II Corinthians 5: 16-21
Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.
Jesus is no longer walking this Earth in His body. His Resurrected body is in Heaven now.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
I can testify to this: He saved me out of adultery, idolatry, lying, stealing ...
But no more! Praise God, His Spirit in me has saved me from the pull sin had on me!
Now all these things are from God,
God gives everything to us as a gift, we can't earn or deserve any of it ourselves.
who reconciled us to Himself through Christ
Just as I reconcile my checkbook to the bank statement, God has reconciled us to His holiness. As I change my checkbook to agree with the bank, so God has changed us. We've been reconciled. Jesus settled our debt and washed us clean, now God can forgive us, and make us fit to live with Him.
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the World to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Our
job is to tell everybody what God has done! He has already finished all
the work, we can only accept His gracious Salvation as a gift. God does not count our trespasses against us because Jesus carried them for us on the Cross. And we
are to tell others about how God loves them that much, too.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
Ambassadors do not represent their home country, they stand for the leader of their nation. So we are representatives of King Jesus, from our home country of the Kingdom of God, speaking for Him to those in the World. Pleading with them to be reconciled to God. We don't want them to have to pay forever for their sins, when Jesus has already settled that debt, if they would receive it.
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us,
If Jesus had had any sin, He would have had to die for His own. But because He was without sin, He was able to bear ours. And not just to bear our sins, but to actually be sin, to take upon Himself our very sin-nature: The whole basket, and everything in it. Taking our place in death. We are the criminals who deserve execution.
so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
So that we would be able to not only have righteousness, but to become the righteousness of God, to have His righteous Life living in us, His Holy Spirit. So we don't just have a relationship with God, Jesus is making us one with God. We all have the one Holy Spirit living in our spirit, so we are all one spiritual body, with Christ being our Head.
This is the most incredible thing to me! We don't just have His righteousness, we are His righteousness, in Christ.
So let's live our lives like we really believe this. God's Holy Spirit in us gives us the
power and authority to face down Satan and all his schemes, and to turn
away from every temptation that assails us. We don't have to be the way
we used to be, we've been made NEW!
We can do it! Let's live like it! Let's think righteous thoughts, and have righteous attitudes, and do righteous deeds for the furtherance of His Kingdom.
Let's love one another with the Love God Loves us with, to love them into the Kingdom!
And God will receive all the glory! He will smile down on us, pleased that His children are learning His ways and doing life the way He planned for us! Just like we are pleased when our own children follow in our steps.
When, as His ambassadors, we represent King Jesus to our family members and coworkers and neighbors, they will see Christ in us, and be drawn to Him.
And when every living person has heard and understood the Good News sufficiently to decide whether to follow Him or reject Him, then the end will come. Jesus will return and set up His Kingdom right here on this old Earth!
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Christ Jesus is our Lord God Almighty, to the glory of Almighty God the Father, Amen.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
