He Who Knew No Sin
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2 Corinthians 5:14-21
14. For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. 15. And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 16. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer. 17. Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. 18. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19. 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. 20. So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
We are new creations because of Christ’s death. That’s been said and heard a lot. But what exactly does that mean? A new creation. In what way? Why? How? Paul contends that through Christ’s death, we all died—to sin. Christ had a physical resurrection on earth, we have a spiritual resurrection when we die to ourselves and our life of sin and take on the attitude of Christ. As new creatures, we view others in the world differently. We no longer look at another and say, “you’re a sinner.” Now we look at them and say, “I’m a sinner and I have been saved by the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.”
I looked up the word “reconcile” in the dictionary. Webster’s defines it as: to cause to be friendly or harmonious again; to bring to submission or acceptance. Using this definition, I see pretty clearly that Paul is saying Christ’s death and resurrection brought us back into harmony with God. Since we are all part of God, created in his image, our sin kept us from being reconciled to him. When we turn away from our old lives, we come back into harmony with God’s will for our lives. More than that, our ministry becomes one of reconciliation—bringing others to Christ.
Paul compares us to ambassadors. Have you noticed that anywhere in the world where there is an uprising, a revolution, or impending internal strife, the ambassadors are typically among the last to leave? That’s because they represent their government. That’s our job too—go first to “establish a relationship” and stay to the very end, to maintain a steady presence and influence—to reconcile a situation if possible. As Christ’s ambassadors, we are to bring others to Him and then help them maintain a relationship with him and other believers. And we don’t cut and run when it gets tough.
The other definition of reconciliation addressed being brought into submission or acceptance. This definition is a bit more challenging for us as human beings! We like to be strong and liked and valued and honored. To effectively minister to our lost and fallen world, we must first submit to Christ and a life of servanthood. We must first be reconciled to him and to our heavenly father. We become less, He becomes more. And we must accept our place in the pecking order—far below our Lord! We no longer are dead center. We no longer need to be recognized and acknowledged and honored. In fact, once we are reconciled to Christ, we don’t need man’s acknowledgement—only that our message is acknowledged. Only that He is honored by our words and by our actions and by how we live our lives.
We become the message because of Christ’s redeeming act of reconciliation. We are reconciled with God because of Him. So our message becomes one of reconciliation. Wow. That’s a big job!
I hope today you live in harmony with and acceptance of Christ’s message. And that you become the message through your words and actions.
Mary
