Onesimus had to give up a way of life that was beneficial for him. He had to give up the intimate relationship with Paul, the privilege of being discipled by the apostle of Jesus Christ. He had to commit himself to God as the faithful Judge who always does what is right, not knowing, not assured of how Philemon is going to respond. He had to sacrifice in order to repent. I think Onesimus is a beautiful picture of gospel repentance, costly repentance, repentance that requires sacrifice. Why would he do it? I mean, why would Paul inconvenience himself by the loss of a brother, a friend, someone who joyfully serves him and lives for his well-being in that prison? Why would Philemon be willing to sacrifice his right to simply go on treating Onesimus merely as a slave? Why would Paul be so audacious as to ask him to do that, and why would he think that Philemon would be willing to do that? The reason all three would be willing to do that is because there is something more important than our rights and our preferences and our benefits: the glory of God in the salvation that he has given us in Jesus Christ. And when we see that and we revel in that, we grasp that, we recognize that—all that God has done in bringing us back to himself—we will live differently. We will be willing to lay aside our privilege because we see how Christ laid aside his, and sacrificed his life in order to reconcile us back to God. We will be willing to give up our rights and not insist upon them at every cost, at every point, because we realize that our Lord and Savior gave up his rights to become one of us. We will be willing to commit ourselves to God and leave the consequences to God to sort out as we seek to live according to his will, because we know that that is exactly what our Lord and Savior did when he committed himself to his heavenly Father.
The One who sacrificed his life for us, is our Master, our King; we are his slaves. We are his followers. And if the Lord Jesus gave up his life to reconcile us to God, should we not be willing to love, to fellowship, to sacrifice, in order to live reconciled relationships with one another? So again, I want to ask, are you living with a broken relationship in the body of Christ? If you have sinned, repent and go and seek forgiveness. If you have been sinned against, forgive and go and seek reconciliation. As you do so, you will not only be trusting in the God who has reconciled you to himself, you will be displaying his reconciling grace to one another. It is the gospel that gives grace, both to repent and forgive. As we live by the power of that grace, we will walk together in ongoing repentance, in ongoing forgiveness, and in doing so, we will live with reconciled relationships. And together we will, as a church, put the reconciling grace and power of God on display to this community. May God help us to be people who value reconciliation the way that he has valued it for us.1
Tom Ascol
13 J'aurais désiré le retenir auprès de moi, pour qu'il me serve à ta place, pendant que je suis dans les chaînes pour l'Evangile.