2 Corinthians 5:11 - 6:10

Second Christian Reformed Church, Fremont, Michigan; June 18, 2006

This passage from 2 Corinthians does not have only one simple point for us to take away. It is chock full of rich meaning and value. The entire book of 2 Corinthians is a letter that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. When he wrote 1 Corinthians, an earlier letter, Paul had a pretty good relationship with that church, but by the time of 2 Corinthians, we can tell that there have been some disputes. Paul is trying to commend himself to the Corinthian church so that they can accept his gospel message once again. I will read 2 Corinthians 5:11 – 6:10, but pay special attention to verses 14 – 21.

Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And 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. So 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. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that 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. We 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. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

The passage that we just read includes three major sections. In the first and third sections, Paul is talking about himself and his ministry, and what it has involved. If I wanted to preach a sermon on Christ-like ministry and what self-giving mission looks like, I would focus on these two sections. They are also good sections for setting up the tone of Paul’s letter, which is why I read them tonight. In the middle section, which includes chapter 5:14 – 21, Paul gives us the theological reasons for his ministry. This is something that applies to Christians in all times and places, and it is this middle section that we will be focusing on this evening.

What would you say if I gave you one sentence to try to describe the essence of Christianity? We Christians talk about what Christ has done for us in a lot of different ways. The central message of Christianity is so simple and yet so profound that we use a lot of language to try to describe it. Our part in our own salvation is simple: we don’t do anything! God’s part in salvation is a little bit more complicated to describe. It’s still a simple act of love, but because God is a mystery to us, we have to try a lot of different ways of describing it.

Let me give you some examples. Sometimes we talk about Christ’s salvation in financial terms: Christ has paid the price of our sins and has bought us eternal life with God. Sometimes we talk about Christ’s salvation in covenantal terms: God made a covenant with us that can never be broken, and in order to keep that covenant, Christ suffered on the cross out of love for us. Even our names for God indicate different ways of thinking of what Christianity is all about. We describe God as a shepherd, a rock, a lion, a lamb, a lover, a king, a high priest. God is a shepherd, gathering us, the lost sheep, to himself. God is our rock, who shelters us from the storm and is a strong foundation on which to stand.

Why does this have to be so complicated? In some ways, Christianity is so simple – God loves us, and we should love each other. But when we talk about exactly what happens when God loves us, it gets a little bit more complicated. We can be grateful that we have a multitude of ways of describing salvation. God can indeed be a shepherd and a rock at the same time. This gives us a richer picture of who God is and what God does for us. It also gives us a number of ways to describe our faith to those around us, and to figure out how to live that faith in our everyday lives.

In 2 Corinthians 5:14 – 21, Paul gives us one of the richest ways of describing the central message of Christianity. What is it that we believe? What is it that we’re all about? Paul says this: we are reconciled to God.

If I had only one paragraph to describe the gospel to someone, I would give him or her verses 18 and 19, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that 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.” What was God doing in Christ? What is the central message of Christianity? Here’s another way to look at it: God was reconciling the world to himself.

The dictionary says that “reconciliation” is “the reestablishing of cordial relations.” Our healthy, vibrant relationship with God has been broken by sin, and now, in Christ, God has restored us to a good relationship with him.

When I first thought of the word “reconciliation,” I remembered something that happened in the country of South Africa after the end of apartheid. The black and white races in South Africa were separated for years, and whites abused and mistreated blacks for decades. After a new government was installed in 1994, apartheid, or separation, came to an end, and South Africa began a process of healing. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was instrumental in forming what he called the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” The goal of this commission was healing and restoring the broken relationship between the races in South Africa. The amnesty branch of this commission would hear the confessions of many people who had committed human rights violations. People who had committed atrocious sins, even murder, could be forgiven by this commission. If the commission chose to accept their apology, these criminals could be granted amnesty and protection from ever being prosecuted for their crime. All they needed to do was tell the truth, which is why it was called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

As a human political move, this commission was radical. How could they let criminals go without any punishment? Why did they even want to restore a healthy relationship with people who had been so cruel? As a reflection of God’s reconciliation, however, this commission makes perfect sense. In fact, the reason I mention this commission is because it reminds me of God’s way of reconciling us to himself. God forgets all of our sins and grants us amnesty from punishment. God’s primary goal is not to punish us, but to restore health to our relationship with him. Brothers and sisters, that is the reason for Jesus Christ. Reconciliation – a restored relationship.

What exactly does God’s reconciliation involve? How does it work? 2 Corinthians tells us about this as well. The first step, believe it or not, is death. This death is a death to self and a death to sin. “One died for all, and therefore all died,” says Paul. In South Africa, this death could be compared to the pain and shame of coming before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and admitting to your crimes. People were required to relive their crimes in front of an entire nation. The criminals who were forgiven had indeed died to their sins in this process.

After death comes new life – the second step in God’s process of reconciling us to himself. When we are born anew, our new self can participate in a restored and reconciled relationship with God. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” In South Africa, new life would be found in the improved relationships between blacks and whites that are gradually coming as a result of the confessions and forgiveness of many people in that nation. For anyone, to be declared a “new creation” is a great word of hope. We were created in order to love God. We did not live up to our potential for love, but because of God’s reconciliation, we are a new creation! We can love God once again.

This death and this new life show up all over the place in our lives as Christians. The first place that we find death and rebirth is in baptism. Saying this sounds strange at first. Baptism is about cute babies and white dresses, not death. Baptism and funerals are at opposite ends of life, so how is baptism about death? Romans 6:4 says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Baptism is about death for the sake of rebirth. The water of baptism symbolizes death as in the waters of a flood or of drowning, but the water also symbolizes life as in the waters of cleansing or the water that we drink.

I had a professor in college who described how baptism by immersion could take place in order to reflect this rich symbolism. “I would push them under the water and hold them there,” he said, “until they felt like they were going to die. Then I would bring them up out of the water and they would feel like their first breath was a breath of new life.” This is exaggerated, of course, but it is true that we as baptized Christians die to sin so that we might live to Christ. The death of Christian reconciliation is not a death of sadness, but a death that can allow for new life. The sacrament of baptism, with its death and new life, simply reflects the fact that our whole life is a process of dying to ourselves and our sinful nature and being brought to new life by Christ and in Christ.

Here’s another way to think about death and rebirth. C. S. Lewis concludes his book, Mere Christianity, with some thoughts on this pattern in our everyday lives. “The principle runs through all life from top to bottom,” he writes. “Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life, and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.” This description of Lewis’ is none other than reconciliation with God.

Here’s something to consider as we think about new life and rebirth in Christ. I know faithful Christians who call themselves “born again Christians.” This is a fine way to refer to yourself, but it hasn’t always resonated with me. My conversion to Christianity was more of a gradual process of coming to know Christ than an instant change. I think that many people think being “born again” has to mean having a drastic change in your life. I also know faithful Christians who have a bumper sticker that says, “Born okay the first time.” However, we cannot deny that the biblical description of what Christ does for us has something to do with new life, especially in a passage like 2 Corinthians 5.

Here’s another way to think of being “born again.” For many of us, including myself, this new birth is not a sudden, instantaneous event. Rather, it is like the rebirth that happens with the coming of each spring. The winter is a time of cold and death, but in the spring, nature is born again. The ground gradually thaws, plants slowly peek their heads through the soil, and leaves begin to bud again. It is a slow process, but it is still “born again.” Many of us are “born again” in this sense. This is the work of Christ in our lives, reconciling us to God. We were in the winter of isolation from God, but because of the spring and our rebirth, we can be reconciled to a warm summer of restored and reconciled relationship with God.

For a final way of looking at death and rebirth as God’s reconciling us to himself, I would like to take a look at the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day number 33. Here are the questions and the answers that are part of this section. “What is involved in genuine repentance or conversion? Two things: the dying-away of the old self, and the coming-to-life of the new. What is the dying-away of the old self? It is to be genuinely sorry for sin, to hate it more and more, and to run away from it. What is the coming-to-life of the new self? It is wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to.” I would like to read the last of those questions again. “What is the coming-to-life of the new self? It is wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to.”

“A wholehearted joy in God through Christ.” That, friends, is a sign of a healthy, restored relationship. A relationship that has been reconciled. And that is our salvation. When God reconciles us to himself, we die to ourselves and are raised to new life in Christ.

So far, all of Paul’s talk about reconciliation has involved God’s work of reconciliation for us. The final part, however, has to do with our ministry of reconciliation. Listen to verses 20 and 21: “We 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. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Reconciliation comes from God, and we are the messengers of God who can tell the world of the reconciliation that God offers.

I had a conversation with my friend Lisa the other day. Lisa lived mostly in Christian communities until she attended Central Michigan University. Her first couple of years there were very challenging ones for her as a Christian. When I told her that I was preparing a sermon about 2 Corinthians 5, her eyes lit up. “That chapter was such an encouragement to me during my first year of college,” she said. She had been very nervous at first about sharing her faith with her non-Christian classmates. She worried that she wouldn’t be appealing enough for them to convert, or that she might say something wrong. The reason that this passage was encouraging to her was that it let her know that witnessing was about restoring people to a God who already loved them. She had a message of reconciliation from God – it was not about her and her ability to witness, it was about God’s love! God has already accomplished the act of reconciliation in Jesus Christ. All you have to tell your neighbor is this: God wants a reconciled relationship with you.

I’m glad that we don’t ever have to summarize our faith in just one sentence. It would be impossible to tell of the mysteries of God in only a few words. And in fact, we learn from Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 that reconciliation is about a lifelong process of death and rebirth. It’s never about just one sentence of perfect words. But, if I were forced to pick just one sentence, I might talk about God reconciling us to himself in Christ. I might talk about our death and our new life. Or, I might read 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”