The effect of Christ’s presence here, in the full revelation of His goodness, was that it became a signal for the wild outbreak of all that man was against God. Thus all our state came fully out. Instead of reconciliation, His presence only drew out all the irreconcilableness of the natural heart. And “having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself” (Col. 1:2020And, 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. (Colossians 1:20)). Having begun with the center of the enmity, reconciliation will go out to all creation, but He begins with man. Man only was opposed to God’s heart and will. His full state comes out now with all the added light of the cross upon that condition.
“One Died for All”
“If one died for all, then were all dead” (2 Cor. 5:14). Up to the cross, God had been dealing with man as alive in the flesh. Then He sent His own Son into the world, the only result being the outbreak of all the enmity of man’s heart. Now God looks upon man as dead in sins; how blessed to have bowed to it, that we are absolutely dead in sins by the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now when we give ourselves up for what we are before God, reconciliation begins to shine out before us —not to do with sins, but with the state of enmity of man’s heart. God has identified Himself with our condition; “He hath made Him to be sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21). All our state, having come fully out, has been judged in the cross of Christ. That was the end, not merely of all that I have done, but of all that I am.
New Creation
We know Christ no more after the flesh (2 Cor. 5:16). We know Him now as risen from the dead, a new creation, having entered that place as Man. It is a wholly new creation, where all things are of God. Thus we see a Man gone up in divine righteousness before God, and all that wonderful place into which He has gone opening up before us, as the home of our hearts. No disturbance can come there between your souls and God. The word reconciliation is a difficult one to explain. We find an illustration of it in Joseph and his brethren. After enjoying the fruit of his love for fifteen years, when their father died, they said, “Joseph will peradventure hate us” (Gen. 50:1515And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. (Genesis 50:15)). They were not reconciled. With how many is it thus now, often not known until a deathbed by one who has been enjoying the fruits of His work for years. There has been a lurking suspicion all the time, because they have never seen how God has closed the history of the first man. What rest of heart when that is known!
J. A. Trench r