Introduction
You know
there’s a reason that Jesus said in Matthew 7:6 that we aren’t to give dogs
what is sacred or to throw pearls to pigs. He was trying to tell us that it’s
futile to try and teach holy concepts to people who refuse to listen and are
persistent in rejecting the salvation message of the Gospel. Jesus wasn’t
saying that we shouldn’t engage an unbelieving world as this would be contrary
to the Great Commission of spreading the Gospel to every nation. Instead, what
Jesus was saying is that we should be wise about who we engage so that we
aren’t wasting our time on unbelievers with hearts of stone. Well I haven’t
found that balance quite yet as I post my lessons to a number of public message
boards on Wednesdays. Not surprisingly, these public message boards are the
favored hunting grounds of many unbelievers who are free to spew their vile
profanity and hatred of God in response to my weekly lessons. The comments were
few and far between in the early years of this ministry but now I get dozens
every week which has given birth to something I call “Hate Mail Thursday.” I
take Thursdays to respond to as many of the comments I can. Some comments don’t
anticipate a response, they’re just a reflection of lives filled with anger.
Other comments warrant a response because there is genuine confusion that I
seek to clarify. However, most of the comments are from unbelievers who want
nothing more than to discourage evangelism and belief. They’re not seeking,
they have made their decision and have rejected God. Their mission is to
discourage the faith of believers and lead seekers away from God. I had a
conversation with just such a person this week who sought to define God as one
who ordered and condoned “genocide and mass rape.” This person wanted to use
the Old Testament practice of war and the spoils of war as it relates to the
killing of entire people groups or killing all men and taking women, children,
and livestock as spoils of war to demonstrate that God orders genocide and mass
rape. Don’t try and understand that, just keep reading and you’ll see where
this line of thinking is going. In any event, I tried to explain that warfare
for Israel was the same as all other peoples of the ancient near east. Except
that Israel’s purpose wasn’t centered on territorial expansion. Instead, God
order the destruction of Israel’s enemies in direct proportion to the danger
God believed they posed to Israel’s safety to some degree but primarily to protect
her purity of devotion to God alone. Surviving women were subject to ritual
purification and then welcomed into the community as slaves, servants, or wives
in some cases. It was at this point the unbeliever I was engaged with revealed
his true motivation when he said, “Since you’ve also clearly labeled
homosexuality as sinful, I wonder if you would consider a genocide of
homosexuals in order to protect the purity of Christian culture to be morally
acceptable.” The cherished sin of homosexuality revealed itself. It took a
while to get there but we eventually did. Perhaps I wasted lots of time dealing
with a hardened unbeliever but I think something of value came out of the
exchange. What was my response to that comment? Well in part I didn’t respond
for fear of allowing Hate Mail Thursday to turn into Hate Mail Friday. I really
do want to spend whatever time I do have available to edify unbelievers
sincerely looking for answers to their questions. Nevertheless, this particular
unbeliever brought up a good point. What’s the difference between Israel’s
interaction with a surrounding sinful culture and the Church’s interaction with
a sinful culture? God expects no less purity from the Church than He did from
Israel. With Israel, God attempted to clear the way for Israel to grow into a
community that would be the conduit for all other nations to seek God—that
didn’t work because Israel seemed bent on it’s own destruction through its own
sin. Consequently, in Israel’s place, God became incarnate in the person of
Jesus Christ who would actually fulfill the objective of creating a conduit for
all people to find their way back to God. As part of His earthly ministry, Jesus
established the Church who would continue the ministry He began to a lost
world. The incarnation of God in Jesus also inaugurated something else into the
world—A new way of dealing with sin. During the Old Testament era, God
attempted to create the perfect environment so Israel could thrive and grow by
removing sinful influences. In the New Testament, God set the Church right in
the middle of a sinful world and sent the Holy Spirit to live within individual
believers to provide the power to live lives pleasing to God as a means to
transform a sinful culture. So will God ever deal with unrepentant sin in the
world? Yes, but there is much work for the Church to do before that. Until
then, the Church is charged with the task of pointing an unbelieving world
toward God. Our task is not to rid the world of sin or sinners. Our task; the
task of every Christian, is to pave the way for sinners to be reconciled to God
through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Our ministry is not a ministry of
abolishing sin or sinners, it is a Ministry
Of Reconciliation between God and humanity.
Subject Text
2 Corinthians 5:14-21
14For
Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and
therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those
who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who
died for them and was raised again. 16So from now on
we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once
regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the
old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from
God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and
gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling
the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We
are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making
his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be
reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.
Context
Corinth is
the ideal setting for this week’s lesson because it is a reflection of our own
culture in so many ways. Corinth was an international trade center influenced
by countless cultures and was known for its idolatry and immorality. The young
Church in Corinth struggled to live out its life of faith in an environment
that constantly sought to undermine its faith and beliefs. In Paul’s first
letter to the Corinthians, he attempted to instruct them about specific moral
issues they faced in their everyday lives—issues of sex, marriage and easily
influenced consciences. Always present were unbelievers and false teachers that
questioned Paul’s motives and twisted the truth of the Gospel message. A
significant part of Paul’s ministry was instructing believers on how they
should live out their faith in a world that loves sin. However, Paul always
battled with those who couldn’t bear to give up their cherished sinful lives. But
Paul’s objective was to guide the Church
away from sinful behavior. That was not his mission to the unbelieving world at
large. Paul knew that removing sin apart from being in a relationship with
Christ was a pointless endeavor. Consequently, Paul’s primary purpose with
respect to his interaction with the unbelieving world was to introduce them—or
perhaps more accurately—to reintroduce them to their Creator and give them an
opportunity to mend their broken relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Paul’s ministry was not one bent on purifying the culture, it was a Ministry Of Reconciliation.
Text Analysis
14For
Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and
therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live
should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was
raised again.
Paul is
speaking directly to believers in vv. 14-15 that there was no longer anything
needed for their salvation because Christ died for their sins as their
substitute and His death was sufficient for them all. As a result, for those
who accepted Christ’s death in place of their own, they could no longer cling
to their previously sinful lives because Christ’s death was representative of
their own death. However, Christ’s resurrection represented a resurrection for
them as well—a resurrection to a new life, a life of selfless devotion to
Christ. “It is not the knowledge of Christ in His earthly life, but the love
which Christ has for man that is the constraining power of Paul’s preaching…The
‘Love of Christ’ here, then, is the love which Christ has for us, not the love
which we bear to Him; the constraining power of Christian ministration and
service is more effective and stable than it would be if it sprang from the
fickle and variable affections of men…To die [for someone else] is the greatest
proof that anyone can offer of his love. The proof to us of the Love of Christ
to all is that He died [for us]. Of this Death two consequences are now
mentioned; (a) one objective and inevitable, quite independent of our faith and
obedience, (b) another subjective and conditional…The Dying of Christ on the
Cross was in some sort the dying of all mankind. But the purposes of the
Atonement are not completely fulfilled without the response of man’s faith and
obedience.”[1]
16So from now on we regard no one
from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do
so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
It is
crucial that we understand what Paul is saying in vv. 16-17. One of the
by-products of being reborn; renewed, is a changed perspective. Where once we
reasoned and acted according the priorities of the world, we now reason and act
according the leading of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, what we once considered
to be a foolish way of life—belief in God; selfless love; a life of holiness, righteousness,
and purity; we now see, with the help of the Holy Spirit, as the life we were created
to live from the start. In a sense, we have been recreated! “At one time, Paul
had evaluated Jesus by what the world thought about him…According to human
standards, Jesus was merely a human being, an insignificant man who died like a
criminal. But that changed at Paul’s encounter with Christ on the Damascus road
(Acts 9:1-15). In the same way, believers are changed when they meet Christ.
Christians are new people. The Holy Spirit gives them new life, and they are
not the same anymore. Christians are not reformed, rehabilitated, or
reeducated—they are recreated. At conversion, believers are not merely turning
over a new leaf; they are beginning a new life under a new Master. The old life
of sin and death has gone; the selfish, sinful human nature has been dealt a
death blow. Old ways of thinking, old distinctions, have been abolished. In its
place, a new life has begun.”[2]
18All this is from
God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in
Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the
message of reconciliation.
From the
time of Adam’s sin until now, God has had one objective—to mend the relationship
with humanity that was broken by sin. In the Old Testament, Israel was the
instrument God intended on using to point the nations back to God. All that was
needed was Israel’s faithfulness in their devotion to God and their obedience
to the Law that was given to them by God. They failed at both as they drift
away from their devotion to God and faithful obedience to the Law. Toward the
end of the Old Testament era, while there was clearly still a religious
component in Israel, it seemed to be more ceremonial than devotional. The
religious leaders lived and operated in luxury while surround by sickness and
poverty. Moneychangers set up shop in the temple courts and extorted the people
who were seeking to enter God’s temple to make their offerings. Israel was
supposed to be different than the surrounding nations and they certainly
started that way, but over the course of hundreds of years, they simply became
a reflection of the culture that surrounded them while dressed in religious
garb and wrapped in prescribed rituals. It was at this point that God took
matters into his own hands and became incarnate in the person of Jesus. It
would be Christ who would succeed where Israel failed. According to vv. 18-19, Jesus
would be the instrument through whom God would reconcile humanity back to
Himself. Jesus would do what Israel could never do through their repeated sin
sacrifices—Jesus would sacrifice himself for the sins of humanity. The time for
God to try and create the perfect environment for faith and obedience had come
to an end. God turned his focus away from dealing with sinners for the benefit
of Israel so they could point the nations to God to dealing with sin through
Jesus Christ for the benefit of all humanity. God took the initiative to
reconcile humanity to himself. “Reconciliation assumes ruptured relationships,
alienation, and disaffection. The problem, however, is not with God, as if God
were some cruel taskmaster from whom humans rebelled. Human sinfulness created
the problem, and this sinful condition had to be dealt with before there could
be any reconciliation. Sin incurs God’s holy wrath, so it could not be treated
lightly or swept under the rug. God can never be reconciled to sin, but God
does not turn away from sinners in disgust and leave them to the just desserts.
Instead while humans are still in open revolt, God acted in love to bring the
hostility to an end and to bring about peace. This peace is not simply a
cessation of hostilities or an uneasy truce. It refers to the mending of the broken
relationship that results from God justifying us through faith and changing us
from enemies to friends.”[3]
20We are therefore
Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We
implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
The means
for humanity to be reconciled to God was the message God entrusted to Paul and
by extension to all of us according to Jesus’ command to take the Gospel
message to all nations and people. Although it is Paul who is calling the
people to be reconciled to God, there’s nothing in it for him one way or
another. Instead, it is God who is making the plea for reconciliation. He just
happens to be using Paul in the case of our Subject Text and by extension He uses me when I teach the message
of reconciliation to you and He uses you when you share this lesson with others
and pass on the message of reconciliation to them. But the plea for
reconciliation doesn’t originate from any of us, it originates from God.
Nevertheless, the plea for reconciliation that comes from Paul or from any of
us carries the same weight as though it were coming directly from God according
to v. 20 because we are “ambassadors” of Christ. We typically understand an
ambassador as someone who is a representative of a country acting in an
official capacity in a foreign country. An ambassador can also be a
representative or promoter of a certain activity. And finally, an ambassador
can be a someone representing another person in authority like a king or queen.
In the case of our Subject Text, we
as Christians, are in a sense all of these. We are ambassadors of the Kingdom
of heaven as we live as foreigners in this world as official representatives of
that Kingdom. We are ambassadors who promote an activity; the activity of
reconciliation. Finally, we are ambassadors of Christ the King through whom
humanity must be reconciled to God and become citizens of heaven. “Rather than
speaking directly to the nations of earth, God ordained that human
spokespersons would speak for him. As an apostle, Paul had authority to lead
and guide the church. Yet, this description applies to all who bear the gospel
of Christ to others—even to those who do not bear apostolic authority. Though
we may not present the gospel as perfectly as Paul did, we do speak on God’s
behalf when we bring the message of grace to others. But Paul and his company
were to be received as mouthpieces of God in the most authoritative sense.”[4]
21God made him who had
no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of
God.
We find in
the pages of the Old Testament a number of ways that God dealt with sin. In
some cases He would destroy a people and their sinful influences and in other
cases He instituted an animal sacrifice system as a means for the atonement of
personal sin or even corporate sin. But here in v. 21 Paul tells us that Christ
became the perfect sacrifice and the ultimate means for our reconciliation.
Once reconciled to God, we become what God intended for us to be all along—His
children; His friends; His ambassadors. We tend to underestimate in our age of
grace the ultimate consequences of our sins—judgment and death. Christians
don’t talk much about judgment and condemnation because it makes people
uncomfortable—especially unbelievers. However, as ambassadors of Christ we have
a duty to preach the Gospel of reconciliation—all of it. And that means warning
people of the consequences of not being reconciled to God. In 1741 Jonathan
Edwards preached what some have called the greatest sermon ever preached during
the Great Awakening in America titled Sinners
in the Hands of An Angry God. Here is a small part of that sermon:
“O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great
furnace of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath
is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in
hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing
about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder, and you have
no interest in a Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing
to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever
have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.”[5]
“Against
this backdrop, the hope of the gospel burns brightly. God is the one who not
only judges the world in his wrath but also poured out his judgment on his own
Son in order to reconcile the world to himself. In spite of our sin, we can
still be saved! We can be forgiven! We can be set free from its power! We can
be reckoned righteous in God’s sight and made righteous as a new creation! This
is the new perspective from which Paul views all humanity—not who they are in
their sin, but who they can be in their Savior…All this is accomplished not by
our efforts, but by God’s sovereign act of creating anew. God reconciles us to
himself not because of our distinctives or accomplishments, but because of the
unique distinctives of the one who was made sin even though he knew no sin. We
do not reach up to God, but God reaches out to us. We are not called to make
great declarations to God, rather, God has declared a word of reconciliation to
us, a word of his own redeeming love, a love that stretches from the crossing
of the sea to the cross of the Son of God.”[6]
Application
[1]
W. Robertson Nicoll, The Expositor’s
Greek Testament, Vol. III, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Co., 1983), pp. 69-70.
[2]
Bruce Barton, Philip comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 728.
[3]
David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians—The
New American Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers,
1999), pp. 289-290.
[4]
Richard L. Pratt, Jr., I & II
Corinthians—Holman New Testament Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H
Publishing Group, 2000), p. 359.
[5]
From The Works of Jonathan Edwards,
Vol. 2, (Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth Trust, 1974 [reprint of 1834]),
pp. 7-12
[6]
Scott J. Hafemann, 2 Corinthians—The
NIV Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), pp. 262-263.
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