When we are fully reconciled to God, we are enlarged in our heart; we not only forgive an offense but also forget it, and the result is that we have peace with God and man, we boast in God, and we are saved in His life, for we are one with God and we live in God as God lives in us.
Lord Jesus, we love You! We open to You! Reconcile us further into God! Enlarge our heart. May we be enlarged in our heart. Oh Lord, bring us into a situation where we are fully reconciled to God! Grant us to have a large heart like Yours! May we open our narrow heart to You. We want to have peace toward God and peace toward those around us. Amen, Lord Jesus, make us persons who have an enlarged heart today in our personal life, our family life, and in our church life! Amen!
This week we have been prayerfully considering the ministry of reconciliation as seen in both 2 Corinthians 5 and Romans 5. Reconciliation means that there was a problem, and some parties became enemies; therefore, there needs for someone to make peace.
The instrument of reconciliation is Christ, the means of reconciliation is the cross, and the scope of reconciliation comprises all things in the heavens and on earth.
We are reconciled in the sphere of the Body, based upon Christ’s judicial redemption and justification by faith. The apostles were ambassadors of Christ having the ministry of the new covenant, and they carried out the ministry of reconciliation.
There are two steps for us to be fully reconciled to God: first, we are reconciled to God from sin, and second, we’re reconciled from living in the natural life to God from the flesh. For us to be fully reconciled, we need to be identified with the crucified Christ.
We have been reconciled to God from sin, but we still live in the flesh, in the soul, the outer man, the natural being. So we need to be further reconciled to God.
The ministry of reconciliation brings us back to God to such an extent that we become the righteousness of God in Christ. Wow, not only is Christ our righteousness by faith in His redemptive work but even more, we become the righteousness of God in Christ by being further reconciled to God! Amen!
We need to advance with the Lord to be with Him in the Holy of Holies; the second veil needs to be rent so that we may be brought into God. This means that we need to exercise our spirit and be one with the crucified Christ to enter further into God and be fully reconciled to God.
To be Fully Reconciled to God will cause us to be Enlarged in Our Heart – we Forgive and Forget Any Offense!
One of the results of being fully reconciled to God is that we will be enlarged in our hearts (2 Cor. 5:20; 6:11-13). A sign that we’re fully reconciled to God is that we have an enlarged heart. How large our heart is depends on the degree of our reconciliation to God.
If we’re narrow in our heart, if we cannot forgive and forget others’ offenses, this indicates that we have been reconciled to God only partially.
We need to be reconciled to God in full; we need to be saved fully in His life (Rom. 5:10). If we want to be fully saved and fully reconciled to God, we need to be enlarged in our heart.
We may see some dear brothers who serve the Lord faithfully and love Him, but they are quite strict and straight; they are not flexible.
If we even try to fellowship with such ones, they clearly tell us that they know the biblical way, which is to be as strict as they are. Oh Lord! We need to be enlarged in our heart!
This doesn’t mean that we become loose and have no restrictions; rather, we should continue to be strict and straight concerning ourselves, but we should be flexible when it comes to others, loving them as the Lord does.
We may think we are doing great, but our heart may be quite narrow.
For example, if someone makes a mistake, we may think we should not talk to that person until he repents. This is to be narrow in heart.
Our narrowness in heart is a strong indication that the percentage of our salvation is quite low and that we are not fully reconciled to God.
May we open to the Lord in this matter, for this is very practical. Especially in the married life, in the family life, and in the church life, where we live with others and interact with them, we need to be enlarged in our heart.
When someone gets married, at their wedding, no one wants to be unkind or unpleasant, so they put on a lovely face, and everyone is nice.
But if we were to be frank and honest, we may have to touch the truth that the husband and the wife may have difficulty in forgiving each other. Oh Lord Jesus, our married life! Oh Lord, our spouse and our forgiveness and forgetting!
We have to testify that, when our wife or husband offends us, it may not be so easy for us to forgive and forget.
We may forgive, for they ask for forgiveness, or the Lord may touch us, but we may still remember that offense.
The wife may try her hardest not to offend her husband, but when she does, he may remember it for a long time.
Similarly, the brother may try his hardest to love his wife and care for her, but when he fails, she is offended, and it is not easy for her to forget and forgive.
In our married life, in the family life, and in the church life, we need to be enlarged in our heart. To be fully reconciled to God is to be enlarged in heart.
We should not have the expectation that the saints are like angels and that everyone should be nice to us, and then be surprised that offenses come.
We are not like a “marble Mary” in the church life or in the family life; we are men of flesh who many times live in their flesh and not in their spirit.
May we all come to the Lord in regard to our heart so that He may enlarge our heart. May we learn to take Christ as our forgiveness and also open to Him to forget other’s offenses.
This doesn’t mean that we tolerate others’ sins and we don’t say anything to others when they offend us. Rather, we open to the Lord to be enlarged in our heart.
If we are able to forgive an offense and then forget it, that is a sign that we have become an enlarged person, a person with a large heart (Matt. 18:21-35; Eph. 5:21; Col. 3:13).
Thank the Lord that He has a large heart, He still receives us, He is not offended with us, and He still speaks to us, even though we sin against Him and offend Him.
We are in the age of grace, when the Lord freely gives us His grace and infuses Himself into us.
May we know and be filled with the loving and forgiving heart of our Saviour God and may we allow Him to love others, forgive others, and forget others’ offenses in us.
May we be impressed with the contrast between narrowness of heart and largeness of heart.
Paul was enlarged in his heart toward the Corinthians, but they were constricted in their heart toward Him. He asked them to be enlarged toward him, even as he was enlarged toward them.
May we open to the Lord as we remain under the ministry of reconciliation so that we may be enlarged in heart and have largeness of heart toward others.
Lord Jesus, we open to You. Enlarge our heart. We open to You concerning our narrowness of heart. Oh Lord, You see that it is not easy for us to forgive and forget others’ offenses. We simply come to You as we are. We turn our heart to You. You are our loving and forgiving Saviour God, and with You there’s no narrowness of heart. We open, Lord, and we take You as our life. Keep us coming to You as we live our daily life in the family life and the church life. Oh Lord, save us from keeping a list of offenses in our memory; wash us and cleanse us with Your blood and keep us under the washing of the water in the word. May we be enlarged in heart to forgive others’ their offenses and also forget them. Amen, Lord, fully reconcile us to God and truly enlarge us in our heart! May our heart be enlarged to receive, love, and forgive all the saints! May we be enlarged in heart as we live our family life and offenses come. Oh Lord, may we be willing to be enlarged in our heart in the church life, forgiving and forgetting the offenses of others, even as You forgive and forget our offenses! Duplicate Yourself in us! Grant us largeness of heart!
The Results of Reconciliation are that we have Peace toward God, we Boast in God, and we are Saved in His life!
We all are in the process of being fully reconciled to God; we are still in this process, being daily reconciled further to God and even into God. There are a few wonderful results of reconciliation, as seen in the word of God.
First, when we’re fully reconciled to God, we have peace toward God. This is not just the initial peace by faith in Christ and accepting His redeeming work; this is a deeper peace, a fuller peace, a more complete peace with God.
The first result of our reconciliation to God is that we have peace toward God (Rom. 5:1). Since we have been reconciled to God and have peace toward God, we are walking on the way of peace; this is an issue of our reconciliation to God.
We may have inward peace with God, but do we walk on the way of peace? Our God is a God of peace (1 Cor. 14:33). It is impossible for God to be responsible for all the chaos and enmity in this universe, for He is a God of order and peace.
It is His enemy who brought in all these enmities and problems. God is doing a work of restoring peace, the real peace which is He Himself.
First, He wants to bring in peace in the church by reconciling us further into God until we have peace toward God and walk in peace.
The second result of our reconciliation to God is that we can boast in God (Rom. 5:11). Since we have been reconciled to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, we boast and exult, even glory in God.
We also boast in the hope of the glory of God (v. 2). The issue of being fully reconciled to God is that we boast not in ourselves or what we can do; our only boast is God, even the hope of the glory of God. We do not boast in the flesh or the result of our efforts; we boast in God.
We boast in what God can do, what a God we have, and what He is doing.
Third, the result of our reconciliation to God is that we are being saved in His life (v. 10).
We can be saved in His life as we are being reconciled to God, and our being reconciled to God results in being saved in His life. These two go together.
May we open to the Lord day by day so that we may be further reconciled to God. May the Lord have a way to enlarge our heart and bring us fully into God.
The final and utmost result of being reconciled to God is that we are incorporated into the processed and consummated Triune God to become, in Christ, an enlarged, universal, divine-human incorporation (John 14:20, 23).
We are brought fully into God, we are made fully one with God, and we’re mingled and incorporated with God to be part of His corporate expression, the Body of Christ.
As a result, we become God’s sanctuary, His dwelling place, His Holy of Holies, the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2, 10, 16).
This is the ultimate consummation of what God is doing in us and with us; He is incorporating us into Himself to make us the same as He is, even to make us the New Jerusalem to be His corporate expression.
Thank the Lord that Christ not only broke down the middle wall of partition and destroyed the enmity on the cross to make peace, but even more, He made us one new man in Christ.
Hallelujah, we are no longer strangers and sojourners but citizens and members of God’s household.
We are built into God’s habitation in spirit, and as we remain under the ministry of reconciliation, we are made the same as Christ in life, nature, expression, and function.
We are becoming the New Jerusalem, the city of peace and the city of righteousness. Praise the Lord!
Lord Jesus, reconcile us more to Yourself so that we may have peace toward God! Praise the Lord, we can now have peace with God not only objectively by faith inChrist but also subjectively, in our being, by being in God! Amen, Lord, since we’ve been reconciled to God and have peace toward God, we want to walk on the way of peace. Keep us walking in peace today, having peace with God and with man. May our boast be only in God, not in ourselves. May we be reconciled further into God through Jesus Christ our Lord so that we may boast, exult, and glory in God! Oh Lord Jesus, our only boast is You! We boast in the hope of the glory of God! We open to You: save us much more in Your life. Save us from self-likeness and from living in the flesh. Oh Lord, reconcile us to God so that we may be saved much more in the life of God! Hallelujah, through the ministry of reconciliation we’re incorporated into the processed Triune God! Wow, we are becoming, in Christ, an enlarged, universal, divine-human incorporation, even the sanctuary of God, His dwelling place, His Holy of Holies, the New Jerusalem! Praise the Lord for the ministry of reconciliation!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of 2 Corinthians, msgs. 42, 46, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Ministry of the Word and God’s Dispensing for God’s Economy (2026 March ITERO), week 2, “The Ministry of Reconciliation” – day 6.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Born into Adam, dying we were; / We had a sickness no one could cure. / God, His Son sending, old Adam ending; / He is dead, we are free! / He is dead, we are free! / Propitiation made by the blood, / Jesus’ redemption bought us for God! / No condemnation, justification! / We have peace toward God! / We have peace toward God! (Hymns #1131 stanza 2 and chorus)
– I’m within the holiest pale, / Hallelujah to the Lamb! / I have passed the inner veil, / O glory be to God! / I am sanctified to God / By the power of the blood, / Now the Lord is my abode / Hallelujah to the Lamb! (Hymns #551 stanza 4)
– Oh, may Thy Cross within me / Deepen its work and burn / In me enlarge Thy measure, / And me to ashes turn. / Oh, may Thy Spirit fill me / Each day more than before, / And may Thy living water / On me and thru me pour. (Hymns #280 stanza 4)
