Reconciliation and Responsibility

Introduction

We have arrived at the end of this study, and we have covered many important topics:

Preaching the truth differs from peddling ideas or goods.

It is possible to undergo the greatest suffering without bitterness toward God or man.

The reality of the resurrection enables such clarity of thought and purpose.

God has intervened in the world, through Christ, to reconcile us to himself.

This morning, we will build upon the great theological truth of the incarnation and reconciliation.

The historical fact of the incarnation imposes upon us the responsibility to live in obedience to God.

Notice, that Paul moves from himself to the way the Corinthians should live in the next section.

So, what he says in these passages isn’t limited to himself.

Ought we think of ourselves and ought we to live in a certain way?

The Theology of the Passages

Paul saw his own ministry as continuing the work of God through Christ in the world.

Colossians 1:24

But, the weighty theology occurs in 2 Cor. 5:21.

Christ is our substitution.

God made him who did not know sin to be sin on our behalf.

He has already expressed one aspect of this in 2 Cor. 5:19.

Jesus became the propitiatory sacrifice for sin.

He atoned for us.

God “made him” this.

But the incarnation had a purpose or a goal that affects us now.

So that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Paul might be thinking of imputed righteousness here.

But, based upon the development in the chapter which follows, he also has the lifestyle in mind.