The Sermon for Sunday, June 23rd, 2024, the Fourth Sunday after Trinity
The Lessons: Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32; Job 38:1-11,16-8; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21
The Text: 2 Corinthians 5:14-21
INTRODUCTION
According to the Chicago Tribune, on June 22, 1997, parachute instructor Michael Costello, forty-two, of Mt. Dora, Florida, jumped out of an airplane at 12,000 feet altitude with a novice skydiver named Gareth Griffith, age twenty-one.
The novice would soon discover just how good his instructor was, for when the novice pulled his rip cord, his parachute failed. Plummeting towards the ground, he faced certain death.
But then the instructor did an amazing thing. Just before hitting the ground, the instructor rolled over so that he would hit the ground first and the novice would land on top of him. The instructor was killed instantly. The novice fractured his spine in the fall, but he was not paralyzed.
One man takes the place of another, takes the brunt for another. One substitutes himself to die so that another may live. So it was at the cross, when Jesus died for our sins so that we might live forever.[1]
St. Paul, in this section of his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, is making an appeal to the Corinthian Christians to be reconciled to God, since a serious sin of immorality had been committed by one of them, and others doubted his authority as an apostle, and some were filled with pride. Before he makes this appeal, though, he makes some crucially important statements about the love of Christ and the purposes of Christ’s death on the cross.
He begins with the significant statement, “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead” (2 Cor. 5:14, KJV).
THE LOVE OF CHRIST IMPELS US TOWARD A NEW ATTITUDE AND DIRECTION OF LIFE
What governed St. Paul’s life, what urged him on? It was the love of the Lord Jesus Christ that controlled and directed his life, both the Lord’s love for him and his love for the Lord. He was motivated by divine love, and this divine love caused him to reach the conclusion (2 Cor. 5:14, REB) that if one man, the Lord Jesus Christ, died for all, then all died. The King James Version renders this “then were all dead.” However, this translation does not accurately translate the Greek aorist tense of the verb. “All died” is a better translation. This statement does not mean that all people were spiritually dead when Christ died for them. Rather, it means that the Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the cross was a turning point in the history of mankind – in a sense, all died with Christ. This he now explains in the next conclusion to which Christ’s love impels him: “And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor.5:15, KJV). One great purpose of the Lord’s death, besides the reconciliation of mankind to God and the justification of all who repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, was that everyone should no longer live a self-centered life, but live instead a life devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ who died and was raised to life for their sake (2 Cor.5:15). This is the wholly new purpose of life for the Christian – to live a life of love for the Lord Jesus Christ in obedience to God’s will.
Since as Christians our goal is to please God and to live according to his will, how do we view people? St. Paul gave us clear direction when he wrote:
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
(2 Cor.5:16-17, KJV)
The result of being born again by Baptism and the Holy Spirit, is that we are no longer limited to a carnal knowledge of any human being, that is, to what we may know about them from our limited human knowledge based on our sensory perceptions, relationships, and experience of them. St. Paul adds that even if we have known Christ “after the flesh” (v.16), we now no longer know him as such. What does he mean by this? Before St. Paul was converted, he harassed and persecuted Jewish Christians, since he believed that Jesus Christ was just a man who was leading Jews astray, and was not the Messiah or the Son of God. At his conversion, he came to realize Jesus Christ is God. His view of Jesus Christ was no longer a superficial, carnal one, but a spiritual one, given through the revelation and appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ to him on the road to Damascus.
The Holy Spirit gives every Christian a new perspective on all people, for the Holy Spirit, who has shown each believer who the Lord Jesus Christ really is, also knows the thoughts and intentions of every person on this earth, and whether they are living for Christ or not. Every Christian , that is, everyone who is “in Christ,” is “a new creature” (2 Cor.5:17, KJV). The consequence of this is that all the old priorities, or all things not proceeding from God, have passed away, and the new priorities and values proceeding from God have come. Our thoughts, attitudes, relationships, priorities, indeed all our plans, must meet with God’s approval and follow his will.
BE RECONCILED TO GOD AND BE INSTRUMENTS OF RECONCILIATION
God has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us this ministry of reconciliation, St. Paul continues (2 Cor.5:18). God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself through Christ’s death on the cross, and not imputing their sins unto them (2 Cor.5:19) but giving to Christians the message of reconciliation. The Gospel is the message of reconciliation to God. Now, not only the Apostles were ministers of reconciliation, nor only ordained ministers, but all Christians, since they should share the Gospel with others, are ambassadors for Christ. Before the Corinthian Christians could be effective as ambassadors for Christ, they had to ensure they themselves were effectively reconciled to Christ.
CONCLUSION
Today, we, too, must be sure that we are effectively in a state of reconciliation with the Lord Jesus Christ. Are we living according to God’s will and doing what he has called us to do?
[1] p.101, 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers and Writers, from Craig Larson and Leadership Journal. Baker Books, 2002, 2nd Printing, 2008.