2 Corinthians 5:17

Posted under Uncategorized on July 29th, 2007 by with one response 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

2 Corinthians 5:17, New International Version

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2 CORINTHIANS 5:17

The ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:11)- (2 Cor 6:10)

The apostle passes on to indicate the effect of Christian ministry in the lives of men and women who pay heed to the gospel. The apostle pleads with his readers to accept the reconcilliation that God has provided through Christ.

2 Cor 5:11; i.e. the fear of God, reverence for God.

…God knows our inner mind. Made manifest in your consciences (2 Cor 5:11).

He hope that the Corinthians perceive the sincerity of his ministry.

But an examination of the apostle’s inner life will give them all the answer they need for those whose boast is only in externals. Cf. (2 Cor 10:7)

…he is God’s minister, and he is not affected by his detractors’ opinion of him.

The verses which follow give us a valuable insight into the apostle’s understanding of Christ’s death. He begins by saying that the love of Christ constraineth us (2 Cor 5:14); that is, the love that Christ exhibited for the human race in dying for them holds the apostle fast in his allegiance to such a Saviour. If the Saviour died thus for all (2 Cor 5:14; lit. ‘on behalf of all’), they should reckon themselves as having died too; for Christ represents supremely the whole human race. (See Col 1:17, ‘in him all things consist’,) Therefore they should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him (2 Cor 5:15).

The death of Christ for the Salvation of men is the supreme revelation of the love of God, and it should ‘hold us in’ (‘constrain’ us).

Not only has Jesus passed into the realm of the spirit, but also the revelation of who He was – the Son of God – makes earthly knowledge of Him take a subordinate place. Later heretical thought, known as ‘docetism’, dismissed Christ’s earthly life as unreal…

A new creature (2 Cor 5:17); the believer, too, has entered a new realm of being. Verses (2 Cor 5:17) (2 Cor 5:18) express God’s plan of reconciliation of the world to Himself, which opens this new realm to men. Reconciled (2 Cor 5:18). It is God Himself who does away with the sin of the world. It is the atonement which makes possible reconciliation (see also Rom 5:10). Not imputing their trespasses (2 Cor 5:19). This is an act of God which indicates the depth of His love and mercy for weak human beings. Christ has taken upon Himself the whole burden of sin, so that man is freed from having to answer for his own sinful past.

…(God was in Christ) as a statement that God was reconciling in Christ. Ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18). Word of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:19). By describing his inistry in these two ways, the apostle emphasizes the elements of ;declaration’ (word) and ‘application’.

…be ye reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20). This was the great desire of the apostle for all mankind. He appeals to men to accept God’s reconciliation which he has wrought in Christ. Our Lord’s death was effective not merely to remove men’s hostility to God, but also to deal with the divine necessity requiring that God should turn from man. The way is now open for men to enter into God’s forgiveness. God has made him (i.e. Christ) to be sin on our behalf (2 Cor 5:21).

…it describes a unique event. Christ was not made to be a ‘sinner’, but to be sin.

…He did bear the full penalty for the sin of the whole world. (The reader should refer to Gal 3:13 and Rom 8:3 for other Pauline expressions of the same revealed truth.) He bore this for us (2 Cor 5:21) that we might be released from sin and so be reconciled to God.

…for by it we are made (RV ‘become’) the righteousness of God in him (2 Cor 5:21); i.e. be regarded by God as righteous, though not yet actually so. This is the doctrine of justification. There is a parallelism between Christ’s being made sin, though Himself sinless, and the believer’s being regarded as righteous from the initial moment of belief.

In vain (2 Cor 6:1); i.e. without its effect being shown in one’s life.

Day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2); i.e. the epoch in which salvation is present because it has been brought in by Christ.

The apostle realizes that the misbehaviour of his converts will be used to discredit his ministry of the gospel to them.

In all things approving ourselves (2 Cor 6:4); RV ‘commending ourselves’. Cf. 2 Cor 3:1-2, 2 Cor 5:12).

In all circumstances Paul and his companions have shown that they have ‘received not the grace of God in vain’, and so constitute an example for the Corinthians.

…(2 Cor 6:8-9), their genuineness has been proved by the spiritual quality of their lives (2 Cor 6:6), the truth and force of their message (2 Cor 6:7) and their reaction to the sufferings inflicted upon them (2 Cor 6:9-10). This is the way in which the true minister of God commends himself to the attention of his hearers.

On this day...

  1. Steve left a comment on November 16, 2010 at 12:54 am

    November 16, 2010

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