2nd Corinthians 5:18, 19

Continuing on with the wonderful news in this truly summation chapter, we get to see how God our Father sees us in the ministry He has established for our dispensation. So we start right where we left off—v.18.

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

Notice the underlined words above? Especially the “given to us” part? These words are with a certainty the ministry of the whole church. Not that everyone should be a preacher, but that everyone of us who see “how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, was buried, and was raised again the 3rd day, according to the Scriptures” and then “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” to be saved; we should view ourselves as set in place to let that be known—perform the ministry which has been given to us! 

There is no greater use of words from our mouths than to tell our personal salvation story. We all “get saved” the same way, but we all have a different story as to how we arrive at our moment  of trust in Christ alone for salvation! My brother Jack had a wonderful opportunity to hear our mother’s personal testimony and it took her an hour to tell it! What a story and what a blessing to hear it told. My friends, if you have a testimony of the moment of your salvation — tell it often! Those are powerful words. 

When talking to a stranger, or in front of a group, it should be short (2-3 minutes) (they don’t need to hear how bad you were), but directly toward how you know that saved you. It’s even a good idea to practice it to keep what’s important in, and keep the unimportant out.

Back to the verse. The first phrase; And all things are of God, the operative word is “all”—does He mean “all?” Yes, He does. Now that should cause a pause in our thinking about our activities, our thoughts, our reactions to people, ad infinitum. When we are saved we belong to God, we’re “in Christ” as this chapter and others so often show us. Then he is accounting everything in which we involve ourselves. Almost 30 passages in the Bible tell us that the Lord knows our hearts, so count on it, all things are of God.

Now we come to v.19,       

To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Wow! “reconciling the world unto himself”— How did God do that while He was in Christ? He came to a place where He could no longer impute the world’s trespasses to their account! (, “not imputing their trespasses unto them..”) God is no longer at odds with the world. The work of Christ at the cross when He “died for our sins, was buried, and was raised from the dead” was enough work for God to reconcile Himself to an entire world of sinners. What a wonderful revelation sent to Paul, spoken by Paul and sent to us so that we know!…we know just how much God loves us (see Eps. 2:4 & Rom.5:5-11)

The previous paragraph takes a position with which many people disagree. Partly because they think I am saying everyone is saved, or “Universal Salvation.” But, nothing could be further from the truth. God is reconciled to the world—the world is not reconciled to God. In fact, the next few verses are meant to show us why we should get people to be reconciled to God. The nature of man, since Adam sinned, is to be a sinner, not a righteous man;   therefore we need a Savior. 

So, no one is just automatically saved because they are here or because they agree “God is real.” Mankind can receive the free salvation only by placing their trust in His work—as Paul and Silas said to the Philippian jailer in Acts 16:31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Also, in 1 Tim.2, Paul clearly said there is only ONE mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. ….We pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God — just as 2 Cor.5:20 says.

All the work for our salvation was done by Christ and God recognized it in Him and reconciled Himself to all the world. When we receive this free salvation it becomes ours eternally, God has nothing against us! (Remember the “sealed” verses we mentioned in a previous blog?) Sins, then, are all taken out of the way for anyone and everyone leaving no reason whatsoever for evangelists to insist someone beg God to save them or make them believe God is going to turn away from them if they don’t “repent of their sins” or say they’re sorry or whatever. It is sufficient to simply trust in the Lord. Most of us say words or think in word terms, but it isn’t an act that saves us, it is a moment of trust in Christ — the “believe on” intent.

Are you saved? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved…”

Thanks for reading, the Elder