All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 

In verse 19, Paul highlights two things God was doing in Christ:

  1. He was ”reconciling the world to himself”. At the heart of this, He was dealing with the sin problem. (Note, this will be explained a little more in verse 21. How can it be that God will not ‘count’ our sins against us when we are so obviously sinful and such blatant sinners? We will see shortly);
  2. He was ”entrusting” to the church ”the message of reconcilation”. So the order is that reconciliation was achieved at the Cross; then it is announced by the church. Still today the church has this sacred stewardship of the gospel.

‘…the reconciliation by God of sinful men to himself, effected once and for all in Christ, has lasting effects. It is not applicable merely to one period or to one group of people, but to all the world. Whenever the word of reconciliation is proclaimed by those to whom God has committed it, and whenever it is appropriated by an individual sinner, whoever and wherever he may happen to be, that person is reconciled by God to Himself, and his reconciliation means that God no longer imputes to him his trespasses, i.e. He no longer counts his sins against him.’ R.V.G. Tasker.