2 Corinthians 5:17-21
God’s Ambassadors
[Please contact me at kerry.n.haynes@gmail.com for sermon outline in Word.]
We are about three weeks away from Easter! You know, the nice thing about being a little senile is that you can hide your own Easter eggs, and then have fun finding them. Easter’s coming soon, and it’s about a lot more than just Easter eggs, although those are fine, too. Today’s passage makes us think about the cross. What exactly happened there? I mean, we know the physical details, the agony, the cruelty, all exacted on one man that from all counts had done nothing to deserve it. Yet, what happened spiritually? With darkness covering the land, and with a big earthquake that somehow tore from top to bottom the heavy veil protecting the Holy of Holies in the Temple, it seemed something other-worldly was going on that day on a hilltop at Calvary.
Actually, something was going on, something so great that it impacts every single person in this room today, some 2,000 years after the fact. I’ve organized my thoughts from these powerful scriptures into three applications for us. First,
1. Fathom the great exchange at the cross
Verse 21 is our key verse here. Please listen carefully to it: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (v.21).
You see, at Calvary, a great exchange took place. Jesus gave his righteousness to you and me. He never sinned so he had it to give. And you and I gave him our sin. Yes, every human being that ever lived piled up their sin on Jesus in that one moment in history. I don’t know how that is possible timewise, how Jesus died for us before we were born; yet, with God, all things are possible.
Paul pictured Jesus—the sinless one—as literally becoming our sin as he hung there on the cross. He is still without sin, so another way of looking at it is that his status changed on that cross as one in a sinful state; just as our status changed as one in a righteous state. Neither party deserved their new status; yet it was the will of the Heavenly Father, the same will that Jesus surrendered to when he said, “Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done.” And as the weight of the sins of the world landed on his shoulders, it is no wonder Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Our sin cut off the closeness of their relationship for the first time ever.
A couple of chapters later, Paul would use socio-economic words to describe the great exchange: “Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9)
The Apostle Peter turned to the 700-year-old prophecy of Isaiah to describe what happened. Peter wrote, quoting from Isaiah 53, “‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’” 1 Peter 2:24
So if all that happened at the cross, how can I be a part of it? How can my sins be erased? Only for the asking. And that’s part 2 on your outline:
2. Ask God through Christ to erase your sins
Notice what Paul says in verses 18-19: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them” (vv. 18-19).
God set up all that happened on the cross all to reconcile us to himself through Christ. That word “reconcile” became a favorite word of Paul’s here. He borrowed it from Greco-Roman politics, when two hostile parties came together to work out an equitable solution to both. Yet, here it says one party took the initiative. Paul begins, “All this is from God...” This was all God’s plan, to use his one and only son to purchase our reconciliation. And note the effect: God would no longer count people’s sins against them.
The word “count” (or “reckon” or “impute”) is a book-keeping term. It describes items listed in a ledger book. God took the ledger book of our sin and grabbed a giant eraser and erased them all, every sin. That’s one big eraser, right?
God set up the great exchange at the cross to take care of our sin problem for all who would believe. Remember John 3:16? “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Our part is to believe, to ask God through Christ to erase our sins.
I love the promise of 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Confessing is agreeing with God about our sin. “God, this was sin. You said it. And now I say it. You’re right. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” And he does. He did. At the cross.
The great theologian John Stott once said, “Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.” It was our sins that put Jesus on the cross. In my VA office, I have some little cards that show Jesus holding up a fellow who is nearly unconscious. Jesus appears to have recently come down from the cross, with nail scars and a crown of thorns. And the fellow is holding in one hand a hammer and in the other hand some nails. The point is: Jesus is saving the very person who nailed him to the cross. And that is you and me, if we’re honest.
Once we really get how much Jesus has done for us, how much God has loved us to take such extreme steps to secure our salvation, our third point is an easy reach, and that is to...
3. Serve as Christ’s ambassador.
That’s the picture Paul uses, that of an ambassador. Listen to verse 20: “We 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’” (v. 20).
If we really get what happened at the cross, and how it has changed our life forever, making us no longer God’s enemy but his friend, then we would be so excited about it to share with everyone we could. We would implore them. The word “implore” in the Greek means practically to beg. We would beg them, “Be reconciled to God!” Accept this God who loves you more than you will ever know, who is prepared to erase all your sins, who reconciles you to him in a relationship that will remain for the rest of your life, and into the life to come.
An ambassador speaks on behalf of their government, with all the authority of that government behind them. We speak with God’s authority. When we speak, looking to the Holy Spirit to guide us, and always full of grace (Colossians 4:6), we speak for God. We share God’s love and God’s call to repentance and salvation just as certainly as if God was speaking to the person himself.
You don’t have to be a great theologian to share your faith with others. You just have to be excited enough about your faith to want to share it. And once you really get the great exchange, you will be.
We had a fellow Monday night deliver hoagie sandwiches as a gift to our Reboot Combat Recovery Course from Warm Springs Rehab. After I thanked Tony for the food, I asked him if he would like to share anything about Warm Springs. He did. He talked about its role in helping military recover from physical wounds and addictions. Then, he talked longer about how his whole life had changed 12 years ago. Before that, as a Vietnam Vet, he had drunk his troubles away for so many years that he lost a marriage. He was practically ready to commit suicide. Then, a retired colonel from this organization called him and said, “I know exactly what you need to get well.” He said, “What?” The colonel said, “Jesus. You need to invite Jesus into your life. I did, and my life has never been the same since.”
The guy was angry. He had tried everything. Finally, he replied somewhat in anger, “Ok, I’ll invite him in!” And the colonel said, “You do that. And I’m going to get you a Bible, and every day we’re going to talk on the phone for a minute or two about what you’re reading.” Tony said, every day that colonel would call him and they would talk, not just for a minute, but more like an hour or more each day! And he said his life has never been the same since he gave it over to Jesus. Tony was excited about Warm Springs, but he was a lot more excited about Jesus.
That’s the great exchange. It began on the cross. And it is manifested in you when you truly believe, and trust your life to the one who gave his life for you. Let’s pray about it.
Thank you, Jesus, for your amazing love for us that you gave yourself willingly on our behalf. That is hard for us to imagine, that you knew our name, even thousands of years ago as you hung on that cross. And your blood shed was for us, as it was for all the saints who have trusted their lives to you through the ages. Thank you Father for making it all possible, in your perfect planning. The best I know how, I give all of myself to all of you. Please take away my sin as you have described. And help me live fully for you, as your ambassador, sharing the good news of salvation with everyone you put in my path. In Jesus’ name, amen.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation. The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We 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. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
