glorycloud's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- the ministry of reconciliation It is 7:08 PM Monday night here in West Michigan. It is 74 degrees and still sunny. It has been a normal day thus far. This afternoon my therapist called and told me he had an opening today at 4:30 PM and could I come? I said Sure! I was suppose to see my therapist on the 10th of August, but we were sick with COVID-19 and canceled the session. So this afternoon I had a session with my therapist and it was a nice time talking about stuff. I do find myself repeating the same old stories of my life. But I realize my life has been very simple so I tend to repeat the same stories. Most of my life has been lived inside my mind. I also a loner and tend to spend a lot of life Time alone with books or writing in my personal private paper diary. I am not one to join the Herd of Humanity. The older I get people become more beastly. I told Carol the other morning to me people all seem to be insane. I did get around to reading today from a book titled, '2 Corinthians' New Testament IXb [Reformation Commentary On Scripture] Edited By Scott M. Manetsch. I thought I would quote from this commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2- "Reconciliation Requires The Consent Of Both Parties. Wolfgang Musculus: "And he gave to us the ministry of reconciliation." The fact that the most compassionate Father reconciled us to himself through Christ his Son was not adequate for salvation unless we were given the capacity for this reconciliation. For reconciliation cannot occur between unwilling parties, but it requires the agreement and approval of both sides. As far as God is concerned, our reconciliation is accomplished through the death of Christ the mediator, the only-begotten of God. But as far as our side is concerned, reconciliation is not accomplished unless we accommodate ourselves from the heart to certain conditions so that we can have the capacity for it. These conditions are repentance and faith, no one will be capable of this reconciliation, for the impenitent and unbelievers are excluded. Therefore, so that we might be made into partners of that reconciliation, God sent his gospel into the world through which all men and women are called to repentance and faith whereby they acquire the gift of this reconciliation. And he committed this service to the apostles as ambassadors of this reconciliation. The apostle indicates this by saying, "And he gave to us the ministry of reconciliation not only to Paul himself, but also to the other apostles. Even so, nothing prevents us from understanding Paul to be saying this about his own apostleship, concerning which the false apostles were wickedly stirring up controversy. And so he attributes to God not only the work of reconciliation itself, but also the administration of that ministry. Now the attentive reader should note how elegantly the apostle apportions in turn this reconciliation of our between God, Christ, and the apostles. He attributes the power of it to God, the accomplishment of it to Christ as mediator, who then distributes the ministry of it to the apostles, as ministers and ambassadors. God is in no way excluded for he is the source of all things; Christ did not accomplish the work of reconciliation without God; and the apostles did not undertake the administration of that ministry in the world without God. COMMENTARY ON 2 CORINTHIANS 5:18." pg. 164 7:34 p.m. - 2022-08-15 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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