The Reconciling Power of God

Core Values for the Christian Life   •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
0 ratings
· 2 views
Notes
Transcript

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

English Standard Version (Chapter 5)
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.
The Reconciling Power of God
(2 Cor. 5:16-21 )
16 So 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. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We 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. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Our Problem
The Problem- What is wrong, the Provision -How is the problem dealt with, the Purpose - After we have identified our problem, received God’s provision for it, God has a purpose for us to live for.
A Worldly View of People and Jesus
In this passage Paul highlights several problems which we can fall into. Paul writes, “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.” 2 Cor. 5:16. Paul says that at one time we, including Paul, looked at Christ and others from a worldly perspective or a non-supernatural view; just at the outside of them. When we look at a person with spiritual eyes we see how God has saved and rescued them or could save and rescue them.
What could that mean? To look at Jesus from a worldly point of view is to think of Jesus as a historic figure, a good moral teacher but not my Savior, or the Son of God.
This view of Jesus also impacts how we view other people. If we regard Jesus from a worldly point of view when we see people around us with sin and problems in their lives we will not have faith that by the power of the gospel they might be transformed; we will believe that they are trapped in their sin with no hope for Jesus to transform them.
Paul has a different perspective that is not worldly.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God.”
Illustration
When you see people around you trapped in addiction, struggling from emotional wounds, abuse or neglect, if you don’t have faith in the gospel, that situation is going to feel hopeless. If we do not have a supernatural view of people, the pride, envy, or jealousy of people will bother us even more. Because we will believe that they could never change by the Holy Spirit.
Having faith in the power of the gospel through Jesus to transform people is vital to our Christian walk with God, as much as engine oil is to an engine. When Paul says, whoever is in Christ is a new creation, that means God can deliver, save and transform people from all kinds of sin. Faith that God can and does rescue people is very important.
I have a van that is probably in its last days. It leaks oil, it’s making a knocking noise, & has a number of lights flashing on the dashboard. If all the oil leaks out of that vehicle, and we try to run it dry, we are not going to get far. Our faith in God’s power to transform us and other people is more important to us than oil is to a car engine. God calls us to have faith in the power of the gospel and not regard people from a worldly perspective. Amen! If we don’t have faith for that, we can ask God to increase our faith. Just like you might as a mechanic to top off your oil.
Our Need for Reconciliation
The second problem of ours that this passage highlights is our need for reconciliation with God. Our biggest problem in our life is that we are alienated from God because of our sin. God has a perfect standard. God’s character is always to bring righteousness. The stories of the OT show God helping widows and rescuing the fatherless. God loves people from all different cultures. God does not change. His character does not have any sin in it. We cannot
We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we actually realize. Yet at the very same time God makes a way through Jesus for us to be completely reconciled to Himself.
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Be reconciled to God.
This word reconciliation assumes that we have committed an offense. This word assumes that we are separated from God. We were created to walk in close relationship with God. But because of our sin our relationship with God has been broken. God has no sin in him & by ourselves, we cannot stand in God’s presence where his full holiness and righteousness is revealed. Without the gospel at the center of our life, we are separated from God and an enemy of God. By ourselves we can never fix this problem.
A lot of people do not realize that the biggest problem in their need to be reconciled to God through Jesus. God wants us to have a reconciled relationship with him. And for everyone else around us, whether they are Christian or non Christian, it doesn’t really matter - their biggest need is for the gospel.
Illustration
There is a story which illustrates this. In a story in Mark chapter 2, Jesus is in Capernaum. So many people are around Jesus that no one can get to him. The home he is in is totally crowded. You can imagine the large crowds at a concert where there are so many people standing you cannot even move. A group of several friends are desperate to bring their friend to Jesus. Their friend is unable to walk. Because they cannot get into the house to bring their friend to Jesus. It is too crowded. They get creative. They got up on the roof of the home & opened up a hole in the roof of this packed house. They then lower their friend down by ropes so he is in front of Jesus. This man cannot walk, he has probably been begging and destitute since he was crippled, and from a worldly point of view his biggest need is for his legs to be healed so he can walk, and he probably needs a job, so he can go from begging to working and supporting himself. But what does Jesus say?
“Son, your sins are forgiven.” – Jesus – What Jesus? The man needs to be able to be physically healed so he can work!! His biggest need is not to be able to walk or work, or be healed physically. But Jesus points to his greatest need, which is that his sins need to be forgiven so that he can be in a reconciled relationship with his heavenly Father and can be an adopted son in God’s family.
Application
When you look around you, your family members, your close friends, or co-workers and the people around you, do you have that perspective, that the biggest problem is that everyone has, is their need to be reconciled to God? Or to be reminded that they are reconciled to God so that they don’t forget that God has already met their biggest need? We all need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us see the people around us through a lens of our common need for the gospel. The Holy Spirit can open our eyes to see the need that is the biggest need, and that is for our sins to be forgiven and for us to be grounded in our identity as a reconciled son or daughter of God.
2. Our Provision - This passage shows that God has made a provision to meet that deepest need.
The good news is that God has made a way for us to be. Here is how God’s provision that comes through Jesus works.
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.” v.18
“not counting people’s sins against them.” v.19
In Jesus, God has made a way for our separation from God to be changed and for us to be reconciled to God.
Everything that God does is righteous, pure, holy and without flaw or mistake.
We have sin, each of us. We all know it. If we are a non-Christian maybe don’t even try to hide our sin.
As Christians we still have sin, we have things we struggle with that give us guilt and shame.
So we cannot freely enter into God’s presence.
So here is the gospel in a nutshell again.
God does this amazing trade with us. When we put our faith in Jesus. God takes out sin and puts it on Jesus, who died for sin on the cross 2000 years ago. V. 5:21 A “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.” That’s the first part of the trade.
The second part of the trade is this, God gives us Jesus perfect righteousness. V. 5:21 B so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
When we put our faith in Jesus, we are joined to Christ and we receive his righteousness. All of the benefits and blessings that Jesus received for living a perfectly righteous life become ours by faith.
[SLIDE]
That is called double imputation. — We impute our sin to Jesus. Jesus wipes away our sin from our record by his death. He received the penalty for our sin. Jesus imputes his righteousness to us.
Jesus gives us the gift of his righteousness so that when we stand before God, it will be as though we lived a perfectly sinless life, like Jesus did, all because our faith is in Jesus and through faith we have union with Jesus! Amen!! That’s the provision that God has given us. All we have to do is receive it by faith.
An Angry Veteran
Friends, there is nothing better in all of life than knowing that you have God’s provision and you have been reconciled to God through Jesus. For the last three years, prior to moving back here to Iowa I had the privilege of sitting bedside with many people who are dying. One man, I will never forget. He had lost one leg to amputation. He was very sick. He was blind. He was having hallucinations. He was in a lot of physical pain. He had never married. He had no children. The nurse could not get him to take his medication that would help him calm down. When the nurse would give him pills he would spit them out and swear and scream. So they asked me to come visit. He was lying horizontal in bed. He could not see, so I got up close to his bedside. I whispered into his ear and I introduced myself. I told him, “I am not here to preach to you. I just want to pray for you first. Would you let me pray for you?” He nodded his head in agreement. So I prayed for the Holy Spirit to come and comfort him and give him relief from his pain. He confessed to me that he was not religious and the last time he had gone to church was when he was a child. Then I offered to read him a Psalm for spiritual comfort. He said that would be fine. I read him Psalm 23. Then I explained the gospel to him. “That no matter what he had done, if he wanted to put his faith in Jesus right then and there God would meet him and rescue him.” He said that sounded good. So we prayed together. Then I offered to serve him communion to celebrate his trusting in Jesus. He took communion that afternoon and did not spit it out! The next time the nurses went to visit him, he was completely different. He did not scream or swear. He did not spit out the pills he was given.
He experienced the reconciling power of God. He died a few weeks later. Before he died. He had become a new creation. The old had gone and the new had already begun in his life.
Application
God’s provision is available to anyone who will recognize their need, put their faith in Jesus and surrender to Him. Here is my challenge. God wants us to walk with a powerful faith in Jesus. A faith that says, I know I have been reconciled to God through Jesus. I trust Jesus for everything. I don’t carry the guilt of my sin. Jesus took that. God is changing me by the Holy Spirit, and I have the righteousness of Jesus as a gift. Christians need to hear this again and again and non Christians need to hear that message so that they can truly be born again.
Our Purpose
The last point is this; that our purpose in life is to represent Christ to the world and the people around us. 2 Cor 5:18, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
God gives us the privilege and honor of helping other people discover the reconciling power of the gospel through Jesus. We get to help with this and participate in leading people to Jesus.
2 Cor 5:19-20, “He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We 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.”
That’s pretty incredible! God reconciles us to himself, then he gives us the privilege and responsibility of being his ambassadors, so that he can appeal to people to be reconciled to him through what Jesus has done. You might feel like, I don’t know if I have the confidence to talk to other people around me about being reconciled to God. If we feel shaky. We can pray and ask the Holy Spirit to fill us so that we can be an ambassador for Jesus where God has called us.
I want to say, I feel the need to do this so often. To pray before a significant conversation.
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more
Earn an accredited degree from Redemption Seminary with Logos.