Compelled by the Gospel
Introduction
(2 Corinthians 5:18-21)
Why are you doing what you are you doing? Remember the why. (Illustration – Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs)
What was Paul’s motivation for doing what he did, for being who he was and for serving who he served? What motivated Paul’s radically different (committed) life? In our text, we can find that the answer is the gospel - the message of reconciliation. Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 9:16, “...I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”
Transition
J.I. Packer says, “One of the most urgent tasks facing the evangelical church today is the recovery of the Gospel.” Hard to believe isn’t it, that the most urgent task facing the evangelical church today is the recovery of the Gospel. We live in a society that is filled with distractions and lies that can shift our focus from the true gospel to a counterfeit gospel - a watered-down version of the gospel, a gospel that promises forgiveness but rarely mentions the need to repent of your sin, a gospel that emphasizes God’s love at the expense of his justice, a gospel that says God wants you to be healthy and wealthy and never speaks of the cost of following Christ. But that is not the gospel. That is not the gospel that saves, satisfies the soul and secures us for eternity.
What is the Gospel that compels Paul to live and die for Christ?
I. The Gospel Addresses and Answers the Problem of Separation (The Great Enmity)
Our fundamental problem is sin and because of it we are alienated from God. Humanity was estranged from God because of sin. Man’s fundamental problem is not health, poverty, inequality, injustice, etc. (as important as all those issues are). They are not the most fundamental problem of all. They are but a sign of a world that is out of sync with God because of sin.
Man’s problem isn’t that our thinking, or our speech, or our behavior just need to be fine-tuned a little here and there. No, something is so fundamentally wrong with us that Jesus says in John 3 if we are to have any hope of seeing the kingdom of God, we must be born again. The call of the Gospel isn’t behavior modification. Sin has so infected mankind that nothing less than the wholesale regeneration of the soul is required for salvation. Charles Spurgeon succinctly pointed out, “The Scripture does not say, ‘you must be improved,’ but ‘you must be born again.”’
II. The Gospel Accentuates God’s Provision of a Sacrifice (The Great Exchange)
In this passage, Paul highlights that the only antidote to mankind’s horrible and hopeless state is the “reconciling work of God through Christ.” In regard to the divine work of
reconciliation,1 Paul asserted definitively, “all these things are from God”2 (2 Cor. 5:18a). “All initiative, traced from creation to redemption, lies with God” (Alistair Begg). The Christian life (from beginning to end) is all of grace. Jonathan Edwards said, “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” We are saved by grace. We are being sustained by grace. And we will see him face to face by grace.
The gospel that compels Paul to preach and teach centers on God who is the Author, Agent, the Aim of this ministry and message of reconciliation.
A. God is the AUTHOR and AIM of reconciliation The word reconciliation is mentioned 5x in four verses.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ (God) reconciled us to himself and (God) gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled (passive) to God.21For our sake he made him to be sinwho knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Notice that the focus here is on what God has done (the work of redemption, regeneration and the reconciliation that he accomplished and applied to us). Reconciliation is all of God. Notice also that every time the word “reconcile or reconciliation” is mentioned the emphasis is on God as the SUBJECT (The one who initiates and applies the work). Kent Hughes observes, “God is the mover of every mention of reconciliation in these verses.” Paul makes it clear that the work of “new creation” or “reconciliation” is exclusively God’s work. We are not called to make peace with God – that is God’s work alone. Paul continues in this mode by asserting that humans have done nothing “to reconcile God.” God has instead acted to reconcile “us” (believers to himself).”
Application: God as “the creator of the messenger, the ministry, and the message of reconciliation.” We can only appreciate the work that he has entrusted to us when we understand and see it as part of God’s work to reconcile the world to himself.
B. Christ is the AGENT of reconciliation
God the Father acted through Christ’s substitutionary death, and Christ alone is the means of reconciliation. The passage stresses the amazing grace of God revealed when he himself took action in Christ to remove the obstacle to reconciliation. The idea here is counter-intuitive and counter-cultural. Since God is the offended one, we would think that the offending party (mankind) had to initiate reconciliation with God. However, what we find here is the exact opposite. God reconciles us to himself through the atoning sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ. It is only on the
1 Reconciliation presupposes alienation or estrangement. It assumes ruptured relationship.
2 The “these things” that he’s referring to are the things he just discussed. The new attitude, and worldview, and ways of evaluating people of verse 16, which comes as a result of regeneration, verse 17—all these things are from God. This is a declaration of sovereign grace in salvation. The work of regeneration is not the work of man!
basis of this action (God’s initiative and Christ’s redemptive work) that humanity can now be reconciled to God and experience the most intimate union with him.
What exactly did Jesus’ death accomplish for sinners like us? The God to whom we are introduced here is not a God seated on a fancy chair but rather a God crucified on a cross. Jesus, the beloved Son of the Father, fully God and fully man, co-equal, co-essential and co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit was condemned and abandoned on the cross by God. Jesus was crushed (Isa. 53:10),3 and he was not spared (Rom. 8:32), and he was made sin by the Father (2 Cor. 5:21).
Jesus did not lay down his life as a sacrifice to merely set an example. Instead, “in full partnership with the Father, He actively sacrificed himself to perform the great exchange of his righteousness for our sin” (Alistair Begg). This is the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. “Without the substitution that is represented in the death of Jesus, the death of Jesus is unintelligible” (Alistair Begg).
See, our sin separates us from God (Rom. 6:23, “death” means separation), because it arouses God’s righteous wrath against us. And if God is just, He must punish sin. This means that if we are to have any hope of being reconciled to God, sin has to be dealt with. And this is exactly what God did, God did not just gloss over our sin. He did not just overlook and ignore our sin. God dealt with it accordingly. The reason why he did “not count our trespasses against us” (2 Cor. 5:19) is because he counted it against his Son. Jesus bore in himself the wrath of God. He died in the place of sinners. The one who was devoid of sin took the place of those who were devoid of righteousness so that only in him they can become the righteousness of God.
Why did Jesus go to the cross? Jesus did not ultimately go to the cross to show us how much God loves us. Jesus went to the cross because no one was qualified or good enough to pay the penalty for sin. Because of Jesus’ substitutionary death, He accomplished things that are otherwise impossible – (1) Atonement for sin and (2) Appeasement of God’s wrath. So contrary to public perception, IT IS ALL ABOUT HIM, it is not all about us. Yes, Christ died for us, but first and foremost Christ died for God – to satisfy his just demand for sins.
One theologian exclaims, “What kind of a Savior is this who puts himself in the dark as guilty in order to set the guilty free. And what kind of a Priest is this who takes not a sacrifice to the altar but makes himself as the sacrifice.” This act of Christ is nothing short of astonishing. “Amazing love how can it be? That thou my God should die for me.” This is why the cross, as the expression of the love and justice of God in Christ, had such great motivating power in the apostle's life.
Application: This “great exchange” in 2 Corinthians 5:21 shows us the very heart of the atoning work of Christ. All our sins were credited to Christ, and the spotless perfection of his righteousness was credited to us. Therefore, we are declared to have his righteousness. This righteousness is more than just a legal declaration (no one and none can undo your righteous standing before God). This imputed righteousness also describes a new way of living (new Master, new Motivation, new Mission). We live righteously because God has declared us righteous. It was a burning concern to Paul, and it should be the same for us.
Living out the righteousness of God means that our service for him is motivated by both the “fear of God” and the “love of Christ” (2 Cor. 5:11-15); it means that we have a high view of Christ and we regard our brothers and sisters as new creations in Christ (and not according to the
3 Isaiah 53:10 states, “Y et it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”
flesh); It means that we embrace the ministry and message of reconciliation and proclaiming its awesome mystery.
C. Believers are the AMBASSADORS of reconciliation
Paul reminded the Corinthian community that as people who have been reconciled to God, they were also called to communicate and live out that message of reconciliation as representatives of Christ. We, like the members of the Corinthian church, are ambassadors for Christ. To be an ambassador is to operate as a representative on behalf of a higher authority, bringing that ruler’s message on that ruler’s authority. An ambassador does not speak in his/her own name or act in his/her own authority. This is what ancient legates/ambassadors would have done on behalf of the emperor in Paul’s day. And this is what bearers of the gospel do on Christ’s behalf. God is speaking his message of reconciliation to the world through us.
Conclusion:
John Murray said, “The crying need of today is to return to the Christ-centered and cross- centered preaching of the reformers, the puritans and their successors.” “Young man,” said veteran Richard Sibbes to Thomas Goodwin, “If ever you would do good you must preach of the free grace of God in Christ Jesus.” In a later age, the Southern Presbyterian preacher Daniel Barker spoke of the reason for the remarkable blessing that attended his ministry: “I was a man of one book, and that book is the Bible; and taking the hint from an inspired Apostle (Paul), I made Jesus Christ and him crucified my constant theme.”
We are to go out and make this message that centers on Christ known to all the cities and towns in NJ and beyond. This witness is to continue until the entire world would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord (Hab. 2:14). The Challenge for us is to faithfully preach and teach Christ (His person and his work).
Fellow ambassadors, ultimately, this is our ministry and message – Reconciliation that is initiated and effected by God, for God, and through Christ.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was once asked, “What is the secret of your success?” He answered, “I have no secret but this, that I have preached the Gospel – not about the Gospel, but the Gospel – the full, free, glorious gospel of the living Christ who is the incarnation of the good news.” Let your preaching, teaching, and songs be full of Christ, from beginning to end crammed full of the Gospel.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
