Now What: Reconcile

We shouldn’t be surprised when the world does evil things. We should be surprised when the church does. Why? Because we are with God and God is with us. Let’s talk about reconciliation.

We’ve talked about how Jesus engaged the sick, sinners, and saints. Now we are continually looking at how students of Jesus now live. First, we looked at how Jesus overcomes sin in us (Recognize, Repent, Reenvision, Repattern, Refocus, Retrain). Now, we are looking at how our salvation transforms our lives.

If I’m honest with you, right now I just want the word to be louder than the world. Don’t let Christians or unchristians make you think you are better than other sinners or that this world is too far gone.

2 Corinthians 6:2 CSB

2 For he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!

That’s the last verse we are going to look at. When we walk away, here is what I want you to remember:

Main Point: God is reconciling the world through Christ’s ministry on the cross and your ministry of preaching.

2 Corinthians 5:16–6:2 CSB

16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 1 Working together with him, we also appeal to you, “Don’t receive the grace of God in vain.” 2 For he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!

Truth of our reconciliation. v.16-18

V.16

2 Corinthians 5:16 CSB

16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way.

From now on.

We do not know anyone.

Worldly perspective.

It might be easy for us to look at Paul and think, well of course Christ made sense to him, he is Paul. He’s the missionary guy. But, Paul said, “we don’t know anyone from a worldly perspective.” So, what was Paul’s worldly perspective like? As

Jesus was a heretic.

Jesus was a crucified heretic.

Jesus was under a divine curse. (Gal. 3:13, Deut 21:23)

Gentiles were sinners separate from the kingdom of God.

Christians were a threat to Rome and Jersualem, so he made sure they changed or died.

God flipped Paul’s world upside down:

Jesus is Lord.

We are under a curse but saved from it because of the cross.

Gentiles are part of God’s Kingdom because of the cross.

Christians are a threat to Rome and Jerusalem because a new Kingdom is coming.

I mean, can you imagine going from Jesus is cursed and dead on a tree so let’s kill his followers to 2 Cor. 5:15?

From a worldly perspective:

worldly standards and sinful POV divides people rather than Christ-centered reconciliation

Now, the world judges from what they see. So, do you judge people based on their outward appearance, or based on a heavenly perspective? If we aren’t careful we will also negate v.12. Paul knows what this is like, as Garland writes,

“False, superficial criteria led him to esteem those who appeared to be wise, influential, of noble birth, and strong, and to disdain those who were none of these things. Before he was captured by Christ, such worldly norms warped his judgments as they do all who live under the thralldom of sin and whose veiled, benighted minds screen out God’s truth.1”

1 David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians, vol. 29 of The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 283.

But we don’t view the world that way because… new creation people view the world differently.

V.17

2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

New creation people view the world differently

V.18

2 Corinthians 5:18 CSB

18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

We are new because we are reconciled

We are reconciled to reconcile

Cranfield shows us how justification and redemption relate to reconciliation...

Justification is a judicial term used in the law courts. A judge may acquit an accused person without ever entering into any personal relationship with the him or her. He just announces the verdict, not guilty. The accused hardly expects to be invited over for dinner by the judge, and probably hopes that he will never see him again.792 1

792 792 C. E. B. Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, ICC (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1975) 1:259.

1 David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians, vol. 29 of The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 290.

If God reconciles us, God reconciles the world. vv.19-21

V.19

2 Corinthians 5:19 CSB

19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

God is reconciling the world to himself through Christ, God doesn’t count their trespasses against them. SO WE SHOULDN’T EITHER! Instead we have the message of reconciliation, not the message of judgment.

Verse 19 shifts from God reconciling “us” to God reconciling the “world.”

If God reconciled you, will He reconcile the world too? If God saw Christ, and not you, what does He see in the world? Do you see the world the way He does? Or, do you still view the world from a human perspective?

View the world like Christ is reconciling.

View the church like Christ is sanctifying.

Don’t view either like a human.

V.20

2 Corinthians 5:20 CSB

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”

“We are ambassadors”

Ambassadors could not be imprisoned.

Ambassadors were agents of reconciliation.

Ambassadors often were trying to gain imperial favor from one governing authority to another (God came to us with a message of reconciliation rather than us to Him).

Ambassadors were often unhappy with their duty. (Paul is thankful and joyful)

Message: “Be reconciled to God.”

Paul is not focused solely on the theology of reconciliation here, instead, he is appealing for the world generally and the church at Corinth specifically to be reconciled to God. Paul is actually pleading with them to come fully into a relationship with God as they are still clinging to the “OLD” way of life, the old Kingdom.

V.21

2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB

21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus became sin (to God), so that we would become the righteousness of God. That is, we are the bearers of goodness and holiness to the world. We are the images of God. We are the bride of Christ.

Galatians 3:13 CSB

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.

Jesus became sin for us. He is not a sinner, as in having sinned. But, Jesus is seen by God as sin. So, Jesus receives all of what sin receives from God.

The Second Epistle to the Corinthians b. The Message of Reconciliation (5:16–6:2)

We conclude that in v. 21a Paul is not saying that at the crucifixion the sinless Christ became in some sense a sinner, yet he is affirming more than that Christ became a sin offering or even a sin bearer. In a sense beyond human comprehension, God treated Christ as “sin,” aligning him so totally with sin and its dire consequences that from God’s viewpoint he became indistinguishable from sin itself.

If the world, then the church. (truth solidified) v.1-2

V.1

2 Corinthians 6:1 CSB

1 Working together with him, we also appeal to you, “Don’t receive the grace of God in vain.”

Don’t receive the grace of God in vain (to us)

The grace of God here is not the salvation already in their life, but the message of reconciliation. The church at Corinth was stuck in the middle, between the world and God. Half-reconciled. They were resisting the Kingdom of God and the new life in Christ.

V.2

2 Corinthians 6:2 CSB

2 For he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!

Time to listen

day for help

Now is the time, and today is the day.

“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10, CSB)

The Church is Different:

“Do not be yoked together with those who do not believe. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14, CSB)

“So then, dear friends, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1, CSB)

“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10, CSB)

Clarity:

Many say stay away.

Many say come, but come clean.

Many say just come.

Yet few will say come (reconciliation) and grow (separation).

That’s reconciliation. Come to the Father.

2 Corinthians 5:18 (CSB)

18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

That’s separation. Grow in righteousness.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 7

So then, dear friends, since we have these promises,x let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit,y bringing holiness to completionH in the fear of God.z

Main Point: God is reconciling the world through Christ’s ministry on the cross and your ministry of preaching.

Gospel Response:

Make a list of offenses against God that you and the world has made. Mark out each one Jesus died for on the cross.

Write a short message for those far from Christ in your journal, use 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 in the message.

Be reconciled to God