Reconciliation is the ministry of changing completely. But who is changing completely? God is never changing—He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It says that God has reconciled us to Himself. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." It is the world that has been reconciled. God has reconciled the world. As we look at the world, we can see that it is going on its sinful way. "We have turned everyone to his own way" (see Isa. 53:6). But it is through Christ that the world is reconciled to God, through the death of Christ. This marvelous ministry of reconciliation is the work that Christ has done.

Let me call in another passage of Scripture concerning this. "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight" (Col. 1:20–22). Compare this with Philippians 2:10 in which it says that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth—"under the earth" refers to hell. I want you to notice in the passage in Colossians, when it is speaking of reconciliation, only heaven and earth are mentioned. Hell is not reconciled to God. Although every being in hell will bow to Him, only those in heaven and earth are reconciled. In what way are they reconciled? "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight" (Col. 1:21–22). The death of Christ is what reconciled the world to God.

Notice that God is not reconciled—He has not changed. But the world has been put in a different position. Why? Because Christ died. You see, when Adam sinned back there in the Garden of Eden, a holy God couldn’t reach down and save him. God had to do something about his sin. God had to judge man. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die …" (Ezek. 18:20). God had told Adam, "… for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17). Adam did die spiritually on that very day, and nine hundred years later he also died physically. When he died spiritually, he became alienated and separated from God; and he had no capacity for God. That is the condition of the world, and God had to judge that.

Now that Christ has died, the position of the world has been changed. Today God has His arms outstretched to a lost world. He says to a lost world, "You can come to Me." The worst sinner in the world can come to Him. Today it doesn’t make any difference who you are, you can come to Him. Because Christ died, a holy God no longer deals with us in judgment, but now He reaches down to save all those who will come to Him. Jesus Christ bore all that judgment on Himself so that now the world is reconciled to God. You don’t have to do anything to win God over. God is not waiting around the corner to hit you over the head with a billy club. God is not angry with you. God does not hate you. God loves you. Christ did not come to charge man’s sins against him but to pay man’s debt.

The woman taken in adultery is an illustration of this (see John 8:1–11). The Lord Jesus said to that crowd of hypocritical religious leaders, "… He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Then Jesus wrote something in the sand, wrote something on the earth. It is interesting that in Jeremiah 17:13 it says, "… they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters."

It tells us that they left—beginning with the old Pharisees and then down to the younger ones. The older ones had more sense than the young fellows who hung around a little longer. I think probably one of the old fellows had had an affair with a woman over in Corinth. He thought nobody knew about it, but of course the Lord knew all about it. Perhaps Jesus just wrote down the name of that girl, and when the old Pharisee looked down and saw that name written on the ground, he said, "I just remembered I have another engagement," and he tore out of there in a hurry. Before long they were all gone except one—only Jesus Christ was left. The only One who could have thrown a stone at her did not throw a stone. He asked, "Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more" (John 8:10–11). "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imPutin g their trespasses unto them." Jesus was not shutting His eyes to her sin, but for all that sin He was going to the Cross. The condemnation was to fall on Him, and because she trusted Him, He could send her away uncondemned.

McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Epistles (2 Corinthians) (electronic ed., Vol. 45, pp. 70–72). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.