2 Corinthians 5:11-21Reconciliation

Preached by Rev. Alan Cummins

If two people have an argument, say horrible things to each other and ignore one another, never speaking to each other again, we call that, among other things, ‘a falling out.’

We’re all very familiar with these kind of scraps in our own lives. They can last moments, hours, days, weeks, months and even years. They’re often over the silliest of things, but the disagreement and hurt can run very deeply. Sometimes the rift is never sorted and people can carry these disagreements, misunderstandings and grievances to their graves. It’s all very sad and counterproductive. We’re all too familiar with them. Perhaps you’re even part of one such scenario now?

However, when we ‘swallow our pride,’ which, if we’re honest can take a long time, an apology is offered, and forgiveness is offered and received, then healing and restoration of the relationship can take place.

The fancy word, the big word, the technical word for this process is ‘Reconciliation.’ It’s also a business term; a banking term. When we reconcile our financial affairs or our bank books – not so much our cheque books – but when we do all of this everything matches up; everything is even; all is ‘fair and square.’

According to Mr. Google….reconciliation is a situation in which two people or groups of people become friendly again after they have argued: It is the process of making two people or groups of people friendly again after they have argued seriously or fought and kept apart from each other,

It is the process of making two opposite beliefs, ideas, or situations agree.

We’ve also heard of irreconcilable differences – where we often ‘agree to disagree’ or where we simply reach an impasse.

We’re also familiar with mediators. The one who comes to ‘mediate’ or acts as a ‘referee.’

Reconciliation, in Christian theology, is an element of salvation that refers to the results of atonement – the process of making us ‘at one with God.

Reconciliation is the end of the estrangement, caused by original sin, between God and humanity.

Reconciliation comes from the Greek family of words that has its roots in allasso. The meaning common to this word group is "change" or "exchange." Reconciliation involves a change in the relationship between God and humanity or person and person. It assumes there has been a breakdown in the relationship, but now there has been a change from a state of enmity and fragmentation to one of harmony and fellowship.

In Romans 5:6-11, Paul says that before reconciliation we were powerless, ungodly, sinners, and enemies; we were under God's wrath (v.9) Because of change or reconciliation we become new creatures. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Cor 5:17.)

Reconciliation has to do with the relationships between God and humanity or person and person. God reconciles the world to himself. (2 Cor 5:18.) Reconciliation takes place through the cross of Christ or the death of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:18 says that "God reconciled us to himself through Christ." God reconciles us to himself through the death of his Son (Rom 5:1.) Thus, we are no longer enemies, ungodly, sinners, or powerless. Instead, the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom he has given to us. (Rom 5:5.) It is a change in the total state of our lives.

Reconciliation is the objective work of God through Christ (2 Cor 5:19.) But it is also a subjective relationship: "Be reconciled to God" (2 Cor 5:20). Thus, it is Christ through the cross who has made reconciliation possible, for "God made him to be sin for us" (2 Cor 5:21).

Reconciliation is also related to justification. God has reconciled the world, not counting people's sins against them. It is related to justification in Romans 5. We have been justified through faith (v.1) by his blood (v.9).

Reconciliation is also subjective in that the sinner is spoken of as being reconciled. It is a relationship that comes between man and wife as well as Jew and Gentile. If a person is about to offer a gift at the altar and remembers that they have something against their brother or sister they should leave their gift and be reconciled first to their brother or sister and then come and offer the gift. Reconciliation is something done by the one who offers it; it is not just something that happens to the estranged people. It is the cross of Christ that reconciles both Jew and Gentile. They are brought near by the blood of Christ. Because of this, Jew and Gentile have access to the Father by one spirit. They are no longer foreigners and aliens but fellow citizens with God and members of the same household (Eph 2:11-22 ). Gentile and Jewish believers are reconciled to God and the middle wall of partition is broken down; both are brought near by the blood of Christ. They are all built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ as the Chief Cornerstone. This is made possible by the cross of Christ, but only becomes real and ours when we make the cross and the death of Christ applicable to our life or our relationships.

This message of reconciliation or salvation that has come from God through Christ has been passed on to us. "God gave us the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor 5:18); "he has committed to us the message of reconciliation" (v.19). The ultimate aim is that we are not only justified, but that we might become the righteousness of God (v. 21).

The whole message of reconciliation is centred around the love of God and the death of Christ. Paul reminds us that "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8). This brings peace with God, access to God through Christ, rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God, making us rejoice in suffering, and having the love of God poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit ( Rom 5:1-5 ). We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation (Rom 5:11 ).

William Barclay….This passage follows very directly on the one that has gone before. Paul had just spoken of standing before the judgment seat of Christ. All his life is lived with that kept in view. It is not so much the terror of Christ he really talks about. It is rather awe and reverence that he means. The Old Testament is full of the thought of a cleansing fear. Job speaks of "the fear of the Lord that is wisdom." (Job 28:28). "What does the Lord your God require of you?" asks the writer of Deuteronomy, and the first item on his answer is, "to fear the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 10:12). "The fear of the Lord," says Proverbs, "is the beginning of knowledge." (Proverbs 1:7 compare Proverbs 9:10). "By the fear of the Lord a person avoids evil." (Proverbs 16:6). This does not describe the fear of a dog who waits for a whipping or of a cowed child. It is that which keeps even a thoughtless person from desecrating a holy place. It is that which keeps a person from doing things which would break the heart of someone whom he loves. "The fear of the Lord," said the psalmist, "is clean." (Psalms 19:9). There is a cleansing fear without which a person cannot live the life he ought.

Paul is trying to persuade people of his own sincerity. He has no doubt whatever that in the sight of God his hands are clean and his motives pure, but his enemies have cast suspicion on them, and he wishes to demonstrate his sincerity to his Corinthian friends. This is not from any selfish desire to vindicate himself. It is from the knowledge that, if his sincerity is questioned, the impact of his message will be injured. A person's message will always be heard in the context of their character. That is why the preacher and the teacher must be beyond suspicion. We have to avoid, not only evil, but the very appearance of evil lest anything make others think less, not of us, but of the message which we bring.

In verse 13, (2 Corinthians 5:13), Paul insists that behind all his conduct there has been one motive only--to serve God and to help the Corinthians. More than once Paul was thought to be crazy (Acts 26:24). He was suffering the same misunderstanding as Jesus suffered (Mark 3:21). The real enthusiast always runs the risk of seeming crazy to lukewarm people.

Kipling tells how, on a world tour, General Booth boarded the ship at a certain port. He was seen off by a horde of tambourine-beating Salvationists. The whole thing revolted Kipling's fastidious soul. Later he got to know the General and told him how much he disapproved of this kind of thing. "Young man," said Booth, "if I thought that I could win one more soul for Christ by standing on my hands and beating a tambourine with my feet I would learn to do it."

The real enthusiast does not care if others think he is a fool. If a person follows out the Christian way of generosity, forgiveness and utter loyalty, there will always be worldly-wise people who will bluntly call them crazy. Paul knew that there was a time for calm, sensible conduct, and he knew, too, that there was a time for the conduct which to the world looks mad. He was prepared to follow either for the sake of Christ and of humanity.

Paul goes on to the moving motive of the whole Christian life. Christ died for all. To Paul the Christian is, in his favourite phrase, in Christ, and therefore the old self of the Christian died in that death and he arose a new person, as new as if he had been freshly created by the hands of God. In this newness of life he has acquired a new set of standards. He no longer judges things by the standards the world uses. There was a time when Paul had judged Christ by human standards and had set out to eliminate the Christian faith from the world. But not now. Now his standards are different. Now the man whose name he had sought to obliterate is to him the most wonderful person in the world, because he had given to him that friendship of God which he had longed for all his life.

The office that Paul claims as his one glory and his one task is that of ambassador for Christ. The Greek he uses (presbeutes) is a great word. It had two uses corresponding with the Latin word of which it is a translation (legatus).

(i) Roman provinces were divided into two types. One was under the direct control of the senate, the other under the direct control of the Emperor. The distinction was made on this basis--provinces which were peaceful and had no troops in them were senatorial provinces; provinces which were turbulent and had troops stationed in them were imperial provinces. In the imperial provinces, the man who administered the province on behalf of the Emperor, was the legatus presbeutai. So then, the word in the first place paints a picture of a man who has a direct commission from the Emperor; and Paul regarded himself as commissioned by Jesus Christ for the work of the Church.

(ii) But presbeutes and legatus have an even more interesting meaning. When the Roman senate decided that a country should become a province they sent to it ten legati or presbeutai, that is, envoys, of their own number, who, along with the victorious general, arranged the terms of peace with the vanquished people, determined the boundaries of the new province, drew up a constitution for its new administration, and then returned to submit what they had done for ratification by the senate. They were the men responsible for bringing others into the family of the Roman Empire. So Paul thinks of himself as the man who brings to others the terms of God, whereby they can become citizens of his empire and members of his family.

There is no more responsible position than that of ambassador.

(i) An ambassador of New Zealand is a New Zealander in a foreign land. Their life is spent among people who usually speak a different language, who have a different tradition and who follow a different way of life. The Christian is always like that. We live in the world; we take part in all the life and work of the world; but we is a citizen of heaven. To that extent we are a stranger. The person who is not willing to be different cannot be a Christian at all.

(ii) An ambassador speaks for their own country. When a New Zealand ambassador speaks, their voice is the voice of New Zealand. There are times when the Christian has to speak for Christ. In the decisions and the counsels of the world our must be the voice which brings the message of Christ to the human situation.

(iii) The honour of a country is in its ambassador's hands. His country is judged by him. His words are listened to, his deeds are watched and people say, "That is the way such-and-such a country speaks and acts." Lightfoot, the great Bishop of Durham, said in an ordination address, "The ambassador, while acting, acts not only as an agent, but as a representative of his sovereign.... The ambassador's duty is not only to deliver a definite message, to carry out a definite policy; but he is obliged to watch opportunities, to study characters, to cast about for expedients, so that he may place it before his hearers in its most attractive form." It is the great responsibility of the ambassador to commend his country to the men amongst whom he is set.

Here is the Christian's proud privilege and almost terrifying responsibility. The honour of Christ and of the Church are in our hands. By our every word and action we can make people think more-or-less of our Church and of our Master.

We have to note Paul's message. "Be reconciled to God." The New Testament never speaks of God being reconciled to people, but always of people being reconciled to God. There is no question of pacifying an angry God. The whole process of salvation takes its beginning from him. It was because God so loved the world that he sent his son. It is not that God is estranged from humanity but that humanity is estranged from him. God's message, the message which Paul brought, is an appeal from a loving Father to wandering and estranged children to come home where love is waiting for them.

Isn’t that a powerful and wonderful truth? The best news we’ll ever hear. Amen.