Flawless

Last week we talked about being in Christ and we will continue with that today. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 says this:

“Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new person. All that is related to the old order has vanished.  Behold, everything is fresh and new.  And God has made all things new,  and reconciled  us to Himself, and given us the ministry of reconciling others to God. 

In other words, it was through the Anointed One that God was shepherding the world,  not even keeping records of their transgressions, and He has entrusted to us the ministry of opening the door of reconciliation to God.  We are ambassadors  of the Anointed One who carry the message of Christ to the world, as though God were tenderly pleading with them directly through our lips. So we tenderly plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Turn back to God and be reconciled to him.” For God made the only One who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God through our union with Him.”

2 Corinthians tells us a few important things. I think it is easier to list them as follows:

1. When we believe in Jesus and live our lives in Christ, we become an entirely new person.

2. Everything related to the old you and old me is gone, vanished without a trace as though it never happened.

3. God has reconciled us to Himself. Not “will” in the future or “can” at some point far away, reconcile us. It is in the past tense, He has “reconciled” us to Himself. Meaning the moment we turn our lives over to Jesus, in an instant, we are reconciled and the old is gone. The tension between us and God… gone. The distance and separation caused by sin… gone. 

4. God is not keeping a record of your mistakes, the only ones keeping score are you and the devil. Stop looking at yourself through the lens of your past mistakes. God sees you in Christ and in Christ we are flawless and perfect in His eyes.

5. We, Christians, have been given the job to tell people what they are doing wrong? No. We have been given the job to point people back to a Father who is tenderly reaching out to them so they too, can be reconciled just as we were.

6. We have been made the righteousness of God in Christ.

I know number 6 can be confusing so in the Amplified it says it this way, “He made Christ who knew no sin to [judicially] be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God [that is, we would be made acceptable to Him and placed in a right relationship with Him by His gracious lovingkindness].” How amazing is that? But this one is not in past tense like “reconciled”. The first part is in past tense, but the last part is speaking to the future, that we “would become”. What we need to look at are the words just before “would become”. It says, “in Him”. The only condition to our reconciliation with God is that we be in Christ. Jesus died on the cross long before we ever decided to believe in Him. While we were sinners, Christ loved us, Romans 5:8. The future reference in that verse is that we would recognise our need for Christ and turn to Him and accept the free gift of salvation and redemption.

Verse 17 in the Amplified reads as follows, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]…” The key to reconciliation with our heavenly Father is being in Jesus Christ. We have to be born again or saved. Without Jesus, our sins speak out against us and create distance between us and God that no amount of good works can ever cover. It leads to a very frustrating life where you try to be good but are never good enough and you try to live by a set of rules and regulations, and you break them constantly. There is no amount of human effort that can bridge the gap between us and God, which is why we need Jesus.

What Jesus did on the cross covered over every sin, past, present and future. All we have to do is believe in Jesus as our Saviour and when we do that, reconciliation happens and we become the righteousness of God in Christ. We have right relationship with God and we can finally have access to our heavenly Father!

Colossians 1:20-22 says, “And by the blood of His [Jesus’] cross, everything in heaven and earth is brought back to Himself—back to its original intent, restored to innocence again! Even though you were once distant from Him, living in the shadows of your evil thoughts and actions, He reconnected you back to Himself. He released his supernatural peace to you through the sacrifice of His own body as the sin-payment on your behalf so that you would dwell in His presence. And now there is nothing between you and Father God, for He sees you as holy, flawless, and restored”.

In the Amplified verses 21-22 say, “And although you were at one time estranged and alienated and hostile-minded [toward Him], participating in evil things, yet Christ has now reconciled you [to God] in His physical body through death, in order to present you before the Father holy and blameless and beyond reproach—”

“I’m reconciled, I’m reconciled to God!” That’s a throw back reference from two weeks ago. If you have given your life to Jesus, this is how your heavenly Father sees you; holy, blameless, beyond reproach, flawless and restored.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano