WWUTT 1676 The Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18)

We have been given the ministry of reconciliation. By faith in the gospel, we've been reconciled to God, and now we're to take the gospel to others so that they, too, may hear and believe and be reconciled when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it.

Visit our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in 2 Corinthians, chapter 5.

I believe there was a point where I said I was going to read all of chapter 5 and haven't done that yet. So let's look at the whole chapter here out of the

Legacy Standard Bible, and then we're going to pick up where we left off last week, which would put us in about verse 18.

This is the word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth. Now, he who prepared us for this very purpose is

God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge, therefore being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the

Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight, we are of good courage, and prefer rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the

Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

So then, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. But we have been made manifest to God, and I hope that we have been made manifest also in your consciences.

We are not again commending ourselves to you, but are giving you an opportunity to boast of us, so that you will have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.

For if we are out of our mind, it is for God, or if we are of right mind, it is for you.

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died, and he died for all, so that they who live would no longer live for themselves, but for him who died, and rose again on their behalf.

Therefore, from now on, we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we have known

Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old things passed away, behold, new things have come.

Now, all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their transgressions against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

So, then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As God is pleading through us, we beg you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

And that's where we're picking up today, those last four verses of 2 Corinthians 5, and we'll meditate on those four verses today, tomorrow, and Wednesday.

Let's come back to verse 17, where we finished up last week. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old things passed away, behold, the new things have come. I've had many baptism conversations with people who want to be baptized, and helping them to come to an understanding of what baptism represents.

They have been buried with Christ in their sins, and they've been risen with him to walk in newness of life.

In fact, the way that we baptize here at First Baptist Church is, I will, when

I submerge a person under the water, because that's truly what baptism is, they're going all the way under, and I'll say to them, be buried with Christ in baptism.

And as they come back up, we'll say, and risen again to walk in newness of life.

So they show by this act, in obedience to God, who told us to baptize and be baptized, by this act, they demonstrate that they are in Christ, buried in their sins.

They have died with Christ. As Paul says in Galatians 1 .20, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer

I who live, but Christ who lives within me. And the life I now live in the flesh,

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I said that was

Galatians 1 .20, it's 2 .20. Galatians 2 .20 is that passage. So I've been crucified with Christ, risen again to walk in newness of life.

That's right there in that passage. The life that I now live, I live by faith in the

Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. We walk by faith and not by sight.

As it said earlier in 2 Corinthians 5, chapter 5, verse 7, and in verse 9, therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him.

So we have died to our sin, and we are alive in Christ Jesus to walk in his righteousness.

And that's something that Paul is getting to in this chapter as we come to the close of it.

He made him sin who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

So in Christ, the old is passed away, behold, the new has come. We're not walking in the old ways anymore.

We must consider the old person, the old self, who we used to be, to be dead.

We are not walking in those old ways anymore. If anyone is in Christ, he's new.

He is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, the new has come.

And as Christ says, even at the close of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22, I am making all things new.

And we live as a testament to that as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ. We're a testament to the old things are gone.

Behold, the new has come. Now, this is something that Paul references often to the

Ephesians, putting off the old and putting on the new to the Colossians. Also, this is

Colossians chapter three, beginning in verse nine. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its evil practices and you've put on the new man who is being renewed to a full knowledge according to the image of the one who created him.

A renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised barbarians get the enslaved free.

But Christ is all and in all. So we who are in Christ, there's there's no distinction between us.

There's not one person has more value in the kingdom of God than another. No, all of us were sinners and now we're saved.

All of us were headed to hell. And now we have become inheritors. We've been made fellow heirs of the kingdom of God.

That's the story of every believer. So there's no distinction. There's no and this is the ways that we consider one another in the world.

This is the way that we regard one another. The people of the world regard one another according to the flesh.

So they look at the outward appearance. They look at the color of the skin. They look at the culture that this person came from.

They listen to the way they talk. They consider how old or young they are, whether they are man or woman.

This is the way that the world shows prejudice. But we who are in Christ are not to be prejudiced in this way.

Show no partiality as you hold to the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

As James said in James 2 1. So in in Christ, we no longer see these distinctions, nor do we walk in the old way of our flesh.

We're to put off those things. Those practices were evil. We're to put on a new man who is being renewed.

That's Colossians 3 10 again. Put on the new man who is being renewed to a full knowledge, according to the image of the one who created him.

We are being made more and more into the image of Christ, as it says in Romans 8 29.

Those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers.

If we've been predestined for salvation, God has destined for us also to be conformed to the image of Christ, that we would look like Jesus.

So this is our sanctification. As we're growing in holiness and righteousness, we are to be made more and more like Christ.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. We are born again.

That's the way Jesus put it with Nicodemus in John chapter three. You must be born again.

If anyone is in Christ, he is new. The old things have passed away. Behold, the new has come.

So therefore, we must regard, as Paul said earlier in verse nine, we have as our ambition to be pleasing to him.

We are to live unto Christ. We live unto his righteousness, which we have been clothed in, all who are in Christ Jesus.

Now, you could consider 2 Corinthians 5, 17 to 21 to be one section.

And it begins and ends with this desire to live as Christ. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.

The old is gone. The new has come. So live in Christ. And that's verse 17. Look at verse 21.

He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might what? We might become the righteousness of God in him.

We live in his righteousness, in the new things, the new that has come, the new garments that we have been clothed in.

Just as Jesus said to the church at Laodicea in Revelation chapter three, I tell you to buy from me white garments so that you may clothe yourselves and your nakedness, your shame, your sin may not be seen.

This is Jesus through this metaphor talking about putting on his righteousness. And if we are wearing his righteousness, we're walking in his righteousness.

We are demonstrating righteous works that we are to be doing in Christ Jesus.

Now, consider verse 18 here in light of verse 17, in light of verse 21, and we have 17 and 21 as our book ends.

Look at verse 18. Now, all of these things are from God. Who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the us there is is probably

Paul talking about himself and his missionary brethren. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That may be the direct application of that. So the us there is Paul talking about himself and those who serve with him as they go out with the gospel of Christ.

But it still applies to all of us as well. All of us have received the ministry of reconciliation.

When we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are preaching reconciliation.

And these things are from God. You came to faith in Jesus Christ when you heard the gospel, not because you decided, you know what?

I need a new religion. So I'm going to follow this Jesus or I need some kind of moral code.

And I haven't really fixed myself on some book of morality. So, hey, why don't I follow

Jesus? And now I can call myself a moral person. That's not of God. That's of the flesh. If we are saved, if we are worshipers of God, if we are followers of the

Lord Jesus Christ, this has come from God. It was not of man so that no one may boast.

As it says in John one, beginning in verse 12, as many as received him talking about Jesus to them, he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

If you are born again, if you have put off the old and put on the new, this is from God.

All of these things are from God. Praise his name. Give him glory for he reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

Now, what does it mean to be reconciled? I love this word, and I've talked on this many times.

Even in the definition of this word, you can hear hints of the gospel in the definition of this word.

To be reconciled means to accept that which was not previously desired.

Accept, A -C -C -E -P -T, to accept that which was not previously desired.

When we were in our sin, in our transgressions, our trespasses, in which we once walked, following the course of the world and the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, that's

Ephesians 2, 1 through 3. When we lived in that way, we were living in our sins, we did not desire

God. You desired your sin. You desired your flesh. So, going back to 2

Corinthians 5, 17 again, the old things, when we were in the old things, when we were in the old man, in the old ways, we were going after our sin.

That's what we wanted. We did not want God. We wanted what we wanted.

We wanted ourselves. We wanted the passions of our flesh, our own personal desires, and those desires weren't

God. That's who we were before Christ.

And just like the rest of the world, just like the rest of mankind that is under the wrath of God, that's also said there in Ephesians 2, 3.

So, we, with the rest of mankind, were following after the passions of our flesh. We didn't want God.

We wanted what we wanted. But when the gospel was proclaimed to us and we heard that we have sinned against God and what we deserve for that is judgment and wrath, and that's what's coming upon us in the end, the judgment of God will be poured out on us if we continue in this wickedness and this selfishness.

When we heard that, we're cut to the heart and the Holy Spirit convicting our hearts causes us to ask, how can

I be saved from the judgment of God that is coming against my sin? And then it's the gospel that answers that question for us.

Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Acts 16, 31.

So, then by this conviction of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, regeneration, being born again, different words that are used for that, but we've been changed in the person somehow.

We've gone from a person who wanted to do our own thing apart from God and now we want

God. We desire God. We want to do what's pleasing to God. We didn't want that before, but we do now.

And that's from God. All of these things are from God who reconciled us to himself.

So, previously we did not desire God, but now through the preaching of the gospel, the work of the

Holy Spirit in our hearts, we're turning from the desires of our flesh to the desires of God and we're being reconciled.

Now we desire God when previously we did not. So, we desire that which we did not previously desire.

That's one part of reconciliation. The other part is when we were walking in our sin,

God did not desire us. He did not desire us in that state.

As it says in Habakkuk 1, 13, his eyes are so holy, he can't even look at sin. So, he did not desire us in our sinfulness.

We were objects of his wrath. But he looked past former sins, as it says in Romans 3, and he sent his son to be an atoning sacrifice, to die on the cross for us so that whoever believes in him, his blood atones for our sin and we're no longer under the wrath of God.

We are in his grace. We are in his love. So, he did not desire us when we were in the state of sinfulness, but by his grace and mercy, he changed us, clothed us in the righteousness of Christ, and now we are the objects of his love and affection.

And the love that God has for his son is the same love that he has for us. This is what it means to be reconciled.

When we were in our sin, we did not desire God and he did not desire us in that state. But now, by faith in Jesus Christ, who has clothed us in his righteousness, we desire

God and he desires us. And this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

So, now we go out with the gospel so that others may hear and believe and come to faith and they are reconciled to God.

So, we now preach this ministry of reconciliation to others that they too might be saved.

And once again, all of these things are from God, so that the boasting would not be ours.

We boast not in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.

Let's stop there. We'll continue this section of 2 Corinthians 5 tomorrow. Heavenly Father, we thank you for reconciling us to yourself through your son.

Romans 5, 8, God demonstrated his love for us in this way. While we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. And now, having been reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ, we have also this ministry of reconciliation that we might preach the good news to others and they too might believe and be saved.

Give us boldness in these days not to shrink back, but to stand forth with the gospel because the world needs to hear it and there is no other way that a person can be saved except by faith in the name of Jesus Christ.

It's in his name that we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .wutt

.com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our