Untitled Sermon

What is salvation? This is a question we would all do well to understand.

This is because it is crucial to understand salvation in order to confidently save we are saved.

The idea of being saved has been so watered down, that we have limited it to a simple little decision that you can make then move on with your life, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Salvation is a miraculous work of the Spirit applying what Jesus has done in order to change everything about us, and it is to understand this that we now turn our attention to our passage.

2 Cor. 5:14-21

Background:

To set the stage for us, let us take a look at who it was that Paul was writing.

Paul was writing to the church in Corinth, and unlike the first letter he wrote to them, Paul does not spend a great deal of time justifying himself, instead we see a quick comparison between him and the false teachers that were present in Corinth.

Paul said that they knew the fear of the Lord, and it was this fear that shaped their ministry to not be something based off of appearance, but instead they took pride in whom God had made them to be.

It is his charge to seek to persuade people, and all other external things were ultimately irrelevant in comparison to his charge to minister.

Paul goes beyond just speaking of the fear of the Lord, to tell us what the driving force behind his and the other apostles ministries was.

V. 14-15

Paul and his companions were complled to the ministry by one very simple truth “that one died for all, and therefore all died.”

What this is saying is that the death sentence that we all have earned, has been carried out in Christ.

Jesus died our death for us, so that each person who is saved no longer will have the fear of death upon their life.

This love that Christ has shown us is what compelled Paul to minister, and it is sacrificial love that plots a new course for all those who are in Christ.

This new course is summarized perfectly in verse 15, that whose whose death sentence was carried out no longer live for themselves, but for Him who has saved them.

In living for Christ, many things radically change about our perspective and Paul speaks of one of these in the following verses

V. 16

Understanding this death of the old self carried out by Christ, Paul says that we no longer see anyone from a wordly perspective.

Now a worldly perspective means using simple logic, or reason, or just looking at the material aspects of life.

Paul says this way is insufficient now, and it is because though we used to look at Christ from a worldly perspective we now have a greater outlook on Who He is.

This is distinguishing from just knowing about Jesus and knowing that He is Lord.

If you truly know God, and have been saved by the redeeming work of Christ you will view the whole world under the scope of His Lordship

So this new perspective we see is whether or not someone is in Christ.

Paul know comes the crescendo of this passage.

Verse 17

Because Christ has come and died in the place of all those who believe, anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.

This is the defining thing about whether or not you have truly been saved.

Returning to what has already been said, salvation is a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit recreating a person into a creature fitted for service unto God for His good pleasure.

As a new creation, you have died to your old self and been liberated to live for God, thus fulfilling the true call of humanity.

So salvation is a beautiful scene of the recreation of a person, this is why people who are saved look different than the world. Because we are made new and liberated from our old sinful desires and able to pursue God.

We as recreated people are now a part pf the grand renewal that God has promised and that we see glimpses of in the closing chapters of Revelation

This recreation has many benefits and Paul now ventures in one of these.

V. 18

Here Paul lays out the idea of being reconciled to God.

So what is reconciliation?

It is the restoration of relationship between God and Man

There are two things we ought to note here

First it is in this restoration Christ takes on the wrath of God for His people, dealing with the debt that our sinned has procured for us.

Second, the reconciliation spoken of here is that of God transforming the hearts of corrupted men, in order that the enmity we had toward God would be gone, so that we can now know, love, and serve Him.

It is we who had to be transformed and renewed in this recreation so that we may love God.

In verse 19 Paul goes further, expanding this idea to show that in Christ, God is working and changing people across the world, and reconciling them unto Himself and granting the the ministry of reconciliation so that we may be witnesses to others.

Thus Paul concludes in verse 20 that we are ambassadors for Christ. As God’s new creation we are sent to speak on behalf of our King, and plead fallen men to turn to Christ.

And as a fitting summation of this call to death, and promise of rebirth, Paul summarizes the gospel message into one beautiful sentence.

Verse 21

Christ died our sinners death, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

So the question is now turned to you, have you been changed, are you a new creation, or are you still holding to that worldly perspective of Christ, and holding onto to that old way of life.