I can only thank God for those he brought into my life who challenged me and made me question many of those old unreflected assumptions. I’m grateful to have heard their life-stories and how much they had been hurt by being treated as outsiders while they were thirsting so deeply to truly belong. I’ll never forget it.

I can only thank God for those he brought into my life who challenged me and made me question many of those old unreflected assumptions. I'm grateful to have heard their life-stories and how much they had been hurt by being treated as outsiders while they were thirsting so deeply to truly belong. I'll never forget it.

I can only thank God for those he brought into my life who challenged me and made me question many of those old unreflected assumptions. I'm grateful to have heard their life-stories and how much they had been hurt by being treated as outsiders while they were thirsting so deeply to truly belong. I'll never forget it.

In other words: if we were to believe that everyone is reconciled already, the call to repentance and conversion would become obsolete. That's the “logic” behind it.

My response today would be: while there is a kernel of truth in this approach(reconciliation indeed doesn't reach its goal without a mutual embrace), we actually obstruct this desired human response by treating certain individuals as “out”. And unless they go along some certain rites of initiation (i.e. “pray the sinner's prayer”, be baptized etc.) we refuse to truly include them as people who belong.

But what if the whole point of repentance and conversion was not those rites but a waking up to the fact that God treats us as being 'in' completely independent of any response? What if the prodigal sons and daughters never ceased being treated as true children of the Father? Why shouldn't WE treat others exactly the same way?

The point of pleading and of evangelism in general then becomes something much different. It's a pleading to wake up to the reality of a love so limitless and amazing that it makes a compelling case to overcome our state of open rebellion or hiding in shame – a state in which we did not want or have been able to believe that such love and acceptance could truly exist.

In other words: if we were to believe that everyone is reconciled already, the call to repentance and conversion would become obsolete. That's the “logic” behind it.

My response today would be: while there is a kernel of truth in this approach(reconciliation indeed doesn't reach its goal without a mutual embrace), we actually obstruct this desired human response by treating certain individuals as “out”. And unless they go along some certain rites of initiation (i.e. “pray the sinner's prayer”, be baptized etc.) we refuse to truly include them as people who belong.

But what if the whole point of repentance and conversion was not those rites but a waking up to the fact that God treats us as being 'in' completely independent of any response? What if the prodigal sons and daughters never ceased being treated as true children of the Father? Why shouldn't WE treat others exactly the same way?

The point of pleading and of evangelism in general then becomes something much different. It's a pleading to wake up to the reality of a love so limitless and amazing that it makes a compelling case to overcome our state of open rebellion or hiding in shame – a state in which we did not want or have been able to believe that such love and acceptance could truly exist.

Good stuff – We are already reconcilled…
And God doesn’t remember our sin anymore…

Why do we?

*2Corintians 5:19
That God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them;

*Psalms 32:1
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD does not impute iniquity,

*Isaiah 43:25
I, even I, am he that blots out your transgressions for mine own sake,
and will not remember your sins.

*Isaiah 44:22
I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions,
and, as a cloud, your sins:
return unto me; for I have redeemed you.

*Psalm 103:12
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

*Acts 3:19 Repent therefore, and be converted,
that your sins may be blotted out,

*Jeremiah 31:34
…for I will forgive their iniquity,
and I will remember their sin no more.

*Romans 4:7
Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

John 1:29
Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.

1 John 1:7
…And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.