The Second Warrant to Believe

God’s earnest request for reconciliation with us in Christ

The second warrant and special motive to embrace Christ and believe in Him is the earnest request⁵⁵ that God makes to us to be reconciled to Him in Christ: “That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:19–21 ESV).

In this passage, the Apostle teaches us these nine doctrines:

1. The Elect world, that is, the redeemed souls of the world are by nature conceived in the state of enmity against God. This is presupposed in the word reconciliation, for reconciliation, or renewing of friendship can only exist between those who have been at enmity.

2. In all past time since the fall of Adam, Christ Jesus, the eternal Son of God, as Mediator, and the Father in Him, have been about [the work of] making friendship (by his Word and Spirit) between Himself and the Elect world. “God,” He said, “was reconciling the world to Himself.”

3. In all ages, the way of reconciliation was one and the same in substance: Forgiveness of the sins of those who acknowledge their sins and their enmity against God and who seek reconciliation and remission of sins in Christ. For “God,” He said, “was reconciling the world to Himself” by way of “not counting their trespasses against them.”

4. The purpose and scope of the Gospel and whole Word of God, is threefold:

   1. It serves to make people aware of their sins, of their enmity against God, and of their danger if they should be stubborn and not fear God’s displeasure.

   2. The Word of God serves to make people acquainted with the course that God has prepared for [repentant sinners] to make friendship with Him through Christ, to wit, if anyone will acknowledge the enmity, and will be content to enter into a Covenant of friendship with God through Christ, then God will be contented to be reconciled with him freely.

   3. The Word of God serves to teach people how to behave themselves toward God as friends after they are reconciled to Him, that is, to be loath to sin against Him, and to strive heartily to obey His Commandments. Therefore the Word of God is here called “the message of reconciliation,” because it teaches us what need we have of reconciliation, how to be reconciled, and how to keep the reconciliation of friendship that is being made with God through Christ.

5. That although hearing, believing, and obeying this Word belongs to all those to whom this Gospel comes, yet the office of preaching it with authority belongs to none but to those men whom God calls to this ministry and sends out with commission for this work. This the Apostle sets forth, in these words of verse 18, “entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

6. Ministers of the Gospel should behave themselves as Christ’s messengers, and should closely follow their commission set down in the Word in Matthew 28:19–20.⁵⁶ And when they do so, they should be received by the people as ambassadors from God, for here the Apostle, in all their names, said, “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.”

7. Ministers of the Gospel, in all earnestness of affections, should exhort people to acknowledge their sins and their natural enmity against God more and more seriously, consent to the Covenant of Grace and Christ’s Scriptures more and more heartily, and evidence more and more clearly their reconciliation by a holy lifestyle before God. This He sets forth when He says, “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

8. That in the ministers’ affectionate dealing with the people, the people should consider that they actually have to do with God and Christ Who are requesting them through the ministers to be reconciled. Now there cannot be a greater inducement to break a sinners hard heart than God making a request to him for friendship. We have done so many wrongs to God that it was appropriate for us to go to God to seek friendship with Him. But He anticipates us and enables us to do so. And O wonder of wonders! He requests us to be content to be reconciled with Him! Therefore, most fearful wrath must hang over those who disdain this request and do not yield when they hear ministers with commission saying, “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

9. To make it clear how it comes to pass that the Covenant of Reconciliation could be so easily implemented between God and a humble sinner fleeing to Christ, the Apostle leads us to the cause of it: the Covenant of Redemption, the sum of which is this: “It is agreed between God [the Father] and the Mediator Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Surety for the redeemed, as parties covenanting together, that the sins of the redeemed will be accounted to innocent Christ (hence no longer on the sinner’s account) and He both condemned and put to death for the redeemed. The only condition is that only those who heartily consent to the Covenant of Reconciliation offered through Christ will, by God’s crediting Christ’s obedience to them, be justified and deemed righteous before God.” “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin,” said the Apostle, “So that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Hence, a weak believer may strengthen his faith by reasoning from the ground stated above after this manner: By the mouth of God’s ministers (who have a commission to that effect), God and Christ are making a loving request to him. He, who in response has embraced the offer of perpetual reconciliation through Christ, and purposes by God’s grace as a reconciled person to strive against sin and serve God with all his power constantly, may be sure to have righteousness and eternal life given to him by the obedience of Christ being credited to him. He may be as sure of this as it is sure that Christ was condemned and put to death for the sins of the redeemed that were laid on Him.

“But I,” the weak believer may say, “on the loving request of God and Christ made to me by the mouth of his ministers, have embraced the offer of perpetual reconciliation through Christ, and purpose by God’s grace, as a reconciled person, to strive against sin and serve God with all my power constantly. Therefore, I may be as sure to have righteousness and eternal life given to me for the obedience of Christ credited to me, as it is sure that Christ was condemned and put to death for the sins of the redeemed that were laid on Him.”

55 God sometimes expresses His commands in the form of humble entreaties in order to communicate His great love for sinners and His full intent to keep His promises. “Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11 ESV). “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10 ESV).

56 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19–20 ESV).