Estranged to Reconciled

Bill White | Sep 8, 2019

Study Guide

We can see our estrangement all throughout the world we live in—whether through big things or small, we are well-acquainted with what it feels like to be estranged. It could be primarily through the perceived joy that others are experiencing without you on social media, the distance you feel from your children, the fracturing of your sexuality, or anything else that signals to you that something that should be whole is broken. But God made a way through Christ for us to be reconciled forever to him.
Application

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

  1. Read 2 Corinthians 5:17-18. Verse 18 reads, “And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ.” What is the gift from God? Is it difficult for you to receive this gift from God freely? Why?

  2. How do you personally feel estranged in this world? How does reconciliation comfort you in that?

  3. Who do you define as “other”? Is it hard for you to believe that that person is who Jesus came for?

  4. We are Christ’s ambassadors, qualified to represent the eternal kingdom in an alien territory. In what area of your life are you not living as Christ’s ambassador? What are the three things you can do this week to be obedient as his ambassador of reconciliation?

  5. We can only have one allegiance, one loyalty, one mission, and one message, and it’s his. Where else have you placed your allegiance? When your heart and mind are not centered around loyalty to Christ and your mission for him, what are you focused on?

Key Points

  • As believers, when we died to our old lives with Christ’s death, we are done scheming and trying to make something happen in our lives. Because he was raised, we instead get a new life—living for him, surrendered to God, trusting him with our lives on his terms.

  • In Colossians 1:15-20, we see that what Jesus was doing in his death and resurrection was beginning a whole new humanity and new creation.

  • God’s gift of a new life is given to us freely. Receiving gifts freely requires a posture of humility and exposure. If we can’t receive gifts without feeling the need to repay or feeling in debt, we need to examine our soul.

  • We are Christ’s ambassadors, qualified to represent the eternal kingdom in an alien territory. When we speak, we speak for him.

  • Jesus brings us into relationship with him and then chooses to make his appeal to others through us. Our personal reconciliation to God comes with responsibility.

  • It’s possible for us to receive all of this and it be in vain. If the Holy Spirit is not powerful and effective in your life, making righteousness on display through you, you need to just start obeying and doing the work of God.

  • Sometimes we take too long thinking about why our heart isn’t in the right place when we just need to go and do.

Other Scripture References

Colossians 1:15-20

John 3:16-17

Matthew 5:16

John 13:35

2 Corinthians 6:1

Topics: Ambassadors, Gratitude, New Creation