The believers’ second step of reconciliation to God is by God entreating them through the apostles as ambassadors of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:20 Paul says, “On behalf of Christ then we are ambassadors, as God entreats you through us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, Be reconciled to God.” Here Paul was speaking to the Corinthians who were still living in their natural life. They were believers, saved ones, and Paul called them saints (1 Cor.1:2). They were saints, yet they lived in their natural life. Their natural life was the veil that separated them from the presence of God; this veil needed to be rent. Therefore, as an ambassador of God Paul entreated them to be reconciled to God. Paul, an ambassador sent by God, a fellow worker of God, entreated God’s people, who were still in their natural being, to be reconciled to God, to enter into His inner presence, the Holy of Holies. Through the apostles as ambassadors of Christ, God entreats the believers to be fully reconciled to Himself.
Ultimately, the second step of reconciliation to God is to make the believers the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21b). We, who are brought back to God in the Holy of Holies, experience and enjoy Him in His triune dispensing to such an extent that we become the righteousness of God in Christ. This means that we are reconciled to God in the second step and become the righteousness of God in our organic union with Christ.
When we were saved, we passed through the process of forgiveness, cleansing, sanctification, justification, and reconciliation. Now in our living as Christians, this process needs to be repeated continuously until the redemption of our body. Every day we need to be forgiven, cleansed, sanctified, justified, and reconciled to God.
The believers’ continuous experience of God’s redemption can be illustrated by the Israelites’ offering of the sin offering and the trespass offering. Whenever they offered the burnt offering to satisfy God, they also had to offer the sin offering and the trespass offering. These offerings were offered in the morning and in the evening and also at the feasts. As believers in Christ, we need to offer Christ daily as our sin offering and trespass offering. We need Christ to be these offerings because we are defiled by the natural life, the old man, the flesh, the lust of the flesh, and worldliness. Therefore, because of our sins, offenses, and our sinful nature, we need Christ as our sin offering and trespass offering. Throughout our entire Christian life, we need God’s forgiveness, cleansing, sanctification, justification, and reconciliation. While we are enjoying the triune dispensing of the processed Triune God, we need to continuously experience the redemption of God.
In the believers’ continuous experience of God’s redemption, there is the need to be justified after being sanctified. In our daily life we need to be justified by the righteous God. First, we are accepted by God, being justified in the Spirit; then we must be found in Christ, that is, observed, seen, and discovered that we are in Christ. This is our subjective experience of Christ that Christ may be lived out of us to become our righteousness and that Christ may live the righteous life in us for us to be justified by God.
The believers are justified not only out of faith but also out of works as the issue of the divine life by living out the divine life. Justification by faith is by receiving the divine life; justification by works is through living the divine life that produces works of righteousness. The believers also become the righteousness of God in Christ by being constituted with Christ as the righteousness of God. When Christ took our place, He was made sin for us; now He is constituting us that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him. In this way, in our organic union with Christ we are not only righteous, but we become the righteousness of God itself.
After justification, the believers also need the second step of reconciliation to God. The first step of reconciliation is to be freed from sin to be reconciled to God. This is accomplished in the objective aspect of the death of Christ. The second step of reconciliation is for the believers living in their natural life to be freed from the flesh to be reconciled to God; this is accomplished by the subjective aspect of the death of Christ. This is not through Christ’s dying for the sins of the believers, but rather through Christ’s dying for the believers themselves and through God’s entreating the believers through the apostles as ambassadors of Christ that they may become the righteousness of God in their organic union with Christ.
Because of our sins, offenses, and sinful nature, we need to continuously experience God’s forgiveness, cleansing, sanctification, justification, and reconciliation throughout our entire life. This is what we need to experience continuously as we enjoy the triune dispensing of the processed Triune God.