Selfless Reconciliation

“Who are you? Who, who, who who? Who are you? Who, who, who who?”¹ You don’t have to have been around in 1978 to be familiar with these classic rock lyrics and the tune that etched them onto our long-term memory banks. Thanks to the band, The Who (who else?!?), millions of people have rhythmically asked billions of times: “Who are you?” Now, we can remain in the same rhetorical refrain for another 40 years if we wish—content to question identity and purpose—or we can flourish in the answer. For the apostle Paul shows us that, for anyone who is in Christ, there clearly is an answer.

Well, who are you?¹ You are new—your sin defines you no longer! “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”² We shrug off our shame once and for all and live this life in freedom!

I really wanna know.¹ You are reconciled to God—completely forgiven and entirely restored to peace in His presence. “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ ... not counting [people’s] sins against them.”³ We cease our striving; we rest in renewed relationship.

Tell me, who are you?¹ You are the righteousness of God. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”⁴ Jesus, who knew no sin, took upon Himself our sin, which we could not bear; then uniting us with Himself and living in us, He gave us His righteousness, which we could not earn. (Martin Luther called this “the great exchange.”) We humble ourselves in awe before such an indescribable gift and such a selfless Giver.

‘Cause I really wanna know.¹ You are an ambassador, for God reaches people through people. “And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”⁵ And here is our message to millions who “really wanna know”—through faith in Christ, you, too, can be new, reconciled and, yes, righteous through the selfless grace of God.

Who’s next?

Father, I cannot begin to imagine the depth of your love or the cost of my reconciliation. Grace me to flourish in your forgiveness and to be a selfless ambassador of your truth and grace. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Christ in me is peace.

¹ Townshend, Peter. (1978). Who Are You [Lyrics]. Retrieved from https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/who/whoareyou.htm
² 2 Corinthians 5:17
³ 2 Corinthians 5:18, 19a
⁴ 3 Corinthians 5:21
⁵ 2 Corinthians 5:19b, 20

See today's Scripture in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21.