This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” -2 Corinthians 5:17-20
Have you ever experienced what it is like to be a foreigner? Many times, people look at you funny or are suspicious of you. I spent my formative years as a foreigner in a country that I called home, but whose language I did not speak and whose customs I did not always follow. I was fortunate to mostly be looked upon with curiosity rather than disdain. On the other hand, I have come back to and live in the country of my citizenship and, in many ways, I am still a foreigner. I understand the language and I look like I belong, but there are cultural things that I do not appreciate because they are not a part of my experience.
They call people like me Third Culture Kids because we don’t quite fit in the culture of our citizenship or in the culture where we grew up. I was reminded of this as I began praying through this week’s devotional. I worked through several of Paul’s letters and kept hitting on phrases like “brought near”, “new creation” and, “one in Christ.”
Isaiah uses “brought near” to refer to a convert to Judaism. Prior to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, this was the only way to know God. Even Jews were divided into classes which determined how far you could go into the temple-how close you could get to God.
Christ’s death on the cross brought us all near. In Christ, we are no longer outsiders or enemies of God. We are new creations. We are not divided into classifications limited in our access to God. In Christ, we are one. In a sense, we are a Third Culture-something entirely new and different.
You may never have had the experience of being a foreigner. However, all of us have, at some point; experienced what it is to be an outsider. We know the pain of not being in the inner circle. This week, take time to think about what it means to have been reconciled to God. You are no longer an outsider. You are a child of God with the full inheritance available as one of God’s children. Don’t you want to tell people about that?