Be Reconciled to God
September 9, 2020
Commentary
In verses 14 and 15 Paul comes to two conclusions:
1. The total depravity of man (v. 14). If Christ died for all, then all must be dead in their trespasses and sin.
2. God’s purpose for saving us (v. 15). He died that we might live through Him and for Him, and one day with Him.
In this passage (vv. 16-21) Paul summarizes the power of the Gospel and that which motivates his whole Christian life. Christ died for all, and the old self of the Christian died in that death. He arose a new man. In this newness of life, he has acquired a new set of standards.
Application
As a Christian, I am Christ’s ambassador in this world. Therefore, if sinners reject me and my message, it is Jesus Christ who is actually rejected. What a great privilege it is to serve Him!
2 Corinthians 5:14– 21 (NET)
14 For the love of Christ controls us, since we have concluded this, that Christ died for all; therefore all have died. 15 And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised. 16 So then from now on we acknowledge no one from an outward human point of view. Even though we have known Christ from such a human point of view, now we do not know him in that way any longer. 17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away —look, what is new has come! 18 And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making his plea through us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!” 21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.