Have been

I'ma gonna try to start writing a little more often again. Maybe. At least for today...

One day in my daily journal (2/24/25) I read 2 Corinthians 5:14-21. The prompt was: "In Christ, you are a new creation. In what ways do you desire to live more fully aligned with this reality?" 

2 Corinthians 5:14-21

¹⁴ For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ 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. ²⁰ 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. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

I've read this text a number of times, but as I meditated on it that day (and again today), verse 18 really stood out. "...God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ..."

I haven't done a detailed study of the passage, but what really struck me was "reconciled" is in the past tense. Perhaps I've always thought about this along the lines of sanctification - which is a process - and considered it as "we are BEING reconciled." But that's not how the text reads. Whether it us you and me as a follower of Jesus, or even just the author of this text, it is a done deal!

There is no working out being reconciled, like working out our salvation. The work was done by God, in Christ. I/we HAVE BEEN reconciled to God!

So, the only question is: how then will I live knowing this? There's nothing to earn, nothing to achieve, nothing to wait for... Reconciliation with God, oneness with God, peace with God (however you want to say it), has happened.

There should be more joy. That's how I think this applies to me.

What about you?