“God has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, not imputing our trespasses unto us.”
—2 Corinthians 5:19
WHY IS RECONCILIATION necessary? Scripture’s answer is clear –because of our trespasses and sins. We read in our text, “not imputing their trespasses unto them.” The word “trespass” means to “fall aside from the truth” or “go out of bounds” and this makes us worthy of punishment. Because of the consequences of Adam’s sin, which is called Original Sin, every person born into this world, Christ excluded, has stepped out of the bounds of God’s Law by rebelling against Him, and when we did so we broke fellowship with God. Isaiah 59:2-4, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.”
ISAIAH TELLS US that the awful price of our sin is personal wickedness and alienation from God. Do you understand this? Many people today look at the cross of Christ and don’t see a great thing because they don’t understand the seriousness and wickedness of sin. But Scripture teaches that every sin is rebellion against God and it destroys our fellowship with God, the very Giver of life. Therefore, if we will escape the just judgment of God, which is everlasting punishment in the Lake of Fire, then we must be reconciled to God, and this is only accomplished by the work of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote, “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ –God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself” (2 Cor. 5:18-19). It is through Christ that we are reconciled to God because on the cross Jesus was the payment for the sins of all those given to Him by the Father (John 6:37). As our text says, God is the Reconciler and He reconciles sinners to Himself based on Christ’s sin-atoning death and law-abiding life. JESUS WAS THE substitute for all who trust in Him. He stood in their place in order that the multitude of their sins, which separated them from God and would have cast them into eternal punishment, would not be judged in them but in Christ on the cross. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). The “us” in this verse refers to all who trust in Christ.
WHAT ABOUT YOU? Are you trusting Christ? Are you among the “us” that Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 5:21? Scripture is crystal clear –Jesus, and NONE other, is our only hope of being reconciled to God. As we read in Acts 4:12, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.” Therefore, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved…” (Acts 16:19).
Tuesday Encouragement: May 12, 2026
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry
