2 Corinthians 5:11-21--The Ministry of Reconciliation

2 Corinthians 5:11-21
English Standard Version

The Ministry of Reconciliation​
11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 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. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

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So then, how are we to live now in the interim between justification and glorification?  We know that the Holy Spirit is working within us to sanctify us, and that even the trials and tribulations we are experiencing are working towards the goal of making us more like Christ--even as we share in His sufferings, but how do we interact with the unsaved people around us who are part of "the world"?


God says through Paul that our worship of God (the fear of the Lord that is a visible representation of how awesome we think He is--note that the world will see this and think His power that will judge them is awful, and that too is the fear of the Lord) should persuade others to repent, confess their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  That is that we know that although God is powerful, our sin has been dealt with and we know with certainty that we are not under condemnation and that we have no need to fear God, but we still respect His goodness, love, power, and holiness as we do not want to do anything to harm our relationship to Him.  This different kind of relationship that we have speaks volumes to the world who cannot help but tremble in fear before a holy God when they see how unholy they are and they fear that His holiness will consume them because "for our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:29, Deuteronomy 4:24, 9:3, Isaiah 33:14, and Lamentations 2:3).  They are right to be afraid and that fear is good, and it is okay to tell them that, but it's also okay to tell them there is a way that God has provided so that they no longer have to be afraid, but if they continue to live in rebellion, then continuing to live in fear is the right response.

Paul says that if we seem overjoyed in what the Lord has done for us, it should not be out of pride to think "man, God made a REALLY good choice when He chose me."  No, we may become "charismatic" to the point where some think we are insane and out of our minds as we try to no avail to use our words to express our thankfulness, gratitude and joy for what the Lord has done in and through us.  But we know that we must be sober-minded and speak sensibly for the benefit of others when we are preaching and teaching and in a public service where the primary goal is to edify one another.  We've already studied that when it came to spiritual gifts, specifically with speaking in tongues.  Paul says therefore that if they are sober-minded it is for the sake of the other believers so that they might clearly understand what is being said, meaning that there is an element of self-control where you should be able to "turn off" your charismatic utterances when it is no longer appropriate or edifying.  The love of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit controls us and His giftings should not ever interfere with His primary message and purpose--to preach Christ crucified ang to give glory to Christ in all things.  Anything what interferes with this message is of the flesh and not of the Spirit.

Through Christ we die to self, so that we can be raised to walk in newness of life with Him by the power of the Holy Spirit that is at work within us.  This death that we died was a death to our flesh, our lusts and our passions so that we would no longer be controlled by them, but that we would be able to be self-controlled, I like to say Spirit-controlled, by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in and through us so that we continue to daily put the flesh to death so that people see more and more of Christ and less and less of us.

Now for some of my favorite verses in the whole of Scripture and something that I've already pointed to many times as the evidence that someone is really saved.  "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation...."  Let's stop there for a second.  Paul doesn't say that such a person is "becoming a new creation" or "will become a new creation in the last day," he says it in past tense.  It is a done deal and we are to live according to that new identity.  We have already received our new citizenship papers and we are ambassadors of a new King and His kingdom--we are to immediately start living according to this truth and no longer swear allegiance to anyone or anything else by offering our body, mind, or spirit as instruments of evil.  We are to have no other allegiance, and no divided allegiances.  The "Christian" who continues to live in sin and be enslaved to it but claims Christ as his "fire insurance" is lying to everyone including himself.  There is no salvation without transformation.  Let me say that again, there is no salvation without transformation!

"The old has passed away...." again, this is past tense.  It's a done deal.  We've had a change in nature and identity, and we need to start living according to that change.  We have the very Spirit of God living within us to empower us to fight and resist sin and temptation if we would only die to self and not try to fight our battles in our own strength but would call out to the Lord for salvation and deliverance and stand firm as we let the Spirit of God fight our battles for us.  Yes, there is a part of the armor of God that is offensive (the Sword of the Spirit that is the Word of God), but even this is wielded through the power of the Holy Spirit as He brings the right verses to memory.  Nearly every piece of armor that we have studied is meant to help us stand firm so that the enemy wears himself out trying to attack us.  His time is limited and eventually the devil and all of his army, who have already been defeated at the cross, will come to the point where they are judged for their rebellion.  "...The new has come."  Now this is present tense.  It's a promise that we have in the here and now--not something that we are simply promised for that one day in the future.  We are to live in victory today.

Now for the 50-cent word that is the glue that holds all this together that we've been talking about.  God's goal in all of this is reconciliation, that is to bring those who were far off near to Him by adoption, and by the blood of Christ to make those were His enemies into His ambassadors, His sons, and His friends.  All this is done by the fact that all of our trespasses and sins that put us under the condemnation and wrath of God were laid on Christ so that by His substitutionary atonement He became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of Christ.  Notice that is a statement of identity.  It's not something we do, but something we are!.  He becomes sin so that we become His righteousness!  WOW!!!!!  That leaves me speechless and I don't have words to describe both how sad it makes me that that's the price He had to pay, and simultaneously full of joy and love that He willingly paid that price and decided to do it from before the foundations of the world.  This is by no means due to our own greatness, but because of His greatness.  We give Him all glory, honor and praise for all that He set His mind to do to reconcile, redeem and save a people, a nation, a holy priesthood, unto Himself!  We break out in doxology just to think about it. but it is not enough that we simply praise Him with our lips if our hearts are far from Him.  Our words and our lives must be in concert so that as James will say, "Faith without works is dead."  The evidence that Christ's crucifixion and resurrection have saved us is that we are made new creations.  That is what the symbolism of baptism is all about, and we too need to be about God's mission of reconciliation as we recall 2 Peter 3:9, "9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."  If this is His purpose and we are His ambassadors, then it must be our purpose too!