Out With The Old and In With The New
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Exploring 2 Corinthians: An Expository Commentary Part 2: Paul and His Commission (2 Corinthians 1:3–5:21)
A communist agitator was once addressing a crowd in a city square. He pointed to a beggar staggering down the street arrayed in rags and tatters and more than a little drunk. “Communism will put a new suit on that man!” the Bolshevik cried. A Christian in the crowd called back: “Christ can put a new man in that suit.”
Scripture Reading:
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Proposition:
Transition: You Are Not Defined By A Year
There is the reality of change
Paul used the words “In Christ” about 130 times in his epistles
In Christ- To be “in Christ means much more than being encircled by Christ. A person can step out of a circle. He cannot step out of a sphere.
Example- Noah and his family stepped into the ark, they were “ensphered” in the ark
When a person becomes a Christian old things pass away and all things become new. For “in Christ” the very life that Jesus lived is available to us. He not only gave His life for us, He gives His life to us.
Illustration: See airplane in JPCS
There is a Reason for the Change-
“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 5:18a).
All is of God! Between God and man a state of enmity exists, but it is all on man’s side.
God does not hate us. He loves us. We hated Him, for the Devil told us God was our enemy and that He wanted to spoil our fun. He distorted our thoughts of God.
He wanted us to see Him as a big Ogre.
Or, he would tell us that the way back to God is a painful one calling for penances and pilgrimages, fasts and flagellations, sacrifices and sufferings.
Nonsense. All the enmity was on our side and not God’s.
God is the One who does the reconciling; man never makes reconciliation.
All the initiative is with God. He is the One who holds out to us the amnesty.
And it’s all because of Jesus, who provides the propitiatory sacrifice.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they heard the voice of God and they ran and hid. They were haunted by guilt and a terrible fear of God’s vengeance. But God had come to be reconciled and to provide the means where thy could be brought back to him.
They didn’t seek God, He sought them.
Vs 19 states God was “In Christ”
No illustration I can come up with gives a better view than the one Jesus gives us about the prodigal son and the father as well as the older brother
The prodigal- lost running from the father
The Pharisaical older brother
There Is a Responsibility
We are ambassadors
Why we are ambassadors-
He was made sin for us! Just like Moses at the burning bush, we need to remove the shoes from our feet, for the place where we stand is holy ground!
The sin offering and the burnt offerings are a great example of the symbology of the Old Testament sacrifice.
The sin offering was that the priest put his hand on the head of the offering, identifying himself with it, and slew it. This represented the vileness and wickedness, the sin of the sinner that was symbolically placed upon the sacrifice.
The burnt offering in a similar fashion represented the virtue of the sacrifice. This virtue was symbolically transferred to the substitute from the sacrifice.
That is the significance of Calvary- that is the transferring of righteousness from the sacrifice, Jesus, to the substitute, You, when you accept Jesus as your savior.
When God sees us, He sees His Son and is satisfied.
Therefore, when we look ahead to 2021, we can leave this year behind us. We can look forward to a year that God is still in control, He is still on His throne and He still loves us.
We have a mission as Christians- to be ambassadors for Christ. Not for me, not for this church, not for show, and not because you think you have to, but because you want to.