Reconciliation with God and One Another

Will you please turn to 2 Corinthians, chapter 5? We will begin with verse 18.

All things are of God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation;
to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God.
Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Then Matthew, chapter 5, beginning with verse 21.

Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
but I say unto you, that every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire.
If therefore thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee,
leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art with him in the way; lest haply the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou have paid the last farthing.

And finally, James, the book of James, chapter 5. We will begin with verse 13.

Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise.
Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him.
Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.

Let us have a further word of prayer.

Lord, we want to thank Thee again for inviting us to Thy table. Thou truly hast spread the table before our enemies, and Thou hast called us to enjoy Thy victories—all that Thou hast accomplished on Calvary’s cross.

We thank Thee for the precious blood that cleanses all our sins. We thank Thee for the body—Thy body—that was broken for us, that we may not only be united to Thee, but also to one another.

And Lord, as we continue in Thy presence, we expect Thee to speak to us. We pray, Lord, that Thou wilt quicken the words that we have just read to our hearts, that they may become truly spirit and life to us.

Lord, we want Thee to have everything in us. Thou art our Lord, and we do want to bow before Thee. We ask Thy blessing upon this time, that Thou mayest be glorified. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.

The Essence of the Gospel

Recently, the Lord has laid upon my heart this matter of reconciliation.

The Bible says that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. Now, this is the essence of the gospel.

Because, as we think of this matter of reconciliation, we all know that we are the offenders. We have grievously offended God. It is beyond even description.

We sin against Him, and sin is lawlessness. That is, we are against the law of God. We rebel against Him. We are rebels, enemies of God.

We have offended tremendously. We have offended His holiness. We have offended His righteousness.

We realise that we are the offenders, and we should be the persons who call to God and ask for forgiveness.

But strangely, we find that our hearts are so hard. Instead of begging God to forgive us, we continue to harden our hearts against Him.

And yet God, whom we have offended, humbled Himself. He took the first step of reconciliation.

Now, we should be the people who took the first step, but we were so hardened that we did not do it. And yet God, because of His love for us, even though we have offended Him so greatly, condescended Himself to take the first step towards reconciliation.

He laid provision for our reconciliation. He sent His only Son into this world, not only to declare to us that God loves us and is looking for us, but also to provide the means for our reconciliation.

Because God is righteous, our offence has to be dealt with. So He sent His beloved Son into this world to die for us on Calvary’s cross, in our stead, for our sins, so that reconciliation was made possible.

And then God beseeches us to be reconciled to Him. Brothers and sisters, when I think of that, it is beyond every human reasoning that God should ask us to be reconciled to Him. There is such love behind it.

The Meaning of Reconciliation

What is reconciliation? Reconciliation is changing from enmity to friendship. It is to be at peace. It is to be at one.

God desires that we change from enmity against Him to fellowship with Him. He wants us to be at peace, at one with Him. And He did it.

Brothers and sisters, because He has provided the means for reconciliation, He is calling us: “Be reconciled to Him.”

Now, as you read the Scripture, you never find in the Scripture that God is reconciled to us. There is no need for God to be reconciled with us, because He has not offended us. He is the offended One.

The Scripture never says that God is reconciled to us. He always loves us. He is not against us.

Yes, He hates sin—the thing that we have committed. He is righteous; He has to judge our sins, our offences. And yet, in His heart, there is never a time that He hates us. He loves us all the time.

God does not need to be reconciled to us. It is we who need to be reconciled to Him. So the Scripture always says, “Be reconciled to God.” We are the ones who need to be reconciled to Him.

And thank God, when this gospel is being preached, we are touched by His love. We begin to see how offensive we are. We repent, we confess, and we accept His offer of reconciliation.

Thank God, we are reconciled to Him. Our sins are forgiven; our offences are forgiven. Our fellowship with God is restored, and that is the blessing of the gospel that we have all experienced.

Living in Reconciliation with God

Now, having experienced the blessing of being reconciled with God, we are in turn given the commission to be ambassadors of God for the ministry of reconciliation.

We have known the value of that reconciliation. We have known how much it cost Him that we may be reconciled to Him. And because we have known reconciliation, we become ambassadors for Christ. We beseech people that they also may be reconciled to God.

But, brothers and sisters, if we want to fulfil our ministry—the ministry of reconciliation—we must daily live in that reconciliation.

You know, being reconciled to God, we need to continue on in that oneness and peace with God. We need to continue on in that sweet fellowship with God.

See, in our daily lives there may be times when we have a controversy with God. Maybe we have sinned in some way, violated His law, or displeased Him in some of our thoughts, actions, relationships, or reactions.

Maybe the Lord has some request upon us, some demand upon our lives, and yet we refuse to respond. We have a controversy with Him.

Now, it is almost unavoidable that in our daily lives somehow, sometimes, we find ourselves at odds with God. We have a controversy with Him. We are not at one with Him.

And, brothers and sisters, when we are in such a situation, what should we do? Should we allow that to continue on? Can we do that?

What we need to do is settle our controversy with God. We need to repent. We need to confess.

In 1 John 1, we are told—and that is addressed to believers—that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Brothers and sisters, how we need the blood of the Lord Jesus every day. The closer you live with God, the greater your need for the precious blood of the Lamb.

We will never outgrow the need for the precious blood of our Lord Jesus. How we need His cleansing every day, every moment of our life.

How we need to yield to Him, to the voice of the Holy Spirit within us, that there will be no shadow, no cloud, no obstacle, no controversy. There will be peace and oneness with God.

Brothers and sisters, this is what we need every day, every moment of our day. And I believe we all know that.

Reconciliation at the Lord’s Table

First of all, in our lives, we need to daily live in that peace and oneness with our God. If there be any controversy, let it be settled.

You know, when we come to the Lord’s table, the Lord’s table is so precious. When we come to the Lord’s table, if we have any controversy with God, settle it before we take the bread and take the cup.

Otherwise, we will eat and drink in an unworthy manner. Every controversy with God has to be settled before we come to the table.

This is a time that helps us to have everything settled, so that there will be uninterrupted fellowship between us and our Lord.

Reconciliation Within the Family of God

But, brothers and sisters, this matter of reconciliation is more than just being reconciled with God. It has to be carried on, because the Scripture says very clearly that we, as the family of God, need to be reconciled to one another.

That is to say, within our heart, in our spirit, there should be no controversy between you and any brother and sister. There should be no hatred towards any brother or any sister.

There should be peace. There should be forgiveness. There should be oneness in each one of our hearts as members of the family of God.

How can we remain as a family if we are at odds with one another? If we keep something in our heart against any brother or any sister, we need to be reconciled with one another.

In Matthew 18, we are told, “Woe to the world because of occasions of stumbling!” But it seems that offences are inevitable.

We are human beings. Even though we are saved by grace, and grace is greater than our sin, even though God forgives us all our sins and offences, yet, brothers and sisters, because of our weaknesses, we can offend our brothers and sisters, and we can be offended by our brothers and sisters.

It seems that there is something almost inevitable. What should we do when we are faced with this kind of situation?

The Seriousness of Causing Offence

First of all, you know the Word of God concerning the matter of offence is very, very severe.

If your hand or your foot causes you to offend, what do you do? The Lord said, “Cut it off.” It is better to enter into life with one arm or one leg than to go into perdition with two arms and two legs.

If your eye causes you to offend, pluck out your eye. It is better to enter into the kingdom with one eye than into the fire with two eyes.

Now, why is it that the Lord says such a thing? Because He considers this matter of offence very, very serious.

You remember the occasion when the disciples came to the Lord and asked Him, “Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” The Lord took a child, put the child in the midst of these proud grown-ups, and said, “Unless you repent and become as this little child, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

“If anyone shall humble himself as this little child, he shall be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. If you receive this child, you receive Me. If you cause one of these little children to stumble, it is better, it is profitable, for you to have a millstone hung upon your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

Brothers and sisters, that is the Word of God.

Now, of course, you cannot take this plucking out the eye and cutting off the arm literally. As a matter of fact, in China I knew a case where it was done, but it was a mistaken interpretation of the Word of God.

What it really means here is that if there is an offence, and you are the cause of this offence, you have to deal with yourself very drastically and seriously.

Do not allow this to continue on, because it is very serious before God. Deal with yourself so drastically that every opportunity for it to continue is removed. That is what you should do, because then you will enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Brothers and sisters, how often we try to keep ourselves whole. We offend, and yet we will not repent. We keep up our pride.

We do not deal drastically with the members of our body that cause us to offend. So first of all, you find in the Word of God that we need to deal drastically with ourselves in this matter of offence.

May the Lord never allow us to be the one who offends. If our hand offends, our foot offends, or our eye offends, we need to deal with ourselves drastically before God.

Reconciliation When We Have Offended Others

In Matthew 5, the Lord said, “Do not murder.” But the Lord said, “I tell you, if anyone should be angry with his brother lightly”—that is, without a cause—“he will be judged.”

If you say to your brother, “Raca,” you are saying, “You are good for nothing. You are worthless.” You cannot escape the judgment of the Sanhedrin. If you call your brother a fool, a rebel, you cannot escape the lake of fire.

And then He continues to say: when you come to offer your gift, and you begin to remember that there is some brother who has something against you—it is because of your fault; you have offended him, and he has something against you—when you remember that, what do you do?

You leave the gift at the altar. You go and be reconciled to that brother.

As long as there is opportunity, you are still on the way. Settle the matter quickly, because if you do not, the time may come when your brother will deliver you to the judge, and you will be put into prison until every part of it is repaid.

Now, brothers and sisters, sometimes I wonder. You know, when you read the Scripture, there is a context there.

Sometimes I wonder whether we can be angry with our brother or sister. Well, the Bible says, “Be angry, and sin not.” Now, that is not easy: angry, yet without sin.

But can you be angry with a sinner, especially a brother? If we are angry with our brother lightly, without a cause—or even with a cause—are we justified? Is that the way God dealt with us?

In 1 John it says that if we hate any brother, we are in darkness.

And I begin to wonder: what is our brother or sister in our eyes? Do we look down upon them? “You are good for nothing.” Do we judge them as rebellious, as fools, in our hearts?

And I wonder if that is what is meant when, as you are offering a gift, you remember that your brother has something against you. Probably it is because you are angry with him without cause. Probably it is because you look down upon him and despise him as if he is nobody—a soul precious in the sight of God, but worthless to you.

Is that your judgment on your brother and sister?

If this is the case, if the Spirit of God reminds you that your brother has something against you, what will you do?

Remember, at the altar you are not offering a sin sacrifice. You are offering a gift. You know, when we come to the Lord’s table, we do not offer a sin sacrifice. He is the sin offering. We offer up our gift.

For when you offer your gift to God, and the Holy Spirit reminds you that there is a brother or a sister holding something against you, and rightly, what do you do? Will the Lord receive your gift?

You had better leave the gift and go and be reconciled to your brother or sister.

Because we are all on the way—on the way to the judgment seat of Christ—and we do not know whether there is opportunity. If you do not do it right away, it may be too late. At the judgment seat of Christ, it will be charged.

Better settle it today than wait for the Lord to settle it with you on that day.

Reconciliation When We Have Been Offended

So, brothers and sisters, we who have been reconciled to God are given this ministry of reconciliation. We should practise it.

If the Holy Spirit reminds us that we have offended our brothers and sisters, be reconciled before it is too late.

Now suppose we are being offended. Then what should we do?

Naturally, you will say, “Well, if I am being offended, then you who offended me should make the first move. I have no obligation to be reconciled with you. You have the obligation to come to me, confess, and then I will forgive you.”

But is this what the Scripture says? Is this what God does? If God should take such an attitude, well, we would be waiting.

Thank God, we offended Him. We would not even take the first step, but He took all the steps from heaven to earth and to the cross.

When our Lord Jesus was nailed on the cross, what hatred, what hostility! And yet He prayed:

Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

Did He wait until we saw our sin, waited until we recognised our fault, waited until we repented and confessed, and then forgive us? He did not even wait for our repentance. He forgave us.

What love is behind it! And should we not do the same?

If your brother sins against you, go, reprove him. If he repents, you gain your brother. But how do you go?

If you go for vengeance, if you go to justify yourself, if you go with an unforgiving spirit, you had better not go. You will not get the result.

Before you go, it is supposed that you have already forgiven the one who offended you.

You do not go to reason with your brother, to show his fault and show that you are right, to justify yourself. No. You do what God has done to you. You have already forgiven him.

God has forgiven us so much. How can we hold anything against our brother or sister? How dare we?

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

The Lord Jesus said in a parable that a servant owed the king ten thousand talents—millions of dollars. There was no way for him to repay it. Even selling him, selling his family, selling everything, would not repay the debt.

Brothers and sisters, this is a picture of ourselves. We owe God so much, beyond repayment. Even if we were put in hell ten thousand times ten thousand years, what could we repay?

We begged for mercy, and He forgave us. Then the servant came out forgiven, and he saw another fellow servant who owed him a hundred denarii—a few dollars.

He caught him by the throat and said, “Pay me, or go to prison.” Can we do that? Dare we do that?

If we do, you know what happens. In the Lord’s Prayer, He said, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.”

In other words, to a believer, our forgiveness before God is dependent on our forgiveness of others. If we do not forgive others, God will not forgive us.

So that servant was put into prison until every penny was paid.

Oh, brothers and sisters, how can we hold anything against any brother or sister? May the Lord examine our hearts to see if in our hearts we are still holding something against our brother or sister.

You can hold nothing against God, but can you hold anything against your brother or sister? No matter how much they may have offended you, you forgive. You forget.

Brothers and sisters, we need a spirit of forgiveness. You should not always remember what your brother or sister did to you, grudging it and being angry always.

In the beginning, it may be just a mustard seed; it becomes a big mountain. Hold nothing against your brother or sister.

Now, that does not mean that you do not hate sin. That does not mean that you tolerate sin. If your brother or sister really has sinned, surely sin is sin. But that does not mean you hold anything against him.

You are a sinner forgiven. Your responsibility is to forgive whatever people may sin against you. That sin will be dealt with by God. Who are you to be the judge? You are his brother, not his judge. Forgive him.

And not only that: after you have forgiven him, you really love him. You do not want to see him in darkness, so you go and rebuke him. But this rebuke is a rebuke in love, not in hatred.

Try to restore. Your brother is in darkness; you are in light, so you walk in light. Now, if you do not walk in light, you will be in darkness too. If you keep on not forgiving, you will be in darkness.

Forgive. No matter what, forgive. That is what you need to do. And out of love, go to restore.

If he hears you, if he realises his wrong, repents, and confesses, you gain your brother. Fellowship is restored.

If he does not listen to you, in love go with one or two brothers to that brother. Try to convince him. And if he does not listen, tell it to the church. The church will try to convince him.

If he still does not see it, now what do you do? Listen carefully: to you, that brother will be as a tax collector and a sinner.

Brothers and sisters, if he sins against you, you forgive—no matter what, whether he confesses or not, whether he repents or not. That is between him and the Lord. So far as you are concerned, you forgive.

And your love will go to that brother, trying to restore him. If he continues not to confess and not to repent, then what do you do?

Remember: to you—not to all the brothers and sisters, but to you—he is like a tax collector and a sinner. But what does that mean? It means that your fellowship with him is hindered, but you still love him as a sinner, as a tax collector.

You do not hate a sinner; you love him. You still try to help him. Now that is our attitude.

Repentance and the Experience of Forgiveness

Maybe you will ask, “Is repentance not the basis of forgiveness?”

Brothers and sisters, when did God forgive you? After you repented, or before you repented? Two thousand years ago, when Christ was crucified, He said, “Father, forgive them.”

So far as God is concerned, He holds nothing against anyone. He loves us. He hates sin, yes, but He loves us to such an extent that He has made provision for us that we may be saved.

Why is it that we have to repent and confess? Why?

It is not because by repentance and confession we earn God’s forgiveness. Just as we say, “You have to believe, and you are saved,” but believing is not earning that salvation. Salvation is grace. God has provided it and given it to you, but believing is receiving it so that you can enjoy it.

Brothers and sisters, repentance is important. If we sin, we need to repent. We need to confess.

But to repent and to confess is so that we who have sinned, who have offended, will receive the good of forgiveness. We will enjoy the joy of being forgiven, and we may be restored to fellowship.

Brothers and sisters, this is for us. And so far as the one we have offended is concerned, he has already forgiven us. Now, what does he get? He gains a brother. He gains fellowship with his brother. That is what he gains.

Now, if we do not repent and do not confess, what will happen? We will continue to be in darkness. We will not enjoy the joy of being forgiven. Though we have been forgiven, we cannot experience that forgiveness, and our fellowship cannot be restored.

So, brothers and sisters, as I consider this matter before the Lord, I am in fear. How can we hold anything against any brother or sister, no matter how grievously they have offended us?

Even if they do not repent, will we wait until they repent before forgiving them? How long will you wait? If the Lord should come and you are still waiting, what will happen to you?

The Lord said, if you do not forgive from your heart, He will not forgive you. May the Lord have mercy upon us, brothers and sisters.

Unity Amid Differences

In the family of God, there should be no controversy. There can be differences. We can have different opinions, different ideas, different standards, different thoughts, and different interpretations. We can allow all these differences.

You may see it this way; he may see it that way. That is all right.

But not because of these differences should we hold anything against one another. We should not refuse to look at each other, refuse to talk to each other, or refuse to pray with each other.

Brothers and sisters, this is serious. In the house of God, there should be no controversy, no envy, no enmity, no hostility against anyone. There should be the spirit of love and the spirit of forgiveness.

All these differences, the Lord will work out until we arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. But do not set yourself up as judge. If we judge, we will be judged.

Be reconciled with one another.

Confession, Prayer, and Restoration

You know, I think of the passage in James 5. Now, of course, it is concerning a brother or sister who is sick. If anyone is sick, he can call the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil. If he has sinned, his sins will be forgiven.

And it says, therefore, confess to one another your offences, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

I will borrow this principle. Strictly speaking, it is a case of a brother who is sick because he is out of joint with the body. Therefore, he asks for the elders of the church to come and anoint him with oil—in other words, to be restored to the body and thus be restored to health.

But the principle is there.

How we need to confess to one another. How we need to pray for one another.

A brother may commit something that puts him out of joint with the body of Christ, and therefore he is chastened by the Lord and becomes sick. Now he needs to confess, you see. But the elders who pray over him need to confess too. Confess to one another.

Why? Because if any member of the body is out of joint, every member of the body is responsible. That is body life. We are all responsible.

If a brother sins, we are responsible. We should take care of him. We should warn him. We should look after him. We are responsible. We need to confess to one another and pray for one another.

The offended needs to be faithful, just as the offending one. We may think that the one who has offended is the one who needs to be faithful, but no, the offended needs to be faithful too.

You know, there is one thing I feel there is much to learn from, and that is the other side of the trespass offering.

The Principle of Restitution

You know, the trespass offering and the sin offering are different. The sin offering is once for all. Christ died for us as our sin offering, and because He died once for us, our sins are all forgiven.

The trespass offering concerns our daily lives. In our daily lives, we trespass; we offend. What should we do?

You find there are two sides. One side is towards God. Whenever we sin or offend any brother or sister, we offend God too. Why? Because God is his Father.

So we need to offer the trespass offering to God. But more than that, we need to make restitution.

If we have taken anything from our brother or sister, we should repay that and add one-fifth as interest.

Brothers and sisters, if we sin, confess before the Lord, and He will forgive us. We will enjoy His forgiveness. But if we have also sinned against our brother or sister, if we owe anything to our brother or sister in love, it is not enough just to go to God and ask Him to forgive us.

Go to your brother. Go to your sister. Confess. Ask for forgiveness, that we can pray for one another and be healed.

May the Lord lead us into this truth. Shall we pray?

Closing Prayer

Dear heavenly Father, how we thank Thee for forgiving us even before we realised we had sinned. How we praise and thank Thee that when we confess and repent, we enjoy Thy forgiveness and are restored to Thy love.

Lord, we just pray that this may be true in every day of our lives. And we pray that it will also be true with all our brothers and sisters.

Lord, we ask that all the controversies, all the holding against any brothers and sisters, Thou wilt show us Thy love and Thy forgiveness, that we may from our hearts forgive everyone and be forgiven.

Teach us how to repent and confess and pray for one another, that we may be healed, to the praise of Thy glory. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus and for His glory. Amen.