Note 13 at 2 Cor. 5:19: Notice what this verse says and what it doesn't say. It doesn't say "God was in Christ reconciling some Christians unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them." Instead it says, "God was in Christ RECONCILING THE WORLD unto himself..." The provision for our reconciliation was made before we were saints (Rom. 5:8).

When you read a newspaper, you read about things that have already happened. They are not reporting prophecy. They are reporting the news. So our real job as ministers of reconciliation is to announce the good NEWS, an accomplished fact, that sin has been dealt with already through the person of Christ. We should be saying, "Now we beseech you, be ye reconciled to God. Change your mind and believe the gospel so that you may partake of that which has already been done on your behalf."

Note 14 at 2 Cor. 5:19: The Greek word translated "imputing" was an accounting term meaning "to lay to one's account" (see note 6 at Rom. 4:3, p. 762). Our Father God didn't send His Son to collect our debt, but to pay our debt. This is what makes Christianity so unique. God didn't send Jesus to give us some divine revelation of what we had to do to get right with God. He did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves and then He offered us right standing with His Father as a gift.

All of the other founders of the world's religions offered instruction about what we have to do to obtain salvation. But Jesus did what we needed to do to satisfy God's holy demands. He died for us, bearing our punishment, and now offers us a ledger of our account with God that says, "Paid in full."