Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  2024  Day 98

April 7;       2 Corinthians 5:18;        154/260;         ‘Reconciliation’

2 Corinthians 5:18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,

Because of our sinful condition, mankind is alienated from God the Father.  The Father is holy and our sins separate us from Him.  The great love of the Father would not allow this alienation and separation to continue without His intervention.  The Lord Jesus Christ was the means of intervention.  Jesus came to the earth as a mortal Man.  Jesus lived a life that was free from sins.  As planned by the Father and fulfilled by the Lord Jesus, Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified and on the cross He took our sins upon Himself.  Jesus suffered the punishment for sins in our place.  The Bible teaches that Jesus also took our sicknesses upon Himself and made it possible for us to live healthy lives free from sickness and disease.  God the Father reconciled us to Himself through Jesus.  Reconciliation means that God the Father by His grace, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior makes us His children and removes the enmity that sin caused.  As eternally wonderful as that is, of all of the blessings the Lord bestows on us when we are saved, we now have the privilege and the incredible responsibility to share the wonderful truth of reconciliation with those not yet born again.  One of the greatest joys in this life is to share the gospel with others.  When they believe the gospel and make Jesus their Lord and Savior, nothing compares to the knowledge that that person has come out of the kingdom of darkness and now are in the kingdom of the Father’s Son, Jesus.  The gift of reconciliation given to us we give to others.