STOP COUNTING; GOD HAS!

Tuesday 4 March

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. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:19-21 (NIV)

This passage contains some of the most powerful and instructive words regarding understanding salvation in the entire New Testament. Somehow though, the full impact of these words doesn’t seem to have taken maximum effect for many believers. With this in mind, I think it is worth excavating a little into this treasure of revelation to see what lies beneath.

The first phrase of verse 19 ‘God was in Christ ‘reconciling the world to Himself’. The Greek word for reconcile is katalasso. In essence what it means is to reconcile those who are at variance. In other words, sin brought an imbalanced ledger that could only be reconciled by Jesus. Notice here that it was everybody in the world not only the Jews or the Christians.

One of the aspects of Tetelestai in Greek is used as accounting term. Paid in full. Jesus settled the account by dealing with the discrepancies to ‘balanced the books’ as it were. Another facet of reconciliation is to be returned to favour with someone. Think of the example of the Father and the Prodigal Son in the gospels.

This next part gets me every time! ‘Not counting people’s sins against them.’ Please hear me. God is not keeping score and recording every error you have ever made to one day use it against you. If you’re a believer, He’s not doing that with you. What kind of God do you think He is? Neither is He doing that to anyone else. Let that sink in for a moment. Whether you are saved or not or will ever be saved or not, as far as God is concerned, He has stopped counting!

It is up the the individual to accept or reject Christ. The non acceptance of His salvation is by default a rejection. Having said that, it doesn’t change the fact that sin is no longer a factor and God is not even interested in what sins you commit. His interest lies in you accepting the sacrifice of Jesus punishment for sin and passing from death to life.

This is why it is sheer ignorance for a Christian to call Himself a sinner when they are righteous. ‘For He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him’

Furthermore, God looks at every human being through the lens of Christ’s substitutionary work hoping that they will act on their will to choose Him. Are you beginning the see the heart of God on the matter? Remember, God limited His sovereignty within the bounds of salvation.

He wasn’t lying when He said that He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Not repentance of sin; changing your mind about who God is and accepting Jesus. Remember there is no mention of the confession of sin in the ‘salvation prayer’ in Romans 10:9, only the confession of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

If God is not chalking up all your sins i.e. errors on a giant blackboard in the sky somewhere, why would you count your sins or hold anyone else’s sins against them? For the Christian, your past sins don’t exist. For those who are non Christians, sin is not a factor because it has been dealt with once and for all by Jesus. The ONLY sin that stops you from entering into ageless eternity as I’ve said before, is the sin of not believing and accepting His salvation.

If you’re counting your own sins or others sins, I want to encourage you with one word. Stop! Don’t beat yourself up about your past mistakes or hold people prisoner to their past mistakes. For all of us, it’s His kindness that leads us to change our minds about Him. Reject legalism and embrace grace: Just another way to say stop counting, because God has!

APPLICATION

Make up your mind that you will develop a righteousness consciousness and extend to others the mercy and grace that has been afforded all in salvation.