2 Corinthians 5:11-21
The Ministry of Reconciliation
11Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Man originally used sacrifices to atone for their sins...These early gifts and sacrifices to God may go back to when man originally sinned and made fig leaves to cover themselves in Genesis 3:7...Then God made garments of skins (from animals) and clothed them in Genesis 3:21...God was taking care of Adam and Eve...Adam and Eve would have observed or thought about their new garments...
Also, Cain brought gifts of fruit from the soil and Abel brought the fat from some of of his firstborn of his flock to our LORD...
In Leviticus 17:11 Moses writes that for blood is the life of the creature, it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life...So animal and grain offerings were used from the beginning of man to give to God...
These offerings to God were a reconciliation of our sins...The original sin had separated us from God...How could we get back close to God...We needed offerings to atone and reconcile us and get us back closer to the LORD...
Never, repeat never had anyone been resurrected from death... Jesus died and was resurrected...His form taken was difficult to recognize as we see in Luke chapter 24 after His resurrection on the road to Emmaus...In John's Gospel in chapter 20:14, we are told after His death Mary Magdalene did not realize that it was Jesus standing there...He had taken a new form...St. Paul tells us that Jesus is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has arrived...
His ministry and teachings is our way to become reconciled with God and to get back to God...Jesus died for our sins, He brings us closer to God...He is our ultimate sacrifice...He died for our sins...He is our atonement, our reconcilement...
St. Paul teaches us that God made Jesus with no sin that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God...