Scripture Daily

Context No. 3020 of 4322 · 2 Corinthians

Context · Reflection

2 Corinthians 5:16-21: in context

16Therefore we know no one according to the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. 17Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. 18But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Here Paul compresses the whole gospel into a few verses. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and the new has come. And all of it is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and handed us the ministry of reconciliation. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting our trespasses against us.

The heart of it is the great exchange in the final verse: God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Christ took what was ours, our sin and its guilt, so that we might receive what is his, a right standing before God. We are made new and reconciled not by our own effort but by his initiative, our sins uncounted against us because they were counted against him. And having received this, we are made ambassadors, carrying the same plea to others: be reconciled to God.

Have I received the reconciliation Christ purchased by the great exchange, and do I carry that message to others as his ambassador?

Sources