Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Ministry Of Reconciliation

 (Audio version; Music: "How He Loves Us" by John Mark McMillan--WorshipMob--Real Live Music) 


Introduction

            You know there’s a reason that Jesus said in Matthew 7:6 that we aren’t to give dogs what is sacred or to throw pearls to pigs. He was trying to tell us that it’s futile to try and teach holy concepts to people who refuse to listen and are persistent in rejecting the salvation message of the Gospel. Jesus wasn’t saying that we shouldn’t engage an unbelieving world as this would be contrary to the Great Commission of spreading the Gospel to every nation. Instead, what Jesus was saying is that we should be wise about who we engage so that we aren’t wasting our time on unbelievers with hearts of stone. Well I haven’t found that balance quite yet as I post my lessons to a number of public message boards on Wednesdays. Not surprisingly, these public message boards are the favored hunting grounds of many unbelievers who are free to spew their vile profanity and hatred of God in response to my weekly lessons. The comments were few and far between in the early years of this ministry but now I get dozens every week which has given birth to something I call “Hate Mail Thursday.” I take Thursdays to respond to as many of the comments I can. Some comments don’t anticipate a response, they’re just a reflection of lives filled with anger. Other comments warrant a response because there is genuine confusion that I seek to clarify. However, most of the comments are from unbelievers who want nothing more than to discourage evangelism and belief. They’re not seeking, they have made their decision and have rejected God. Their mission is to discourage the faith of believers and lead seekers away from God. I had a conversation with just such a person this week who sought to define God as one who ordered and condoned “genocide and mass rape.” This person wanted to use the Old Testament practice of war and the spoils of war as it relates to the killing of entire people groups or killing all men and taking women, children, and livestock as spoils of war to demonstrate that God orders genocide and mass rape. Don’t try and understand that, just keep reading and you’ll see where this line of thinking is going. In any event, I tried to explain that warfare for Israel was the same as all other peoples of the ancient near east. Except that Israel’s purpose wasn’t centered on territorial expansion. Instead, God order the destruction of Israel’s enemies in direct proportion to the danger God believed they posed to Israel’s safety to some degree but primarily to protect her purity of devotion to God alone. Surviving women were subject to ritual purification and then welcomed into the community as slaves, servants, or wives in some cases. It was at this point the unbeliever I was engaged with revealed his true motivation when he said, “Since you’ve also clearly labeled homosexuality as sinful, I wonder if you would consider a genocide of homosexuals in order to protect the purity of Christian culture to be morally acceptable.” The cherished sin of homosexuality revealed itself. It took a while to get there but we eventually did. Perhaps I wasted lots of time dealing with a hardened unbeliever but I think something of value came out of the exchange. What was my response to that comment? Well in part I didn’t respond for fear of allowing Hate Mail Thursday to turn into Hate Mail Friday. I really do want to spend whatever time I do have available to edify unbelievers sincerely looking for answers to their questions. Nevertheless, this particular unbeliever brought up a good point. What’s the difference between Israel’s interaction with a surrounding sinful culture and the Church’s interaction with a sinful culture? God expects no less purity from the Church than He did from Israel. With Israel, God attempted to clear the way for Israel to grow into a community that would be the conduit for all other nations to seek God—that didn’t work because Israel seemed bent on it’s own destruction through its own sin. Consequently, in Israel’s place, God became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ who would actually fulfill the objective of creating a conduit for all people to find their way back to God. As part of His earthly ministry, Jesus established the Church who would continue the ministry He began to a lost world. The incarnation of God in Jesus also inaugurated something else into the world—A new way of dealing with sin. During the Old Testament era, God attempted to create the perfect environment so Israel could thrive and grow by removing sinful influences. In the New Testament, God set the Church right in the middle of a sinful world and sent the Holy Spirit to live within individual believers to provide the power to live lives pleasing to God as a means to transform a sinful culture. So will God ever deal with unrepentant sin in the world? Yes, but there is much work for the Church to do before that. Until then, the Church is charged with the task of pointing an unbelieving world toward God. Our task is not to rid the world of sin or sinners. Our task; the task of every Christian, is to pave the way for sinners to be reconciled to God through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Our ministry is not a ministry of abolishing sin or sinners, it is a Ministry Of Reconciliation between God and humanity.

Subject Text

2 Corinthians 5:14-21

            14For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Context

            Corinth is the ideal setting for this week’s lesson because it is a reflection of our own culture in so many ways. Corinth was an international trade center influenced by countless cultures and was known for its idolatry and immorality. The young Church in Corinth struggled to live out its life of faith in an environment that constantly sought to undermine its faith and beliefs. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he attempted to instruct them about specific moral issues they faced in their everyday lives—issues of sex, marriage and easily influenced consciences. Always present were unbelievers and false teachers that questioned Paul’s motives and twisted the truth of the Gospel message. A significant part of Paul’s ministry was instructing believers on how they should live out their faith in a world that loves sin. However, Paul always battled with those who couldn’t bear to give up their cherished sinful lives. But Paul’s objective was to guide the Church away from sinful behavior. That was not his mission to the unbelieving world at large. Paul knew that removing sin apart from being in a relationship with Christ was a pointless endeavor. Consequently, Paul’s primary purpose with respect to his interaction with the unbelieving world was to introduce them—or perhaps more accurately—to reintroduce them to their Creator and give them an opportunity to mend their broken relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Paul’s ministry was not one bent on purifying the culture, it was a Ministry Of Reconciliation.

Text Analysis

            14For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

            Paul is speaking directly to believers in vv. 14-15 that there was no longer anything needed for their salvation because Christ died for their sins as their substitute and His death was sufficient for them all. As a result, for those who accepted Christ’s death in place of their own, they could no longer cling to their previously sinful lives because Christ’s death was representative of their own death. However, Christ’s resurrection represented a resurrection for them as well—a resurrection to a new life, a life of selfless devotion to Christ. “It is not the knowledge of Christ in His earthly life, but the love which Christ has for man that is the constraining power of Paul’s preaching…The ‘Love of Christ’ here, then, is the love which Christ has for us, not the love which we bear to Him; the constraining power of Christian ministration and service is more effective and stable than it would be if it sprang from the fickle and variable affections of men…To die [for someone else] is the greatest proof that anyone can offer of his love. The proof to us of the Love of Christ to all is that He died [for us]. Of this Death two consequences are now mentioned; (a) one objective and inevitable, quite independent of our faith and obedience, (b) another subjective and conditional…The Dying of Christ on the Cross was in some sort the dying of all mankind. But the purposes of the Atonement are not completely fulfilled without the response of man’s faith and obedience.”[1]

16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

            It is crucial that we understand what Paul is saying in vv. 16-17. One of the by-products of being reborn; renewed, is a changed perspective. Where once we reasoned and acted according the priorities of the world, we now reason and act according the leading of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, what we once considered to be a foolish way of life—belief in God; selfless love; a life of holiness, righteousness, and purity; we now see, with the help of the Holy Spirit, as the life we were created to live from the start. In a sense, we have been recreated! “At one time, Paul had evaluated Jesus by what the world thought about him…According to human standards, Jesus was merely a human being, an insignificant man who died like a criminal. But that changed at Paul’s encounter with Christ on the Damascus road (Acts 9:1-15). In the same way, believers are changed when they meet Christ. Christians are new people. The Holy Spirit gives them new life, and they are not the same anymore. Christians are not reformed, rehabilitated, or reeducated—they are recreated. At conversion, believers are not merely turning over a new leaf; they are beginning a new life under a new Master. The old life of sin and death has gone; the selfish, sinful human nature has been dealt a death blow. Old ways of thinking, old distinctions, have been abolished. In its place, a new life has begun.”[2]

18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

            From the time of Adam’s sin until now, God has had one objective—to mend the relationship with humanity that was broken by sin. In the Old Testament, Israel was the instrument God intended on using to point the nations back to God. All that was needed was Israel’s faithfulness in their devotion to God and their obedience to the Law that was given to them by God. They failed at both as they drift away from their devotion to God and faithful obedience to the Law. Toward the end of the Old Testament era, while there was clearly still a religious component in Israel, it seemed to be more ceremonial than devotional. The religious leaders lived and operated in luxury while surround by sickness and poverty. Moneychangers set up shop in the temple courts and extorted the people who were seeking to enter God’s temple to make their offerings. Israel was supposed to be different than the surrounding nations and they certainly started that way, but over the course of hundreds of years, they simply became a reflection of the culture that surrounded them while dressed in religious garb and wrapped in prescribed rituals. It was at this point that God took matters into his own hands and became incarnate in the person of Jesus. It would be Christ who would succeed where Israel failed. According to vv. 18-19, Jesus would be the instrument through whom God would reconcile humanity back to Himself. Jesus would do what Israel could never do through their repeated sin sacrifices—Jesus would sacrifice himself for the sins of humanity. The time for God to try and create the perfect environment for faith and obedience had come to an end. God turned his focus away from dealing with sinners for the benefit of Israel so they could point the nations to God to dealing with sin through Jesus Christ for the benefit of all humanity. God took the initiative to reconcile humanity to himself. “Reconciliation assumes ruptured relationships, alienation, and disaffection. The problem, however, is not with God, as if God were some cruel taskmaster from whom humans rebelled. Human sinfulness created the problem, and this sinful condition had to be dealt with before there could be any reconciliation. Sin incurs God’s holy wrath, so it could not be treated lightly or swept under the rug. God can never be reconciled to sin, but God does not turn away from sinners in disgust and leave them to the just desserts. Instead while humans are still in open revolt, God acted in love to bring the hostility to an end and to bring about peace. This peace is not simply a cessation of hostilities or an uneasy truce. It refers to the mending of the broken relationship that results from God justifying us through faith and changing us from enemies to friends.”[3]

20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

            The means for humanity to be reconciled to God was the message God entrusted to Paul and by extension to all of us according to Jesus’ command to take the Gospel message to all nations and people. Although it is Paul who is calling the people to be reconciled to God, there’s nothing in it for him one way or another. Instead, it is God who is making the plea for reconciliation. He just happens to be using Paul in the case of our Subject Text and by extension He uses me when I teach the message of reconciliation to you and He uses you when you share this lesson with others and pass on the message of reconciliation to them. But the plea for reconciliation doesn’t originate from any of us, it originates from God. Nevertheless, the plea for reconciliation that comes from Paul or from any of us carries the same weight as though it were coming directly from God according to v. 20 because we are “ambassadors” of Christ. We typically understand an ambassador as someone who is a representative of a country acting in an official capacity in a foreign country. An ambassador can also be a representative or promoter of a certain activity. And finally, an ambassador can be a someone representing another person in authority like a king or queen. In the case of our Subject Text, we as Christians, are in a sense all of these. We are ambassadors of the Kingdom of heaven as we live as foreigners in this world as official representatives of that Kingdom. We are ambassadors who promote an activity; the activity of reconciliation. Finally, we are ambassadors of Christ the King through whom humanity must be reconciled to God and become citizens of heaven. “Rather than speaking directly to the nations of earth, God ordained that human spokespersons would speak for him. As an apostle, Paul had authority to lead and guide the church. Yet, this description applies to all who bear the gospel of Christ to others—even to those who do not bear apostolic authority. Though we may not present the gospel as perfectly as Paul did, we do speak on God’s behalf when we bring the message of grace to others. But Paul and his company were to be received as mouthpieces of God in the most authoritative sense.”[4]

21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

            We find in the pages of the Old Testament a number of ways that God dealt with sin. In some cases He would destroy a people and their sinful influences and in other cases He instituted an animal sacrifice system as a means for the atonement of personal sin or even corporate sin. But here in v. 21 Paul tells us that Christ became the perfect sacrifice and the ultimate means for our reconciliation. Once reconciled to God, we become what God intended for us to be all along—His children; His friends; His ambassadors. We tend to underestimate in our age of grace the ultimate consequences of our sins—judgment and death. Christians don’t talk much about judgment and condemnation because it makes people uncomfortable—especially unbelievers. However, as ambassadors of Christ we have a duty to preach the Gospel of reconciliation—all of it. And that means warning people of the consequences of not being reconciled to God. In 1741 Jonathan Edwards preached what some have called the greatest sermon ever preached during the Great Awakening in America titled Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God. Here is a small part of that sermon:

“O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder, and you have no interest in a Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.”[5]

            “Against this backdrop, the hope of the gospel burns brightly. God is the one who not only judges the world in his wrath but also poured out his judgment on his own Son in order to reconcile the world to himself. In spite of our sin, we can still be saved! We can be forgiven! We can be set free from its power! We can be reckoned righteous in God’s sight and made righteous as a new creation! This is the new perspective from which Paul views all humanity—not who they are in their sin, but who they can be in their Savior…All this is accomplished not by our efforts, but by God’s sovereign act of creating anew. God reconciles us to himself not because of our distinctives or accomplishments, but because of the unique distinctives of the one who was made sin even though he knew no sin. We do not reach up to God, but God reaches out to us. We are not called to make great declarations to God, rather, God has declared a word of reconciliation to us, a word of his own redeeming love, a love that stretches from the crossing of the sea to the cross of the Son of God.”[6]

Application

            So how do you suppose we, as Christians, should respond to an unbeliever seeking to disparage a God they don’t believe exists and discourage Christians from believing in a God they don’t believe exists by advancing the premise, “Since you’ve also clearly labeled homosexuality as sinful, I wonder if you would consider a genocide of homosexuals in order to protect the purity of Christian culture to be morally acceptable.”? I’m not so naïve as to not see that this particular unbeliever is trying to build a case against God’s existence because he or she, in the infinite wisdom gained from…(?), has judged that a true God would never behave the way the God of the bible behaves, consequently God must not exist. Very convenient don’t you think? It is a worldview that therefore allows for every sin as each person’s private and personal choice—there is no objective moral truth so sin is simply a matter of opinion. For example, what one person judges as sin, another judges to be merely an alternative lifestyle. So what should be our message to a culture that refuses to acknowledge the existence of sin or adopts sinful behavior as a personal choice that is morally neutral? Well, why would our message be any different than Paul’s message was to the Corinthians? God reconciled humanity to himself through Jesus Christ and won’t count their sins against them. God has entrusted us with a message to proclaim to the world. The message for all of humanity is: Be reconciled to God before it’s too late. Just because people don’t want to hear the message of reconciliation doesn’t mean we shouldn’t proclaim it. It is not for us to decide who might be prepared to hear that message. We have a duty; we are ambassadors of Christ and as representatives of the King we’ve been given specific orders to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations and to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It’s called the Great Commission and it accomplishes the task of reconciling humanity to God for the benefit of those who believe. The life of a believer consists of more than a personal transformation, it also represents the inauguration of a personal ministry to an unbelieving world—a Ministry Of Reconciliation.


[1] W. Robertson Nicoll, The Expositor’s Greek Testament, Vol. III, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1983), pp. 69-70.
[2] Bruce Barton, Philip comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 728.
[3] David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians—The New American Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), pp. 289-290.
[4] Richard L. Pratt, Jr., I & II Corinthians—Holman New Testament Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2000), p. 359.
[5] From The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 2, (Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth Trust, 1974 [reprint of 1834]), pp. 7-12
[6] Scott J. Hafemann, 2 Corinthians—The NIV Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), pp. 262-263.



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