The Joy of Christmas

It all started in the garden where Adam willfully sinned. And just as Adam rebelled against God so has all of mankind. And just like Adam our rebellion is not just some minor misunderstanding easily taken care of. Our rebellion is radical and incessant. But our rebellion has been countered and matched by the wrath of God against sin. Because God is a Holy and Righteous God there had to be a reckoning for sin, a price had to be paid that is why Paul says in Romans 1:18 that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men”. This is where we come to our text today in the reconciliation the Good News of Christmas.

Paul’s view of everything has been changed, it has been changed by the death of Christ. His view of people as well as of Christ has changed. Salvation completely changes a person. One of the most important things I want to stress as we begin to dive into the text is that this change and this reconciliation is only accomplished by God, yes He does use us in the process, because we are His ambassadors, Christ’s representatives here on earth, but the actual reconciliation is accomplished by Him and Him alone. Paul uses the word reconciliation in one form or another five times in these few verses.

2 Corinthians 5:16–17 ESV

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.

Verse 15 tells us the Christ died for all and those who believe live for Him, and this is what the therefore in verse 16 is referring to. That is what causes Paul to have this different view point, and as Christians we should share in this, why? Because if we are in Christ as verse 17 points out we see things differently, we no longer see things according to the flesh, but according to our new nature, one that has been reconciled, as a new creation, born again, changed by God. Remember we do not live as we once did. We have put to death our old self, and we start a new, born again through Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:18–19 ESV

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.

The reason we are able to be changed is because of God through Christ. It is because of Christ sacrifice on the cross, taking our ins on Himself that God reconciles us to Himself. Our salvation has nothing to do with us, we do not have ht ability to truly change ourselves, to change our hearts and our desires, this work is God’s. After Paul makes this clear, he then moves to our part in verse 19. We have the ministry of reconciliation, well what are we supposed to do with that, lets look at verse 19 to find out. Paul again reiterates that fact that reconciliation is God’s through Christ, not counting our trespasses against us, WOW how amazing is God’s grace, I don’t know about you but I have a lot of trespasses, or a better word would be sins. Why does God not count our sins against us, it is because of Christ’s redemptive work on the cross. Do we realize that we all deserve to face God’s wrath and judgment because of our sins. I want to point something out here Paul is not speaking about universal salvation -that is that everyone will be saved-what he means is the offer has been extended to all and Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient for all, but there will be those who will not accept God’s offer. Another thing Paul points out is that for those who do accept God’s gift of reconciliation, they are now messengers of God’s reconciliation. You probably get tired of hearing this but we all have one job in common, to share the Good News. To tell people that God has made peace with them. In Romans 5:10-11 Paul tells us we were once enemies of God but now we are reconciled through Christ, He has made peace with us through Christ.

Romans 5:10–11 ESV

10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:20 ESV

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Because God has reconciled us to Himself, and made us messengers of reconciliation, we are also ambassadors. Well what does it mean to be an ambassador? The biblical definition of ambassador is a messenger of a king or a ruler. We are messengers of the one true King. And as His ambassadors God appeals through us tot he rest of the world. This appeal is done through God’s children sharing the Good News with the world. Showing them the love of Christ. Showing them who Christ is by how we live our lives, just as He showed us who God is by how He lived His life. And just as Paul is appealing to people to be reconciled, so should we. This appeal is based on God’s grace, punishing Christ in the place of the sinner. 1 Peter 2:24

1 Peter 2:24 ESV

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

The Gospel is not reconcile yourselves, the Gospel is be reconciled, receive reconciliation from God. This is why some 700 years before Christ came Isaiah could say. Isaiah 53:5

Isaiah 53:5 ESV

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Christ Made Sin

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin,

God’s word is so rich and verse 21 is a true diamond. A very profound statement. This verse sums up the Good News, and this verse is the Good News of Christmas. It is the heart of atonement the how of reconciliation, the substitutionary atonement for our sins. This statement is one of the most explicit statements of Christ’s sinlessness. There are other references to this throughout Scripture. The significance of this statement is that Jesus as man never sinned, for all of His short life of 33 years He was perfect, sinless. There are a couple of reasons this fact is important for us. 1) He could not sin because He is fully God in human flesh, and God cannot sin, because He is truly Holy. 2) He had to remain sinless to be able to atone for our sins. He was truly perfect a spotless sacrifice. Even though He bore all the sins of mankind on the cross, He Himself still remained sinless. Jesus in full consciousness took your sins and mine and bore them with a unity of understanding and pain that none of us can fathom, and He did it willingly.

Sinners Made Righteous

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)

21 so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Here we have the reason for the first part of this verse. This is what is called imputed righteousness. All our sins were credited to Christ and the spotless perfection of His righteousness was credited to us. It;s important for us to understand this is more than just a legal declaration of our standing before God. The righteousness of God describes a new way of living for us. We live righteously because God has declared us righteous. Our debt has been paid in full, by the only one who could by Christ, and this is the Good News of Christmas. Paul’s concern was for believers to live their lives in the reality of the coming resurrection, hen we ill stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We should live our lives in this manner whether it happens tomorrow or a thousand years from now. Busy about the kingdoms work, combating the lies of satan with the truth of God.

Application

What does all this mean for us. We should be serving God motivated by both the fear of God and a love for Christ. We should be done with our fleshly regard of Christ and others, we should be kingdom focused. We should regard our brothers and sisters in Christ as new creations. Living our lives in the Spirit directed freedoms of the New Covenant, free from the bondage of sin. Embracing the message and the ministry of reconciliation, and telling the world of what God has done through Christ.