But people use these things to hide from God. Even morality and religion can be a man-made covering designed to make us feel that when we stand before God we will not be completely naked and ashamed. At least we have been nice, decent folks! But all of our righteousness is like filthy rags in God’s presence. The only covering that God will find acceptable is the righteousness that He Himself will provide. And this righteousness cannot be earned, it must be imputed through faith in God’s only Son. Jesus died so that we could be clothed with the very righteousness of God and stand in His presence without any shame.
Being able to stand in the presence of God without shame or fear, having been completely accepted by Him, is to be reconciled. Because we have been reconciled through the death of Christ, we do not have to fear being condemned at the Judgment. This reconciliation was accomplished by Christ on the cross. Instead of just writing off the human race and destroying us as our sins deserved, God sent His own Son to take away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. It was sin that separated us from God and even created enmity. We were all enemies of God, alienated by sin. We are hostile to God by nature, not wanting to submit to God. And we know that it never goes well for those personalities who choose to rebel against the living God! Satan and all of his demonic hosts were cast out of heaven and await the Day of Judgement and the Lake of Fire without any hope of being reconciled. But in His infinite wisdom God has devised means by which those sons of Adam and daughters of Eve who are estranged from Him might be reconciled! Even the angels who are still in heaven have never seen anything like the reconciliation that God has made through Jesus and they desire to look into these things that we remember at the Lord’s Table!
Having been reconciled through the death of Christ we now live for Him. Being reconciled to God means we are at peace with Him instead of being hostile to His will. Before we were reconciled we wanted to go our own way and live for ourselves, not for God. And for those who have not received this reconciliation that God offers in Christ, they still live in opposition to God’s will and are therefore alienated from Him in their minds because of their sinful deeds. These sinful deeds do not have to amount to murder or the base desires of the Flesh. Many of those who are alienated from God might seem moral and may even be religious! But they are not living to please the Lord. The Lord and His will are not the primary thoughts in their minds. They are living for themselves and perhaps they add the Christian religion to their lives just to insure their personal happiness and development. But those who have been truly reconciled no longer think of themselves in this way. We have not been reconciled to God so that we can then just go on our way to live as we please, still separated from God. We have been reconciled to God so that we can have fellowship with Him and can participate in His purpose and work. And so the Lord’s Table reminds us that we are to live for the One who died for us.
We must continue to appropriate the reconciliation that Jesus died to accomplish. To appropriate means to make it your own possession. When we appropriate food we ingest that food so that the nutrition is able to benefit our bodies. I think it is for this very reason that the Lord gave us something to eat in order to remember Him. We must personally appropriate the body and blood of the Lord, which is done through faith, so that His death actually benefits us personally. There are those who teach the doctrine of universalism – that everyone will automatically be saved – and they ignore the fact that the death of Christ must be personally appropriated. No one can be reconciled who does not personally receive the reconciliation. The reconciliation has been accomplished. Now you and I must actually be reconciled to God! Let us not just talk about reconciliation, as if it is some intellectual abstraction. Let’s actually be reconciled and appropriate this peace with God! There are many people who long to have that inner peace but who continue to refuse to appropriate the reconciliation that God offers the world through the death of Christ. But no one will have the peace of God until they have peace with God. As we come today to remember the death of Christ, let us be reconciled to God!
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