Love Fulfilled Ministry

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us . 1 This word for reconciliation (is from two words; "down from, according to," and "to change") – properly, change, as when two parties reconcile when coming ("changing") to the same position. Right before Christ died he cried out  Tetelestai  which means "to bring to an end, complete finish." Reconciliation was completed in Christ, "God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them." So we too have the same message to the world, a "message of reco...

" and having come he proclaimed the gospel, peace to you who were afar and peace to you who were near ." 1 The message of the gospel is peace to both the Jew, who was near, and the Gentile, who was afar. To understand what this peace means we look at the surrounding scriptures. The Jews were kept under the law until Christ, so for them peace has a somewhat different meaning, one can say a different dividing fence, wall, or barrier. The Gentiles were strangers and aliens, 2  and " were by nature children of wrath. " 3  Christ proclaimed the good news to both, " peace to you who were afar and peace to you who were near ." 4 " indeed, he himself is our peace, having made both one and the  barrier of the fence  broken down, the  hostility  in the flesh of Him,  the law of commandments in ordinances annulled , that the two he creates in himself into  one man ,  making peace ." 5 The dividing wall could be seen as separation because of the s...