Reconciliation, 2 Cor 5:17-21

Themes from 2 Corinthians:

Reconciliation 2 Cor 5:17-21

We are about to look at one of the most classic of verses that teaches about Christian reconciliation--that is--how a person can be brought back to have fellowship with God.

This verse is so classic that four out of six speakers at a Ligonier conference on the death of Christ prepared their remarks on this text. The two who spoke the first night had prepared messages that were different enough from each other that they complemented each other very naturally. The third speaker used what was going to be his second sermon. Then the others reworked their comments for the rest of the conference. This just illustrates how important these verses are to getting Christian theology correctly.

Reconciliation is an important theme. It is a theme in many secular and humanist works. Many of them are about reconciliation among human families, friends and other relationships. Many people think some books and films are Christian-based because of the presence of this theme. They may not be. They may be examples of how important this theme is to Christianity and through Christianity to the culture.

Reconciliation happens when people who have been at war are brought back together to pursue a path of peace. Sometimes people don't like the necessary steps to bring about the cessation of conflict. Often, it is because they are left with nothing to use as a weapon if real peace is achieved. People want peace on their terms, not those of another, especially on God's terms. Real reconciliation among humans is possible, though difficult. Real reconciliation with God is all on his terms. As humans, we have nothing to offer, nothing to argue and nothing to do with being brought back to God. He makes us willing as he makes us to be new.

1. A New Creation

2 Cor 5: 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Paul is drawing something of a conclusion in order to say something of great importance. The conclusion is presented as an if, then, proposition. If the first part is rightly in place, subsequent parts necessarily follow. He writes: if anyone is in Christ….

Note the universal language of anybody. There is a category of people known by whatever "in Christ" means, who are the ones enjoying the second part of the argument. But, before we move on to the end of the argument, we need to define what it means to be in Christ.

The easiest way to define what it means to be in Christ is to state what it does not mean.

1. IT does not mean one has special status because of one's birth. Even in the testimonies of the Apostle Paul, he does not claim special privilege due to his pedigree. It is presented as a salvation that came upon him in spite of his past. There is no place for presumption when dealing with the souls of people, not even the souls of the offspring of believers.

2. IT does not mean one has special status by virtue of the parents religious experience. Many presume their children will come to believe because they are believers. There is no such promise in the Word of God. There is an observation to be made however. We observe that the children of believers often come to believe like their parents. That is because they have been under the means of grace God uses to convert sinners. That they come to believe for themselves is not due to their parentage or reception of outward Christian symbols, it is because God used the means of grace to awaken their dead hearts. There is no place for presumption of any kind.

But, on the other hand, what must be present for someone to be "In Christ?"

The prepositions in Greek often function with reference to space and time. To be in something is akin to being in a container titled one way or another. For instance, when we are born, we are thought to be in the container named, "In Adam" like everyone else born into that category. We have the likeness of Adam. We have the family characteristics which include sin. All that it means to be in Adam has been placed on our account in heaven. To be in Adam is to have a death sentence passed upon you--from birth. The scriptures say, as IN ADAM all die….(1 Cor 15:22).

Lest, you think that is unfair, consider Rom 5:12: Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned--….

By birth we are in the container marked IN ADAM whether we like it or not. And, we live by the family traits because we enjoy the seasons of sin.

The wages of sin is death Romans 6:23. By nature and by choice we are by birth in the category of IN ADAM.

To have our location changed requires a gracious act of God. Underserved favor towards some humans making them New Creations.

Christian believers are humans made new. God takes what they were and changes them. He remakes them out of what they already were and gives them a new principle within to live by, a new disposition, and a new chance on life as God brings them back to Himself.

This is what the Old Covenant looked forward to--a time of newness that was better then what God's people under the so-called old covenant. The prophecy of the New Covenant is found in Jeremiah 31 firstly. Then it is mentioned as fulfilled in Hebrews 8 & 10. The greatness of the New Covenant is in its newness. The religion of the Old Covenant was going away as the newness of the New Covenant was becoming known. Heb 8: 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: 1. I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and 2. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 

11 3. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

12 4. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." 

13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

When we read 2 Cor 5:17b The old has passed away; behold, the new has come, this is what we realize.

To speak of being in Christ is to possess all the benefits purchased for individuals by the atoning death of Jesus that alone can bring us back to God.

Old things: old ways of living unto ourselves or false religious notions are GONE.

We are men and women made new. We have a new set of principles given to us by the Spirit of God. We live by these principles more and more each day. You see, if you still live by the Old, you are likely only in Adam and may not be in Christ.

Professing believers can fall into all sorts of sins. But, to be defined by sins of fallen character is inconsistent with a Christian profession. The old has not been put away. That is, God by His Spirit has not worked in such a way that the old has been eclipsed. It is not about individuals reforming their own lives, what we have here is a work of God.

It is as if the one becoming new is passive in a process that comes over them. That is why we call it a Christian conversion. God takes the person who is contrary to him and in sin as they are in Adam and works in them to place them in Christ. There are some sins though consistent with being in Adam, are inconsistent with being in Christ--especially with the heightened work of the Spirit of God given to reside in New Covenant believers.

Some sins of professed believers are worse than others because they may be windows to what is really in the soul. And, it may look real ugly and there may not be anyway to dress it up and make it look pretty until one finds the gift of God called full repentance. That's where we will be next week Lord willing as we look at Chapter 7 in the context of the Corinthians as a whole.

This series is getting more relevant all the time.  The language of verse 17 doesn't leave us with a lot of options. Remember? 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

If you are really in Christ, you are a new creation and will live in ways consistent with what God has called you to be. If you are a new creation, the old has passed away--the new has come, we could add, you can't help but live in way that is consistent with your renewed nature. God isn't going to tell us one thing and do another, nor will he say one thing and let something else come to pass. If the new has come, you are also new and the grace of God will compel you to be different.

There are scriptures all over the place that tell us about the effects of Christian Salvation, of being made new spiritually. One of my favorites in Titus 2:11-14.

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 

12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, (Well, have you renounced them)

12b and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives (Do these define you? Including the self-controlled part of it) (And it reads) in the present age (This isn't when we are fully sanctified in heaven--it is in the here and now. 

13 waiting for our blessed hope (Do you know what the real blessed hope is according to 1 John? We will be like Jesus]), the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 

14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. What are the tangible effects in those made new? He redeems them and purifies them--he changes them for the better judged by His own eternal and holy standard.

Read on in 2 Cor. This is God's work:

2. A Ministry of Reconciliation

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. 

What grace we have received from God we seek to proclaim in the world. We do this knowing their hostility and the enmity that exists. We do this knowing the majority of them will be found in Adam but by the preaching of the gospel, some of them will be reconciled to God and come to believe. And, in believing, will become a part of God's grand enterprise of reconciling people to himself in Christ.

Therefore we speak for him. Now, there may be a shift is who is the subject doing the speaking. Paul may go back to his apostolic office when he speaks of Ambassadors for Christ. As an apostle, he was called to do for the kingdom of God what ambassadors are called to do for civil governments. But, that is alright, it is in the previous verse that we learn about the recipients of the ministry of reconciliation.

3. Ambassadors for Christ

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

One of the ends of Christian preaching is to implore those who hear to come to the Lord Jesus Christ to be reconciled to Him.

Are you a new creature? DO you live in his new ways? Has your heart been changed to love God?

That is a tricky question. When I thought I was first saved I really just traded one set of sins for a more respectable set of sins. I didn't see this for many years. In Fundamentalism there was a lot of hypocrisy that drove me crazy because it seemed so inconsistent with what I read in the Bible. I was taught the things to say and to do to appear to be a Christian outwardly. Someone was bold enough to show this to me. I fought against the realities of it, but it eventually made sense and brought me to my senses. That is part of the reason why I detest pharisaism so much--it teaches a person to wear obes to cover themselves while never dealing with their sin before God in real and tangible ways. I detest it most in Reformed circles where men should know better. We need God to reconcile us to himself through his Son if we are to be truly brought into close fellowship with God.

This is what God did:

4. A Summary of Reconciliation

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.

What grace is ours! The Father MADE the SON in his humanity, the one who had no personal knowledge of his own sin by nature or by choice, to be sin for us.

The perfect son of God took this upon himself for us. As he hung on the cross he was aware of the sins of all those who would believe--he consciously died for the sin of all he would make new that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Righteousness of God fully when we see him. For now, we have it imputed.