Tuesday after Cantate Sunday
Posted on April 30, 2024 by under
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (NKJV)
5:14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Devotion
“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”
As the Apostle Paul discusses how sinners are reconciled to God through faith in Christ Jesus, there seems to be a supposed conundrum in these verses. In verse 19, the Apostle says that God was in Christ reconciling the world and not counting their trespasses against them. Then, in the very next verse, the Apostle calls on those reading his words to be reconciled to God. Is this a contradiction? Certainly not. Some have asserted that Paul here discusses two different justifications, but that does not fit with what the Apostles teach in the rest of Scripture. The truth is that the Apostle Paul is discussing the effects of both the Atonement and Justification.
In the Atonement, Christ bore the sins of the world and accomplished what the Father gave Him to do. In Justification, sinners are reconciled to the Father by faith in Jesus Christ, and the Atonement is applied to them. This is why we as Baptized believers have become new creations in Christ. His Atonement is applied to us when we are Justified by faith alone.
Collect: O God, Who makest the minds of the faithful to be of one will: Grant unto Thy people that they may love what Thou commandest, and desire what Thou dost promise; that, among the manifold changes of this world, our hearts may there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
