2 Corinthians 5

OGC

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**Butler’s Commentary

Chapter Five**

THE PROBLEM OF PERSPECTIVE

(2 Corinthians 5:1-21)

IDEAS TO INVESTIGATE:

Why does Paul suggest the possibility of nakedness at death?

How are we away from the Lord while we are in the body?

Would Christians ever pride themselves on a man’s position?

How is it possible for humans to see no one from a human point of view?

How was he (Christ) made to be sin who knew no sin?

APPREHENSION:

What relationship does God’s subjecting the creation to futility have with the problem of perspective?

Where does the Bible document the human cry for divine perspective?

What chapter in I Corinthians deals with the problems of divine perspective among the Corinthian Christians?

Why does Paul call our human body an earthly tent?

What is the significance of saying we have a building from God?

What does Paul mean by the word naked?

What do Christians sigh with anxiety about while in their earthly body?

What do the scriptures say about being at home with the Lord?

What has the judgment of Christ to do with the Christian having divine perspective?

Why did Paul have to explain that some had thought him beside himself?

Why did the love of Christ control Paul?

What convinced Paul that Christ’s death was for all men’s sins?

Why must the Christian never regard anyone from a human point of view?

Define: Propitiation, Justification, Redemption, Reconciliation, Faith and Obedience (you will need to study the Special Studies to answer this question).

What is an ambassador of reconciliation?

How did God make Christ to be sin on our behalf? What if we have some moral reservations against another person being punished on our behalf?

How did Christ’s righteousness become ours?

APPLICATIONS:

Do you have a problem keeping the daily news reports in divine perspective?

How do you deal with the every-day trials and tribulations of your own life and those intimately associated with you?

Do you read your Bible daily for answers to your daily problems?

Are there really answers in the Bible for every one of man’s problems?

Do you give much thought to your own death and what comes afterward?

Are you ever anxious about where you will be after your body is put in a grave?

What do you anticipate about the next existence?

Do you look forward eagerly to the judgment of Christ as a place where wrong will be righted?

What is your ambition in life?

Can you truthfully say that in every undertaking you-’ve made in life (every ambition) you have sought first to please the Lord in it?

Is reverence (fear) of God a motive in your life? Do you think the Church today could use more reverence? In what way?

What does the atonement of Christ mean existentially (subjectively, personally) to your viewpoint, perspective, way of living?

Do you see self in you as having actually died on the cross with Christ?

Have you determined, with God’s gracious help, to let Christ live his life out to the world through you?

Do you struggle with the command of Paul in this chapter that Christians are no longer to see anyone from a human point of view?

Where do you think the Christian must turn for solution to this struggle?

Does it seem fair to you that Christ must be punished for your sins? Do you believe he did? All of them? Forever?

Do you feel like God considers you a righteous person? Why? Do you think some of the good you have done in your life ought to be taken into account by God when he takes you home to be with him?

What do you feel like saying to God in light of his punishment of your sins in Christ and his giving you Christ’s perfect righteousness as your own?

Special Study PROPITIATION

Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; 1 Peter 1:18-19;

1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10; Romans 3:21-26

MEANING

(Heb. kipper), means to cover or wipe-out or wipe clean, to annul by offering a gift

ἱλαστηριον hilasterion, means, to avert wrath.

II.

USAGE

Kipper is translated appease in Genesis 32:20 (literally, I will cover his face with a present.)

Kipper is translated atone, expiate in Isaiah 47:11 (literally, thou shalt not be able to charm it away, or bribe it away.)

Kopher is used to describe the protection money paid by the Jews to avert a plague (Exodus 30:12).

Hilasterion in the LXX is translated mercy seat and the word is employed in exactly this sense in Hebrews 9:5.

Hilasterion might even be thus translated in Romans 3:25 and would say that God appointed Jesus to be the mercy-seat for sinners, in order that some place and means might be provided for securing a friendly meeting with the Deity, offended by man’s sin.

Discussion

THEOLOGY

Understanding the nature of God is necessary to understand the idea of propitiation

A God of holiness is of necessity a God of wrath

The wrath of God is mentioned 585 times in the O.T. alone and although not as often in the N.T., it is surely there (Romans 1:18, etc.). Ordinarily we think of the cross as being necessary for our sakes, but this is true only in a secondary sense. Certainly our salvation depends on the cross; YET IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS, THE CROSS IS NECESSARY NOT JUST BECAUSE WE ARE SINNERS, BUT BECAUSE GOD IS GOD!

Justice or righteousness is that characteristic of God which requires Him to punish sin. GOD MUST BE TRUE TO HIMSELF OR HE IS NOT GOD. WHEN MAN SINS IT CONTRADICTS THE VERY NATURE OF GOD. GOD MUST PUNISH SIN. HIS JUSTICE DEMANDS IT.

The sinner is a standing assertion that there is no God. He is against God, and God therefore must be against him.

For God to ignore the sinner as a sinner would be an unacceptable compromise of His nature even though in His love He has no personal desire for vengeful malice in His motive

God’s love for the victim of the sinner has been called in question by what He, the Sovereign, has allowed to happen in His realm.

Even though God may want to relate Himself to the sinner in ways of love, that relation must be predicated on an objective reckoning of some act of Justice where the record is put straight.

God’s love is a personal attitude which is passionately concerned about genuine relationship.

When God’s love to man does not elicit love in return there is a necessary estrangement.

Eliminate the possibility of wrath and God’s love is meaningless.

Some act had to be completed that would permit God to maintain His holiness and justice and also to forgive the sinner, and let God be true to the other side of His nature love!

II.

TRANSACTION

What God did at Calvary He did actually and objectively and not merely in the minds of men.

God acted to appease His own wrath in an event on the basis of which He can actually and objectively cover man’s sin

God paid Himself off, as it were!

After Calvary God could be toward man as He could not be toward man before

A propitiation is that which satisfies the wraththe righteous and judicial demand for justiceof God.

That which satisfies the wrath and justice of God is the punishment of sins.

The Bible describes the death of Christ as a propitiation (Romans 3:25), which means that in His death Jesus satisfied the wrath and justice of God by bearing the penalty for sin.

The divine necessity is not just to forgive, but to forgive in a way which shows that God is irreconcilable to evil, and can never treat it as other or less than it is.

Sin makes a real difference to God, and even in forgiving God treats that difference as real, and cannot do other-wise. He cannot ignore it, or regard it as other or less than it is. If he did so, He would not be more gracious than He is in the atonement; He would cease to be God.

Men have been able to appreciate and accept the thought of a benevolent God, BUT NOT THE THOUGHT OF A COMPLETELY HONEST GOD!

But God must remain honest to His own nature or we have a God no better than all the pagan gods and religions of all the ages

God does what the supreme Judge must do. He refuses to waive the demands of the law. Rather than that, in love He Himself meets the law’s demand through the propitiating death of Jesus Christ.

Thus instead of making void His law (His word) (His nature), He establishes it (fulfills it) (Romans 3:31).

Jesus-’ death has a penal aspect to it. He became the object of retributive justice and hence bore our punishment.

There are those who refuse to accept this idea:

Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam, in his book, A Testament of the Faith, (p. 144) We hear much of the substitutionary theory of the atonement. This theory to me is immoral. If Jesus paid it all, or if He is the substitute for me, or if He is the sacrifice for all sin of the world, then why discuss forgiveness? The books are closed. Another has paid the debt, borne the penalty. I owe nothing. I am absolved. I cannot see forgiveness as predicated upon the act of some one else. It is my sin. I must atone.

III.

TRANSFER

But if the N.T. is true, and it is, and if words have any literal meaning, and they do, then God transferred my sin to Jesus Christ and He is the propitiation for my sin and the sin of all the world.

According to the N.T. Jesus Christ in love identified himself with us and we in faith identify ourselves with him

God treated the sinless Christ as if He were guilty, and inflicted upon Him the punishment which our sins deserved; AND THIS INFLICTION MADE IT POSSIBLE TO TREAT THE SINFUL AS IF THEY WERE ACTUALLY RIGHTEOUS (2 Corinthians 5:21, etc.)

When Christ satisfied the wrath of God, He satisfied it in our place, as our substitute

He was made a curse for us (Galatians 3:13)

He bore the full force of the wrath of God against sin. In thus allowing the penalty of sin to be inflicted on himself, Christ satisfied God’s justice and became the appeasement for our sins.

Because the cross is what it is, God can forgive our sins and justify us and be just at the same time.

If Christ suffered the penalty for our sins, then our sins have already been punished in Him.

The fiery wrath of God due to us has already burned itself out on Him

When God says to us, Your sins are taken away, He is not simply BRUSHING THEM ASIDE.

Quite the contrary, every sin which is forgiven in us has already been punished in Christ.

Conclusion

JUSTIFICATION IS FREE TO US

It is not something that we have earned or deserved

God’s love, not our works, solved the problem which justice raised

The righteousness which justifies us is no more our own than the sins which Christ took were His own.

This righteousness is something God in the flesh earned and gave to us as a gift

We can serve God with peace and joy, knowing that our salvation does not depend on our ability to perform a certain number or quality of good works.

Our Christian service is not an effort to earn something we do not have, but rather an expression of thanks for something we have been given.

II.

JUSTIFICATION COST GOD

His only unique Son. Forgiveness of sins is no casual thing!

Forgiveness of sin is not merely a matter of a few spoken words on our part, and the snap of a finger on God’s part

Our sins are washed away, not by the tears of a softhearted, sentimental God, but by the blood of the Son of a Just and Righteous God.

All sins for which we ask forgiveness have been fully punished in Christ. Only because they have already been punished in Christ can they be forgiven in us. Christ has borne in His body and soul all of the agony and all the anger of God that are due to those sins for which we so casually ask pardon.

Special Study JUSTIFICATION

Romans 3:21-26; 1 John 1:5-10; Romans 5:1-21; Hebrews 10:4-14

Introduction

MEANING

Heb. tsadaq; Gr. δίϰαιοῡν dikaioon; to pronounce, accept and treat as just; to treat as not legally liable; to treat as if innocent; therefore entitled to all the privileges due to those who have kept the law.

To justify means to set right, or to put on a right footing by declaring a verdict of acquittal.

Literally it means to get the verdict. It is a legal term.

Defined as that judicial act of God, by which, on the basis of the meritorious work of Christ, imputed to the sinner and received by him through faith, God declares the sinner absolved from his sin, released from its penalty, and restored as righteous.

II.

JUSTIFICATION IS THE CENTRAL FACT OF BIBLICAL RELIGION

Justification determines the whole character of Christianity as a religion of grace and faith.

It defines the saving significance of Christ’s life and death, by relating both to God’s law.

It displays God’s justice in condemning and punishing sin; His mercy in pardoning and accepting sinners, and His wisdom in exercising both attributes harmoniously, in Christ.

It makes clear what faith istrust in Christ’s atoning death and justifying resurrection for the sinner’s righteousness

It makes clear what Christian morality islaw-keeping out of gratitudes to the Saviour whose gift of righteousness made lawkeeping needless for acceptance

It explains all types, prophecies and instances of salvation in the O.T.

Discussion

ARRAIGNED

The entire O.T. and N.T. teach emphatically that man is a guilty criminal who must be hailed into the court of the Judge of all the Earth.

The O.T. teaches that a day of judgment was to come in which God would condemn and punish all who had broken his laws

That day would terminate the present world-order and usher in a golden age for those whom God judged worthy.

The N.T. confirms that God will judge the world in righteousness in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God (Acts 17:31; Romans 2:16)

Man is guilty; the whole creation testifies against him; his own consciencethe revelation of Godhis fellow mannature itselfand last but not least, the great adversary, the devil accuses man.

Man has been arraigned; judgment is certain

The principle of judgment will be EXACT RETRIBUTIONhe will get what he deserveswhat he has earned

The standard of judgment will be GOD’S LAW

The evidence will be THE SECRETS OF MEN

The Judge is the omniscient, omnipotent, searcher of hearts

Only those who can hope to escape are those who have kept His law in all its parts

But there are noneall are guilty!

II.

ACQUITTED

The good news from heaven’s judgment hall is that the guilty have been justified, pronounced not guilty.

There has been a reversal of God’s attitude toward the guilty

What is involved?

Remission of punishment

The believer is declared to be free of the demands of the law because those demands have been satisfied in Christ’s death (Romans 4:5)

Christ paid the penalty Himself and the believing sinner is no longer held accountable (Romans 6:7)

BUT IT IS MORE THAN MERE PARDON. IT IS A DECLARATION THAT THE GUILTY IN FACT, ARE NO LONGER GUILTY. THE VERY FACT OF HIS GUILT IS REMOVED. HE IS INNOCENT OF WHAT HE WAS ONCE GUILTY

IT IS AS IF HE HAD NEVER SINNED! HE IS WASHED CLEAN. HE IS A NEW CREATION!

Restoration to favor

God treats the sinner as if he had never sinned since the sinner is now regarded as being personally righteous in Christ (Galatians 3:6)

There is not only acquittal, but approval; not only pardon but promotion

Imputed righteousness of God

Granted to the believer through Christ’s presence in him

The believers covenant relationship to Christ imparts the quality and character of Christ’s righteousness to him

Christ is the Justifier through whom a new life is inaugurated in the believer (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Man can never be saved apart from participating in the person of Christ because only as we accept His will and His nature and His death in our place can He serve as our justification and as our righteousness.

III.

ACCLAIMED

Justified and declared Righteous, we are Adopted as Sons

and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

and. the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

… those whom he justified he also glorified. what then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us?. Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?. etc.

But remember this, we are justified by God and we are permitted to accept it by believing it

We are not justified on any merit of our own

The N.T. is very emphatic on this point (Romans 3:28; Romans 4:1-5; Galatians 3:6 ff)

The book of James states that men are justified by works but what James is saying is that when a man’s actions show that he has a living, working faith, it shows the man has been justified.

James is talking about a man proving or demonstrating his faith by his life. but all the demonstrating in the world will not obtain our justification.

THE DEMONSTRATION OF FAITH (WORKS) IS MERELY THE EXPRESSION OF OUR THANKFULNESS FOR WHAT GOD HAS ALREADY DONE. WE NEED ONLY BELIEVE IT AND OBEY IT TO HAVE IT APPLY TO US!

A PARDON IS NOT A PARDON UNLESS IT IS ACCEPTED.

Special Study REDEMPTION

Romans 3:21-26; Titus 2:11-14; Galatians 3:13;

1 Corinthians 1:30; Colossians 2:8-15; Hebrews 2:1-18

Introduction

MEANING

Heb*. padah*; Heb, ga-‘al; meaning literally to break or tear away.

Gr. άϒοῡμαι;* agorazo*; meaning purchase or buy and λυτροῡμαι; meaning ransom or deliver.

Redemption is a word closely allied to the word salvation but redemption is more specific, denoting the means by which salvation is achievednamely by the payment of a ransom.

Heb. goel-’; one who asserts a claim or one who vindicates for another. A favorite term of Isaiah who speaks of Jehovah as the Goel of Israel.

II.

USAGE

Connected to re-purchase of property (Leviticus 25:26; Rth 4:4 ff; Psalms 74:2; Deuteronomy 9:26; 2 Samuel 7:23; 1 Chronicles 17:21, etc.)

Connected to release of slaves (Exodus 21:7-8; Leviticus 25:47-55; etc.)

Connected to redeeming firstborn sons (Exodus 34:20)

Connected with God’s great acts of delivering national Israel from Egypt (exodus) and from Babylon (restoration).

Discussion

PRODUCT/PROPERTYMan

Polluted by sin

Sin is more than weakness/mistake; it is REBELLION, INSURRECTION

Man is an enemy of his Creator; man mocks his Benefactor; man is a spiritual whoremonger (willfully committing spiritual adultery). Man is a rotten renegade. Romans 1:18-32

Inhumansin drives man to be worse than an animal, sensual, selfish, sadistic

Insanesin robs man of a right mind (1 Corinthians 15:34)

Prisoner of Satan

Deceivedthe Evil one has captured the minds and wills of men by lies.

Defeatedthe Evil one has imprisoned and enslaved man. Whomever we yield to becomes our master (Romans 6:12-19). So long as we are willing to believe a lie we will yield to it and we cannot break the chains of enslavement ourselves for we are incapable of arriving at truth/reality without God revealing it to us.

Deadthe Evil one has alienated us from God, we are strangers, separated from His kingdom, DEAD, as far as God is concerned.

Ideas and thoughts master/control us. Ideas come from persons. The devil and God both think and we are controlled by one or the other.

Precious in the Sight of God

No matter how polluted, still Man is God’s precious property. God made man, He made him in His own likeness (Double emphasis in HebrewHebrew word in Genesis is tzelem and is the same word used for idol and images exactly like him, Daniel 2:31; Daniel 2:35.) and breathed into man a part of Himself. Man is God’s child, God’s son.

Man is precious to God (Isaiah 43:4; Lamentations 4:2)

Man is God’s great concern (Isaiah 49:14-16)

This universe was created for manMan is the apex of all God’s creative genius

II.

PRICE

What price is sufficient to buy or redeem the property?

It must be commensurate with the worth of the property

It must be able to satisfy the demands of its indebtedness

It must be sufficient to restore the property to the demanded usefulness of the owner

Is there anything in all the world that will meet the above price-tag? (Micah 6:6-8; Mark 8:34-38)

There is NO thing or group of things in all the world that will be an acceptable redeeming payment for lost mankind (cf. Psalms 49:5-15). Not even another human being can redeem another for all are lost!

The guilt of one individual’s sin against another cannot be morally transferred to a third party. All forgiveness, human and divine, is in the very nature of the case substitutional or vicarious. No one ever really forgives another, except he bears the penalty of the other’s sin against him. When we pray Father, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, we are not asking God to forgive us by a vicarious sacrifice while we forgive each other by merely overlooking faults which cost us nothing. And when we say Christ died as our Substitute, we do not mean that He was a third party. because

The guilt of one individual’s sin against another can morally be borne either by the sinner, or by the one sinned against.

Christ was not a third party at Calvary. HE WAS THE GOD SINNED AGAINST.

All those illustrations of a third party taking another’s place and bearing another’s punishment are logically and Biblically erroneous.

PerfectionGod had need to come from heaven to conquer the devil and to free man. Man would have been forever enslaved to self had God done it otherwise.

Man must conquer the devil. Man must conquer sin. Man must fulfill the holiness of the law of God. Man must live in perfect obedience and harmony with the will of God.

Man, imprisoned by the devil and rebelling against his Creator was hopelessly unable to meet the price of perfection to God’s Law.

In His unsearchable wisdom He decided to step into the stream of human history and work out a plan which would bridge the gap between Him and His fallen children. HE DECIDED TO KEEP HIS OWN LAW. IN THE PLACE OF HELPLESS MEN! (Galatians 4:4-5; Philippians 2:6-8)

God took upon Himself the nature of His children in order to meet the devil on the battlefield of the flesh and conquered sin in the flesh (Romans 8:1-8).

God obedient to the Law which He Himself had given! He who was above the Law willingly put Himself beneath it as the divine Substitute for those who, because of their spiritual bondage, were unable to do it for themselves.

Just as Adam was my representative and I sinned in Adam, so the Son of Man is my representative and I may be counted righteous if I am in Him by faith. (Romans 5:12-21; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21)

Jesus Christ, God-Man, was willing and able to pay the price of perfection for meperfect faith, perfect obedience, perfect motives, perfect service, perfect surrender to God, perfect love, perfect justice.

I NO LONGER NEED TO FEEL GUILT, FRUSTRATION AND ANXIETY OR FEAR. I HAVE BEEN REDEEMED BY HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. I AM FREE TO REACH THE HIGHEST GOAL OF GODLINESS I AM CAPABLE OF BY FAITH AND TRUST IN HIM WHO TAKES CARE OF ALL SHORTCOMINGS I MAY HAVE.

PunishmentDemanded by the very moral nature of God and man

Without a penalty there is no law, without law there is no morality

When law or justice is violated the penalty must be paid

This principle is true even in human institutions. The demands of justice must be met and the majesty of the law sustained or otherwise the bonds of the association will be destroyed and anarchy will prevail.

God, in order to establish and vindicate His sovereignty and His trusthworthiness must execute the penalty of His law when it is violated.

In His unsearchable mercy He decided to step into the stream of human history and PAY THE PENALTY OF HIS OWN LAW HIMSELF! No third party could forgive man. Man’s sinall of itultimately is against God. Only God could forgive man. God had to pay the price Himself if it was to be paid at all.

This is how God was both JUST and the JUSTIFIER OF HIM WHO BELIEVES (Romans 3:21-26). God became man and willingly gave Himself to suffer the penalty for sindeath (WHAT THEN HAVE WE TO BOAST OF IN ANY THING WE MAY DO OR BE???)

Some scriptures:

God made Him (Christ) to be sin on our behalf (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Christ died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3)

By Him we received the atonement (Romans 5:10-11)

He bore our sins in His own body (1 Peter 2:24)

He redeemed us from the law becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13)

He tasted death for every man (Hebrews 2:9 ff)

III.

PAYMENT

Anticipated

Throughout the centuries of the O.T. the believers looked forward to an act of deliverance which would forever free them from the guilt, the power and the punishment of sin.

They looked forward to a heaven-sent Deliverer

They looked forward to a great act of atonement

Where did they get this anticipation?

Revealed through God’s spokesmen, Patriarchs, Prophets

Revealed through God’s Law

O.T. believers made payment for their sin by symbolically transferring their guilt to an animal, and then sacrificing that animal as a symbolic atonement for their transgressions. in symbol the sinner transferred his guilt to the innocent, and the innocent died in the place of the guilty.

How could the death of an animal make good for the sins of a human being? IT COULDN-‘T! High on the great divide which still lay centuries in the future stood that Great Sacrifice which alone could give meaning and value to all the rivers of blood which were shed in Jewish temples.

The death of Christ was the real thing. the death of the animal had atoning value for the O.T. believer only because he had put his faith in the promised One and the promised Act of God who was to make final payment for all his sins.

A 10 dollar bill has value, not because of the worth of the paper it is printed on, but because of secure collateral which may lie 1000’S of miles away. so the death of the animal in the O.T. had value only because of the collateral which was 1000’S of years away.

Arranged

The Son of God left the glory of Paradise to give Himself in payment and to cancel our debt

He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross, Philippians 2:5-11.

He came not to be ministered unto but to minister and give His life a ransom for many, Matthew 20:28.

No one took His life, He laid it down (John 10:17-18).

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

The Great Arrangement is documented in Hebrews 10:5-18. Animal sacrifices did not pay the debta body was prepared for the Son of God (according to the O.T. scriptures, i.e., the roll of the book)then The Son said, Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God.

AND BY THAT WILL WE HAVE BEEN SANCTIFIED THROUGH THE OFFERING OF THE BODY OF JESUS CHRIST ONCE FOR ALL!

FOR BY A SINGLE OFFERING HE HAS PERFECTED FOR ALL TIME THOSE WHO ARE SANCTIFIED WHERE THERE IS FORGIVENESS OF THESE, THERE IS NO LONGER ANY OFFERING FOR SIN. PAID IN FULL!

Accepted

All of this theology about a substitutionary, redeeming death is vain without validation

It may sound great for a man 2000 years ago to walk up and down Palestine and say I will die for you and pay your debt to God BUT DOES GOD AGREE?

This was answered for all men and for all time on the first Easter morning. Christ not only died for the sin of men; HE ROSE AGAIN! If Christ had remained in the grave, all talk of His having paid the debt of human sin would be idle and vain. we would still be in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:17-18).

The resurrection of Christ not only demonstrates He is the Son of God, IT ALSO DEMONSTRATES THAT GOD IN HEAVEN HAS ACCEPTED THE SACRIFICE OF HIS SON FOR THE SINS OF ALL THE WORLD.

The Easter miracle is Heaven’s RECEIPT, presented to all men of all ages, saying: Payment ReceivedPaid in Full! (2 Corinthians 1:20).

God says in effect, I have accepted the ransom which My Son has brought in payment for your sin. His resurrection is the stamp and seal of My divine approval. His resurrection is not only His vindicationbut yours also. For, because of His payment which I have now accepted in your stead, you are free!

God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing (charging) their trespasses unto them, (2 Corinthians 5:19).

Christ has, as it were, picked up all the moral I.O.U.‘S of the human race, all of the accumulated moral debts of every member of the human family which were owed to God and has blotted them out AND GOD HAS VALIDATED FOREVER THE PAYMENT AND HAS MADE IT PUBLIC FOR AS LONG AS TIME SHALL LAST BY DOING SO IN THE GREATEST HISTORICAL EVENT OF ALL TIME. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.

Conclusion

We may be redeemed by taking citizenship in His spiritual Kingdom.

II.

We then experience the redemption and renewal of every facet of our life.

Special Study THE WORK OF RECONCILIATION

Text: Ephesians 2:11-22

(See Also 2 Corinthians 5:11-21)

Introduction

What does the word reconciled or reconciliation mean? Webster’s Collegiate Dict. says the English word is from French and Latin meaning: To cause to be friendly again; to bring back to harmony.

Reconciliationin our English Bibles is a translation of the Greek words katallasso, katallage, or diallassomaiall of which literally mean to exchange, or to change over.

There are two Hebrew words, kaphar and racah, translated in the KJV sometimes by the English word reconciliation, but usually should be translated atonement. (see 1 Samuel 29:4; 2 Chronicles 29:24; Ezekiel 45:15; Daniel 9:24, etc.).

Most of those of us who have to watch closely how we spend our money do something every month which should illustrate our word. We take the statement we get from our bank and compare it with what our check stubs say, and hope the two are reconciledthat is, in harmony with one another. That is what it is calledreconciling your bank statement. What it really means is surrendering your estimate of your account to the bank’s statementbank’s make no mistakes! We had one little girl at college one year who never had learned that you had to reconcile your check book with the bank’s statement. She thought you could go on writing checks as long as you had blank checks in your bookuntil one bounced!

When a printer reconciles a margin, he brings the printed type into harmony with a pre-established margin-line so everything is even and squared. That is what reconciliation means. So if you-’ve been reconciled to God you-’ve been made square with God. God makes us come out even when he reconciles us.

Reconciliation to Godbeing in harmony with our Creator, our Father, our Judgeis the feeling we really want! Everyone is talking and writing and singing about spiritual, religious feeling and what it all boils down to is the need to feel reconciled to God.

THE FEELING MUST BE PRECEDED BY FAITH AND FAITH MUST BE PRECEDED BY FACTSFACTS ABOUT GOD AND CHRIST AND THE WORK OF RECONCILIATIONAND THOSE FACTS ARE FOUND NOWHERE BUT THE BIBLE!

Peaches and Herb sang, in the 70’S, Reunited, and it feels so good. That is what reconciliation is all about.

Discussion

Man’s reconciliation to God is impossible without the work of Christ. Therefore, when we speak of the work of reconciliation we are talking about the work of God (in Christ) exclusively.

ESTRANGED (Part of God’s work of reconciliation is estrangement)

God is a person, not an ideahe is a personal entity apart from our thinking and imagining.

God, as a person, is the ultimate loverHe loves, He is love. But the love, real love, true love, of a person is more than emotion.

Love is charactercharacter made of likes and dislikes (even hate), of attractions and repulsions, according to the person’s attraction or sympathy for, or the aversion to, the character and conduct of those with whom it comes in contact.

God is a person, not a force. He loves and hates, like and dislikes. He can, and does, discriminate between the righteous and the wicked.

God’s love is capable of being turned to hostility

If that were not true, HOW COULD GOD LOVE US FOR OUR GOOD WITHOUT SHOWING HIS HOSTILITY TO WHAT WOULD DO US HARM?

When divine love is forced back, refused, scoffed at and mocked by our rebellion so that it cannot flow forth to bless as it wishes, it chafes against the rebellion out of sheer love.

Divine love, real love, is goodness in earnestness trying to make others good. And when it cannot have its way, it is grieved. When it is deliberately and maliciously thwarted, it is angry! Mark 3:5

We have estranged ourselves from God!

We are impudent, thankless, petulant children; we are a faithless bride of God.

We have said: I will have my own way; I want my Heavenly Father’s indulgence, but I do not want his way! I DO NOT WANT TESTS AND TRIALS AND THE CROSS (death to self).

Our own selfishness has created a barrier, a wall of hostility, between us and our God.

We have declared ourselves enemies of God and His only response or the only course left for Him is to be our enemy. God loves every man with self-giving love, but he loves his own sovereignty and his own faithfulness more. GOD MUST KEEP HIS WORD: HE MUST VINDICATE HIS FAITHFULNESS: WITHOUT THAT HE CANNOT TRULY LOVE ANYONE!

Man has rebelled and there is hostility:

Man’s selfish hostilityGod’s hostility of love.

Does that sound like an impossibility? HOSTILITY OF LOVE!?

Read again the record of David and Absalom. Absalom’s was the hostility of selfishness, rebellion and hatred for his father; David’s was the hostility of selflessness and love, longing deeply for reconciliation with his son. 0 my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son! 2 Samuel 18:33. Absalom was never reconciled to his father because he would not surrender to David’s loveDavid did all he could to reconcile him.

The closest analogy to our condition is probably to be found in the human family relationship; parents with rebellious children; spouses with rebellious mates, estranged because of selfishnessI WANT MY WAY, I WILL HAVE MY WAY..

Barriers to peaceful, harmonious, communicative, loving, growing, intimacy are formed.

Though one person may deeply desire the barriers to be broken down, the offended person may still be angry with the offender because of the hurting, destructive actions the offender continues to do toward a relationship that would only bring blessing to both!

Classic Biblical illustrations of human estrangements and reconciliations are found in the lives of Jacob and EsauJoseph and his brothersHosea and his wifeSaul and David; then there is the parable Jesus told of the Prodigal Son, his father, and his elder brother. Listen to these words: You-’ll never suspect their origin:

God’s love extends to everyone, no matter how good or how bad, but it is a love whose integrity is grounded in his holiness. It is holy love, and is therefore not hobbled by the sentimentality and easy tolerance that passes for love today. The cliche (my words) God will understand is neither love nor grace: it is flaccid indulgence. It doesn-’t care enough to demand growth or change. It just leaves people alone, and wants the same for itself.

As usual, C.S. Lewis is helpful here. He writes, To ask that God be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God. Because he is what he is, his love must, in the nature of things, be impeded and repelled by certain strains in our present character, and because he already loves us he must labor to make us lovable. God is committed to nothing less than restoring in us his image broken in the fall of man, and making us like his Son, (Ephesians 2:10)we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. Because of this, Lewis concludes, his love is more sensitive than hatred itself to every blemish in the beloved. of all powers he forgives most, but condones least, he is pleased with little, but demands all.

God understands, that is true. But he understands in a way that is more fiery and more shattering than we can ever imagine this side of glory, if even then, I read somewhere of an artist who was commissioned to paint a mural on the great window at the entrance to Macy’s department store in N.Y. City. A few weeks after he finished he walked to the store to look again at his work. It was then that he discovered that the store had hired someone else to make some alterations in what he had painted. He was so horrified and enraged at the distortion of his creation that he hurled his body through the window. This is a vivid picture of God’s holy love and the wrath that is, of necessity, a part of that love. He resists us as we are, not because he doesn-’t love us, but because he does. His grace is love that will not let us go, even when it would be perfectly just and easy to do so. (by Ben Patterson in Wittenburg Door, Feb.-Mar. 1983)

WHEN WE ARE HOSTILE TOWARD GOD, HE IS HOSTILE TOWARD US. BECAUSE HE MUST BE TRUE TO HIMSELF, AND TRUE TO LOVE. THAT IS TRUE LOVE, DIVINE LOVE. WHEN WE ESTRANGE OURSELVES FROM GOD, HE ESTRANGES HIMSELF FROM US. HE MUST BE FAITHFUL TO HIS OWN INTEGRITY AND HOLINESS. HE MUST BE TRUE TO REAL LOVE. HIS HOSTILITY AND ESTRANGEMENT, IS HIS LAST RESORT ATTEMPT TO ALLURE US BACK TO HIMSELF.

Please read the 2nd chapter of Hosea

Please read Isaiah 54:4-8

Please read Christ’s seven letters to his bride, the Church in Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22

GOD LONGS FOR US, BUT HE WANTS US TO LONG FOR HIM. WITHOUT THAT THERE IS NO REAL RECONCILIATION!

I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress they seek me, saying, Come let us return to the Lord; for he has torn, that he may heal us; he has stricken, and he will bind us up. Hosea 5:15 to Hosea 6:1. (Read the rest of Hos 6:1-11).

II.

EMBRACED (Part of God’s work of reconciliation is to embrace)

The One offended initiated the work of reconciliation. God took the first step toward reconciling us to him and himself to us. THAT IS THE WAY IT MUST BE DONE. IT CAN-‘T BE DONE ANY OTHER WAYNOT TRUE RECONCILIATION.

THERE CAN BE NO FORGIVENESS UNTIL THE ONE OFFENDED BEARS THE BURDEN OF THE OFFENSE!

God embraced man, by becoming man Himself in Christ Jesus.

God erased the enmity (barrier, the offense) to the relationship between Himself and man by appeasing Himself in the atoning death of His Son.

In Matthew 5:24 Jesus instructs us that if we know a brother has anything against us, we are to go (make the initiatory move) and do something to try to remove our brother’s estrangement, and so bring about a reconciliation. What we do or say may not allure him to be reconciled, but we are to make the initial move!

This is exactly how God acted in Christ. He did everything in His power to remove the barriereven to becoming sin for us! He bore our offense in order to allure us into being reconciled!

HE DECLARED HIMSELF, HIS JUSTICE, HIS HOLINESS, SATISFIED AND VINDICATED IN THE VICARIOUS ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. HE PROMISES THAT IF WE ACCEPT HIS HOLY WAY IN FAITH, WE NEED NOT FEEL HIS HOSTILITY AND ESTRANGEMENT ANY MORE. IF HE IS NOT ESTRANGED. CERTAINLY WE NEED NOT BEBUT WE MAY BE IF WE CHOOSE!

A missionary at Dorchester, England, relates: I frequently visited the penitentiary there. One day an officer called my attention to a prisoner and told this storyWhen he was a young man he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to life imprisonment. After several years, Queen Victoria granted the man a pardon. Freedom, however, lost its attraction, and after a few days-’ liberty he returned to prison, requesting to be re-admitted. His request was granted, and there he was. By the grace of his sovereign, a free man, entitled upon request to walk through the gates as readily as the warden himself. Yet, so long as he preferred prison life, he must submit to prison discipline, prison food, and wear prison garb. Each night, when the bell rang, he must fall into line, walk into his cell, where the iron door clanged behind him and listen to the heavy bolt grating harshly in the lock and where night after night the receding steps of the turnkey revived the consciousness that he was still a prisoner, unreconciled to his sovereign and to free society.

What kind of stupidity had taken possession of this man’s mind? And yet, how like thousands living today? Preferring the false security of enslavement by conformity to the world, rather than responsible freedom by transformation and reconciliation to their sovereign God!

God reconciled Himself to man. God embraced man.

Christ’s atoning death supplied the means by which God could forever after have a gracious attitude toward the sinner.

God himself performed the actual, objective deed on His own Son that changed God’s attitude and God’s relationship toward the estranged sinner.

Frank Weaver tells this story: Two men who had been friends and companions in their youth met in the police court, one on the magistrate’s bench, the other the prisoner before the court. The case was tried and the prisoner was found guilty. The judge pronounced the sentence: 14 days hard labor or a fine of $1,000. The condemned man had nothing to pay the fine. The judge rose from the bench, threw aside his magistrate’s robes, and, stepping down to the prisoner, stood beside his friend, paid his fine for him, and then said, Now, John are you coming home with me to supper. The Judge justified both the integrity of the law and the guilt of the law-breaker. They were reconciled. God, in Christ’s death and resurrection, was both just and the Justifier of those who believe and obey. GOD AND SINFUL MAN ARE RECONCILED!

Reconciliation is the very essence of the good news.

Reconciliation is the goal of God’s redemptive plan from the garden of Eden to the throne of the Lamb in Revelation.

Reconciliation is the goal of our faith in Christ. To be restored to personal, mental, spiritual fellowship with God is what the soul of man longs for.

We are more than merely savedwe are embraced, endeared, reconciled.

IF WE ARE NOT ALLOWING OURSELVES EVERYDAY TO BE MORE AND MORE CONQUERED BY GOD THROUGH CHRIST, WE ARE NOT BEING RECONCILED TO OUR FATHER. WE ARE STILL PRODIGALS, FAR AWAY FROM HOME AND THE FATHER’S ARMS

III.

ENDEARED (Part of God’s work of reconciliation is to endear himself to us).

IT is this very deed of God performed on His only Son that not only changed God’s relationship-

But it also provides the possibility and power for the estranged sinner, influenced by God’s love and grace, God’s justice and faithfulness, to desire reconciliation and to seek it.

God is the first mover. He makes the reconciliation. He accomplishes what is impossible for man He declares man pardoned, forgiven, embraced, reconciled.

And the fact of God’s work of grace, moves us to accept, and change our attitudes and relationship.

It is therefore the privilege of men to respond to such great grace.

God, in his great wisdom, provided the appeasement by which He is reconciled toward the sinner.

And at the same time provided the power for us to be reconciled toward him.

John 12:32If I be lifted up..

1 John 4:10… not that we loved God, but that he loved us..

2 Corinthians 5:18-19God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself..

Romans 5:8; Romans 5:10 … while we were enemies, Christ died for us..

We have access to the Father

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes: Now the important thing to realise here is that the Lord Jesus Christ does not merely prepare or open the way to this. He actually effects it, He actually produces it Himself. It is He who introduces us to the Father, brings us, takes us by the hand and ushers us into His presence. I am anxious to emphasize the fact that this is really the grand end and object of salvation. And I suppose there has never been a time when this needs to be emphasized more than today. We have all become so subjective, and are so much interested in our own moods and states and feelings and conditions, that when we give our testimonies we say that what salvation has done is to make us happy, or to take away this or that; and there we stop. But the grand object of salvation is to bring us into the presence of God nothing less, nothing short of that. (God’s Way of Reconciliation, p. 251)

The object of salvation is reconciliationhappiness on God’s terms, not ours.

The object of God’s redemption and salvation is to make us love him and long for clear, unfettered, access without any hostility toward God and his kingdom. THE OBJECT OF VICARIOUS ATONEMENT IS TO SATISFY GOD’S HOLINESS AND JUSTICE, AND TO AFFECT MAN’S UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER TO HIS WISDOM AND LOVE! IN ORDER THAT GOD AND MAN MAY ENJOY ONE ANOTHER’S PRESENCE!

IV.

EVANGELISM (Those who have been reconciled have a work to do in God’s program of reconciling the world unto himself).

First, we are to regard no one from a human point of view.

Everything and everybody we now think about, view, regard, relate to, according to the mind of Christ.

We do not regard people or God’s kingdom from even our own point of view, but only as Christ directs us in his word.

Enough of this indulgent, destructive sentimentality that wants to sacrifice another person’s reconciliation to God for the sake of being popular, being thought well of, not creating tension. Beware when* all* men speak well of you! Christians live in constant tension against worldliness!

If we, as ambassadors of Christ, expect to do our work in reconciling the world to God, we must present the terms of peace and reconciliation the sovereign has authorized. THE TERMS ARE COMPLETE SURRENDER! Christ views his kingdom as one whose members have counted the cost of complete surrender. It is not a mental halfway house. The Bible repeatedly says those of a divided mind and heart are not in the kingdom.

RECONCILIATION, BY ITS VERY DEFINITION, DEMANDS UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER, AGREEMENT OR PACIFICATION OF THE HOSTILE REBEL TO THE SOVEREIGN VICTOR. THOSE AMBASSADORS WHO REPRESENT THE SOVEREIGN ARE AUTHORIZED TO PROCLAIM NOTHING LESS!

The work of reconciliation cannot be accomplished by baptizing bodies with minds left in worldly rebellion. People cannot be friends of the world and friends of God at the same time. If their minds are set on worldlinessthey are enemies of God! James 4:1-17

Second, we are appealers and beseechers, not manipulators.

Paul wrote in II Corinthians that since we know the terror of the Lord we persuade men to be reconciled. He also said that the love of Christ constrains us to preach.

No one was ever truly reconciled by being manipulated into the kingdom. As ambassadors of Christ we are to appeal to, beseech, and persuade as many as will be persuaded, as long as we have breath. THOSE WHO WILL NOT BE PERSUADED ARE NOT OUR RESPONSIBILITY.

There are two pre-requisites to becoming an ambassador of reconciliation.

KNOW THE MESSAGE THOROUGHLY. We are not reconciling people to how we feelbut to what God has declared!

KNOW HOW TO COMMUNICATE THAT MESSAGE.

We cannot do people’s thinking for them, but we must develop the communicative skills to get them to think about what God says in His word. THERE IS SO MUCH NON-THINK IN THE WORLD TODAY, IN THE AREAS OF FAITH, MORALS, IMMORALITY. AND THAT AMONGST THE SO-CALLED INTELLIGENTSIA OF OUR WORLD!

J.B. Phillips says, in Making Men Whole, p. 76ff: It is not enough for us who are preachers or writers to give an adequate performance before the eyes and ears of our (audiences). instead we have the formidable task of reconciling the Word of truth with the thought-forms of a people estranged from God; interpreting without changing or diluting the essential Word..

Doubtless there are times when we all bewail the particular pains and distresses of our calling, and even think enviously of someone else’s vocation, but the plain fact is that if we are called of God to bear a part in His purpose, there can be no evasion of its cost. Let us then be clear what is involved in making our vocation serve God’s purpose of reconciliation. Christianity is full of joy, but it is not a joyride. . It is as if we were called to be, as Sir Winston Churchill said in one of the darkest hours of the late world war, both grim and gay. The grimness comes from our knowledge of the strength of the forces arrayed against us; the stubbornness of human self-will, the sheer dead weight of apathy which above all else would quench the fires of our spirit. But full of joy we must be too, because day by day we have the deepest satisfaction this world can afford, of knowing that we are co-operating withand even being allowed to share the cost ofthe purpose of God Himself.

Conclusion

We do not comprehend the essence of reconciliation until we love deeply and intimately, and are hurt by a loved one’s estrangement. I suppose we begin to understand when we have children. They are a part of us. We love them more than ourselves. When they estrange themselves from us we discipline and chasten themnot because we are unwilling to be hurt, but because we are unwilling for them to be hurt. Sometimes the reconciling time is long and difficult. It takes great patience and much prayer. We have children here at OBC. You are our children in the faith. We have many of your brothers and sisters all over the world. We long for themto see themto give to themto love them. We pray for them. We are unwilling for them to be hurt.

We have great expectations for you. We love you. We are unwilling for you to be hurt. We will not indulge you so that you will be hurt. On the other hand, we will give you everything in our power to keep you from being hurt. We want, first, to see you totally reconciled to Godtotally surrenderedUnconditionally surrendered to Christ. THEN, WE LONG TO SEE YOUR BECOME AN AMBASSADOR OF RECONCILIATION

I think God has given us human family relationship so we may have an existential and even experiential knowledge of personal relationships which may be as humanly analogous as possible to the ultimate personal, spiritual brethren. When I was a teen-ager, I alienated myself from my father. I didn-’t hate him, I just didn-’t want to be around him. I felt like he was too bossytoo demandingdidn-’t understand about my desires. I didn-’t fight him or openly disobey him. But I did not feel like I wanted to be close to him. It was not his fault. All this time he was forgiving and forgetting all my prodigal stubbornness. After marriage and two children of my own, I learned a lot. I finally admitted whose fault the alienation was. The last eight years of his life he lived right across the street from me. I got to know my Dad. We worked together, we took trips together, we went everywhere together. We became like one person. I was reconciled to him. NOW THAT HE HAS PASSED FROM THIS LIFE, I LONG FOR HIS PRESENCE! That is what God has for usreconciliation. He desires for us to be reconciled to him, to be at peace with him, to long for him!

When we, like the apostle Paul, find that war raging within ourselves so that we cry out for deliverance form our wretched selves, we may find reconciliation when we acknowledge that God has atoned for our sins in Christ and when we set our minds on the things of the Spirit (found in the word of the Spirit) and are led by the will of the Spirit (found in the word of the Spirit). When the Spirit of God, through the Word of God, bears witness with our spirit that we are a child of God, then we have begun our reconciliationwe have come home to our Father and we are one with him. The WORK OF RECONCILIATION is beautiful and emotionally put to poetry by Francis Thompson in his poem, The Hound Of Heaven. It closes like this:

How little worthy of any love thou art! Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,

Save Me, save only Me?

All which I took from thee I did but take,

Not for thy harms,

But just that thou might’St seek it in My arms.

All which they child’s mistake

Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:

Rise, clasp My hand, and come! Halts by me that footfall: Is my gloom, after all,

Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?

Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He Whom thou seekest!

Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me!

Special Study

FAITH (In order to appropriate the death of Christ) 5th lecture in a series of six on the Meaning of the Cross; for Life of Christ

Introduction

SOME DEFINITIONS

Hebrews 11:1 ff (πίστις, pistis)

Not so much a definition as it is a statement of faith’s resultsgives assurance of things hoped for, conviction about things not seen. In other words faith supplies reality to that which is beyond the sensory world.

Faith is best defined when it is exemplified; in the lives of the saints of O.T. and N.T.but especially as exemplified in the earthly life of Jesus.

Alexander Campbell, Dec. 7, 1834, in an address on Reason and Faith, New York City Concert Hall,

Reason deciding that the testimony is true, is believing; reason deciding that the testimony is false, is disbelieving; reason unable to decide, is skepticism.

Faith involves the whole manbut it must FIRST involve the intellect.

II.

THE BASIC ELEMENT OF PERSONAL FAITH

Trust responding to evidence

Commitment responding to need

Fellowship responding to love

Discussion

AN INTRODUCTION

We must know whom we believe

In the case of eternal life or eternal death it is never trite to repeat that before we can commit our souls to anyone we must first KNOW them

We cannot believe in Jesus until we know Him

Alexander Campbell once said, no savage ever shed a tear over the death of Christ where it was not known

He was not being facetious

Romans 10:17, Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ.

The creation of faith in all men was the primary purpose for the recording of the facts about Jesus-’ life (the gospels). Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you m ay have life in his name. John 20:30-31

So the first step in appropriating the death of Christ to sinners is that sinners be introduced to just who Jesus is, and that factually, He died, rose again, and that according to this same Jesus Christ, He died in the sinner’s place.

IF THEY DON-‘T KNOW HIM, THEY CANNOT BELIEVE IN HIM, AND HIS DEATH WILL NOT APPLY TO THEIR SINS

II.

AN IDENTIFICATION

We must identify with Him

We must believe Him to such an extent that we trust Him to be Who He claims and to be able to Do All He Claims

Here is where we accept His death as our own death.

Here is where we accept, by faith, that when He died, we died

Seth Wilson said, If I accept His death as my death so that my death is past, and it is no more my life that lives, and I am united with Him so that God sees Him in me, because He now lives in me, and sees me in Him, then He died my death.

Galatians 2:20 states our position as believers

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me; and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself up for me.

It is our belief and trust in Christ that causes us to acknowledge that our old man died with Him on the cross.

Galatians 6:14 But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Jesus uses the incident of Moses and the serpent in the wilderness to illustrate how His being lifted up will save men who look upon Him in faith

Galatians 3:26-27For in Christ Jesus are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Obedience is a definite part of our identifying with Him

But this is a subject to be treated separately

Suffice it to say her that a faith without obedience is a false faith

It is possible for men, in a Christian nation, to know the facts about Jesus (some facts, though probably distorted by false teachers) AND STILL REFUSE TO IDENTIFY WITH HIM BECAUSE THEY SIMPLY DON-‘T WANT TO DIE TO SELF

III.

AN INFUSION

Our relationship to Jesus Christ must be deeper, more intimate than identification

If His death is to become ours, and His life is to become ours we must by unreserved faith (trust) let His personality be so infused into ours we find that unity with Him which the N.T. urges

It is expressed so aptly in 2 Corinthians 5:14-17. For the love of Christ controls us; because we are convinced (note that word) that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; (because we don-’t live to exercise our own minds and to have our own feelings and to make our own judgments. we simply don-’t have a life of our own anymore. we are bought with a price).. Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.

Seth Wilson

The greatest mistake the Christian can make is to say, -it’s my life, and I-’ll live it.-’ Because that just rejects our salvation, just like that. The only salvation there is for any sinner, is to give my life up to Jesus and to receive His death for mine. And anytime anybody thinks -It’s my life and I-’ll live it,-’ he has forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. He has forgotten his Savior, he has renounced His master, and he has immediately taken all his sins upon himself afresh.

This infusion must be a union of His nature with ours

We must dwell in Him and His will and His character (doing what He did, saying what He said, trusting in the Father as He trusted).

He is the source of our thinking, feeling, willing, acting

He is the Vine and we are the branches

We trust Him, believe in Him, commit ourselves to Him to the extent that we cease to live as we formerly lived.. We died. and when we enter into covenant relationship with Him, two lives are blended together and His Spirit fills me, and my guilt is upon Him, and His righteousness is upon me.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature. 2 Peter 1:3-4

Conclusion

SALVATION IS NOT JUST AN EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE

II.

SALVATION IS BY FAITH. AND FAITH COMES BY HEARING THE TESTIMONY

Our salvation or redemption focuses on the objective deeds of God in history

Reason deciding that the testimony is true, is believing..

When we use our reason, investigating the evidence (testimony), and decide that the testimony is true, and we are willing to accept and commit ourselves to the consequences of the testimony. WE ARE REDEEMED!

Of course, accepting the consequences of the truthfulness of the testimony is to accept our own death!!! and our new life!!! in Christ.

Special Study OBEDIENCE

6th in series of 6 lectures for Life of Christ, Semester VI, The Meaning of the death of Christ

Introduction

MEANING

Heb. Shama; to hear, hearken, obey

Gr. ὑπαϰοῡω, hupakouo (most frequent in N.T.); to hearken, lit. to hear under denoting the obligation of compliance

II.

USAGE

Obedience in the Bible signifies active response to something one hearsnot just passive listening

One cannot truly hear God’s word without acting upon it

Obedience is the fundamental O.T. virtue

1 Samuel 15:22

Jeremiah 11:7 (It is the one thing God requires and which from the first determines His attitude to His creatures)

Just as important in the N.T.

It is both the cause and condition of salvation; through one act of obedience (Romans 5:19) Christ became to all His followers the author of an eternal salvation (Hebrews 5:9). But this salvation is only to be obtained on condition that they also obey.

In His farewell address to His disciples Christ makes obedience the supreme test of love (John 14:15; John 14:23)

Paul declares that the obedience of the Christians should extend even to one’s very thoughts (2 Corinthians 10:5)

We are exhorted: (1 Peter 1:22)

to obey the truth (Galatians 5:7) (Romans 2:8) and not to obey wickedness

to obey the gospel of God (1 Peter 4:17) (2 Thessalonians 1:8)

to obey the Son (John 3:36)

Discussion

OFFERED OBEDIENCE

Too often we look at obedience as an obligation

Actually God is doing us a favor in offering to let us obey Him

Man’s most basic need is fellowship with God. without God we become, in spite of all our human efforts, totally and helplessly alone

Fellowship with God is made possible by … loving the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, and cleave unto him.. Only when we respond to God’s love by loving obedience to His will can we experience communion with Him.

Jesus made it clear that the only faith (trust) that counts as a faith that results in obedience.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21). YOU SEE, THE ONE WHO HAS NO DESIRE TO DO GOD’S WILL WOULD NOT BE HAPPY IN HEAVEN!

Why do you call me, Lord, and not do what I tell you? Luke 6:46

The Parable of the Two Sons (Matthew 21:28-32). Which one did the will of his father? THE ONE WHO OBEYED! Not the one who said he would and didn-’t!

Faith without obedience is disobedience.

Satan and the demons know the truth, but do not obey it (James 2:19)

Obedience is not legalism.. Legalism is an attitude Obedience is not doing something whereby we earn or merit salvation

Obedience is merely acknowledging God’s wisdom, love, and authority, and availing oneself of the privilege of sharing or participating in that love, wisdom and authority

OBEDIENCE IS THE ONLY WAY TO PARTICIPATE IN WHAT GOD HAS TO OFFER!

II.

OPPORTUNITY TO OBEY

God not only offers us obedience, He provides the method or agency by which we may obey

The first great act of obedience which unites us in the death of Christ is baptism

This is what the 6th chapter of Romans is all about

We are not saved simply by Jesus-’ death, but by our union with Jesus-’ death, by our entering into Jesus-’ death, by the applying of His death to us.

Jesus died for the whole world, yet His death does not accomplish the redemption for the whole world, only of those who are baptized into Him. THAT IS WHY BAPTISM IS SO IMPORTANT, THAT IS WHY FAITH IN HIM IS SO IMPORTANT.

Of course, there is nothing efficacious in the mere act of being dunked in water. hundreds of people do that every summer in swimming pools and bath tubs.

The faith that leads a person to surrender self-will and self-direction over to God and causes that person to turn to God obeying God’s word is what makes baptism efficacious.

Baptism can be turned into an idol just like the serpent of the wilderness was idolized.

Baptism without the proper relationship to the Person of Jesus Christ is no better than some pagan religious ritual

On the other hand, baptism is the most appropriate way the Christian may express what he has believed about Jesus-’ death and resurrection.

In this act of obedience the believer both symbolizes what he believes in his heart (Romans 6:17) and has an objective point in time and in deed where he may surely experience doing the will of God (which experience he must have), to say, I have done God’s will.

It is here the believer declares to the world and to his own heart that he accepts the sentence of death to his own self-will and accepts the new life or new nature of Christ to dwell in his mind, feeling, will and body

The other great act of obedience which unites us with the death of Jesus is the Lord’s Supper; we may argue about frequency, but not the doing of it!

Jesus definitely instituted the Supper to relate our faith and thinking to His death as a ransom (Matthew 26:26-29 and parallels)

Paul is also definite in 1 Corinthians 11:23-32.

Again, there is no miraculous efficacy in the loaf and the cup in and of themselves. we do not earn or merit the blood of Christ by observing the Supper.

But the Supper is the most appropriate way the believer may express what he continues to believe about Jesus-’ death and resurrection.

In this act of obedience the believer both symbolizes what he believes in his heart and has, at the same time, an objective point whereby he may experience doing the will of God.

It is here the believer declares to the world and to his own heart that he accepts the sentence of death to his own self-will and accepts the new life or new nature or Christ to dwell in him.

All the other acts of obedience to the gospel of Christ are God’s opportunities for us to participate in the death of Christ in our stead. opportunities to put to practice what we believe (that when He died, we died) (and that when He was raised we were raised to a new life) (Colossians 3:1-25)

Stewardship (giving)

Evangelism (spreading truth and light to the world)

Benevolence (ministering, as He ministered and gave Himself)

Worshipping (Christ’s act of obedient death was the One Supreme Act of Worship to God) (He was heard for His godly fear)

III.

OBJECT OF OUR OBEDIENCE

Christ, the Lord

If it were not for His obedience there would be little motivation for our obedience

He pioneered the way in obedience.. He demonstrated in the flesh that it was of the very nature of God to serve and obey.

After the great foot-washing incident, Jesus said, If you know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them. John 13:1-38

Jesus demonstrated that it is possible to dwell in the flesh and still to obey the Father.

God does not require an obedience we are unable to render.

Whatever his requirements may be, we are at the same time given strength necessary to keep them.

There is therefore no legitimate excuse for disobedience.

The same Jesus who requires of his followers that they obey the will of the heavenly Father obeyed.

Furthermore He promised to dwell in us in His Spirit to aid us in obeying the Father.

Conclusion

JESUS CAME AND TABERNACLED AMONG MEN IN THE FLESH, TRUSTED GOD, OBEYED GOD, SURRENDERED HIS LIFE AND LIVED NOT UNTO HIMSELF BUT FOR GOD AND OTHERS. HE DID SO PERFECTLY. HIS DEATH PAID OUR PRICE, SATISIFIED THE JUSTICE OF GOD, SERVED OUR SENTENCE AND CHANGED GOD’S ATTITUDE TOWARD REBELLIOUS SINNERS. JESUS DID ALL THIS TO BRING ABOUT A CHANGE IN OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD GOD AND DRAW US INTO THE FELLOWSHIP AND COMMUNION WITH OUR FATHER AND CREATOR WHO WANTS TO BLESS US ABOVE ALL WE ARE ABLE TO IMAGINE. WE MAY ENTER INTO THAT OFFERED FELLOWSHIP BY FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. IN SO DOING WE ACCEPT HIS DEATH AS OURS AND HIS LIFE AS OURS.. WE NO LONGER LIVE TO SELF.. WE ARE NOT OUR OWN TO DO AS WE SELFISHLY PLEASE ANYMORE.. WE HAVE ENTERED INTO A DEATH, AND A RESURRECTION! THOSE WHO HAVE DIED ONCE, HAVE NO NEED TO FEAR THE SECOND DEATH. God will not force you to enter into a fellowship (sharing) or covenant of obedience. He will not force anyone to be what he does not want, really want, to be. No man would be happy being coerced to be good and righteous; e.g. the Parable of the Prodigal and elder Sons; Jesus did not force the Rich Young Ruler to give up his riches and follow Him.

**Applebury’s Comments

CHAPTER FIVE**

Analysis

Paul contrasted the earthly and heavenly dwelling places as he continued the explanation of his courageous outlook for the future (2 Corinthians 5:1-10).

He pointed out that we know that we will have a building from God (2 Corinthians 5:1).

This will be when the earthly, temporary dwellingour physical bodyis folded up like a tent when it is no longer needed (la).

We have waiting for us a permanent dwelling place from God (b).

(1)

It will be a permanent dwelling in contrast to the earthly, mortal body.

(2)

It is eternal in contrast to the temporary body of this life.

(3)

It is to be in heaven in contrast to the one that is for earth.

He spoke of his longing to be in that heavenly dwelling place (2 Corinthians 5:2-5).

In this earthly body we have pain and distress which cause us to be deeply disturbed.

This makes us long for the heavenly dwelling.

The heavenly dwelling will replace the earthly one so that we will not be without a body.

He explained that we do not want to be without a body; rather, we want one that will take the place of this mortal body.

He who provided this very thing for us is God, and He guaranteed it through what is revealed by the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:5).

He explained why he faced the future with such courage (2 Corinthians 5:6-10).

He was aware of the fact that as long as we make our home in this physical body we are away from home, that is, away from the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6).

In this state we walk by faith, not by sight; we put our trust in the Lord because of the knowledge we have through the revelation by the Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Because we are confident of this, we wish to be away from this earthly home, the physical body, that we might be at home with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8).

Consequently, Paul made it his aim to be well-pleasing to the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:9-10).

(1)

This was his aim whether at home in the body or absent from it.

(2)

This was true because he faced the time when all will appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. There each one will receive the verdict, based on what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.

Because he knew the meaning of reverence for God, Paul explained his ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:11-21).

He explained the motivating forces of this ministry (2 Corinthians 5:11-17).

Since he was aware of the Judgment, he was endeavoring to persuade men to obey God so that they might be prepared for it (2 Corinthians 5:7-13).

(1)

This was evident to God, and he hoped that they were aware of it too (2 Corinthians 5:11).

(2)

He was not commending himself as he told about this ministry (2 Corinthians 5:12-13).

(a)

He was giving them an opportunity to boast on his behalf.

(b)

This gave them an answer to the ones who were boasting about appearance and not reality.

He told them of the love of Christ which was the compelling force in his ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:14-17).

(1)

He was held on this course by the force of Christ’s Christ’s love for him (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

(a)

It was the fact that Christ died for all sinners that made him aware of this love (2 Corinthians 5:14 a).

(b)

It is evident, then, that all sinners have died (2 Corinthians 5:14 b).

(c)

It is also true that Christ died for all sinnersthat included Paulso that they might no longer live for themselves but for Him who died and rose for their sakes.

(2)

He explained the view he held because he had come to understand the love of Christ for him (2 Corinthians 5:16-17).

(a)

He no longer considered any man as a mere human being, although he had once thought of Messiah from this point of view (2 Corinthians 5:16).

(b)

He looked upon any man who was in Christ as a new creature; old thing had passed away; behold, they have become new.

He explained that he had received this ministry from God (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).

God had reconciled Paul to Himself through Christ and had given him this ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).

Paul explained what this meant (2 Corinthians 5:19).

(1)

It meant that God was, in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.

(2)

It meant that He was not reckoning their trespasses against them, but through His ambassador He was offering them the way of reconciliation.

He explained what he was doing as an ambassador of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).

God was pleading with them through the ambassador of Christ that they reconcile themselves to Him (2 Corinthians 5:20).

God had made this reconciliation possible through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

(1)

God made Christ, who was sinless, to represent sin when He died on the cross.

(2)

This was done that we might become the representatives of the righteousness of God in Him.

Why did Paul speak of his confidence in the future?

On what did he base his confidence?

What is to be said in the light of Scripture about the assumption that Paul was anticipating the return of Christ in his own lifetime?

What had Jesus said to the apostles about the time of His second coming?

What bearing does this problem have on the fact that Paul wrote as an inspired apostle?

What had he written to the Thessalonians about this issue?

What did Paul mean when he wrote: We all shall not sleep, but we shall be changed?

What did he write to the Philippians about the necessity of carrying on his ministry for their sakes?

As he faced death, what did he write to Timothy about it?

What warning did Christ give in connection with His coming?

What is taught in the Scriptures about the intermediate state.

Did Paul discuss the intermediate state of the dead, or did he have in mind the permanent dwelling with the Lord in heaven?

How did Paul contrast the physical body with the permanent home in heaven?

How does he describe the building from God?

What had been the attitude of some toward the resurrection?

What had Paul written to the Corinthians in his first epistle about the kind of body they were to have in the resurrection?

How had he described the resurrection body to the Philippians?

What did the apostle John say about it?

What did Paul have in mind when he spoke of the physical body as a tabernacle or tent?

How had Peter referred to his physical body as he anticipated death?

Why did Paul say that the building from God is not made with hands?

What kind of a city was Abraham looking for?

How did Peter describe the salvation which will be revealed at the close of this age?

How explain Paul’s deep emotions arising from the things he suffered in the body?

What does not be found naked mean?

What was the attitude of the Greeks about being free from the body?

How did Paul expect that which is mortal to be swallowed by life?

What did he mean by the earnest of the Spirit? Why did he mention it here? Where may we read about it?

What does it mean to walk by faith?

Why did he speak of being at home with the Lord?

What did Paul write to the Thessalonians about the things that will happen when Christ comes again?

Why did Paul make it his aim to be well-pleasing to God?

Why was he trying to persuade men to obey God?

What is the judgment-seat of Christ? By what other figures is the Judgment described?

What did Paul tell the men of Athens about the Judgment?

What did the writer of Ecclesiastes say about it?

What does the Book of Revelation say about it?

What did Paul write to the Romans about it?

What did Jesus say about the Judgment?

What were the controlling forces in Paul’s ministry?

What place does fearreverence for Godhave in the life of the Christian?

What was Paul persuading men to do?

How is this illustrated by his efforts at Thessalonica?

What pattern did Paul follow in his work of persuading men?

How had Paul been influenced by the effort of Stephen to persuade men of the truth of the gospel?

Why did Paul say, We are made manifest to God?

Why did he again raise the issue of self-commendation?

What answer was given to those who insinuated that Paul was out of his mind?

What caused Paul to realize the compelling force of the love of Christ?

What is meant by one died for all?

On what is the doctrine of substitutionary atonement based?

On what is the doctrine of limited atonement based?

How does Paul’s statement about the death of Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:3 help to understand what he wrote about it in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15?

What is the doctrine of irresistible grace?

What is its bearing on the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints?

What are some of the things involved in the doctrine of predestination?

What is the commercial theory of the atonement?

What do the Scriptures teach about the death of Christ in its various relationships?

What did Paul mean by, therefore all died?

Why did Christ die for all sinners?

Why did the death of Christ change Paul’s views about men and Christ?

Why does Paul speak of the fact that God gave him the ministry of reconciliation?

What is meant by: God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself?

What do the Scriptures teach about the deity of Jesus? About the unity of the Father and the Son?

Why is it stated that God did not reckon their trespasses unto men?

What is an ambassador? How does this describe Paul’s ministry?

What do the Scriptures say about the sinlessness of Jesus?

What do the words, he made sin on our behalf mean?

What is meant by: that we might become the righteousness of God in him?

For Discussion

What is the place of punishment as a motivating force to obedience in the home? the school? the state? to God?

How does it compare with love in these areas?

2 Corinthians 5:1-5

**Butler’s Commentary

SECTION 1

Frailty of the Human Body **(2 Corinthians 5:1-5)

**5 **For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, 5 we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2Here indeed we groan, and long to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3so that by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4For while we are still in this tent, we sigh with anxiety; not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

**2 Corinthians 5:1-3 Provokes: **The problem of perspective (outlook, view, vista) is as old as man! It began in the Garden of Eden. When God created man, he gave (or revealed) to man his divine perspective. This divine perspective (outlook) was to be applied to every human experience. But Satan (the rebel from heaven) came to earth and seduced man into rejecting the divine perspective. Man prostituted his viewpoint and perverted God’s creation. At that point, for the sake of wooing man back to himself. God subjected the creation to futility (see Romans 8:18-25). This was a part of God’s plan to redirect man’s perspective. God intended to reclaim man’s viewpoint so that it would become divinely oriented.

Part and parcel with the futility of creation is the frailty of the human body. As a result of man’s sin, his physical body was condemned to dissolution and death. That very mortality of the body has presented a constant problem for man in the matter of perspective or viewpoint. The ultimate problem of human philosophy remains: there is no satisfactory metaphysical system (perspective, or viewpoint). The mortality of the human body frustrates all human metaphysical systems! And that is precisely where God wants all human metaphysical systems! The frailty of man provokes him to cry out for a perspective that is superhuman.

The Bible bears witness that perspective is a problem that may plague preachers and saints. The cry for a divine viewpoint for mortal man is the essential focus of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon). The O.T. prophets were sent by God to call Israel to think and act according to the divine perspective revealed in the Law of Moses and in the messianic prophecies. Jesus, God incarnate, came to live the divine perspective as a human being thus proving it is possible for man to do so. Jesus saw, heard, thought, lived everything from God’s viewpoint, and he did it all as a human being within the human experience. All the epistles, and especially the book of Revelation, are revelations of the Holy Spirit directing and guiding man toward the divine perspective.

Loss of divine perspective was the crucial problem with the Christians at Corinth and Paul dealt with it pointedly in I Corinthians, chapter 15. Here, in 2 Corinthians 5:1-21, Paul admits that his own mortality gives him occasion to groan and sigh with anxiety and struggle with the need for a constant divine perspective. Christians, preachers, missionaries are not immune from this problem. They, too, are mortal.

Unlike unbelieving philosophers, Paul knew where to find and how to appropriate a divine perspective. Paul could look beyond human mortality to a perfect and eternal existence by faith based on the historical death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

The word For in 2 Corinthians 5:1 connects what follows to Paul’s statement of the Christian perspective in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. Christians are to see their total experience in this life from the perspective of the eternal weight of glory which is beyond all comparison. And that includes the mortality of the human body. The Greek word oidamen is present tense meaning, We are continuing to know.. In other words, the divine perspective needs to be a continuing experience. The Christian needs to remind himself every day to look at everything and every person from God’s viewpoint. The only place to find God’s viewpoint is in the Bible. The mind of Christ is revealed no place else (see comments, 1 Corinthians 2:1-6). Christians are to look to the Bible for God’s viewpoint on every aspect of life. Paul’s knowledge went beyond human philosophy or logic for he knew everything from a divine perspective, that is, from divine revelation.

The Greek phrase, he epigeios hemon oikia tou skenous, would be literally translated, … our dirt-house, this tent.. The word epigeios is translated, earthly and is a compound of epi (down) and ge (soil, land, ground). The human body is emphatically of the soil! It is marvelously fashioned, but essentially dirt. It is bound to and inseparable from the soil. The word skenous (tent or tabernacle) is poignant. Our human bodies are like tentstemporary and uncomfortable. Nomads and pilgrims live in tents. They are always looking for permanent dwelling places (see Hebrews 11:8-16).

The Greek word kataluthe is the very word which was used by the ancients for striking down a tent in preparation for moving on. When Paul said For we know that if this earthly tent we live in is destroyed. , he meant when this earthly tent is destroyed (or, struck down). He had no doubt that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:50), and this human body of dust must perish and/or be changed (1 Corinthians 15:51-54).

Taking his stand on the revelation of God, Paul’s viewpoint (perspective) transcended earth and time. He saw eternity! Thus he was able to say, We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. The Greek word echomen is a present tense participle. We now have an eternal building. The word oikodomen means a strong edifice in contrast to a temporary tent. God has already prepared our heavenly body (building) and it is there waiting for us when we strike our tent in this pilgrim-land. We do not know what we shall be (1 John 3:2); just what our eternal body will be is yet a mystery (unrevealed), but it will be somewhat like the body put back into the earth at death (like the plant resembles the seed), and it will be glorious, imperishable, powerful, spiritual, immortal, and eternal (1 Corinthians 15:35-54). The phrase, not made with hands is simply an idiomatic way of saying our eternal body is spiritual, not physical. It is the best human language can do in trying to describe something outside the human experience. What words would one use to depict a human body that is not flesh and blood? It is a forever body, and it is located in the other world (in the heavens).

In 2 Corinthians 5:2, Paul is very careful to explain the need for a divine perspective in light of the frailty of the present body of dust. He does not want to be misunderstood. When he writes about the heavenly dwelling he is not writing about a disembodied, ghostly existence. We are in this body of the earth now. And we know it will soon be going back to the dust from whence it came. So we groan (Gr. stenazomen, complain, grieve) and greatly desire (Gr. epipothountes, long) to put on our heavenly building or dwelling.

Paul keeps switching metaphors of our eternal existence between building and clothing. Man envisions himself as naked (Gr. gumnos, bare, exposed, Matthew 25:36; Acts 19:16; 1 Corinthians 15:37; Hebrews 4:13; Revelation 3:17), dispossessed, insecure, without a body. Man fears the death of this body because of the anticipation of disembodiment. So Paul repeatedly affirms in this text (and in 1 Corinthians 15:1-58) that the Christian should not view death as a time of exposure, dispossession or disembodiment. When the Christian’s earthly body dies, he immediately (see notes on 2 Corinthians 5:6-13) becomes further clothed.

**2 Corinthians 5:4-5 Pressures: **The word anxiety is a translation of the Greek word baroumenoi, which more literally means, burdened, or pressed down. Paul used it to describe the anxiety and pressure the Christian feels as he anticipates the dissolution (death) of this physical body. No Christian, not even the apostle Paul, is in such perfect command of his emotions that he is completely unafraid of death. All Christians feel some anxiety as they anticipate death and the next lifeespecially anxiety about the next body, about consciousness, about where they will be and who they will recognize. The prospect of death is not pleasant for any one, and to insist that the Scriptures require believers to face death without anxiety or fear is a false interpretation of the Bible. Paul’s faith was sure; his confidence was firm. Yet, he shrank from the idea of being without a body and naked. This is what burdened Paul. But again, Paul was able to bear this anxiety (burden, pressure) because he had the divine perspective. Those without the divine perspective are devastated by this pressure.

Paul reveals here an immediate embodiment for Christians who die. He knew nothing of some disembodied spiritual existence, or soul-sleep, or intermediate temporary-body existence after death. For Paul, the state of existence for the Christian immediately after the death of this earthly body was one of being further clothed (Gr. ependusasthai). For Paul, the instant the Christian puts off this earthly tent, his life is swallowed up (Gr. katapothe, absorbed, overwhelmed, consumed, devoured) by eternal life and by victory (1 Corinthians 15:54). Later, Paul will describe the next existence for the Christian as at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8).

There is even the hint here that Paul was anxious to die and put off this earthly body because he knew he would not be naked at death, but rather abundantly clothed at home with the Lord. He expresses just such anticipation in Philippians 1:22-23, … Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

Ray C. Stedman says of this passage, in his book, Expository Studies in 2 Corinthians, Power Out of Weakness:

What Paul means, of course, is that when we leave this body we also leave time. It is not easy to re-train our thinking along these lines, because we project time into eternity, assuming eternity is simply time going on forever, but it is not.. In time we are all locked into the same rigid sequence of events.. But in eternity there is no past or future; there is simply one great present moment. Therefore, the events we experience in eternity are never anything we have to wait for, they are always what we are ready for, what we are spiritually prepared for.. The Scriptures clearly teach that when a believer dies, he experiences immediately the coming of the Lord for his own.

So in 2 Corinthians 5:5 Paul says that God has been preparing (Gr. katergasamenos, moulding, fitting, working, shaping) us for this very thing. That thing for which we are being moulded in this existence is the building from God, the house not made with hands, our heavenly dwelling, with which we shall be further clothed and swallowed up. And this shall be the state of the believer immediately after being unclothed from this earthly body, for he will never be naked.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 says that when Jesus comes again, he will be accompanied by all those who have been dead in Christ. But it will only appear to those left alive on earth that the dead have been raised first, when in actuality we are all raised together, to be always with the Lord. That is the way it will appear to men because of their finite conception of eternity! The believer goes immediately to be with the Lord in a conscious, embodied state when he sheds this earthly body at death (see 1 Samuel 28:14 ff; Luke 16:19-31; Luke 23:43; Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-12). His existence after death is very far better (Philippians 1:23), and therefore could not be a disembodied state.

God prepares us for this very far better existence by these slight, momentary afflictions (see Romans 8:18; Romans 8:28; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18), and by forming Christ in us (Galatians 4:19). In face, God’s Spirit in us is his guarantee (Gr. arrabona, down-payment, earnest) that we shall have a very far better clothing in the next existence (see Romans 8:23; Ephesians 1:13-14; 1 Peter 1:3-5). The Spirit, living in our minds through his Word (John 6:63; 1 Peter 1:22-24) gives us a foretaste of the very far better life and creates in our spirits a longing for the full redemption (Romans 8:18 ff). And if God guarantees it, who can prove it otherwise (see Romans 8:31-39).

While the frailty of the human body provokes and pressures, and makes us fear the possibility of dispossession after it dies (and it is certain to die), Christians may know with abiding assurance that God is preparing them for an elegant (glorious) body beyond all imagination. They need not fear dispossession or nakedness, because when they are absent from this body, they are immediately at home with the Lord. That is the divine perspective. Without the divine perspective there remains only a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries (Hebrews 10:27).

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Applebury’s Comments

The Building From God Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:1-10 For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. 2 For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven: 3 if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 4 For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life. 5 Now he that wrought us for this very thing is God, who gave unto us the earnest of the Spirit. 6 Being therefore always of good courage, and knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord 7 (for we walk by faith, not by sight); 8 we are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord. 9 Wherefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto him. 10 For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

*Comments

For we know.*Paul continued to explain his courageous effort to preach the gospel of Christ. He had told of his awareness of the fact that this precious treasure was in earthen vessels. He was constantly aware of the weakness of the vessel. He did not despair, however, for he knew what lay ahead for the faithful servant of Christ. He knew that this life was only temporary, but beyond it there was eternal life with God. This information had been revealed to him through the Holy Spirit. See 1 Corinthians 2:6-16. More than that, he had actually seen the risen Lord. This fact confirmed the testimony that had been made known to him and, through him, to all who are willing to accept the Word of God. The hope of heaven is based solidly upon the testimony of the Scriptures.

Two factors influence the interpreters of this chapter: (1) the assumption that Paul was anticipating the return of Christ in his own lifetime; and (2) the assumption that he had in mind the intermediate state of the dead as he discussed the issues of this chapter, But we raise the question: Did Paul expect the return of Christ in his lifetime? Jesus had made it clear to His disciples that no one knew the time of His coming, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son himself, but only the Father (Matthew 24:36). The information given orally to the apostles by Jesus was recalled to their minds by the Holy Spirit. See John 14:26. Paul, who was also an inspired apostle of Christ, surely had all the information that was given to the other apostles. In writing to the Thessalonians, he used the very expression that Jesus had used about the second coming: For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2). In his second epistle to them, he corrected the false notion that was held by some of them that the day of the Lord was just at hand. He reminded them of certain things, such, as the apostasy, that were to come before that day. See 2 Thessalonians 2:12. In 1 Corinthians 15:51, Paul wrote Behold, I tell you a mystery: We all shall not sleep, but we shall be changed. Some have understood this to mean that Paul was expecting the return of Christ before his death. It seems more likely that he was making a general statement in agreement with what he had said in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Some will be alive at the time of the return of Christ, but there is no indication that Paul expected to be one of that number.

Paul did say to the Philippians, For to me to live is Christmagnified by my ministry of preaching His gospeland for me to die is gain (Philippians 1:21). Although he had a strong desire to be with Christwhat faithful Christian doesn-’t?he added, I know that I shall abide, yea and abide with you all for your progress and joy in the faith (Philippians 1:25). But Paul, of course, was well aware of the fact that his physical body which was subject to death was wearing out. As he faced that eventuality, he wrote to Timothy saying, I am already being offered and the time of my departure is come (2 Timothy 4:6). It seems idle, therefore, to speculate over the apostle’s supposed expectation of being alive when Christ comes.

The saints of all ages should remember the words of Christ when He said, Watch and be ready! Paul made it his aim whether in this life or the heavenly state to be well-pleasing to God. As to the matter of the intermediate state, there is a question whether or not Paul even hints at it in this context. For a discussion of the intermediate state of the dead, see Studies in Luke, pages 278-279.

*if the earthly house.*This does not indicate that Paul had any doubt as to whether or not he might die before the coming of Christ. The only uncertain thing in his mind was the time of his death. The statement may be more properly rendered as follows. For we know that whenever the earthly house of our tabernacle shall be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. We have a similar statement in 1 John 3:2: We know that if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him. But there is no doubt in the mind of John about the fact that He will be manifested. It would, therefore, be better to translateand correct, tooas follows: We know that whenever he shall be manifested, we shall be like him.

For an illustration of the fact that if should sometimes be rendered when, see Hebrews 3:7. The American Standard has if but R S V has when and correctly so.

*we have a building from God.*The contrast is between the physical body and the resurrection body. The one is earthly and temporal; the other is eternal and heavenly. Some in Corinth had been doubting the fact of the resurrection. They had asked about the kind of body in which the dead were to be raised. See 1 Corinthians 15:35. Paul said there is a natural bodyone that is suited to this lifeand there is also a spiritual body. See 1 Corinthians 15:44. He described it as follows: For our citizenship is in heaven: whence also we wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able to subject all things unto himself (Philippians 3:20-21). This agrees with John that the saints shall be like Him when they see Him as He is.

It is doubtful that the thought of a tabernacle that will give place to a permanent building in heaven was derived from the Tabernacle in the Wilderness that gave place to the permanent Temple in Jerusalem. People in Paul’s day were thoroughly familiar with tents as well as permanent structures. It was natural for Paul to use the figure for he was a tentmaker. Peter uses the same figure referring to his physical body when he referred to his approaching death as the putting off of his tabernacle (2 Peter 1:14 and John 21:18-19). The reference in John is to the manner of Peter’s death and not necessarily to the time of it. Paul spoke of the time of his departure, using a phrase in common use. It referred among other things to the soldier who folded his tent as he prepared to leave for home.

*a building from God.*This does not suggest that the body we have is not from God, for we are His creatures, Paul’s thought was of the permanent abode of the saints of God as a creation of God, not a house that man makes. Abraham looked for the city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). Peter describes it as an inheritance that is incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto the salvation ready to be revealed at the last time (1 Peter 1:3-5). This is the Father’s house in which, according to Jesus, there are many mansions. See John 14:2.

Paul Spoke of the spiritual body and the permanent building in which the saints will dwell in heaven. Both concepts describe the contrast between heaven and the earthly, temporary, perishing body in which we live in this life. The terms do not contradict each other; neither do they necessarily refer to different phases of the life beyond the grave.

*For verily in this we groan.*Whatever that suffering was that brought Paul near death in Asia, it was an experience that left a vivid impression on his mind. As he thought of it, he sighed the relief that heaven would bring. Like a soldier who longs for victory and the time to go home, Paul was eager for the battle to be over so that he might lay aside the temporary physical body and be clothed with the habitation which is from heaven.

*not be found naked.*Those who assume that Paul had in mind the intermediate state of the deadthe Scriptures clearly teach that there is such a stateassume that he is speaking about it in this passage. But it seems more likely that he was only contrasting this life with the heavenly state. Then what does not be found naked mean? The Corinthians were thoroughly familiar with the philosophical view that taught that absence from the body meant freedom from trial and hardship. The goal was to have no body at all. But this was not Paul’s idea. Rather than this being a discussion of the intermediate state of the dead, it seems to be Paul’s answer to those who might have held false views of the resurrection. Some of the Corinthians had been denying the resurrection. Paul’s desire to be free from the body was based on what he knew by revelation concerning the resurrection body. No one with this knowledge would look forward to a time when he would be without a body that is, be found naked. The resurrection body will be like the glorious body of Christ. This explains why Paul said, We that are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened. The afflictions, distresses, imprisonments, and hardships which he suffered were heaven burdens. But to Paul they were light when compared to the eternal weight of glory that awaits the faithful follower of Christ. He explained the expression, not be found naked by saying, not that we would be unclothed but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up with life.

*the earnest of the Spirit.*See comment on 2 Corinthians 1:22. The earnest of the Spirit is the guarantee or pledge that God will provide a spiritual body for the saints in heaven. When we say that the Holy Spirit is the guarantee, we are using the well known figure of speech, metonymy, which puts the person for the thing he does. The Holy Spirit is the Person who gives the guarantee or reveals the pledge. It was revealed directly to the apostle, but written in the sacred Scriptures for us. It is proper, then, to say that the saints of God have a written guarantee that there is a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.

*for we walk by faith.*As to the heavenly home, we must depend on the information God has made known by His Spirit through the inspired apostles. We do not see heaven, but we hope for it because God says it is waiting for His people. This is the basis of Paul’s undaunted courage in face of hardship. He was willing, of course, to be absent from the body that he might be at home with the Lord.

There are two thoughts expressed here: (1) At home in the body means absence from the Lord; and (2) absence from the bodydeathmeans at home with the Lord. Since Paul, apparently, did not choose to discuss the intermediate state at this point but concentrate upon the goal of heaven, it seems unnecessary to consider it in the explanation of his remarks. When Christ comes at the end of the age, the dead will be raised and those that are alive will together with them be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall they ever be with Him. See 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

That the righteous dead will be with the Lord in the intermediate state seems to be indicated by the words of Jesus to the dying thief: Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise. See comment on this passage in* Studies in Luke,* page 380.

*Wherefore we make it our aim.*Paul’s constant concern was that he be well-pleasing to the Lord. He seemed quite content to leave the matter of the time when he would be absent from the body and present with the Lord in His hands. This is in accord with what Jesus said about the unknown time of His coming. The faithful need to watch and be ready! Paul did not want to be like that unfaithful servant who, because his master had delayed his coming, began to mistreat his fellow-servants. See Matthew 24:45-51. Jesus said that the unfaithful servant would be cut asunder and have his portion appointed with the hypocrites. Paul knew of the judgment which all will face. His mission was to help others prepare for that Day.

*For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ.*Paul uses the figure of a military tribunal to describe the Judgment. The judgment-seat is the elevated platform on which the judge sits. All will be gathered before the Judge.

Jesus used the figure of a royal throne to describe the same Judgment scene. When the Son of man shall come in his glory and all his angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all the nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31-32). John describes the Judgment Day by using the figure of the great white throne: And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, before the throne; and the books were opened: and another book was opened which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books according to their works (Revelation 20:11-12).

Some assume that these are three different judgments. Since all of them refer to the end of the world and the coming of Christ, it is clear that all of them describe the same Judgment Day.

God through Christ is the Judge. He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead (Acts 17:30). Ecclesiastes closes with the same thought: This is the end of the matter. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing whether it be good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Revelation indicates that the books will be opened on that day. One of them is the record of the deeds of men whether they be good or bad. Another of the books is the Book of Life. If any man’s name is not found written in that book, he will be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death. Still another book is the gospel which Paul preached: God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel by Jesus Christ (Romans 2:16). The Judgment Day is a strong motivating force leading to repentance.

Jesus said, Marvel not at this for the hour cometh, when all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment (John 5:28-29). Paul’s ambition was to be well-pleasing to God so that in the Judgment Day he might be among those who have done good.

2 Corinthians 5:6-15

**Butler’s Commentary

SECTION 2

Frustration of the Human Soul **(2 Corinthians 5:6-15)

6 So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8We are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.

11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men; but what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to be proud of us, so that you may be able to answer those who pride themselves on a man’s position and not on his heart. 13For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. 15And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

**2 Corinthians 5:6-10 Unfulfilled Vindication: **A very present problem with human perspective is man’s need for vindication. It is an urgency within the soul of every human being that cries out for satisfaction. The fundamental desire for righting all wrong was created in the human soul. But in this fallen world, rebelling against God, wrong is not always righted. Most of this world chooses to be away from the Lord. It does not acknowledge that righteousness and justice are present only when the Lord is present (see Isaiah 26:9-10). It has been seduced by the devil. The world’s perspective is flawed, and thus men are frustrated. Even Christians may become frustrated if they are not careful to maintain the divine perspective.

But Paul made every effort to constantly view the wrong in this world (especially wrong done to him personally) in the light of divine, justice. The apostle kept the divine perspective and it made him always of good courage. The Greek word tharrountes, translated of good courage, is related to the Greek words thero and therme from which we get the English word thermal, thus, warm, tempered, bold, confident, courageous, etc. Thero was a favorite word of the Stoics. But Paul’s courage (thero) was not at all like the detached impassiveness of the Stoics.

At home in the body is from the Greek words endemountes en to somati. Endemountes is a compound of en and demos, and literally means among one’s own. In this text endemountes is contrasted with ekdemountes which means, away from one’s own. Paul is saying that when we are among our own in the body, we are away from our own in the Lord. Paul did not mean that the Lord was absent from him in his earthly existence. The Lord is the Holy Spirit, and the reality of his presence, his actual presence, is mediated to the believer through the Third Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. Yet in spite of Christ’s constant presence through the Spirit of God in us (Matthew 28:20; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:17; Colossians 1:27; Romans 8:9-10, etc.), there is a sense in which the Christian is away from, separated from, the Lord as long as he lives in this world. While we are in the body the Lord’s presence is not direct and unmediated with us, but is indirect. It is not until we are away from the body that we shall have his direct presence (see Revelation 21:3; Revelation 22:3-4).

In the meantime, we must walk by faith and not by sight. We must view everything in this away-from-the-Lord existence through the divine perspective. And it is important that we understand our away-from-the-Lord existence as something inferior to what our at-home-with-the-Lord experience will be. Our eagerness to proclaim the Christian life in this world as the ultimate experience occasionally leaves people with the impression that there is nothing better to come! We must never do that! The Christian life even at its best in this world is far inferior to that which it shall be in the next world. Christians must never de-emphasize the strength and courage derived from walking with Christ by faith in this life. On the other hand, it would be difficult for the Christian to over-emphasize the glory and blessedness of the promised life to come for all believers. Having such a divine perspective, says Paul, makes the believer ambitious (Gr. philotimoumetha, lit. to search for honor, to love honor) to please the Lord whether in the earthly body or in the heavenly existence. Of course, Paul would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. With this statement Paul dispenses with any theories that life after death is in any way inferior to this existence. We are, therefore, to assume that in the next life the believer will be conscious, embodied, immortal, spiritual, holy, good, just, beautiful, joyful, and in the direct presence of Christ. Whatever it was like for those believers to have enjoyed the incarnate presence of Christ in the Gospels, will be magnified millions of times in heaven. And the one thing which pleased Christ most about men when he was here on earth was their readiness to believe him and obey him.

A significant part of having the divine perspective is to believe the coming judgment of Christ, and to act in accordance with that belief. The person who refuses to see the world, history, or himself as inevitably coming under the scrutiny and sovereignty of the Absolute Redeemer, has a flawed perspective. Such a person will surely suffer the frustration of having no hope for ultimate vindication of right over wrong. Such a person will have no hope that final justice will ever be accomplished. Such a person’s perspective can only lead to irrational stoicism, at best, and existential despair, at worst.

The word For in 2 Corinthians 5:10 connects Paul’s appeal for a judgment-perspective to his ambition to be always pleasing the Lord. In other words, the Christian’s magnificent obsession should be to always please the Lord because he must inevitably appear before the judgment seat of Christ. The word appear is from the Greek word phanerothenai and means, made manifest, revealed, unveiled, exposed. What Christ is going to do at the judgment for the Christian is to reveal the Christian to himself! Christ certainly does not need a special time to put people on trial in order to discover their deeds or motives. Christ already knows the secrets of men’s hearts. This is not a judgment to settle final destiny. This is a personal evaluation given to each individual by the Lord himself of what the individual’s life has really been like. Paul looked forward to this judgment because he believed the Lord would be showing many things Paul thought were failures that were really successes. The Lord will reveal many things that pleased him which no one else heard of or applauded (see Matthew 25:31-46; Mark 12:41-44). Everyone who has made it his aim (ambition) to please the Lord is going to be surprised by joy at this manifestation. It will be a time of disclosure and evaluation when all mankind learns for the first time, and perfectly, who was right and what attitudes men should have had or should not have had. It will also be a time of encouragement where believers will see and learn the real value of many things that they thought no one knew and which they themselves often did not understand. The evil that men have done will also be exposed, evaluated and repaid.

Thinking and living in the light of perfect evaluation should drive men to seek the divine perspective. Christ is primarily concerned with our motives. That is why Paul said he always made it his ambition to please the Lord. It is ambition, aim, motive, that counts most with Christ. Our ambition here (not the quantity of our accomplishments) determines the degree to which we will be rewarded in the next life! The person who has understood this will not be frustrated with life in this world where one’s ambitions for the Lord often exceed his opportunities and capabilities. He has the divine perspective.

**2 Corinthians 5:11-15 Unmitigated Vanity: **Another frustration of the human soul is the unmitigated vanity with which the Christian is surrounded in this world. While the Christian is in this earthy existence he must live among proud, arrogant, malicious people who are always attacking his motives and his veracity. Jesus even experienced this as incarnate God! It was a constant source of frustration to the apostle Paul that men should slander his motives. Paul’s answer here is that his motives are vindicated as pure because of his divine perspective.

Someone in Corinth had persuaded the Christians there that Paul was seeking to win the favor of men for his own selfish ends. Paul answered that he was busy trying to persuade men to follow Christ, not for his own selfish ends, but because he was always trying to please the Lord. And his ambition to always please the Lord was because he knew the terror of the Lord. The fear (Greek, phobon, phobia, terror) of the Lord is not as uncommon to the New Testament as some people think! Jesus taught his disciples to fear God (see Matthew 10:26-33; Luke 12:4-7). See also Hebrews 12:28; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 Peter 3:2; 1 Timothy 5:20; Hebrews 4:1; Revelation 14:7; Revelation 19:5; Philippians 2:12; Jude 1:23, etc. The Old Testament makes the fear of the Lord (reverence, awe) one of the fundamental bases of holiness (Ecclesiastes 12:13; Job 28:28; Proverbs 1:7; Psalms 15:4; Psalms 22:23; Psalms 33:8; Psalms 34:9; Psalms 115:11; Psalms 115:13; Psalms 118:4; Psalms 135:20).

The fear Paul points to here is his fear (reverence) for the Lord. This is what motivated Paul to persuade men. His motives were not selfish in the least. Paul preached to men to bring glory and honor to God, not to himself. Paul’s view of life, his perspective, included the fear of God and the judgment. Therefore, he was able to keep his motives pure, as well as his actions. It would not be out of order for all Christians to have this perspective. It well behooves the Church today to restore a proper fear and awe of God. More reverence would be a good thing! It would solve the problem of perspective!

Paul uses the Greek word peithomen to speak of his efforts to convince the Corinthians of his sincerity. Knowing fully the fear of the Lord and that his every ambition is clearly open to the Lord and will be manifested by the Lord Paul wants to persuade (Gr. peithomen, conciliate, win favor of, satisfy; see Matthew 28:14; Acts 12:20) those in Corinth who doubt that his motives are pure. Paul wants the Corinthian Christians to grasp the divine perspective and judge him in light of that.

2 Corinthians 5:12 is Paul’s answer to any possible misinterpretation of his words as self-glorifying. He says that his real reason in defending his sincerity was that the Corinthian Christians might have an answer to give those who were criticizing him. Evidently there were some who had come to the Corinthian church (probably Judaizers) who took pride in their position (being probably from the Jerusalem church and claiming the sanction of the pillar apostles, Peter, James, etc.) and were slandering the apostle Paul’s motives. Paul has already mentioned these Judaizers in II Corinthians, chapter 3. An interesting Greek phrase, en prosopo kauchomenous, in face-boasting, is translated, pride in position. The Judaizers were manipulating these Corinthians with their appearances or their religious facades, rather than bringing any honest or factual evidence against Paul. They were throwing their weight around rather than allowing anyone to search their hearts and motives. They were presenting exactly the opposite perspective that Paul was presenting to the Corinthians. They were presenting the human perspectivePaul was presenting the divine perspective!

Look at Paul’s fervor and total commitment from the human perspective and he appears crazy (mad)! (see Acts 26:24 ff). It may be that some of the Judaizers pointed to him as an example of an egomaniac (or perhaps a paranoiac) because he appealed so often to his own sincerity, his fervency for the gospel, and his wide ministry. His enemies may well have accused him of a mania for recognition, that he was mad for position or power over his converts. But Paul argues that the Corinthians must look at his writings and his works through the divine perspective. Paul declares if he is an egomaniac, greedy for personal exaltation, God will judge. Only God can know that perfectly, and God will reveal it at the judgment; but Paul charges the Corinthians that they can judge whether he is outwardly following sensible behavior toward them or not. They can make this judgment if they will evaluate Paul’s actions in light of the divine perspective. If they will only measure Paul’s actions according to the revealed Word of God, they will conclude that he is acting sensibly and not as an egomaniac.

Paul continues to prove that his perspective is antithetical to that of the lovers of position. He says that his motives are controlled by the love of Christ. He has died to self by accepting the death of Christ as his own death. The fact of the substitutionary death of Christ has flooded Paul’s soul with love and constrained him to live no longer for himself, but for Christ. The Greek word sunechei is a compound of sun and echo and means literally, to press together. It is the same word used in Luke 12:49 to describe the pressure or constraint propelling Jesus to the cross! The love of Christ should pressure, control, impel and motivate the Christian. The love of Christ drives and guides by setting the limits to what we should and should not do.

And why did the love of Christ control Paul? Because Paul was convinced that Christ had died for him (and for all men). The word convinced comes from the Greek word krinantas and is a word meaning legal conviction. It shows that Paul’s conviction was based on evidence and not just emotion. It was the evidence that produced the emotion and not vice versa! The evidence that Christ’s death was a vicarious, substitutionary atonement is the bodily resurrection of Christ. The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the supernatural stamp of authentication on the doctrine of Christ’s atonement. Without the resurrection, the death of Christ as a vicarious atonement for anyone’s sins is unvalidated. It is the atoning death of Christ for sinful man that sheds God’s love abroad in man’s heart (see Romans 5:1-11).

Now the critical issue in this text is: What does the atonement mean to an individual, personally, existentially, subjectively? It means that when Christ died, the believer died! If I accept Christ’s death in my place, I have actually accepted my death! In other words, I agree with God that my sins put me there on the cross in Christ. All died, therefore I died when Christ died. I no longer live; I have no right to myself, to control myself, to live for myself any longer. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live (see Galatians 2:20). Having accepted, by faith, the grace of God in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, we are also privileged to accept by faith, the gracious life of Christ as a substitute for the old sinful life of self. He died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. We live that life of Christ vicariously in our lives by faith (Galatians 2:20).

II Corinthians chapter 5 is one of the greatest treatises on the experiential impact of the atonement in all the Bible! It is paralleled by such great passages as Romans, chapter 6; Colossians 2:20 to Colossians 3:17; Ephesians, chapter 2; and Hebrews, Chapter s 2 and 10. (The reader is directed to Learning From Jesus, by Seth Wilson pages 495-503, pub. College Press, for significant studies on this passage).

In the midst of unmitigated vanity by those who take pride in human position and other vagaries of life apart from faith in Christ, a personal, existential absorption of the fact of Jesus-’ vicarious death is absolutely crucial to a divine perspective. Paul had accepted Christ’s death on his behalf. He had accepted Christ’s life as his own life. Now he wants the Corinthians to judge his actions toward them from this perspective. Paul insists that as Christians the Corinthians have no right to any other perspective.

2 Corinthians 5:11-17

*Applebury’s Comments

Motivating Forces Scripture*

2 Corinthians 5:11-17 Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. 12 We are not again commending ourselves unto you, but speak as giving you occasion of glorying on our behalf, that ye may have wherewith to answer them that glory in appearance, and not in heart. 13 For whether we are beside ourselves, it is unto God; or whether we are of sober mind, it is unto you. 14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and he died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again. 16 Wherefore we henceforth know no man after the flesh: even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. 17 Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.

*Comments

Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord.*Paul turns from the thought of man’s responsibility to God and the fact that all shall be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ to the responsibility that lay upon him in relation to his ministry of reconciliation. He discussed two basic motivating forces of that ministry: (1) the fear of the Lord and (2) the love of Christ.

A sense of reverence and awe arises from the fact that all must appear before the Judge of the universe to give account of the things done in the body. The guilty fear the punishment that is associated with wrong doing. The sincere servant of the Lord has a dread of doing that which is not pleasing to God. Paul wrote to the Ephesians and said, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30). David prayed, Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins (Psalms 19:13). Paul mentioned his fear and trembling on coming to Corinth. See Studies in First Corinthians, page 34. Since children are to be like their fathers, Peter writes, If ye call on him as father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to each man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear: knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers: but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:17-18). John explained the fear of the disobedient in contrast to the love of those who do the will of God. See 1 John 4:17-19. The disobedient fear punishment, but perfect lovelove that is expressed in obedience to the commandments of Godcasts out fear. Our love for God springs from the fact that He first loved us.

Adam was afraid of God because he knew that he was guilty of transgressing His command. Anxiety caused the guilty one to attempt to cover his own sin. Adam used the fig leaf in a vain attempt to hide his disobedience from God. Ever since that day, man has been trying through his own schemes to blot out the effect of his sins, but the fact remains that only God can forgive sins. The divine plan is to blot out sin by the blood of Christ. Paul was suddenly stopped in his mad effort to destroy the church of God when he accepted the mercy of God and got his sins washed away by submitting to baptism at the hand of Ananias. From that time forward, the love of Christ for him kept him aware of the need to obey His Lord as a faithful servant.

*we persuade men.*Opinions differ over the meaning of this statement. Some assume that Paul was attempting to persuade men of his own sincerity. He had been reminding the Corinthians that he was not indulging in self-glory. As to the charge of the false teachers on this issue, he rested his case on the truth of the gospel message which he proclaimed and the evidence of Christian character which his converts displayed.

It seems more likely, then, that Paul was referring to his ministry in which he was persuading men to be reconciled to God. His converts at Corinth were proof of his effectiveness. He was persuading men to obey Christ that they might be prepared to stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. At Corinth, Paul had reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath and persuaded Jews and Greeks (Acts 18:4). At Thessalonica, he had gone into the synagogue of the Jews and for three sabbath days reasoned with them from the scriptures, opening and alleging that it behooved Christ to suffer, and to arise from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom, said he, I proclaim unto you is the Christ (Acts 17:2-3).

Paul consistently presented the facts about Jesus in persuading men to believe that He was the Christ. He told them of the goodness of God that was leading them to repentance. He told them of the love of God who gave His Son to die for us while we were sinners. He told them about the judgment that all face and appealed to them to repent in preparation for that day. He told of the command to be baptized for the remission of sins as he urged men to obey God.

Paul’s own conversion had followed this same persuasive pattern. Stephen’s message profoundly affected the young man named Saul, He knew well the history of his people, the Jews, as Stephen related it. He knew of their stubborn disobedience that led some to attempt to go back to Egypt. He knew that the temple had taken the place of the tabernacle in the wilderness, and he was fully aware of the fact that God does not dwell in houses made with hands. He knew also that the fathers had persecuted the prophets and killed those who had showed beforehand the coming of the Righteous One. Stephen had burned this truth into the minds of his audience when he said, You have now become murderers of that One. But Stephen also presented the evidence of the resurrection of Christ when he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God (Acts 7:55).

When Saul met the Lord on the Damascus Road, his question was: What shall I do? Stephen had impressed him with the mercy and love of God, for Saul had heard him when he prayed, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge (Acts 7:60). See Paul’s own comment in Acts 22:16-21 and 1 Timothy 1:12-14. The person who believes in the Lord Jesus and understands his love and mercy readily responds to the reasonable command to be baptized for the remission of sins. See Acts 9:17-19; Acts 22:16.

Immediately upon his conversion, Paul began to preach Christ, for he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. See Acts 26:19-23. He urged Gentiles as well as Jews to repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.

*we are made manifest unto God.*On the Judgment Day, God will judge the secrets of men according to the gospel, by Jesus Christ. See Romans 2:16. Paul was aware of the fact that God knew his heart at all times and that no motive of his was hidden from Him. In this frame of mind he had carried on his ministry as an apostle of Christ. He had dealt frankly and sincerely with the Corinthians and believed that he had a right to hope that they were aware of his attitude. He had already called their attention to his sincerity in dealing with them in contrast to those who were corrupting the Word of God.

*we are not again commending ourselves unto you.*It seemed necessary for Paul to defend his sincerity because of false charges that were being made against him continually. See 2 Corinthians 10:8-9. He was not commending himself by what he said about his ministry of persuading men, but giving the Corinthians a reason for being proud of the fact that the gospel had been brought to them by the apostle of Jesus Christ. This gave them a substantial answer to the claims of false apostles who were really deceitful workers of Satan. See 2 Corinthians 11:12-13. Such deceitful workers were proud of their external appearance, but Paul gloried in the fact that the secrets of his heart were known to God.

*for whether we are beside ourselves.*If Paul were out of his mind, it would be evident to God, for God had placed His approval upon him in appointing him to the apostleship. Festus, listening to the defense that Paul made of the gospel before King Agrippa, cried out: Paul, thou art mad; thy much learning is turning thee mad (Acts 26:24). But Paul assured him that he was speaking only words of truth and soberness. He was sure that the king knew this too. The Corinthians had ample opportunity to know the mind of Paul for he had determined not to know anything among them except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. His appeal to them had been made on the basis of known facts of the gospel which were in accord with the Scriptures. See 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. He had sincerely proclaimed the message of Christ to them. As one sent from God to do this task, he was aware that what he did was done in the sight of God.

*for the love of Christ constraineth us.*Paul’s reverence for God led him to a life of sincerity in his ministry of preaching the gospel. Christ’s love for him became an irresistible force that held him on the true course. See Romans 5:6-8.

*that one died for all.*The doctrine of the vicarious or substitutionary atonement is based on the theory of a limited atonement. This doctrine of limited atonement springs from the doctrine of predestination which assumes that God predetermined that certain individuals would be saved and that others would be the objects of His wrath with no hope of salvation. According to the theory, those predetermined to be saved cannot resist the grace of God. They will persevere unto the final salvation of their soulsno chance of being lost! The doctrine of a limited atonement teaches that Christ died for these only, that is, He died in their stead and they will, therefore, be saved. The theory assumes that Paul’s words, He died for all, means for all who were predetermined to be saved. The argument, among other things, is based upon the translation of the preposition that is rendered for, assuming that it means instead of. But the same preposition is rendered for their sake in the last clause of verse fifteen. Christ died and rose again for their sakes. This would seem to suggest that if He died instead of them, He also rose instead of them, which, of course, doesn-’t make sense. Since Paul uses the same preposition in the two phrases, consistency suggests that they be translated by the same words in each case. This leads to the conclusion that Christ’s death and resurrection were for the benefit of all who believe on Him. In 1 Corinthians 15:3, Paul says, Christ died forthis is the same word which he used in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15our sins according to the Scriptures. His death concerned our sins. It was for the benefit of all sinners, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish but have everlasting life. No limited atonement here! And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he that heareth, let him say, Come. And he that is athirst, let him come: he that will, let him take the water of life freely (Revelation 22:17). Rather than a limited and substitutionary atonement, the Scriptures indicate that Christ’s death was for all sinners, that they might hear the gospel and repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins. Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:38.

The standard by which Paul evaluated the death of Christ was the Scriptures. See 1 Corinthians 15:3. But through the centuries men have been influenced by the doctrines of predestination and total depravity which have led them to the theories of limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of saints.

The Scriptures clearly indicate that God predetermined that believers would be saved, whether Jews or Gentiles. See Romans 9:24; Romans 9:30; Romans 5:8; John 3:16. The Scriptures teach that as a result of Adam’s sin physical death passed to all men. See Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:22 and Hebrews 9:27. Spiritual death, on the other hand, is the result of one’s own personal sins. See John 8:21; John 8:34; Ephesians 2:1-6; Romans 6:23. To assume that the human being, as a result of Adam’s sin, is in a state of depravity which renders him incapable of doing or thinking anything good in the spiritual realm is to make the preaching of the gospel for the salvation of the lost a meaningless gesture. But Paul declared that it was the good pleasure of God through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. See 1 Corinthians 1:21. If it requires a regenerating act of the Holy Spirit before man can believe, then the Word of the Cross truly is in vain. But Jesus clearly indicated that sinners for whom He died were to hear the Word through the inspired apostles and believe. See John 17:20-21.

Some assume that the doctrine of substitutionary atonement is taught in Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45. Jesus gave His life as a ransom for, or on behalf of, the many. Some would translate, instead of many which is possible except for the fact that it does not harmonize with the whole teaching of Scripture on the subject. Paul’s comment in 1 Timothy 2:6 explains the meaning of Mat 20:28, for he says that Christ gave himself a ransom for all.

Out of the references to ransom, two more closely related theories of the atonement have come: (1) The ransom theory, and (2) the commercial theory. Based on the thought that we are redeemed by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 1:7) or bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20) some have taught that God paid the price of the blood of Christ to the devil to buy the release of the sinner. But the Scriptures simply state that we were bought with a price, the blood of Christ, without any assumption that it was paid to Satan. The commercial theory assumes that the death of Christ was exactly equal to the punishment that God would have inflicted on sinners, and that because of Christ’s death He is just in forgiving them. The theory assumes that God in His purity and holiness was offended by the sinner and that only the death of Christ could change His attitude. The Scriptures state, however, that while we were yet sinners, God commended His own love toward us through the death of Christ. See Romans 5:8.

The Scriptures present the death of Christ in various relationships: (1) In relation to God, it shows His love and His justice in passing over the sins done under the first covenant. See 1 John 4:9-10; Hebrews 9:15; Rom. 3:35-36. (2) As to Christ, it was to destroy the works of the devil. See 1 John 3:8; Hebrews 2:14. (3) As to the sinner, it was to save him from the wrath of Godpunishment in the Day of Judgmentand restore him to fellowship with God. See Romans 2:5-11; Romans 5:9-11. (4) As to sin, it is the means of blotting out sin, Propitiation or expiation has to do with sin. The only way to escape the wrath of God is to obey the gospel. Under the New Covenant the blood of Christ cleanses the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. See Hebrews 9:14. God promises those who accept the terms of the New Covenant that He will be merciful to their iniquities and their sins He will remember no more. See Hebrews 8:12.

This brief glimpse of the teaching of the Scriptures about the death of Christ enables us to see something of the motivating power of love in the life of Paul.

*therefore all died.*In 1 Corinthians 15:22, Paul says: As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive. But this is a reference to the resurrection of the body which is to follow physical death. All who die physically will be raised from the dead, some to the resurrection of condemnation and some to the resurrection of life. See John 5:28-29. But in 2 Corinthians 5:14, Paul is dealing with spiritual death. Since he says that Christ died for allthat is, for all sinnersit is evident that all who have sinned have died spiritually. See Romans 5:16-18.

*and he died for all.*This does not teach universal salvation. It does indicate that an opportunity to be saved is provided for all men. See 1 Timothy 2:3-4. Paul speaks of God who is the Savior of all men, especially those who believe. See 1 Timothy 4:10. God has made it possible for all men to be saved through the death of Christ; those who accept His offer through belief expressed in obedience to His commands are saved. Those who are saved are no longer to live in selfishness; they are to commit themselves to Christ who for their sakes died and rose again.

*no man after the flesh.*The standard by which Paul recognized the value of a man was his relation to Christ. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Paul said, For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:27-28).

*have known Christ after the flesh.*Paul, speaking of his kinsmen according to the flesh, recognized the fact that Christ was of the Jews according to flesh. See Romans 9:3-5. He may have in mind the same concept here. In common with most Jews, he had probably expected Messiah to set up a political kingdom. He, as most Jews, had been unable to reconcile this view with the claims of Jesus of Nazareth who said He was Son of God. See John 10:34-35; Luke 22:66-71. When the apostles, however, on the Day of Pentecost preached the fact of the resurrection of Christ and His exaltation to the right hand of God, three thousand Jews were convinced and got themselves baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins. See Acts 2:36-40. After Paul had seen the risen Lord, he argued with the Jews on the basis of the Scriptures that it was necessary for Christ to suffer and rise from the dead and that this Jesus whom he proclaimed was the Christ. See Acts 17:3.

There is no way of knowing whether or not Paul had seen Jesus before He appeared to him on the Damascus Road. Paul’s relation to Christ was based on the gospel which he heard from Stephen and Ananias and the fact that he had actually seen the risen Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

**Butler’s Commentary

SECTION 3

Fallibility of the Human Spirit **(2 Corinthians 5:16-21)

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer. 17Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. 18All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

**2 Corinthians 5:16-17 Egocentric: **The main problem with the human perspective is its egocentricity. It is selfish! It centers and focuses and devotes itself to self. In the Bible this is called the things of the flesh (see Matthew 6:25-34; Romans 8:5-11; Romans 13:14; 1 Corinthians 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:5; Galatians 5:16-17; Galatians 6:13; Ephesians 2:3; Philippians 3:3-11; Colossians 2:23; Colossians 3:5 ff; 1 Peter 4:1-5). Paul wrote to the Romans, … the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:7). Now Paul did not mean there that simply living in a fleshly body makes a person inexorably hostile to God. Jesus lived in a fleshly body. Paul is talking about a worldly-mindedness, an attitude that makes the flesh and the world its priority. The human point of view in the Greek text is, oidamen kata sarka, literally, know according to flesh. Jesus called the fleshly viewpoint idolatryserving Mammonin Matthew 6:24-34.

There are essentially only two viewpoints for manhuman or divine. Man either sees everything from the limited, fallible, perspective of human wisdom, or from the infallible, revealed perspective of God in the Bible. The perspective of the unbeliever is limited to this world, by the limitations of this existence. He sees nothing beyond this existence. Everything is relative to this earthly experience. That is why human perspective alone leads to degradation, depravity and despair. Every human experience is evaluated and acted upon from an animal fleshly-materialistic perspective (see Romans 1:18-32). But as for the believer, Paul says, from the very moment he accepts by faith the atoning death of Christ, he gives up his right to think or evaluate or act by himself or for himself. He no longer views anything from the limitations of flesh or matter. He sets his mind on the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:5 ff). He surrenders his thinking and evaluating and acting to the mind and behavior of Christ revealed in the Bible. The Bible takes over his mind and his life. Every aspect of lifehome, job, education, entertainment, finances, hobbies, sexuality, emotionseverything, is brought into conformity to the precepts and principles of the Holy Spirit revealed in the Scriptures. The Christian surrenders all right to say, It’s my life, and I-’ll think the way I please and live the way I want.

Non-Christians view Christ from a human point of view. They think of him as being no more than merely another human being, having no authority to exercise over anyone else. Non-believers reject the idea that Christ was God in the flesh. They refuse to accept his death as an atonement for their sin. They may grant that he was a wonderful, wise, compassionate religious teacher, but they will not accede Christ any right to do their thinking for them. They reserve the right to disagree with any viewpoint Christ might dictate in his teachings or those of his apostles. But, Paul says, once a person becomes a Christian he views Christ no longer from a human point of view. The Christian never claims the right to disagree with any New Testament viewpoint.

Thus, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature (or creation). Paul is not dealing with the possibility of the new creature here as much as he is dealing with the fact. He is saying, It is a matter of fact that those who are in Christ are new creatures with a totally new perspective! This is the way it must be for a Christian! The old, human perspective, has passed away; behold, the new, divine perspective, has come and is continuing to come (Greek gegonen, perfect tense verb, has come with a continuing action). The new creation with the new, divine perspective, is a continual, growing, ever-expanding experience. It is the experience of being changed into the likeness of Christ from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18) by beholding the glory of the Lord.

This transformation of the mind of man so that he might have the divine perspective was the purpose of the Law of God revealed through Moses. It was the very core of the writings of the O.T. prophets. All the great theophanies (throne visions) in Isaiah 6:1-13; Ezekiel 1:1-28; Daniel 7:1-28 and Zechariah’s visions were specifically given to insist that their Jewish listeners see all their circumstances from the perspective of the throne of God (the divine view of history). And the highly symbolic book of Revelation in the N.T. urges from the very first (the vision of the victorious, reigning Christ ch. 1, coupled with the vision of the Throne of God and the Lamb ch. 4-5) that the churches of Asia Minor must view their great tribulation from the divine perspective. History, even the terrifying, destructive, depraved aspects of history, is all under the sovereign control of God and the Lamb. It is imperative that the saints of God have this perspective. Without it they cannot possibly remain faithful!

**2 Corinthians 5:18-21 Estranged: **The reason the human perspective is egocentric is that the human being is estranged from God. Man, the rebel-sinner, has chosen to exclude God from his life. He is at enmity (war) against God (see James 4:1-4). The desires of the flesh are against the Spiritthese are opposed to each other (Galatians 5:16-17). The mind of the flesh is hostile toward God (Romans 8:7). Man, not reconciled to God, is against God! There is no neutral-zone. There are not three categories: for God, against God, and neutral. We are either for Christ or against himgathering with him or scattering (Matthew 12:30).

So, Paul says, the only possible way any human being can acquire the divine perspective is through the redemptive work of God in Christ which reconciles man and God to one another. Reconciliation is purely and simply by the grace of God. God took the initiative; God accomplished the redemption by giving his perfect Son as the ransom. It is all from God.!

To attempt to discuss the concept of reconciliation in these notes would require such a lengthy digression contact with the exegetical flow of the text would be lost. The reader is therefore referred to the Special Studies at the end of this chapter for thorough treatment of the subjects of Propitiation, Justification, Redemption, Reconciliation, Faith, and Obedience. Treatment of all these subjects is necessary to understanding the concept of Reconciliation. Suffice it to say here that when man declared war on God, the Divine Father, in keeping with his very nature, had to declare war on man. God could not love man for his good without acting hostile toward that which would destroy man! So God withdraws himself from man. This is taught consistently throughout the Bible (Hosea 5:15; Isaiah 64:7-9; Psalms 51:11; Romans 5:10-11). The very word propitiation assumes there is Someone who has to be appeased. The wrath of God is revealed in the very forces of nature (Romans 1:18 ff). The absoluteness of God’s justice must be satisfied. Until all this is accomplished, there could be no reconciliation between God and man. God’s absolute justice must be satisfied and his wrath appeased, and man must be wooed back to humble surrender and faith toward God.

This is precisely what God did through Jesus Christ. God sent his Son to earth incarnated as a man (John 1:1-18; Hebrews 2:5-18; Hebrews 10:1-25; Philippians 2:1-11). Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life. He pleased God in everything he thought, said and did. He kept the commandments of God, the Law of God completely. And then, the Son willingly laid down his life (John 10:14-18) as a ransom for sinful mankind. He became the curse of God in our place (Galatians 3:10-14; 1 Peter 2:21-25). God punished Christ for all the sins of all the ages and thus God’s wrath was appeased and man was justified all in the same redemptive work (see Romans 3:21-26). The Absolute God was reconciled to man through the absolute atonement of Christ, and man is wooed back to God through the divine demonstration of love at the cross and the empty tomb. God does not count men’s trespasses against them if they accept God’s work of redemption and reconcile themselves to him by faith and obedience to his Son.

Quickly Paul shifts from the subject of personal salvation and reconciliation to the ministry of reconciliation. Every Christian is obligated by the grace of God’s reconciliation given to him, to proclaim the good news of God’s offer of reconciliation to the whole world. Paul used the Greek word themenos, an aorist participle of tithemi, and it is translated, committed. The Greek word means, assigned. God has assigned to all Christians the work of ministering the rationale (Gr. logon, word, logic) of reconciliation. No Christian is exempt from this assignment! It is written in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). Paul considered himself a debtor and thus obligated (by his own redemption) to preach the gospel to as much of the world as he could humanly reach (Romans 1:14-17).

All Christians are ambassadors (Gr. presbeuomen, presbyters, elders, legates, ambassadors) allowing God to make his appeal (Gr. parakalountos, paraclete, to call alongside) through them. The ministry of reconciliation is calling sinners to come to the side of God! Paul said the ambassador of reconciliation was to beseech (Gr. deometha, beg, plead, pray) people to come to the side of God for the sake of Christ. And the motivation in the message of that ministry is the vicarious atonement of Christ. Could it be that ambassadors of reconciliation are to have the same qualifications as elders (1 Timothy 3:1-7)?

How did God make Christ to become sin for our sake? Most certainly God did not force Christ to sin! Christ was personally without sin. But since Christ was free from sin he was under no obligation to suffer the consequences of sin. That left Christ free to choose to become, vicariously, sin for all who were obligated by their own sin to suffer its consequences. He was not only free to choose to do so, he had the right and authority, by his perfect life, to do so if he chose. No human being may dare to gainsay Christ’s right to assume sin vicariously if he chooses unless that human being himself is perfectly sinless!

Through the centuries there have been unbelievers, posting in righteous indignation, rejecting the revelation of God that Christ suffered vicariously for man’s sins.

Ethan Allen, Revolutionary War hero of Fort Ticonderoga, a Deist and Unitarian, wrote in his book, Reason the Only Oracle of Man, The doctrine of the Trinity is destitute of foundation, and tends manifestly to superstition and idolatry. There could be no justice or goodness in one being’s suffering for another, nor is it at all compatible with reason to suppose that God was the contriver of such a propitiation.

Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam, former head of the World Council of Churches, wrote in his book, A Testament of the Faith, pg. 144:

We hear much of the substitutionary theory of the atonement. This theory to me is immoral. If Jesus paid it all, or if He is the substitute for me, or if He is the sacrifice for all sin of the world, then why discuss forgiveness? The books are closed. Another has paid the debt, borne the penalty. I owe nothing. I am absolved. I cannot see forgiveness as predicated upon the act of some one else. It is my sin. I must atone.

Canon Vernon F. Storrs is quoted in a book by T.H. Hughes, entitled, The Atonement: Modern theories of the Doctrine, pg. 61:

We are in no way bound to accept Paul’s interpretation of Christ’s death. I dismiss from my mind all ideas of substitution, or of the innocent paying the penalty of the guilty because these ideas offend my moral consciousness.

However, Jesus himself said that he came to die as a ransom for man’s sins (see Matthew 20:28; Matthew 26:28). The New Testament is filled with statements about the vicarious, substitutionary death of Christ (1 Timothy 2:5-6; Titus 2:14; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 1:18-19; 1 Peter 2:24; Revelation 1:5; Galatians 3:13). The substitutionary death of the Messiah was predicted graphically and unmistakably in Isaiah 53:1-12 and in Zechariah 12:10 to Zechariah 13:1. To reject the revelation of God is to fly in the face of a document that has been historically authenticated and validated by the resurrection of Christ from the dead. To reject the vicarious death of Christ as atonement for sin is infidelity and rebellion. It is the spirit of the antichrist. It cannot be made respectable by couching it in moral revulsion. To disavow what God has plainly stated should offend moral consciousness!

We suspect the rationale behind disavowing the vicarious death of Christ is the rebellion against surrendering one’s mind and life to the divine perspective. That is exactly why Paul emphasized the substitutionary death of Christ here; because it is absolutely crucial to the divine perspective. It is the one critical pre-requisite to the new creation. The world-perspective arrogantly insists on atoning for its own sins. Those who glory in the flesh intend to earn their standing before God with self-righteousness. Throwing oneself upon the mercy and grace of God will not do for the autonomous man. He must rule himself. And God must be satisfied with that! There is no repentance in that frame of mind. That is apostasy. Reconciliation to God with that attitude is impossible (see Hebrews 6:1-8). No man’s moral consciousness has a right to be offended at any divine fiat or directive. God told Abraham to slay Isaac as a sacrificeAbraham had no right to do anything but obey. God told Hosea to marry a woman of harlotryHosea had no right to resist on the grounds of moral consciousness. We must believe and obey God whether it seems right to us or to other men or not!

So Paul closes this text by contradicting all presumptions of earned righteousness. God made (Gr. epoiesen, aorist tense, at a point in time past), or imputed, all sin punished vicariously in Christ who willingly accepted it at the crucifixion in the days of Pontius Pilate. Then the apostle adds God did that in order that we might become (Gr. genometha, aorist subjunctive) the righteousness of God in him (Christ). When any person believes the gospel and obeys the truth (1 Peter 1:22) he is purified and becomes righteous. The aorist tense means our righteousness happens at a particular point in time, and the subjunctive mood means it is something done upon us, to us, or for usnot by us. God imputed our sins to Jesus, and imputed Jesus-’ righteousness to us! The cross was a transaction, initiated by God, worked out by God, declared by God and accepted by God. So man has no righteousness or goodness by which he may boast before God (see Romans 3:27; 1 Corinthians 1:29-30; Ephesians 2:8-9). God made Christ our righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30). By Christ’s perfect obedience many (believers) are made righteous (Romans 5:19). The Christian’s righteousness is not his own but that which depends on faith in Christ (Philippians 3:8-11). Righteousness is not attained by pursuing it, but by believing in Christ (Romans 9:30). God only imputes righteousness, however, to those who are in Christ by believing and obeying Christ’s commandments (1 John 1:8 to 1 John 2:6; Romans 6:1-23). We retain that imputed righteousness provided we continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which we have heard (Colossians 1:21-23).

Because we have that righteousness already, we do not have to earn it. It is our delight to begin with it, to start acting righteous because we are righteous. I hope you understand this, because this is the good news. It is no good news to come to a person and say, Christ forgave all your sins up to now, but from now on you-’d better watch it. You are going to have to pay for all those. No, no, that is not the gospel. The good news is all your sins are forgiven, all your life long, including those you have not even committed yet.

God knows your struggle. He has dealt with that. He is never going to retract his solution; he is never going to act any different way toward you. Because the sin problem is settled he can come in alongside of you and help you learn how to act righteously on that basis. And he will lifting you up, forgiving you, restoring you, strengthening you and staying right with you until this life is finally done. So this is the glory of it. We learn how a God of justice can come to a loveless, hard-hearted, self-righteous, selfish, hurting and hurtful sinner like you and me and not count his trespasses against him. That is the way he does it because he who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.Ray. C. Steadman,

op. cit., pg. 116-117.

Non-Christians, in rebellion, unreconciled to God because their sins are unforgiven and they have no righteousness that will meet the absolute demand of God, have no perspective beyond this world and this life. They cannot see things as God sees them, because they are determined not to. But remember, Paul is writing to the Christians at Corinth in this epistle. He is begging them that they not let their perspective slip from the divine to the human. Their faithfulness in a world of temptation and trial, and their hope for the eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison depends on retaining the divine perspective. The same holds true for Christians in the twentieth centuryand especially for preachers!

2 Corinthians 5:18-21

Applebury’s Comments

The Ministry of Reconciliation Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:18-21. But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

20 We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God. 21 Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

*Comments

But all things are of God.*For Paul, the old things had passed away. He had suffered the loss of all things that he might gain Christ. See Philippians 3:1-16. Once he had thought that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. See Acts 26:9. He had actually tried to destroy the church of God. See Galatians 1:13. But God reconciled him unto Himself and gave him the ministry of reconciliation. He had become a new creature in Christ.

*God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.*This sentence should, in all probability be punctuated as follows: God was, in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. It was through Christ that God created the world; it was through Him that God was reconciling the world unto Himself. Paul was the ambassador of Christ working together with God. This in no way contradicts the plain teaching of Scripture as to the deity of Jesus. His mission was to reveal the Father and save the lost. See Colossians 2:9; John 1:1-2; John 1:14; John 14:7-8. Paul said that Jesus existed in the form of God on an equality with God. See Philippians 2:5-11. The Gospel of John was written to show how Christ revealed the Father. See John 1:18. At the height of His ministry, Philip said to Jesus, Show us the Father, and it will suffice us. Jesus answered, Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I say unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for my very works sake (John 14:10-11). If they had only recognized Him, they would have known the Father. See John 14:7. The ministry of Christ shows the Father’s effort to bring men into fellowship with Himself again. Sin which caused the separation is blotted out by the blood of Christ. Paul had accepted this profound truth and had gotten himself baptized by Ananias that his sins might be washed away.

*not reckoning unto them their trespasses.*See Paul’s comment in Romans 4:6-8. The blood of Christ covers the sin of the one who believes in Christ; for that reason, the Lord will not reckon his sin against him. As an apostle of Christ, Paul told sinners how to be saved that they might be reconciled to God.

*we are ambassadors.*This term refers to the apostles of Christ whom He equipped by the baptism in the Holy Spirit to speak for Him. See John 16:8-14; 1 Corinthians 2:6-16. The wisdom of God had been revealed to them through the Spirit of God. They were ambassadors on behalf of Christ, that is, they were acting on His authority when they revealed the terms on which sinners could be reconciled to God. Instead of reckoning their trespasses against them, God was urging sinners to accept His terms and be brought into fellowship with Him again.

*Him who knew no sin.*The sinlessness of Jesus is determined by the fact that He was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin. See Hebrews 4:15. God made Him represent sin when He died on the cross for our sakes. This made it possible for us to become representatives of the righteous standard of conduct which God approves. The words of Christ on the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? show what it meant to represent sin. The cross shows what it means to be lost. The life of dedication to Christ shows what it means to become a representative of the kind of life God approves. Paul put it this way: I have been crucified with Christ; Christ lives in me. See Galatians 2:20. What was true of Paul is also true of those who belong to Christ, for they have crucified the flesh with the passions and lusts thereof. See Galatians 5:24.

The sin offering under the Old Covenant sheds light on the meaning of the cross. The sacrificial, animal had to be physically perfect. After the priest had confessed the sins of the people, the animal was slain to symbolize the fact that death is the penalty for sin. The perfection of the sacrifice symbolized the purity of the worshipper whose sins had been covered by the blood.

*the righteousness of God in him.*With his sins washed away in the blood of the Lamb, the believer becomes the representative of the kind of life God expects His people to live. Christ set the perfect example of this righteous conduct, for He did not sin. Peter, commenting on this, said, Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow in his steps: who did no sin (1 Peter 2:21-22).

Paul, speaking of the grace of God which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ, asks: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? (Romans 5:21; Romans 6:1-2). To those who have been buried with Christ through baptism into death and have been raised together with Him to walk in the new life, Paul adds, Even so reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies that ye should obey the lusts thereof: neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God! (Romans 6:11-13).

Summary

Paul faced the future with undaunted courage because he knew that although his body was growing weak under the load he was carrying there was a home for him in heaven. His physical body was like a tent in which he was living temporarily, but the heavenly building would be a permanent dwelling place with the Lord. Pain and hardship made Paul long for the time when he would be in that heavenly house not made with hands. He was not anticipating a condition without a body. Pagan philosophers thought such a state would be heavenly, because they would then be free from pain and suffering associated with the physical body. Paul looked to the time when the Lord would fashion anew this mortal body that it might conform to the body of His glory. We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him in His glorious body. Paul was sure of this because of the guarantee God had given through the revelation from God by the Holy Spirit. We can read about it in the Bible. In this confidence, Paul longed for the time when he would be able to leave this earthly home and be at home with the Lord in that permanent, heavenly dwelling. Therefore, Paul made it his aim to be well-pleasing to the Lord in this life and in the heavenly state. The verdict that will be rendered on the Judgment Day will depend on what we have done in the body in this life, whether it is good or evil. Because of this solemn thought, Paul had committed himself to the ministry of reconciliation which he had received from God. He was endeavoring to persuade men to obey God and be prepared for the Judgment Day. He knew that this was evident to God and he hoped that the Corinthians were aware of it too. Their own response to this message of reconciliation would allow them to boast of the fact that they had received it from God’s apostle. This differs from the situation of those who were boasting in false hopes instead of the real hope that comes from obedience to the gospel. Christ’s love for him was the compelling force that kept Paul on this true course. He knew that Christ had died for him, for He died for all sinners. Paul knew that he had died through his trespasses and sins; the greatest of these was his attempt to destroy the church of God. But Christ died for sinners so that they might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sakes died and rose again. Since he had come to understand what the love of Christ had done for him, he no longer looked at any man as a mere human being but as one who could become a new creature through obedience to Christ. Once he had looked upon Messiahindeed, most Jews had done the same thingas a human Christ. But His death and resurrection changed all this for Paul. Old things had passed away, behold, they had become new! Thus God had reconciled Paul to Himself through Christ and had given him the ministry of reconciliation. God was, in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. He was not entering their trespasses in the record against them, but through His ambassador He was pleading that they reconcile themselves to Him. This was possible because He made the sinless Christ to represent sin as He died on the cross that they might become the representatives of righteousness which God approves by their relation to Christ.

Questions

Old Green Commentaries

The College Press Bible Study Textbook Series — 59 volumes by 25 authors, published between 1961 and 1992 and affectionately known as the 'old green' commentaries for their green hardback bindings. Each volume is a commentary, workbook and teaching manual in one, written by Restoration Movement …

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Old Testament

GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUT 1SA 2SA 1KI 2KI 1CH 2CH EZR NEH EST JOB PSA PRO ECC SOS ISA JER LAM EZK DAN HOS JOL AMO OBA JON MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL

New Testament

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