Be Reconciled to God
Text: 2 Corinthians 5:20b–6:2 (ESV)
Occasion: Ash Wednesday
Date: February 18, 2026
Location: Life in Christ Lutheran Church, Grand Marais, MN
“We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, ‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
On Ash Wednesday we start Lent by telling the truth. It is symbolized by the ashes on your forehead. They say it starkly.
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
No, it isn’t optimistic. It’s a declaration of death, yours. There is no sentimentality. There is nothing in death that is sentimental, it is death, an end to life. Families are torn apart. Relationships are broken. No matter how much we try to bring a softness to it, it can’t be done. It is the primary problem with life. We all die. The ashes don’t ask for some kind of self-improvement. They are stark. You are dust, you will return to it.
It is the full truth, the full story, the full consequences of your sin.
Into that truth, Paul speaks:
Be reconciled to God.
You need reconciliation. Something is broken. You can’t fix it.
What Paul doesn’t say is, Improve yourself. He says, Be reconciled.
In your sinful nature you are separated from God. That’s where reconciliation is necessary. Sin isn’t a weakness in you. You are not weak as if you could work harder and end your weakness. Sin is a broken relationship with God. A rupture of that one on one.
The ashes say it. You can’t fix it. You can not control death. You can’t beat it. It will come to you. And you can’t negotiate with God about it. The die is cast.
And it is urgent. You don’t know when you will die. That is left to God alone. You could die in your sleep tonight, or you might not even make it home. It isn’t theoretical. Ash Wednesday isn’t about sometime in the future. It is about now. It is about tonight.
If we stopped our sermon here, we would leave the church in despair. That is the Law doing its full work. When it is preached properly, you are left with nothing. No action, no pleading, no bargains, no good works can change what you are.
But Paul doesn’t leave it there. He interjects the truth of the Gospel. He says it clearly and precisely:
“For our sake [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
This is the center of Christianity. The Law presses us down to death. The Gospel raises us up to life. God does not send an advisor to tell you what to do. He does something far more radical.
He sends His Son. And His Son does not stand at a safe distance. He steps into our place.
He made Him to be sin who knew no sin.
Jesus Christ — true God and true man — takes our guilt as His own. He bears our judgment. He carries our death. He does not become a sinner by committing sin. He becomes sin by bearing it. The weight that crushes us is laid on Him. And the righteousness that belongs to Him is given to us. It isn’t symbolic. His death was a real human death, dying as a substitution. His death was the death of God, it isn’t partial. It is complete. Jesus on the cross says so.
It is finished.
One word in Greek:
Τετέλεσται
It is completely done. The substitution is complete. The end of the project is now.
Jesus became sin. He dies for it. And specifically, our sin. Your sin and mine. He becomes it and dies for it. To be clear, on the cross Jesus is your sin, he is your guilt, he is your death, he is your punishment. Because of the Τετέλεσται, you don’t face what he faced. It is finished, done, paid in full.
…so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Looking at the text we might think that the word “might” would install a bit of doubt about the outcome. For those grammar nazis out there, the word become (γίνομαι in Greek) is in the subjunctive mood. The “so that” with the subjunctive doesn’t leave any room for debate. The better sense of it is:
God made Christ to be sin for this purpose: That we become the righteousness of God in Him.
There is no uncertainty in the accomplishment. Jesus did it, we become. Not receiving, not imitating, not growing, but becoming.
It is all in what is called the Great Exchange. Jesus takes our sin. We get the righteousness of God. Our sin, guilt and death are His. We get His righteousness, standing before the Father and His life. You can’t accomplish any of this. It is something that God has already done in Jesus.
The ashes on your head isn’t proof of repentance. It is a confession. I am dust. I am a sinner. I am bound for hell. It is telling the truth. But now, after the ashes, Christ feeds you. His word of forgiveness enters your ears, his body and blood and the forgiveness that goes with them enters your mouth. The one who became your sin, now gives you his body and blood. It is reconciliation proclaimed and delivered to you, for you.
So, tonight as you leave our church, you are marked twice. Once with ashes: you will die. Then marked by Christ: you are reconciled, you will live. The ashes don’t have the last word. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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