“That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” – 2 Corinthians 5:19
“Great is Your mercy toward me, Your loving kindness toward me. Your tender mercies I see day after day.” – Great is Your Mercy | Don Moen
Those words above, are we able to say it everyday? Can we just declare it day after day? Can we just have a whole day declaring how merciful and gracious is our God? When we even read the lyrics of the song, we can see that it is a declaration of how good God is in our lives and it is also a declaration of how much we need God’s grace and mercy always. Indeed that great is God’s mercy towards us, great is His mercy that through waking up each day, is already a proof of His love.
Now, what greater love than a sacrificial love? What is greater than not remembering the records of our wrong? There is indeed no greater love than that! That love can only be given by Christ. Again, as the heart’s day is almost at the door, may we be reminded what true love is. What is greater than the love of God? That He gave His Son to the world to be our atoning sacrifice so that we can be reconciled to Him. In our verse today, we are reminded by Paul that God has already reconciled the world through Christ.
What does God mean by this reconciliation anyway? When we think about the thought that we will be reconciled to God, it just means that we are firstly taken away from Him. That there is a division between God and us that keeps us away from His presence, and we all know that the boulder that is separating us from Him is sin. Well, it is true that no one can separate us from the love of God but sin can separate us from His presence. His love for us remains there, His love and grace is always there but it is us who walked away from Him. Therefore, God saw the need for reconciliation. He saw that we need our salvation and He knows that we can never have it all by ourselves so He sent Jesus Christ to be our ransom. To be our atoning sacrifice so that the boulder that is separating us from the holy God which is sin will crumble through His death. Now, what is greater than that love? Nothing!
God’s love is indeed perfect, pure, good in intention, abounding and overflowing. His love for us is not just merely a declaration of many “I love yous” but God has proven it through Jesus Christ. Thus, as this love is so great, He has indeed then reconciled us to Him. Our sins, our own actions but His solutions. Even if it was our wrong doing, He still chose to save us and to reconcile us back to Him. Indeed that He loves us so much and there is nothing more we could ever need. What more? He also promised that He will not count our sins anymore. How gracious and merciful could our God be? He is the real definition of love, mercy and grace.
Even us, it is very hard for us to just forgive someone for doing something wrong to us. We even have that famous principle, “forgive but never forget” but God is different. He does not just forgive, He does not just reconcile us, but He also forgets all the wrong things we have done. He also chose to keep no records of wrong. Indeed that love does not keep records of wrong and God has exercised the 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 definition of love wonderfully. Since we know this, we also have to remember that God has given us all these privileges only through Christ. Indeed His love is always there and free for us but we can truly see and appreciate it only if we are in Christ.
If we are not in the presence of Christ, we will not be able to see God’s love and we will not be able to see the importance of Christ’s sacrifice for we will be just so caught up in sinning and of what this world can offer. Therefore, God wants us to understand that our reconciliation to Him is not done by our good works but it is done by the work of Christ. It is God’s work, not ours for we are just under grace and mercy. Thus, we should understand that all these are through Christ only. Without Christ, we won’t have our reconciliation and our salvation. Our sins will just keep on adding up and we will just be worthy of condemnation. However, God is good, indeed great is His mercy towards us and that He has given us Christ. He has given us the gift of reconciliation through Him. May we always remember this and treasure this inside our hearts. This is the real meaning of love. There is no love greater than this.
