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NewsDay

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You’re a reconciliation ambassador

Opinion & Analysis
The Gospel of Christ that is the Grace of God introduces us to a spiritual reality that humanity’s broken relationship with God has been mended in Jesus Christ. Those who hear it and receive and believe it are reconciled to God. He ceases to be just the Creator, but becomes their Father.

The Gospel of Christ that is the Grace of God introduces us to a spiritual reality that humanity’s broken relationship with God has been mended in Jesus Christ. Those who hear it and receive and believe it are reconciled to God. He ceases to be just the Creator, but becomes their Father.

By Erasmus Makarimayi

The Grace of God makes fellowship with God personal. Believers become family with God the Father in Christ who procured our sonship (daughters included). Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God is the first begotten from the dead paving the way for you and I to be partakers of the heritage and inheritance. We’re beneficiaries of the peace with God not by works but by grace. It’s not by human effort but by the finished works of Jesus Christ.

The call to peace with God isn’t for any special race, nationality, gender or income bracket. The Gospel unites Africans with God their Maker and Father as much as it does to the Europeans, Americans and all others. The Gospel of Christ or the Grace of God is calling us all; whites, people of colour and everyone. Christianity isn’t a white man’s religion but a believer’s life in Christ. God the Father is reached only by and through one means, Jesus Christ. He declares in John 14:6: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

We can write scholarly acres on the use of the Bible on the colonisation of Africa and indulge in endless debates but the Person of the Bible is our Life Giver. 1 John 5:11 settles: “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” History will not deny us our inheritance among the sanctified.

Please remember Jesus Christ says clearly that the Bible is about Him. It’s His testimony and not testimony of colonists. John 5:39 reads: “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” The Bible isn’t just words, but flesh in the form of the Man Christ Jesus.

He further says in John 5:40: “And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” Please let’s embrace the Bible and examine and investigate it to encounter Christ. Let’s remove blinkers and experience the life of Christ. All races and nationalities are reconciled to God and amongst themselves.

Ephesians 2:13-14 put it thus: “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. We’re all partakers/beneficiaries without enmity among us. The Gospel unites us. Divorce finds no room.

The Grace of God is on a mission of reconciliation. Apostle Paul writes in Colossians 1:21-22, “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight. We were once far off but now near and in. The wickedness that caused us to drift away from God our Source has been dealt with by Jesus Christ. He died and rose again to justify us.

We’re at peace with God without condemnation. Before God in Christ, we’re innocent and guiltless. This isn’t by our works of righteousness but by grace. Jesus Christ is our righteousness.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 settles, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” God sees us righteous in Christ.

God the Father came to redeem us and made us belong. 2 Corinthians 5:19-20 record: “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”

We receive and believe the Gospel and go on to call others to the grace. Enemies find friendship in the Grace of God.

Political opponents forgive and release those who hold different political opinion. The Gospel releases love to forgive and move on. Here in our motherland, Zimbabwe, we have entered a new political and national trajectory. We experienced the harsh realities of colonisation. After independence internal issues resulted in the unfortunate Gukurahundi massacres. The past administration was characterised by sharp often violent divisions. Opposition political opinion holders have painful stories to tell.

In our free beloved country, we have diverse political players, beliefs and values, but I am humbly asking us all to embrace the Gospel and be ambassadors of Christ to enjoy and practice reconciliation. Grace and peace be multiplied to you through knowledge.

l All Bible quotations are from the King James Version unless otherwise stated. Feedback: [email protected] Fellowship with Pastor Makarimayi on Facebook and on www.twitter.com/PEMAKARIMAYI. Telephone +263 712 332 632