2 Corinthians 5:14-21 - Be Reconciled to God

Resurrection Sunday is a day that we celebrate, right?

That death has been conquered.

We celebrate that life has been redeemed and purchased for us because of what Christ has done on the cross.

He came and he lived a perfect life, which then qualified him to atone for our sins.

And that is what he did: paying the debt that you and I owed.

He was the perfect sacrifice for us.

He died so that we can live.

He defeated death by coming back to life, and he will never die again.

Likewise, those who hope in Christ, although our flesh will die, brothers and sisters, we never will.

And this passage in 2 Corinthians, maybe in 5, chapter 5, reminds us of what Christ has done for us and what Christ is doing.

Reminds us what Christ has done and what Christ is doing.

The first thing we'll see is that Christ was controlled by love, so now we are controlled by love.

Christ came to reconcile us to him, and now we call others to be reconciled to God.

Read with me, beginning in verse 14 of 2 Corinthians 5.

And just remember, church, this is God's holy, sacred word.

Looking at verse 14, for the love of Christ controls us.

Because we have concluded this that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for those who for their sake died and was raised.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away, behold the new has come.

All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

For our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This is one of those passages where you read it and you want us to just sit down and just conclude the service.

Paul's logic, his flow here, he's teaching the church at Corinth and churches throughout the centuries what Christ has done and what Christ is doing.

We know that Christ is controlled by love.

They've controlled and come forth that he might redeem us.

His motivation is love.

Christ obeyed the Father and He kept the law perfectly, so that God would be glorified through the salvation of sinners.

And what does this love look like that Christ modeled for us?

Well, verse 14, the second part says, One has died for all, therefore all have died.

And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him for the sake, excuse me, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

And if anyone else came to you and said, listen, I'm gonna die for you, but in exchange, you must now live for me and no longer for yourself.

If anyone else came to you with that agreement or that negotiation, that offer, right?

So you're gonna you're gonna kind of give yourself for me, but then I'm gonna become a slave to you, indebted to you.

You no longer want me to live for myself.

But Christ, being who he was and is God, knew that those who follow him, those who trust in him, will have life in abundance.

The way to enjoy him and to know him and to follow him is to live, sacrificing your desires to obey him.

God's act of mercy was to die for you so you can no longer live for yourself.

I mean, think about how many people, ourselves included, if you ask them, what are the top three threats or dangers in your life?

What are the top three things that are just the dangers that are gonna steal your life away from you or rob you of the pleasures and joys of life?

How many would say, Myself?

The greatest threat to my life is myself.

Maybe not my like life has sent breath in my lungs, but the greatest threat to me living a good life is myself.

And that's what the text is saying.

That's what the Holy Spirit through Paul is saying.

That Christ has come to die so that those whom he died for would stop living for themselves.

But they would live for him.

Our instinct is self-protection, self-preservation.

And this isn't like always a bad thing, but it is our instinct.

And not just survival, like get the bad guy and make it through the day, go home to see your family.

Your instinct is man, I got some free time, what do I want to do?

I got some extra cash, what do I want to spend it on?

I have some extra opportunities, what do I want to do with those things?

We're always putting ourselves first.

And here Christ is come.

The mission of the cross was here to free you from this kind of thinking.

And most of us don't even see this as a problem, but it is.

So much of what Christ accomplished for you by his death is you being freed to no longer live for yourself.

So we gather on Easter to remember the crucifixion of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, that the grave couldn't keep him and death couldn't hold him, and he's atoned for our sin.

Glory be to God for that.

Praise the Lord.

But what's that mean?

Well, it means is that you and me, we don't live for ourselves anymore.

Because the resurrection happened, because it's real, we no longer live for us.

We live for Christ.

And we live in a day and age, in a culture where there's people professing to live for Christ, but their life isn't any different, or it doesn't look any different than those of the world who are living for themselves.

They might have the right language, they might have the right knowledge, but are they living not for themselves, but for Christ?

When this happens, when Christ comes into our lives and he frees us from thinking and being consumed about ourselves.

He frees us from the bondage of sin.

It's this whole new perspective.

We're given new sight, new vision for the world.

It's like you get a new compass with a new orientation of which way to go.

Now no longer do you see people simply with fleshly eyes or a worldly perspective.

You see them in a new way.

What happened to Peter and the apostles?

They once viewed Jesus this way, according to the flesh, or with a worldly perspective, a man-centered view.

But not anymore.

They came and they're like, well, where's the Messiah?

And he's going to liberate the people, he's going to kick out the Romans, and this is going to be great.

They have these human, worldly perspective eyes.

But Christ has come and said, listen, because of love, because of love controlled by love, no longer do you have that worldly, fleshly perspective.

You're new creations, you have new vision.

You've been made new.

Think back for a moment about your own conversion.

When Christ saved you and regenerated you, transformed you.

Now, maybe some of you are really young, you got saved really young, and so you don't remember that.

And I just want to encourage you, like your conversion is just as dramatic because you're just as much a sinner.

You just don't remember it.

But maybe think of someone else's conversion that you know of that is just this transformation.

Think about your own story.

When Christ came in, he saved you.

He put a new heart in you, new desires, a new creation.

And the way that you once talked, you don't talk that way anymore.

The way that you once lived, you don't live that way anymore.

The way that you once kind of went about your days and spent your money and you did those things, you don't do those anymore.

You're a new creation.

So we don't regard you according to the worldly or fleshly perspective.

Look around, just in this room, there's people all around who've been transformed by the love of Christ.

Their desires changed.

Their love changed because Christ loved them.

So we don't view people with this worldly perspective, a fleshly perspective anymore because God has made us new.

And this is why, even though it might look like or seem like insanity to the world, there are people who leave their homes and travel to foreign lands to tell others about Jesus.

This is why we do life here, we work jobs, we pray for our leaders, we vote, but we don't lose sleep over what's going on in the world around us or who's in the White House.

This is why you can say, when you have like almost no money in your bank account and there's a need, you say, hey, we should give some to this people.

And the world, like all their stability and their hopes and dreams are tied into stability and what they can get for themselves, or what they can kind of insulate themselves from.

But as Christians, compelled by love, we don't have that perspective anymore.

We're not worried about laying up treasures here on earth.

We're not worried about tyrants and tyranny.

We know God is sovereign over those things.

And so we go to our jobs and we work hard.

We we seek to do good and to serve our community and pray for those around us.

But we trust the Lord.

We're not thinking and living on this plane anymore.

We don't have these worldly, fleshly eyes and perspectives.

Christ came.

He loved, controlled by love.

Now we're controlled by love.

People wrong us, they say things against us.

We're controlled by love.

We're not worried about our reputation.

We're not worried about getting our pound of flesh.

We're worried about are we walking in the ways of the Lord?

Are we trusting him?

Are we like him being controlled by love?

And Christ came to reconcile.

He came to reconcile us to him.

And now we call others to be reconciled to God.

Look with me again in verse 18.

On down.

All this is from God.

All what?

Well, not having a worldly perspective.

That Christ gave his life so that we no longer would live for ourselves but live for him.

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

That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.

God making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God.

For some, I would imagine you feel like you don't need to be reconciled to God.

You feel like you and God are doing fine.

For the most part, things are working out, you're grateful that He's there, you're doing your thing, but you don't feel this need that there's some kind of thing between you and God that needs reconciled.

You've done your bit, you've worked hard, paid your dues, we're good.

You don't feel this.

And there are two main reasons why you understand this to be true: that you don't need to be reconciled to God.

You don't understand, one, your own nature, and that your heart is actually in rebellion to God.

How do you know this?

Well, you're happy to follow God as long as God calls you to do things that you want to do.

But as soon as God calls you to do things that you don't want to do, that's where the submission stops.

That's where the I'm following God thing stops for you.

God, I'm happy to do these things, but don't ask me to give up that thing.

So your heart's in rebellion to Him.

The second reason you don't think you need reconciled to God is much more serious.

And that is that you don't understand how holy God is.

You don't understand His holiness, that He is righteous, holy.

God is just and God is holy.

So any infraction against His law, any sin, any missing the mark, He cannot, and He will not, just overlook that.

And say, well, you know, it's alright.

You're a human, you make mistakes, it's cool.

Just don't mess up anymore, don't do anything major.

It's not how it works.

He would not be just, He could not be loving, He could not be merciful, He could not be holy if God were to do that.

So you don't understand your own rebellion and you don't understand God's holiness.

So if you're here, that's you, my friend.

Be reconciled to God.

And I just want to say do not assume yourself to be reconciled to God because you have knowledge or you you grew up a certain way.

Don't assume yourself to be reconciled to God.

You should know if you are or not.

There should not be a question in your mind.

If that is a question, I would love to talk with you.

Jimmy, lots of people here would love to talk with you this morning about that.

See, this reconciliation is an exchange.

It's taking wrath and enmity and trading it for forgiveness and love.

And we as humans, we do this all the time in our relationships with friends, in our marriages, especially, with our children.

We forgive them and they forgive us.

It's wonderful.

I mean, it really is wonderful.

How many times have you been at odds with someone?

And you forgive them.

You're no longer at odds, you're no longer holding things against them.

You've been reconciled.

Can you imagine a life where reconciliation was not possible?

Can you imagine that?

Where there was no reconciliation.

Once you had wronged, you couldn't forgive.

Once you had wronged someone else, they could not forgive you.

You couldn't show mercy, you couldn't show love, you were stuck as enemies.

How awful and miserable.

Literally, everyone you would meet would eventually become your enemy if there were not reconciliation.

I just want to tell you, reconciliation isn't something that the world made up.

It's not something that Satan made up.

It comes from God.

It's a common grace for all people.

Everyone on the earth, common grace for everyone, that you can be reconciled.

But there's a price for that reconciliation.

And and you don't pay it, and they don't pay it.

God in his amazing kindness pays the price.

Even for people who are in rebellion.

The Lord is gracious because he gives us this common grace.

But there is a difference.

There's a difference between you and I being reconciled, showing forgiveness or mercy, than God showing forgiveness and mercy.

Maybe you've wronged me or offended me, but you did not break my law.

You broke God's law.

See, the reconciliation business is a lot easier for us because we're not lawgivers.

We're not holy.

I know what when I've been wronged, and I know when I've wronged someone else.

When two people reconcile one to another, they're saying, in essence, I violated God's law, and I'm sorry for that.

We should treat one another with kindness and be quick to forgive because God said so.

We've violated his law.

So this idea, this reconciliation between us, that when God comes and he's going to reconcile us to him, it's a different kind of relationship.

It's not this kind of, well, you you hurt me, I hurt you, let's forgive, let's move on.

He is the lawgiver.

He's the one who made the law.

And so he can't just say, I just, I want to be reconciled to you, let's be reconciled.

You want to be reconciled to me?

Okay, let's do this thing.

But rather, for God to reconcile, right, an atonement must be made.

Something must pay the price for the wrong.

Again, between us, we don't have that.

Typically, we just forgive and we reconcile.

But when you've broken God's law, a price must be paid.

It must be paid.

And Christ has come to reconcile us to Him.

That we might then belong to Him.

Some are far off, scriptures say.

Some are near.

But all those people need this reconciliation.

This is why Christ has come.

And as a Christian, this is the danger of an Easter service.

We've just we've heard this so many times.

Even this week, preparing this sermon, how many times in a sermon can I say the word reconciliation?

Love, obedience.

How many times can you hear that?

And it just kind of begins to, yeah, we're there.

We believe it, but it wears on us.

But when we understand the magnitude that we have been reconciled to Christ, we belong to Him now.

That we were enemies, as Ephesians say.

We were at odds, we were in rebellion.

And in our rebellion, while we were still rebelling, Christ came for us, gave himself for us to redeem us, to reconcile us.

Some of you have relationships in your life with people that have never been reconciled.

And maybe for some, those relationships are gone.

That person's past.

And reconciliation, this side of glory, it's just it's not going to happen.

It's gone.

For others, there's still opportunity for that, but reconciliation, somewhat is a two-person game, right?

And these relationships that keep you up at night.

Or you forget about them for weeks and months.

And you think about that person, and you think about what you did to them or what they've done to you.

And you think, I don't know that I could ever forgive them.

I don't know that they could ever forgive me for what I've done.

And that is a good and right understanding that you've wronged someone or someone's wronged you.

Forgiveness needs to be given and received.

But the greatest problem you have is that you have sinned against God.

And yet God in his love and his mercy and his kindness has said, I'm the lawgiver, I'm the holy one, and I'm coming to reconcile you to me.

That you might come and be reconciled and be adopted into our family.

That you might belong to me, be mine.

Few relationships that are reconciled become adoption, that you're in my family.

It's one thing to reconcile, and okay, we're good, we're good.

And then to say, no, no, I want you to be in my family, and I want to lavish my love upon you, and I want to call you an heir to the throne of God.

That's unheard of, that's wild, this kind of love that God has for us.

But then we are also, because we have that love, love beyond comprehension, because we have that, we are then called to be ambassadors for Christ.

Leters may be reconciled.

We're given this task of becoming ambassadors that we might call others to be reconciled.

An ambassador is someone who represents a nation's leader in another nation.

It's their job to represent and to kind of speak for that leader.

And so we're given a task, something to do, but not just something to do, church.

We're given a glorious task.

The world, and you see this everywhere, is longing for reconciliation.

The world is aching for it.

All the TV shows, movies, social media, everything just screams.

People longing to be reconciled.

They want to be reconciled with their parents.

They want to be reconciled with their friends and with their siblings.

They want to be reconciled with God.

Whether they believe that or not, whether they understand that or not, that is the longing of all human hearts.

To be reconciled.

And some resist and they keep going into sin and going to sin and going to sin, seeking some kind of affirmation, some kind of belonging.

And it's a false counterfeit kind of belonging.

When what they really need is to be reconciled to Christ.

And we're given this responsibility as Christians to go to others and call them to be reconciled to God.

First and foremost, be reconciled to God.

For some of you, you have people in your life that you need to go to.

And you need to be bold and in love.

You need to implore them to be reconciled to God.

For others, you need to be praying regularly, consistently, that God would show you who in your life you need to be taking this message of reconciliation to.

You know who those people are.

Brother and sister, walk in obedience in that.

Go and implore them as an ambassador of Christ.

I'm just telling you, I'm not making this up.

Okay?

This is what the Bible says.

As Christians, you are ambassadors.

This is a title that you have, a responsibility placed on you.

Why?

Because God has shown you his love.

He's reconciled you to him.

So we then take this message of reconciliation to others.

So often we spend time and energy trying to figure out what's our purpose in life.

Even as Christians, what should I be doing?

What's my calling?

What's my mission?

What's my work?

And it's wonderful when you just open the Bible and it says, listen, this is the calling on your life.

And this might be frustrating to some.

This is the calling on your life.

Doesn't matter where you work, doesn't matter where you go to school, doesn't matter what your age is.

This is your job description.

This is your task.

This is what you give yourself to day in and day out.

To be an ambassador for Christ.

So with your children, if you have children, this is your job.

Every time, it might feel like a stretch, but if you're a parent, you know it's not.

You're telling them, you're trying to communicate to them that God is real, that Christ is real.

Be reconciled to Him because, child, you are a sinner.

That's your task.

If you're a student, if you're a manager, employer, whatever your job is, your task around people is to tell them to be reconciled to Christ.

Every Sunday when we gather as a church, this is what we're doing.

We're talking about being reconciled to God and what it means and how it's possible and how we can live in light of this amazing truth that we have been reconciled to God.

Christ came to reconcile us to himself.

And now we call others to be reconciled to God.

Just because it feels so familiar.

Excuse me.

We, a people, were dead in our sin.

Before Christ, dead without hope.

And how are we to be reconciled to God?

How did this even happen?

Verse 21.

For our sake, for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin.

You could spend a million years trying to unpack that right there.

And you couldn't fully.

But why did why did God the Father make God the Son who knew no sin?

Sinless, perfect.

Why did He do that?

So that in Him, in Christ, we might become the righteousness of God.

This isn't a book that was written 2,000 years ago so that people 2,000 years ago could figure out how to live life.

This book was written, given by the Holy Spirit to us as God's people, to know what God is doing for us and who he is.

And he's saying, He took his beloved son who was sinless and made him to become sinful, pouring our sin onto him.

All your sin, your records of debt was placed on Christ.

Again, this is so hard to fathom and imagine that every time you've sinned, there was a price, there was a debt applied to your account.

Every time you've sin, that's the wage, that's the price.

So all of your sins.

Not just for today or yesterday.

All of your sins for all of your life put on to Christ.

He became your sin.

Your sin was put on him, imputed to him, if you will.

And then what happened?

Christ's righteousness, the one who knew no sin, who never did anything wrong, his righteousness was put on to you.

And you didn't deserve this, you didn't earn this.

This is what true love is.

Christ took on your sin.

And we, by God's grace, take on Christ's righteousness.

So when every time you get angry and sin against someone, that was put on Christ.

When you have committed adultery, even if just in your mind and your heart, your thoughts, that sin was put on Christ.

Anytime you looked at someone else's life and you just think, I wish I had an element of their life in my life, that sin was put on Christ.

And his righteousness was placed on you so that you could be reconciled to God.

He knew no sin.

He took on our sin so that you and I would no longer live.

But we'd have the righteousness of Christ.

This has never happened before.

This never happened before and never will never happen again.

This exchange and the price of your reconciliation.

But again, there's a price to be paid for the reconciliation, and that is Christ.

On Resurrection Sunday, we don't just remember and celebrate that our sins have been paid.

And we remember and celebrate, brothers and sisters, that the consequences of our pen, of our sins have been paid for as well.

You think about your life and you think about your sin.

And we all do this where we begin to calculate great sin, little sin, is this a big sin?

Is it not?

Listen, it's all sin before the Lord.

And you begin to do this calculus in your mind, like, man, I appreciate God and I'm all for Jesus dying for my sin, but I have a lot of sin.

I've done some, I've done a lot.

I've done a lot of terrible things, wicked things.

And I just want to tell you, if that's the thought process, if that's what comes up in your mind, you do not know the power and the holiness of God.

Amen?

You don't understand how holy God is, that He can take care of all of your sin, that His righteousness was so righteous that you don't comprehend because it can pay for all those things.

So that when Christ says to you, you're reconciled and you're adopted into God's family, that he means that, that everything was taken care of, every sin paid for, every wrong, so the enemy, the accuser, can no longer come to you and say with authority, Man, you sure God loves you?

Are you sure that you really love God?

God died for some people, but surely he didn't die for your sins.

The accuser no longer has that authority and the ability because Christ has come and he's defeated death.

He rose up, the tomb is empty, and so we celebrate that the consequences of sin have been paid for in full.

So you and me, we don't live with this guilt and this shame, just wandering around.

Man, I hope I hope I can get into heaven.

I hope I'm doing enough.

No.

If you are a Christian, you are adopted into God's family.

Scripture says in the book of Romans that you are a co-heir.

You're a co-heir with Christ.

Spend some time dwelling on that today, that you are a co-heir with Christ to the throne of God.

Because he has come, he's reconciled us.

The love that he has shown us, it transforms us, and then we show that love to others.

We're controlled by it.

We're not caught up with the things of the world.

He's come to reconcile us to him, and he's done that, and now we go to others, calling them, imploring them, be reconciled to God.

And this is our task because Christ came, because he lived, because he died, and he rose again.

Church, let's pray.