2 Corinthians 5:20–21

2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 5

Paul an Ambassador of Christ. 2 Cor. 5, 11–21.

The ministry of reconciliation: V.20. Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, Be ye reconciled to God. V.21. For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Paul, therefore, filled with the glory of these divine facts, sends forth his ringing invitation: In behalf of Christ, then, we are ambassadors, as though God were entreating through us.

Christ’s representatives they are, bringing the Word, the offer of reconciliation to men, the earnest entreaty of God to accept His mercy and grace in Christ Jesus: We pray you in behalf of Christ, Be reconciled to God!

What a strange situation: The holy, righteous God, who has been insulted times without number by the countless sins of the men of all times, begs for reconciliation; the almighty, jealous God, who is able to punish every sin with the condemnation of hell, offers instead the fullness of His love and everlasting life and bliss! That surely is a mystery of the gospel beyond all understanding; that is a message which should impress the most hardened sinner with the unutterable glory of the love of God.

And lest any one have doubts as to the fact of reconciliation, as to the possibility of a full and complete atonement under such conditions, the apostle explains the miracle in one sentence: Him who knew not sin for us He made sin, in order that we might become righteousness of God in Him.

In this way was the miracle of the atonement brought about. God Himself sent His own Son, who was perfectly sinless and holy, to whose nature all contradiction and opposition to the will of God was utterly strange, who was pure and holy also in the sight of God, and laid upon Him the iniquity of the whole world, Is. 53, 6, He made Him to be sin on our behalf. The transgressions were laid upon Him, the guilt was imputed to Him; He was the representative of the whole world’s sin, the greatest malefactor that ever lived on earth, all by virtue of His vicarious work.

And so perfect was the expiation, so complete the propitiation, that we have become, in turn, the righteousness of God in Him. For the sake of Christ we are now looked upon as being as holy and perfect as the very Son of God Himself, with not a single fault or flaw to condemn us, with not a single transgression charged to our account.

That is, in brief, the wonderful summary of the message of reconciliation, that is the gospel which the ministers of the Lord are to proclaim in the fullness of its beauty and glory, that is the invitation they should extend to all men without the slightest restriction.

And we, in turn, should accept the glorious news in the spirit in which it was offered, and be sure, on our part, henceforth not to live unto ourselves, but unto Him that died for us and rose again.