“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, the new has come … ” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)
Our study lands on, what has been referred by some, as Paul’s “great commission” passage. For me, it reads as a powerful identity passage for believers. It clearly answers so many questions. Who am I in Christ? What is my job here on earth? How should I view the lost around me? Why do I think so differently from the world around me?
Consider for a moment about how odd a position we are in as God’s children. God doesn’t give us permission to sin. He doesn’t want us to sin, yet we do every day … and He loves us anyway. This appears totally illogical to the world today. Even so, if we remain in Christ, we are forgiven daily — an outcome not deserving of our actions but reflects the amazing complexity of the love and character of God.
God remains committed to having a deep relationship with us, despite our inconsistent attitude to reciprocate that level of commitment back to Him. His greatest desire is that we want that same relationship with Him — that we be reconciled with Him, accepting His Son and the Holy Spirit’s direction in our everyday lives. God wants us to overflow with thanksgiving as He regularly provides us with everything we need. (Colossians 2:7; 2 Peter 1:3-4) He protects us in difficult and dark times, holds us by our right hand and guides us constantly even when we can’t discern His presence. (Psalm 23:4, 6; Psalm 73:23-26)
“… All 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 trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)
He reconciled death for us so that we may live in eternity with Him! What an undeserving price He paid for us, that we would live prone to sin and still receive forgiveness is totally contradictory to the world’s way of thinking. In our human judicial system, law breakers must either be punished and/or must repay. Thankfully, His love in Christ is never ending. He demands no repayment. His forgiveness and His attitude toward us are as if we were His Son Jesus! “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you.” (John 15:9)
Then finally, despite our weak and pitiful condition, God gives us an unthinkable position in His Kingdom! We deserve prison and punishment, but instead in Christ, He makes us His representatives!
“Therefore, we are all ambassadors for Christ as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled with God, God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)
An ambassador is, by definition, a high-ranking diplomat who represents his county as an official representative of the government. Paul spoke of himself to the Ephesians as being “an ambassador in chains” (Ephesians 6:20) (a counterintuitive position indeed!) — speaking out boldly, fearlessly and proclaiming the message of God.
Can you imagine the pressure Paul felt? Can you picture yourself in his chains? As God’s ambassador, his life was totally at odds with the world’s thinking. Paul’s life challenges our own. Are we joyfully standing counter to the world’s way of thinking, willing to accept the consequences of such a stand? “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first.” (John 15:18)
I often tried to be an ambassador of God to my brother. Doug was an unbeliever up to the day he left this world. And although we were the only true blood siblings out of five, I could never have a close relationship with him. He was a very troubled soul through most of his adult life, battling demons of drugs and ghosts of childhood abuse that he was never able to get past.
Doug was a man who had it all, everything to live for … brilliant mind; fortune; gorgeous home that he designed and built by hand; a beautiful intelligent daughter that he raised himself; 2 granddaughters; no debt; and he had done extensive traveling around the globe. But he could not let go of his demons.
Our conversations would always begin like any ordinary sibling conversation, but he would then become dark and sad, depressed over the past, always regurgitating it. I would then try to insert words of comfort from my Christian faith which would always abruptly end the conversation. He could never understand how I could embrace a God of such amazing grace even though we both went through the same childhood of God-forsaken abuse and neglect.
I could never reach Doug on that level. We were full blood siblings but not bound together by the blood of Christ. He was a total sold-out unbeliever. His whole life was counter to mine, and my thinking as a daughter of King Jesus was always 180 degrees out of phase to his. It grieves me deeply that he died never experiencing the love of God.
Counterintuitive:
The world we live in today is not the world God designed for humans. It is corrupt, full of evil and is in radical opposition to God’s plans and character. The world is counterintuitive to God’s will and therefore, as Christians who are in tune with Christ, we must recognize that we will always think counter to the world’s views. Never believe a different outcome than what God has promised His children, no matter what you hear or see but, in every situation, be who you are in Christ — an ambassador for God! As His representative, both my life and His Words in me must reflect His character. It is as if “God is making His appeal through us … BE RECONCILED TO GOD!” (2 Corinthians 5:20) To the world, we are a counterintuitive enigma, but to God, we are the beloved Bride of His Son. He proudly displays us and gladly employs us as His representatives of grace.
In today’s passage (2 Corinthians 5:14-21), Paul points out what makes God’s children radically different from typical humans who live apart from God. Reread the passage and jot down YOUR unique characteristics in Christ.
Looking back over the 40-Day Study, what has been the counterintuitive truth that has stood out for you –
About God:
About Life:
About Yourself:
Other: