The Ace Theological Company’s 95 Theses #52

Big Trouble In Little Verses

I tried ocean sounds, but that was annoying for me here in this cold climate of Utah. I tried flat out “sounds of snow storm” but good golly that was awful. So, let’s stick to rain on leaves sound in autumn.

Good Morning Saint of God…
Good Morning Father of all. (By the way Father, your plan… that is… your purpose… is way cool… or should I say “mind blowing”. Thanks for including me somewhere in it all)

6:25 a.m.
Thursday, Feb 17.
And it’s kinda cold out…
25º right now, with a high expected of 42º.

And a big fat, GRACE TO YOU.

This morning I was thinking of exploring II COR 5:18-21 with you. It’s not a popular verse. But it is a “killer” verse. I think Bill references this verse sometimes to promote that “FREE GRACE” business and that OSAS business. But I’m a-gonna challenge myself here, to see what I can find in it and share it with you.
BY THE WAY… Both Lawrence and Paul Paulsen have made it a point on this channel that we don’t “need” the Bible or to be Bible students and we don’t need to be “Concordant” Only-ists…. Like the KJV only-ists.
Lawrence points out that the “Bible” is no help unless the spirit of God makes you alive to the matter being discussed. And that’s true… you can slap a verse on a fella, and it doesn’t mean he’ll get it. I love certain verses these days… that at one time… went right over my head and in fact, I argued with the verse and the fellow presenting the verse to me. Dang.
Paul Paulsen points out that there are plenty of mentally disabled folks out there, you know, like so bad they are in institutions. And those folks couldn’t follow the logic of THIS idea or THAT idea, if you gave them money to try. And ya know… that’s really true of all of us… we can’t understand the things of God without a miracle of God happening to us, and in us and for us.
As my Granddad, use to say “They can’t hep (no “L”) it.
And, as Paul Paulsen was pointing out, God can bring us along to a new understanding apart from any Bible or apart from any specific translation of the Bible. And yep… gotta agree with that one.
And get this boys and girls… it’s God’s job to bring us along. He alone is the Creator of all, the Father of all, and the Savior of all. Does He need any help from us? Nah. One of our “Little Verses” confirms this thought… I think it’s Acts 17:25… or 27… it says “as if God needs anything from us.” (Words to that effect.)
So, our title BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE VERSES is an homage to that great Kirk Russel movie, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA. — I gotta pull that out of storage and watch it again.
OK… here are our verses for today:
NOTE: I’ll leave it here as one unit, then copy it, paste it in again… and cram my thoughts in to the new section. Hang on…
II Cor 5:
18 Yet all is of God, Who conciliates us to Himself through Christ, and is giving us the dispensation of the conciliation,
19 how that God was in Christ,
(1) conciliating the world to Himself,
(2) not reckoning their offenses to them,
(3) and placing in us the word of the conciliation.
20 For Christ, then, are
(4)…we ambassadors, as of God entreating through us. We are beseeching for Christ’s sake,
“Be conciliated to God!”
21
(5) …For the One not knowing sin, He makes to be a sin offering for our sakes
(6) that we may be becoming God’s righteousness in Him.

II Cor 1:
2 Grace to you and peace from God, our Father,
and the Lord Jesus Christ.

II Cor 5: X-I find it almost strange that we find this good stuff in II Corinthians… this passage is like a summation of all the good stuff of the Bible… personally, I’d expect this to be in Ephesians, Colossians, or Philippians… but NOOOOOOO… Paul was revealing THIS way back??? Way back when he was writing to those rascals in Corinth??? I suspect he was holding back a bit… ok… onward…
18 Yet all is of God, X-These have got to be the most hated four words in the Bible… “all is of God”… And this is not the only place where these four words show up… but every time I bring up these words as something to be delighted in, some freewill brother or sister will start showing beads of sweat around their forehead… and say “Noooooo, nooooooo,” as if they are a character in a movie about to go over a cliff. They always run to that verse that says something about someone being “OF YOUR FATHER, THE DEVIL”… as if THAT proves that “not all is of God”
Now, one way we can “BELIEVE” God, when God says “All is of God”… is to note that somethings in the Bible are said in the absolute sense, and some things are spoken in a relative sense. In the ABSOLUTE sense, all is of God, relatively speaking some folks are “of your father the devil”. And it’s a shame that more folks don’t or can’t consider figures of speech. And the Bible is FULL of figures of speech.
For example: One verse says NONE ARE RIGHTEOUS, NO NOT ONE. Another verse says John, the baptist’s parents were “righteous”… WHAT? A contradiction?? Nah… John’s parents were “righteous” relative to all those knuckleheads who were alive and were neighbors and were running the show at the time, John was born. In the absolute sense, God says, God assesses that “none are righteous, no not one.”
So, don’t be a baby, everyone uses figures of speech, and one figure is to speak of somethings as relatively true, and other things as absolutely true. And it is absolutely true that ALL IS OF GOD. Relatively, some folks act like a-holes, so we might say “they are OF their father the devil.” Jesus did.
So… we begin our dive into this passage with the words “ALL IS OF GOD”… a perfect set-up phrase.
Does the author need to go further… our minds are blown already… “All is of God” indeed. Who can handle such a thought? All is of God. Hmmmm. And Hmph.
Check it out… He says ALL IS OF GOD, then goes on to say…
Who conciliates us to Himself through Christ,
X—Whoah… what do we have here? God conciliates us to Himself ??? This is starting to sound interesting. Why? Because everyone and his brother seems to say that God has a big, fat, chip on His shoulder. They seem to suggest that God is pissed. And He’s going to kick ass, any day now. But here… we see a different message. A message likely to go right over our heads… because it’s so wildly different that all the stuff we’ve heard about this “angry God” all these years.
God “conciliates us to Himself”… wait a minute… This sounds tender. This sounds lovely… this sounds like God does not have a chip on His shoulder. This sounds like God is not angry after all. God is conciliating us to Himself — NOTE: it does not say that “WE” are conciliated to Him, just that HE is conciliated to us. I think we still have a chip on our shoulder about many things. But let’s go on…
He is conciliating us to Himself THROUGH CHRIST. Hmmmmmm…. how do we approach this thought? Through Christ? This conciliation thing must require a PLAN and a vehicle through which the plan is carried out: Christ.
Ok… next part —
and is giving us the dispensation of the conciliation,
X— There’s that word DISPENSATION again. So, can we say that we are in a DISPENSATION right now… a dispensation called “THE CONCILIATION”… Cool… In other parts of the scriptures we see “the dispensation of grace”… and “the dispensation of righteousness”… we might see the “dispensation of justice”… but HERE we see “the dispensation of the conciliation.” Something to ponder.
Now check this out:
19 how that God was in Christ,
X— God was in Christ ???? In my mind… these four words are STAND ALONE words… There have been times I would walk around saying to myself “God was in Christ”… just trying to explore the depth of it’s meaning. God was in Christ… wow. In a sense… no matter what kind of crap is going on in the big, bad word… it somehow is a tempest in a teacup, compared to the thought that GOD WAS IN CHRIST.
Now, the question is, WHAT WAS HE DOING THERE??? (Coffee refill time… brb)
7:27 a.m.
If you see my numbered notes below… looks like we can say that God was doing SIX different things there, when He was in Christ. Let see what we get…
(1) conciliating the world to Himself,
X— So, in this passage we first discover that “all is of God” then we discover that WE, personally, are conciliated to God — through Christ. Right ? So, this “all is of God” business has to start somewhere, so we see a personal and tender thing… the PROOF that all is of God begins with “us” in that God conciliates us to Himself through Christ… and guess what… He then GIVES US the dispensation of the conciliation… so we’er not done yet. Right? He gives us a job ?? Is that right ?? This “job” called “the dispensation of the conciliation.”… what is this?
(2) not reckoning their offenses to them,
X — check this out… God is not reckoning the world’s offenses to them? What’s going on here?
STOP PRESSES !!!…
EMERGENCY POWERS MEETING !!!
GET BILLY GRAHAM ON THE LINE !!!
OH, HE’S DEAD? WELL, GET SOMEONE ON THE LINE… THIS IS BIG… GOD IS NOT, I SAY “NOT”… RECKONING MAN’S OFFENSES AGAINST THEM? WHAT THE HELL?
Here it is, feast your beady little eyes on this:
“God was in Christ, conciliating the world to Himself, not reckoning their offenses to them,”
X — If you’re like me, it’s like “time to take some medication… heart medication, or something… this thing is too rich for my blood. Listen, the question is… how far do we take this passage of scripture ???
Ya gotta know, all the freewiller’s and the OSASer and the so-called “free-gracers” — they all go out of their way to marginalize and minimalize this passage. Those guys always put CONDITIONS on acquiring God’s grace, favor or blessings. You MUST meet conditions, and they won’t shut up about the CONDITIONS you MUST meet to win the game of “everlasting life”…
But as I see it, this passage clearly says God met the conditions “in Christ” and man o man… it looks like the only thing left for us to do is have a party about the matter and INVITE FOLKS TO THE PARTY. Let’s see if I’m right…. Up next: We have verse 20 and item #3 and #4…
(3) and placing in us the word of the conciliation.
20 For Christ, then, are (4)…we ambassadors, as of God entreating through us. We are beseeching for Christ’s sake, “Be conciliated to God!”
X — “Ambassadors” are the folks who are inviting others to the party, so to speak. And we are “beseeching”… not for YOUR sake, but for “Christ’s sake” — Now, if this “eternal hell” business were real, it would say “we’re beseeching you for your sake so you don’t go to an endless hell.” But NO. This message is for Christ’s sake. Dare we say that this message is so that Christ won’t pay the price for nuthin’ ??? — Just a figure of speech here.. I say GOD WAS IN CHRIST… and it will play out exactly as God wants…
Get this… when it says that we’re out there shouting :Be Conciliated To God… are we kind of saying “FORGIVE GOD”… ??? We’re saying, “Come on folks, give God a chance. He’s conciliated to you, now you can be conciliated back to Him… and don’t cha know, it’s gonna be all right. (Using figures of speech here boys, don’t get your panties in a tight-wad.)
PLEASE NOTE: The word “conciliated” here in this passage is KATALASSO and suggests a one-sided change of heart… the change of heart coming from God only, at this moment… but in Colossians 1:20 we see… finally… a two-sided change of heart… and we have the word APO-KATALASSO a stronger form of KATALASSO. So here, in II COR 5, we have the story of God being conciliated to all mankind, but as the story progresses to Colossians 1:20, we have both God and mankind and the whole universe, being conciliated to each other… thus in Colossians 1:20 the stronger form of the word can be used.
Right now, most of the world is either mad at God or indifferent toward God… totally indifferent. And it’s all by design… get it… our opening words: ALL IS OF GOD… is the set-up, for the discussion… it’s the foundation of Paul’s thoughts here. ALL IS OF GOD…is the “tell”… He’s got all the cards.
You know… it’s actually fun, to have this ambassador thing as a gift… to be out there shouting to the word (so to speak) HEY, FORGIVE GOD… or, if you insist — BE CONCILIATED TO GOD… knowing good and well, that they will be conciliated to God, if not today… one day… and not to worry that they are ignoring our message of love and relaxation and peace and grace and joy… and on and on… they can ignore it because ALL IS OF GOD… and God is in the TIME and TIMING business… and one day… all will become apparent.
SIDE NOTE: One boy says “Why preach to men if they are not under wrath”… and the fact that they stub their toe, and it bleeds, is proof that they are under something… call it “wrath” if you want to… but this life is painful because Adam sinned and “death (mortality) passed through onto all mankind.” (Romans 5:12) — proof, that we are all under wrath… when we get signs of mortality, and our toe is bleeding like crazy.
21 (5) …For the One not knowing sin, He makes to be a sin offering for our sakes
X — I put the word “offering” in dark background, because it’s not in the Greek of the New Testament. In the Concordant translation, they let you know it’s not there by using lightface type for the word “offering”… In an article as to WHY did inserted it there, even though it’s not in the Greek, they admitted that it was likely going to piss off a lot of regular ole christians who would freak out that the scriptures actually say —
“The One not knowing sin, He makes to be sin, for our sakes.”
So, it was a “marketing” decision, on behalf of the editors… but in the next edition of the Concordant Literal New Testament… they are going to ditch the word “offering” since it’s not there anyway… and let the scriptures stand or fall on their own… since the regular ole christians get pissed off at “Big Little Verses” anyway… let them deal with II COR 5:18-21 as they will.
(6) that we may be becoming God’s righteousness in Him.
X — Finally, we get to this closing thought.. that we “MAY”… be becoming God’s righteousness. And don’t you for a moment think that this “MAY” is suggesting that it MAY or MAY NOT happen. That, you “may” become God’s righteousness, or you “may not”… it’s all up to you.
This “may” is a result of all that has gone on before. God was in Christ, and the result, is that WE ALL WILL BECOME God’s righteousness.
It’s like this… I push the hammer to the edge of the table that it may fall off. The hammer’s action is not dependent on the hammer, but on my action.
We become God’s righteousness due to God being in Christ and doing what He did there.
It would be cheesy of your to suggest that this MAY suddenly switches to a dependency on Human action, when the whole passage is all about God’s operations.
God operates that we may be found in Him.
After all, “All is of God”…. And … “God was in Christ”… and “was conciliating the whole dang world to Himself” Wow.
Exit: Stage Right.
Thanks for joining me, Paul, Nancy, Francis, Jeremy. etc.
8:33 a.m.
I’m sweet on this passage. I think there’s more to see in it. We’ll have to go over these thoughts again, later on. Grace to you.
Amen.
Ace.

P.S. Here are the notes from brother Paul Paulsen:

1. There are two verbs in Greek on RECONCILATE – the general καταλλάσσω = I RECONCILE, as used six times from Paul, and the more COMPLETE FORM with the prefix APO ἀπό as quasi “addition” – ἀποκαταλλάσσω
2. …I FULLY RECONCILE (= from ALL sides of the parties), as used three times in Eph + Col…
3. For He makes a sin offering for our sake in 2 Cor 5:21, as the Concordant Version translate, IS MOST SURELY FALSE & MISLEADING!
4. The Greek is clear – He (= GOD) MADE or PERFORMED SIN FOR OUR SAKE is most correct & meets fully PAUL`S INTENTION!
5. According to Paul, God does not worry to get dirty hands when it comes to LOVING HIS ENEMIES! And God doesn´t consider Himself too good TO GET SPAT IN HIS FACE & later get killed FOR THE SAKE OF US!
   6. GOD SO LOVES HUMANS, THAT HE CHOOSES 1. TO LIVE IN THEM AND 2. TO FIGHT SIN BY “SINNING HIMSELF FOR THE SAKE OF LOVE”! This is the only scripture I know TELLING THAT GOD BECOMES A SINNER!
   7. GOD SO LOVES HUMANS, THAT HE CHOOSES 1. TO LIVE IN THEM AND 2. TO FIGHT SIN BY “SINNING HIMSELF FOR THE SAKE OF LOVE”! This is the only scripture I know TELLING THAT GOD BECOMES A SINNER!
   8. I find myself deeply connected knowing THAT GOD DOES NOT FEAR HIMSELF DOING or PERFORMING SIN FOR THE LOVE OF ME! That is called REAL SOLIDARITY! And REAL LOVE! Yes, God is a SINNER FOR LOVE`S SAKE!
6. Only Paul tells so, only Paul! Is that the reason Paul is so UNPOPULAR & even SUSPICIOUS especially among. as you cale it, “ole christians”? I fear so! But I can live with humans believing GOD BEING..
7. …TOTALLY UNABLE TO SIN! To me it appears those humans WILL BE HAPPY LIKE LITTLE KIDS AT X-MAS ONCE THEY FULLY UNDERSTAND THE FULL TRUTH ON GOD!
   Again… grace to you.
   Happy Thursday.
   8:46 a.m.