“God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ…”

                 Words are wonderful things…sometimes.  One time when I simply can’t stand to hear words is on TV commercials.  I don’t watch much TV, but when I do, I always keep my remote nearby.  When all the noisy jabber and constant commotion begin (i.e., the program stops and the commercials start), I happily pick up the remote, press mute and enjoy the quiet break.  These silent islands in a sea of noise are refreshing and can be priceless, depending on one’s state of mind at the moment.

But for our focus today, the word reconcile is rich with hidden meaning.  We find this word used 5 times in its noun and verbal forms in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20.  Five times in only three verses is quite significant.  Think Paul is emphasizing something?  No doubt!  And the emphasis can be found in the etymology — or history — of the word.

The word for reconcile in the Greek gives us our English word, catalyst.  By definition a catalyst is an agent or substance that causes a chemical reaction between two other substances that are combined but not interacting with each other.  That is a precise description of how Christ’s coming forever changed our spiritual state before God.  Let’s look at it.

In his prayer to dedicate the Temple, King Solomon said, “But will God really dwell on earth with men?  The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you.  How much less this temple I have built!” (2 Chronicles 6:18).  Obviously from this statement God fills the universe.  In fact, we could say that God is the only one who does not live in an environment.  Sure, Scripture says he lives “in heaven.”  But isn’t this an accommodation to our finite thinking?  The same Scriptures also say that the sun “rises at one end of the heavens and makes it circuit to the other” (Psalm 19:6).  Technically this is incorrect.  Simple astronomy tells us that earth’s turning accounts for the movement of the sun.  But from an earth-bound perspective, the sun does appear to revolve around the earth, and in this sense the text is accurate.  So with God and heaven.  From our vantage point he lives “up there, in heaven,” even though “the highest heavens cannot contain” him.  In that sense, then, he is the environment.  Paul in Acts 17:27b-28a confirms this:  “[H]e is not far from each one of us.  ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’”

But though we somehow live “in him,” we as unbelieving, rebellious creatures had no involvement with him. Like two substances—oil and water, for example—in the same jar, there is no interaction between them.  The two passively coexist side-by-side.  God will not and cannot have any interaction with sin or sinful creatures.  But then we introduce the catalyst—Christ, the reconciler—and look what happens.  We have major interaction being initiated.  Let’s read the text, substituting catalyst for reconcile, and begin in verse 17:  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who catalyzed us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of catalyzing: that God was catalyzing the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.  And he has committed to us the message of catalyzing.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be catalyzed to God.”

Wow, what a spiritual reaction!  Notice clearly that it is we—who are “in Christ” the catalyst— who become new creatures.  It is “the world” that is also catalyzed to God, not vice-versa.  It is we who need to be changed, not God!  The Greek word is likewise precise: it requires only one of the substances to be changed for interaction to occur.  There is another word that requires both substances to be changed, but Paul did not use it.  His word selection is exact and graphic.

We have been give the ministry of catalyzing others to God, sharing the reconciliation that Christ has accomplished on the cross for us.  Are you being catalyzed to God day by day?  Are you also, as his ambassador, looking to create a catalytic reaction among your unsaved friends?