◄ What Does 2 Corinthians 5:19 Mean? ►

The Lord Jesus Christ was fully human - yet He was born without sin. He came into this world without a sin nature for He was Son of the most high God. The Lord Jesus was fully God for He was the Word made flesh Who was with the Father from all eternity. In the beginning, He was with God and from the beginning, He was God.

The Lord Jesus was truly God, but He was also fully Man. Indeed, if He had not been a member of the human race, He could not have become our Kinsman-Redeemer, nor could He have died on the Cross to pay the price for our sin. If Jesus was not fully God, He would not have been qualified to pay the price for sin - for God alone is holy and righteous, good and gracious. God alone is free from sin. God alone was good enough to pay the price for sin.

However, God is Spirit and man is flesh and bone, and the only acceptable price for the sin of mankind was the shed blood of a perfect Man. Only a sinless Man could pay the price for the sin of the world, and God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son to be born into the human race and give His life as the ransom price for mans' sin - so that whosoever believes on Him would not perish but have everlasting life. 

It is important, therefore, that we acknowledge Jesus to be fully Man Who lived as we live - according to the limitations of our fleshly covering and human makeup. He grew weary and tired just as we do. He became hungry and thirsty and was often footsore and weary. And Jesus was tried and tested just as we are - yet, throughout the course of His earthly life, HE did not sin in thought, word, or deed. Jesus was a Man Who learned obedience by the things that He suffered, and like us, throughout his earthly sojourn He was acquainted with all manner of griefs.

During His earthly life, He prayed to His Heavenly Father and displayed deep reverence and humble submission toward God. He was sinless and without guile; He was humble and meek; He was full of grace and truth and found favour with God and Man. Jesus was perfected during His life, to equip Him for His role as the Author and Finisher of our faith - He was the source of eternal life for all who would believe in Him and He was sent by the Father to give His life as the ransom price for our sin.

But it is vital that the Lord Jesus is equally acknowledged as the living God - the incarnate Word of the Father Who came from His heavenly abode to reconcile the world to God. He was the very radiance of God's glory, the exact image of His essence, and the perfect expression of His Father's nature, for the Spirit of God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself - restoring the world into fellowship with Himself.

Jesus was the Mediator between God and man, for God was in Christ making peace between the world and Himself: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." Having restored those who believe on His name, He did not count our trespasses against us, but He committed to us the word of reconciliation. God made us ministers of reconciliation to point others to HIM.

Just as Jesus reconciled us who believe, to Himself... so we have been entrusted with the word of reconciliation - we have been entrusted with the responsibility of telling the unsaved the glorious gospel of grace. How astonishing that we who have been saved have been entrusted with the message of restoring people into fellowship with the Father!

It was through His work on Calvary's Cross that the Son of God, as Son of Man worked to bring condemned sinners back to Himself. Sin had to be punished and the wrath of God was poured out on His beloved Son - as payment for our sin so that we might be reconciled back to Himself. And as He cried in triumph, "It Is Finished," the veil of the Temple that separated a holy God from sinful man, was torn from top to bottom. Justice had been done. The price of sin had been paid. God was satisfied. God, in Christ, was reconciling the world to Himself.

This is indeed a great mystery that staggers our understanding... but in His grace, God is ready to use us to be His tools by committing to us the word of reconciliation. May we be ready and willing to witness to a lost world the wonderful works of God so that lost sinners may continue to be reconciled to God and return into fellowship with our Heavenly Father.

Thank You, Father, for Christ. Thank You that in Him I am reconciled back to You and clothed in the righteousness of Jesus my Saviour. Help me tell others about You so that many may be reconciled to You. In Jesus' name I pray, AMEN.