Grace Changes Everything

INTRO

Greater Grace

God’s grace is deeper than we think it is.

Deeper than we imagine

Cheap Grace — 3 Ways

Underestimate the power of God’s grace to forgive

We believe we’re too far gone

God can’t use me because I’ve done….

Underestimate our need for grace.

I’m a good person

I haven’t really done anything to need forgiveness

We think we can be “good enough” to earn God’s favor.

Underestimate the power of grace to transform

Check a box and it’s business as usual

God’s grace was never meant to merely forgive, but to transform.

Grace is intended to change everything about who we are!

The problem is we tend to stop at forgivenes…

When that’s played out in our lives it looks like us:

Claiming Christ, living like the world.

Claiming heaven, living like hell.

Claiming to be a child of God, living like a child of wrath.

This is the situation the Corinthian church finds themselves in when the apostle Paul writes to them.

READ: 2 Corinthians 5:11-21

PRAY

Context

Understand: When we come to 2 Corinthians, this is one snippet of a long and complicated relationship between Paul and the church at Corinth.

He loved them deeply — he started that church himself. But somewhere along the way, things went off the rails.

They started acting less like the people of God and more like the world around them.

Paul would preach grace… and they’d turn it into a license to sin.

He’d call them to holiness… and they’d roll their eyes and say, ‘Lighten up, Paul.’

It broke his heart.

When Paul first came to Corinth, he met a couple named Aquila and Priscilla — faithful believers who helped him plant a brand-new church in a city drowning in idolatry and immorality.

Corinth was wild. If Vegas and New York had a baby in the Roman Empire — that was Corinth.

Wealthy, self-indulgent, sexually charged, and full of temples to every god you could imagine.

Paul leaves… and pretty soon, word gets back: the same sins that marked the city are now creeping into the church.

So he writes them — a letter we don’t have anymore — calling them to separate themselves, to live holy lives.

But it doesn’t stop there. They have more questions, more division, so he writes again — 1 Corinthians.

And when that doesn’t fix it, Paul shows up in person. That visit? He calls it his ‘painful visit.’

They turn on him. Accuse him of being fake, of being self-promoting.

So he leaves — heartbroken — and writes again, what he calls his ‘tearful letter.’

You can almost see the ink smudges from his tears as he pleads with them: ‘You’ve been made new in Christ — live like it!’

Finally, word comes that they’re repenting, that hearts are softening. So Paul writes again — what we call 2 Corinthians — to rejoice with them, to celebrate the grace of God that brings us back when we wander.

But also to remind them that if their repentance is genuine, there will be some concrete actions that follow it.

So by the time we get to chapter 5, Paul is writing to a church that’s finally coming back to life.

He’s reminding them — and reminding us — that God’s grace isn’t cheap.

It doesn’t just forgive you; it transforms you.

Over and over again, Corinth was a church — a people claiming to follow Jesus — yet living like the world around them.

Paul’s solution for them doesn’t start with what they’re doing, it starts with who they are.

Grace Changes Our Identity (v. 16-17)

We aren’t the same person after Christ that we were before Christ!

There’s a marked change that takes place.

2 Corinthians 5:16 “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.”

Used to look at everyone — yourself included — from a worldly perspective.

Corinth was a very wealthy city.

Was a destination for traveling professional speakers. Would charge a fee for attendance to their entertaining events, and would advise people on how to advance socially.

Worldly perspective:

Success = Money, Status, Power, Position, Relationships, etc.

YOU HAVE A NEW IDENTITY — You need a new measuring stick!

NOW, you are who THE FATHER says you are.

Loved, set apart, adopted, restored, redeemed, child…

Here’s the thing… if you miss everything else this morning, get this one thing: We are given a new identity through God’s grace given to us in Jesus Christ.

Why do I want you to remember that above all?

Because everything else flows from it.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “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 — Who we are is different, so our desires are different. The things we chase after are different. The measuring stick we use for our life is different.

Our desires and our actions come out of a place of who we are, not the other way around.

When we were children of wrath, we did things children of wrath do.

Now, we’re children of God.

So because grace changes our identity….

Grace Changes Our Purpose (v. 14-15)

When grace changes who we are, it changes why we do the things we do.

Our motivation shifts from living for self to living for the Kingdom.

Our old purpose: living for ourselves

Before Christ, our lives revolved around self-centered goals: success, comfort, approval, reputation.

That’s the culture of Corinth — status, wealth, social advancement.

It’s the same in our world today: “Do what makes you happy,” “Follow your truth.”

Paul reminds them: That’s who you were.

Watch the shift here… 2 Corinthians 5:14 “14 For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion, that one died for all, and therefore all died.”

Look at Paul’s motivation….

Not money, not fame, not instagram followers…

“The love of Christ compels us.

The word “compels” (sunechō) means to be seized or held together by something powerful.

ESV: CONTROLS

His driving force is Christ’s love — it’s why he does what he does.

Notice something else…. Paul doesn’t say, ‘our love for Christ compels us.’ He says, ‘the love of Christ compels us.’

This isn’t about demonstrating our love for God.

It’s about being driven by HIS love FOR US.

When you make it about your love for Christ, it becomes something you have to muster up.

You start to think:

“If I just pray more…

if I just serve harder…

if I just prove my love…”

And before long, that turns into a works-based faith.

“Look at me, Jesus! Look at everything I’m doing for You!”

But Paul’s saying the opposite. He’s saying:

“Because Christ’s love has gripped my life, I can’t live the same way anymore.”

“His love controls me, shapes me, moves me — it directs everything I do.”

Now watch how verse 15 explains what that looks like in real life:

2 Corinthians 5:15 “15 And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.”

Paul’s saying, “When you’ve been loved like that — when you truly understand what Jesus did for you — it changes who you live for.”

It’s not about trying harder to love Jesus.

It’s about allowing His love to live through you.

A works-based faith says, ‘I have to do this for Jesus.’

A grace-based life says, ‘I can’t help but do this because of Jesus.’

A man is trapped in a burning house. The smoke is thick, he can’t see, and just when he’s about to give up, a firefighter bursts through the flames, throws him over his shoulder, and carries him to safety.

Later, as that man recovers, his entire perspective changes. He doesn’t say, “Look at all the things I’m doing for the firefighter.” No — he says, “I owe my life to the one who saved me.”

That’s the difference Paul is describing. We don’t live for Christ to earn His love — we live because His love rescued us. We were the ones trapped in the flames, and now, we live to honor the One who pulled us out.

If you’ve really been rescued by Jesus, you can’t go back to living like the fire never happened.

The love of Christ compels me, so I stop living for me… and start living for Him.

Notice the progression here…Grace changes our identity — who we are, which in turn changes our purpose — our motivation, which changes our mission — our ations.

Grace Changes Our Mission (v. 18-20)

Grace doesn’t stop with us. God saves us to send us.

He makes us ministers of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18 “18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.”

Reconcile = to restore a broken relationship.

God didn’t just forgive us — He brought us back to Himself.

Now, He’s entrusted us with that same mission — to bring others to him.

We’re not just recipients of grace, we’re representatives of grace.

Grace gives us a message to share

“...God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them.” (v.19)

The heart of the gospel is not condemnation, but reconciliation.

Our message isn’t “Get your act together” — it’s “God has made a way to make things right.”

REALITY: Every believer is a carrier of the message of reconciliation.

You don’t have to be a preacher — just be available.

Grace calls us to represent Christ well

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us.” (v.20)

An ambassador doesn’t speak for himself — he speaks on behalf of his king/president.

He represents his homeland in a foreign land.

That’s us — heaven’s representatives in a world far from home.

Illustration:

An ambassador doesn’t blend into the country he’s in — he stands out because he represents somewhere else.

In the same way, the more the world looks at us, the more they should see where we’re really from.

Grace gives us a holy urgency.

“We plead on Christ’s behalf, ‘Be reconciled to God.’” (v.20)

Paul’s language is urgent — pleading, begging, calling.

When grace grips your heart, you can’t stay silent.

You want others to know the same grace that found you.

When we realize what’s at stake, that those we love who are far from God are destined for an eternity in a literal place called hell, we have a holy urgency to bring the message of reconciliation.

Notice something though…it’s not our message — it’s not a political platform. We’re not urgent about lifestyle choices or immoral living.

Sometimes we try to make lost people live like saved people without salvation.

We’re not in the business of making good people, we’re in the business of rmaking disciples of Jesus.

James Jones: I’ve delivered the mail.

Got the gist, but never really thought about it until I asked him. His explanation: A mail carrier doesn’t write the message — they don’t add to it, they don’t take away from it. They just deliver it faithfully.

God has written the greatest message of all: “Your debt has been paid. You can come home. You can be reconcile.” He’s placed that message in our hands. Our job isn’t to edit it — it’s to deliver it.

That’s the ministry of reconciliation — we’re not the author of the message, just the trusted carrier of it.

CONCLUSION

This won’t make sense to the world.

In verse 13, Paul says some people called him crazy — because he was so radically changed by the grace of Jesus.

And honestly, that’s how real grace looks to the world — it doesn’t make sense.

The gospel is foolishness to those far from God.

When you’ve been brought from death to life, when the love of Christ has gripped your heart, you don’t live the same way anymore.

You start living for the One who died and rose again for you.

But here’s the question you have to answer: Has that grace changed you?

Because grace isn’t just something we talk about — it’s something we receive. It’s a gift from God.

And when you truly receive it, it redefines who you are, reshapes why you live, and redirects what you do.

For Those Who Haven’t Yet Trusted Christ

Maybe for some of you, grace has been something you’ve admired from a distance — you’ve known about Jesus, even respected Him — but you’ve never surrendered your life to Him.

You’ve been trying to earn God’s approval, trying to “be better,” trying to clean yourself up before you come to Him.

But listen — that’s not grace.

Grace is not you climbing your way to God.

Grace is God coming down to you — through Jesus — and doing for you what you could never do for yourself.

“God made the One who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

That’s the gospel in one verse.

Jesus took your sin — every bit of it — and offers you His righteousness in exchange.

He died your death so you could live His life.

He took your separation so you could have reconciliation.

And the invitation this morning is simple but eternal: Be reconciled to God.

That’s not Paul’s invitation. That’s not mine.

That’s Christ Himself — speaking through Paul — through me — to you.

He’s saying, “Come home.”

“Stop running.”

“Stop pretending.”

“Let grace do what it was meant to do — forgive you, transform you, and make you new.”

The same grace that transformed Paul and restored Corinth is available to you — right now, through Jesus.

For Those Who Have Trusted Christ But Haven’t Followed in Baptism

Maybe you’ve already trusted Christ, but you’ve never taken that first step of obedience — baptism.

The picture of baptism is the same truth Paul describes here:

The old has gone. The new has come.

When you go under that water, you’re saying, “My old life is gone — I’ve died to myself.” And when you come up again, you’re saying, “I’m alive in Christ. I belong to Him now.”

Baptism doesn’t save you — but it’s how you publicly declare that you have been saved.

It’s how you say to the world, “His love has changed me. His grace has made me new. I’m not the same person anymore.”

If that’s you — if you’ve trusted Christ but haven’t followed Him in baptism — what’s stopping you?

Don’t delay your obedience. Delayed obedience is disobedience.

Take that next step of faith. Make the grace of God visible in your life.

For Those Who Are Already in Christ, But Not Living Like It

And maybe you have trusted Christ, but somewhere along the way you’ve drifted.

You’ve let the world pull you back into the old life — the old mindset — the old habits.

You’ve been forgiven, but not walking in freedom.

Paul’s message is for you, too: “You are not who you used to be.”

You’ve been reconciled. Redeemed. Made new.

So stop living like the world around you — start living like the One who lives within you.

Stop chasing what you’ve already been set free from.

Let the love of Christ compel you again. Let His grace draw you back.

Paul says, ‘We are ambassadors for Christ.’ Maybe it’s time to start representing Him again — not just in name, but in nature.

Final Invitation

So whether you need to be reconciled, or be baptized, or simply return to the grace that first found you — the invitation is the same: Come.

Come to the cross.

Come to the One who died and rose again for you.

Come to grace that is so much greater than you could imagine. Grace that forgives, transforms, and sends.

Grace changes everything.

It changes who you are, why you live, and what you live for. And that grace is available to you — right now.