“We have this ministry”
Reconciliation: A New Creation
March 25, 2007 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Introduction
We return today to 2 Corinthians. Again we use the “In the Text” material to elicit your response to the heart of the task of commentary writing. Today’s paragraph from Paul, the perspective of reconciliation (5:16-21), is theologically profound, so of great significance for understanding and appreciating our Christian faith. We should not forget that Paul was writing to church members in Corinth, not to preachers and scholars!
An Apostolic Introduction, 1:1-11 The Apostolic Ministry, 1:12—7:16
Paul Reveals His Intentions, 1:12—2:17 Paul Characterizes His Ministry, 3:1—6:10 1. Thanksgiving for Triumph in Christ (2:14-17) A Ministry of the Spirit (3:1—4:6) 3. A Ministry of Suffering (4:7—5:10) 4. A Ministry of Reconciliation (5:11—6:10) The fear of the Lord and the love of Christ (5:11-15) The perspective of reconciliation (5:16-21) The life of an apostle (6:1-10) In our text Paul is carrying on with his theme of ministry: “we have this ministry” (4:1). As you can see from the above outline, Paul is dealing with the third characteristic of his ministry, that of reconciliation, as he continues to assert the moral and spiritual integrity of his labors among the Corinthians. The last time we touched 2 Corinthians we saw that the selflessness of his motives was guaranteed by both the fear of the Lord and the love of Christ (5:11-15). Now we see that Paul’s message centers in the reconciliation of God in Christ (5:16-21). Next time we will observe how his manner of life as an apostle is consistent with his message (6:1-10). Such is Paul’s answer to those in Corinth who would deny the authentic character of his ministry. Paul’s concern to articulate the nature of his ministry gives insight into the true nature of the life of the Christian. Our text for today reads,
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We 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. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (NIV).
[We begin now with the actual text of the commentary 5:16-21.]
In the Text:
[Introductory comments] Paul’s appeal to the heart of the gospel leads him into the perspective of reconciliation (5:16-21) as he reflects on the consequences of the gospel for Christian life and ministry. Paul's sincerity is supported by the very character of the message he proclaims as God's reconciling act in Christ (vv 18-19), an event that has furnished the final criterion for the way he views Christ and others (v 16). Present [in these verses] is a new order of life in Christ (v 17) with its ministry of reconciliation (vv 18-20) that brings a new relationship to God (v 21), all flowing from the life-giving fountain of the death and resurrection of Christ. The key word is “reconciliation” in a passage of “lyrical grandeur, cosmic scope, theological depth, and emotional appeal” (Schillington 1998, 126). [Now to the detailed interpretation of the biblical text.]
[Verse 16: So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.]
[1]
Paul states first a negative consequence (v 16), linked closely with the thought that "one died for all . . . therefore all died" (v 14), as he asserts his changed outlook in respect to other people as well as to Christ. Paul’s way of knowing on the human level has been transformed: for this reason (hōste) we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Since the death of Christ and his discovery of its significance with his conversion on the road to Damascus, from now on Paul does not know or understand anyone merely “according to the flesh” (kata sarka, NASB; see 1:17; 10:2; 11:18), that is, in terms of a relationship purely of this world, or “from a human point of view (NRSV). [Note the three translations of kata sarka, NIV, NASB, NRSV.] “According to the flesh” has reference to the typical external distinctions of human society— national origin, wealth and power, social status, intellect, physical characteristics, and charismatic endowments—all by which we humans often estimate the worth of one another. The values of Paul's critics were no doubt somewhat similar (v 12). But Christ's death and resurrection had robbed such standards of significance for Paul, for they were contrary to the resultant reality of life in the Spirit (vv 14-15; 3:18; see Rom 8:2-11).
[2]
Paul confirms this perspective as he particularizes his previously general statement insisting that though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. The NIV translates the second kata sarka with in this way. This phrase [kata sarka] can be taken two ways, either with Christ and meaning (1) even if Paul himself knew Christ in the historical sense as a man in the flesh or (2) taken with the verb, regarded . . . in this way, that is through worldly eyes. [Simply put, Paul had either met the human Jesus, or known of and viewed him merely by the human criteria of the day.] Pauline word order and usage prefer the latter sense (Harris 2005, 428). Paul is most probably speaking about a real rather than a hypothetical situation. That is, Paul as a Pharisee before his conversion did view Christ by the fleshly criteria of his culture (Phil 3:4-6; see Gal 1:13-14) that led him both to judge Jesus' claim to Messianic sonship as blasphemous and to persecute his followers (1 Tim 1:13). But Paul does so no longer, for now he knows Christ as he really is—the incarnate, risen, and exalted Lord (Phil 2:5-11), and views all humanity through this transforming lens. In question is not whether Paul had any contact with Jesus during His earthly ministry or not, and he is certainly not saying that knowledge about the historical Jesus is now irrelevant for faith. Paul has not exchanged the “historical Jesus” for a "kerygmatic Christ." [Or “proclaimed Christ” as some have said and still say, that is, actual historical event is irrelevant for Christian faith] Paul’s point is simply that his value system has been fundamentally changed, literally turned upside down by his encounter with the living Christ (see Gal 3:28). For Paul does not use his understanding of fallen humanity to view Christ, rather he uses his new understanding of Christ as the new Adam to reveal what true humanity is (see Rom 5:12-19).
[Verse 17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!]
[1]
Paul proceeds to state second the positive consequence (hōste [16] . . . hōste [17]) of verses 14-15 [“. . . one has died for all; therefore all have died . . .”] in one of the most fascinating verses in the letter with a “grandiose anticipation” —a new creation resulting from being in Christ (v 17). Out of the death and resurrection of Christ has risen a new life that one lives for the Lord, a new life in a new religious or spiritual context, which Paul describes by his characteristic phrase in Christ. The translator has to supply a form of the verb “to be,” usually estin . . . estin, translated either therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, or “”so if any one is in Christ, there is a new creation” (NRSV). Central to Paul’s theological understanding and significant for his thought here is his phrase in Christ (en christō) that with its parallels occurs over 160 times in his writings with both individual and corporate reference. [that is, the individual person, or a people, the body of Christ = the Church--elaborated on in the following paragraph.]
[2]
With the phrase in Christ, Paul vividly portrays his conviction that it is in intimate personal relationship to the risen Christ that the salvation of God is continually realized. To be in Christ is to be taken up into the sphere of God's total redemptive activity (5:21; 1 Cor 1:30). This results from a realistic identification or union in faith with the person of Christ, both crucified and risen, a dying and rising with Christ (Rom 6:1-12; Gal. 2: 20). The concept is social as well as individual (1 Cor. 1:2), for to be in Christ is a sharing-together (koinonia) in Christ (1 Cor 1:9); it is to be incorporated into the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:12-13, 27; Rom 12:4-5), that is, into the Church. Paul conceived of Christ in virtue of the resurrection as the second Adam (Rom 5:12-21; 1 Cor 15:45) and as such the head of a new humanity of which he was the "firstfruits" (1 Cor 15:20, 23), the "firstborn among many" (Rom 8:29; Col 1:18), and the "life-giving spirit" (1 Cor 15:45). As all humanity was “in Adam” so now all Christians are in Christ.
[3]
To be in Christ is to be a new creation (Gal 6:14-15). The adjective new (kainē) has reference to what is new in nature replacing the old as obsolete, therefore “superior in kind to the old” (BDAG 2000, 497).The concept of “newness” is characteristic of Paul’s thought (Rom 6:4;7:6; 1 Cor 11;25; 2 Cor 3:6; Eph 2:10; 4:24; Col 3:10) and of the New Testament generally as summed up by the voice from the throne in Revelation: “Behold, I am making all things new” (21:5; see Mark 2:22; Luke 22:20; John 13:34; Heb 8:8; 1 John 2:8; Rev 5:9; 21:1-2). Here Paul is expanding his earlier new-covenant term (2 Cor. 3:4-6) announcing with it the advent of a new creation in the apostolic gospel.
[4]
Like in Christ, the term a new creation appears to have both individual and corporate connotations as suggested by what follows: “the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (NASB). The background of Paul’s thinking here may be found in the themes of Isaiah 40-66 as the similarity of terminology in Isaiah 43:18-19 indicates:
“Do not call to mind the former things, Or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new (LXX kaina), Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert (NASB).
The setting as focused particularly in Isaiah 43:1-21 and 65:17-25 (cf. 66:22) is the return of Israel from exile as a second exodus seen by the prophet through new creation imagery. Paul sees Isaiah’s promise of Israel’s restoration from the alienation of exile as now being fulfilled in the gospel he proclaims (Beale 1989, 556; see Hafemann 2000, 243-244). Paul no doubt sees the whole eschatological or end time expectation of Isaiah 40-66 as comprehended by his term new creation. Some would place the immediate background of Paul’s thinking in later or apocalyptic Judaism no doubt known by Paul (Furnish 1984, 314-315; Thrall 2004, 421-422).
[5]
[Expounding on “newness”] With the Christ event a new situation has been created, a new creation: a new order of humanity has come into being bringing with it a new kind of person, God’s future kind of people. Paul’s stress is on the renewal of the individual that prefigures the renewal of the cosmos (Matt 19:28; Rom 819-23). Christians are distinctively a new creation in virtue of the new relation to God. All the former attachments and behaviors according to the flesh (kata sarka) are gone, for "behold, new things have come" (NASB). The old (to arxaia) points to the former state of things, the old Mosaic order. “Behold” (idou) or “see” (NRSV) is an interjection that marks an unusual moment or deed (McCant 1999, 54). This new creative process is redemptive, not destructive, for the new creation recreates the old as seen through “the lens of the crucified Christ” (Schillington 1998, 131). The apostle is jubilant at the thought for his ministry is based on the fact that the old order of salvation is superseded with that single perspective in which from now on everything converges.
[Verse 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 men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.]
[1]
As we come “to the quintessence of this stately credal paragraph,” Paul probes more deeply into this new order in which we display a new attitude and constitute a new creation in Christ due to God's creative act (cf. 4:6; Rom 3:25; 11:36) of reconciliation (vv 18-19). Here, John Calvin writes, “if anywhere in Paul’s writings, we have a quite remarkably important passage” (Calvin 1547, 77). All this that Paul has been talking about in verses 14-17 is from God, testifies the apostle, because he has reconciled us to himself through Christ. Paul’s us (hēmas) is an apostolic plural referring primarily to Paul himself. In a letter that has been written for the purpose of reconciliation, the apostle aptly used the term reconciliation as the central concept of his formulation of the gospel in 5:18-19. Reconciliation and its cognates (katallagē, katallassō, apokatallassō) appear only in Paul’s writings in the New Testament (Rom 5:10 [2], 11; 11:15; 1 Cor 7:11; 2 Cor 5:18 [2], 19 [2], 20; Eph. 2:16; Col 1:20, 22) and some consider it the key term for capturing Paul’s theological thought.
[2]
The basic meaning of reconciliation (katallagē) is “exchange,” particularly of merchandise or money. It was extended metaphorically to depict the exchange of peace for war or of friendship for enmity (Harris 2005, 436-437). In Paul’s writings the meaning centers in the “reestablishment of an interrupted or broken relationship” (BDAG 200, 521) as in a marriage separation (1 Cor 7:11). Primarily in view in the apostle’s use of the terminology is the overcoming of the alienation of mankind from God through the death of Christ, an objective change in the human situation: "When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him by the death of his Son” (Rom 5:10; Col 1:20-22). We were enemies (Rom 5:10; Col 1:21) of God and hostile to him (Eph 2:16) is Paul’s description of our pre-Christian existence. The result of this reconciling act of God . . . in Christ is a new condition of peace (Eph 2:12-17; Col 1:20; cf. Rom 5:1, 6-11), the restoration of a proper relationship to God, and fellowship with him.
[3]
In our passage Paul has two concerns, (1) God’s act of reconciling the world and (2) the ministry of reconciliation entrusted to Christ’s ambassadors. In Paul’s concept of reconciliation, God is the chief actor. [Here we come to a significant issue of biblical and theological interpretation.] It is the world not God that needs to be reconciled, for God does the reconciling. Involved certainly is the wrath of God against the sin of mankind (Rom 1:18; 2:5), for if that were not so their sins would not be counted against them. Humans can do nothing to take away God’s anger; they cannot “make atonement” (Ex 32:32; Lev 4:26) as the Maccabean martyrs thought by offering their lives to God. But God himself in holy love took the initiative and became the aggressor through Christ and invaded estranged human life with his forgiving love: "God has poured out his love into our hearts. . . . While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:5, 8). The aorist participial construction, God, who reconciled (tou theou tou katallaxantos) in verse 18 indicates that our reconciliation took place in the Christ event: we were reconciled! [Important point in understanding Paul.] At that time the largest possible change took place in humankind; their whole nature and life was altered because of the change of relation between God and man. Sin was adequately dealt with (v 21) in regard to both what sin had done to mankind (Rom 7:5-25; 8:2) and what sin means as seen in the light of God's holiness (Rom 3:21-26). God is also the primary goal of reconciliation, for he has reconciled us to himself, clearly states the apostle. For Paul and the Corinthians reconciliation is an accomplished fact. The way is open now to all, and the apostle has been granted the ministry (diakonian) of reconciliation (2 Cor 4:1, see 3:4-18). Here is the climax of the passage and the final reason Paul cannot live to himself (vv 13-15), his apostolic commission.
[4]
Thus the apostle proceeds to affirm what he believes to be the essential significance of the Christ-event--the ministry of reconciliation centers in the message (logos) of reconciliation. Paul’s ministry is a Word, a logos! His task is to announce the news, “to wit” (KJV), that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ: “Compare the entire mystery of the evangelical faith with these words?” wrote Hilary of Poitiers (315-367 C. E., ACCS NT VII, 251). In verse 19 the initial hōs hoti translated as that by NIV, though taken by some as causal, “because,” is best seen as restating what Paul has said in v 18 with the force of "to the effect that" (Turner 1963, 137), “what I mean is that” (NEB), or simply “that is” (NRSV). The punctuation followed by the King James Version, “God was in Christ, reconciling . . .” is allowed by the Greek order, theos ēn en christō . . . kastallasson, most often interpreted as placing the stress on the incarnation. The imperfect verb was (ēn) would then stand alone. [We are dealing here with a most important problem of punctuation.]
[5]
More recent translations, however with the NIV, view the verbal construction as a periphrastic imperfect, God was reconciling . . . in Christ (cf. NASB, NEB, NRSV) with the meaning roughly parallel to through Christ (dia christou) in v 18, alluding perhaps also to God’s presence in Christ. If the periphrastic construction is taken as a “disguised aorist” the emphasis is on the reconciling event as a whole rather than as a continuous process. As John Calvin insists, “the meaning is fuller and richer than that” (Calvin 1964, 78), leading Murray Harris to suggest five considerations that favor the punctuation of the King James. But he does not put the stress on the divine nature of Christ; seeing rather the expression as referring primarily to the entire life and ministry of Christ on earth, insisting that “a functional [doing] Christology presupposes, and finds its ultimate basis in an ontological [being] Christology” (Harris 2005, 441-443). Paul's point on any reading is what God did in Christ, implying their unity in redemptive action, as the essence of his message.
[6]
The world as the object of reconciliation refers primarily to the created world and everything that belongs to it as hostile to God and lost in sin (BDAG 200, 562; see Rom 1:20; 8:19-22; 1 Cor 3:22). Perhaps it even reaches here to the cosmic proportions of the “all things” of Colossians 1:20:
God was pleased . . . through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (1:19-20; see 1:16; 2:15).
The context, however, as emphasized by the pronouns in “not counting their trespasses against them” (NRSV) and the reference to “trespasses,” appears to limit Paul’s intention here to the human world (see 1:12), the world of personal relationships.
[7]
The first consequence of reconciliation is that God is no longer counting their sins against them. Counting (logizomenos) is an accounting term (see Rom 4:87; Psalm 32:2), and sins is paraptōmata, trespasses, rather than harmartias, the term usually translated as “sins” (see v 21 [21”God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.”]). The reference is to the false steps and therefore to the lost footing of mankind, to their violation of God’s moral standards (BDAG 2000, 770). These terms bring out the link between reconciliation and justification (cf. v 21; Rom 5:9-10; Rom 4:3-8) with forgiveness grounded exclusively in the death of Christ. This leads to the second consequence of reconciliation, the apostolic task of its proclamation: he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. [At issue is the nature of preaching that is biblical.] Again, the message of reconciliation is the essence of the ministry of reconciliation, for preaching is not separate from but part and parcel of God’s work of reconciliation. God has placed into the hands and hearts of the apostles the care of or entrusted them with the Word of reconciliation as a privilege and an obligation. Although accurately translated as message here, logos in Scripture is a term of revelation (see John 1:1, 14). In the present verse as in 1 Corinthians 1:18, Oscar Cullmann writes that "in these instances also the Logos is the final definitive revelation as such" (1959, 261). In this sense the message as Word qualifies all phases of a truly apostolic ministry. A Christian ministry or diakonia is not primarily merely giving good advice, rather it is communicating startling good news, the tidings, of what God has done in Christ for the world.
[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.]
[1]
The apostle is thus the servant of his message. As Christ’s ambassadors (see Isa 52:7; Eph 6:20), Paul and his helpers serve both on behalf of and in place of (hyper) Christ (v 20). His commission as an apostle is likened to that of the powerful legate of an ancient emperor. His dignity and authority are those of his Sovereign. It is not so much as though (hōs) or “under the pretence of” (Turner 1963, 158), but "seeing that” (Plummer 1915, 185) or “with the conviction that” (Blass-Debrunner 1961, 220) ”God is making his appeal through us” (NRSV; see 1 Thess 2:13). The situation is real, for “where Paul speaks, God speaks” (Barrett 1973, 178). In Christian proclamation as such it is God himself who speaks, for “preaching is not talking about God; it is allowing God to talk.” This is the basis of Paul’s urgent, compassionate appeal: For not only is Paul an ambassador hyper Christ, he entreats them hyper Christ: on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. The [God’s] once for all completed reconciliation (vv 18-19) is now balanced by an accepted reconciliation. The imperative indicates that reconciliation is not complete without the individual human response. So the apostle’s call to his readers is to submit to the reconciliation of God. But who does Paul have in view? Does Paul mean the unconverted world or the Christian community in Corinth? Rudolf Bultmann, interestingly, has Paul speaking in a “missions style,” the style appropriate to eschatological preaching, that is, by the use of deometha, we implore, Paul is appealing for a decision that must be always carried out anew (Bultmann 1985, 164). The apostle is most probably speaking quite generally of his message centered in the deed of Christ and his proclamation of it, that is, he has in mind any audience that he and others might address in their role as ambassadors for Christ (so Thrall 2004, 438, and Harris 2005, 448).
[2]
In verses 18-20 we see the value and the dynamic of the Christian ministry. God by the Spirit of Christ stands behind the preaching of his ministers and actually speaks through them. Their words (logoi) are God's Word (logos; see 1 Thess 2:13). A theology of preaching, as well as a theology of the Christian ministry, can be found in these verses.
[Verse 21: God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.]
[1]
Arising out of this context, v 21 brings us to the presence of one of the most profound sentences in the whole of Scripture, the mystery of the atoning work of God in Christ. As Paul expands verse 19ab [“God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.”] he seeks to state “how” such a reconciliation of God with alienated humanity is possible. Reconciliation has two efficient causes: (1) what God has done in Christ; and (2) what, as a result, Christ means for us. We translate the entire verse: The one (Christ) who knew no sin he (God) made to be sin for our sake, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. First, behind him who had no sin is the participial form of the verb “to know” (gnonta) with its Hebrew background (yada’) indicating personal, experiential knowledge (see Gen 4:1; Matt 1:25; Rom 7:7). In view primarily is the historical Jesus who lived free from sin during his entire earthly life (see Rom 5:19; Phil 2:8). Paul is in line here with the uniform testimony of the New Testament as to the sinlessness of Jesus (John 7:18; 8:46; Acts 3:14; Heb 4:15; 7:26; 1 Pet 1:19; 2:22; 3:18; 1 John 3:5).
[2]
The assertion that God made him . . . to be sin for us opens up to us the very heart of Paul’s understanding of the atonement. Two questions are basic. (1) Did the identification of Christ with sin take place in the incarnation, that is, in the whole earthly life of Jesus, or just in his crucifixion; and (2) in what sense was Christ made by God to be sin? Our inquiry starts with the two occurrences of sin (harmartia) that may or may not carry the same meaning. Those who say that the meaning in sin for us is different than in had no sin understand harmartia in the first instance in terms of the Old Testament “sin offering” (see Lev 3; Isa 53:10; see vv 9-11) appealing to Romans 8:3, “his own son . . . to be a sin offering” (peri harmartias), and Galatians 3:13, “Christ becoming a curse for us.” This identification has a long interpretive tradition behind it. The interpretation of Romans 8:3, however, is uncertain and nowhere else in Paul does harmartia mean “sin-offering,” although he does use sacrificial language in connection with the death of Christ (Rom 3:25; 1 Cor 5:7). In LXX harmartia can mean “sin offering” (Exod 29:14; Lev 4:24; Num 18:9) as well as in Hebrews 10:26. This meaning for harmartia in sin for us would limit the reference to the crucifixion of Jesus.
[3]
But if the two occurrences of sin in the verse can be seen as mostly identical in meaning then the way is open for Paul’s reference to be to the whole incarnate life of Jesus and leads therefore to an understanding the atonement primarily in terms of personal and inter-relational categories. The motif of “reconciliation” [a term that speaks of people at odds with one another getting back together rather than court-room or slave market imagery.] that penetrates the passage supports this interpretation. Christ would then in his historical, incarnate life, as climaxed in this death and resurrection, stand with us in our place of alienation from God because of our sin. Thus made . . . to be sin for us was not a matter of the administration of an abstract justice, an impersonal imposition of the death penalty, but a personal identification with us in our lot in which he “became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Phil 2:8). Involved are both representation and substitution in some sense beyond human understanding. Part of what is going on in James Denney’s words is that “there is something in God as well as something in man which has to be dealt with” (Denney 1903, 769). Thus God treated Christ as sin, aligning him so completely with sin and its consequences that from the divine perspective Christ became indistinguishable from sin itself (Harris 2005, 454). Yet we stand ultimately before a mystery!
[4]
Bengel suggested that Christ “was made sin in the same way that we are made righteousness. Who would have dared speak thus, if Paul had not led the way?” The in him (en auto) corresponds to for us (hyper hemōn). Both parties embraced that which was not inherently or deservedly theirs. Christ, who "was innocent of sin" (NEB), entered a sphere utterly alien to him, away from home, that we might enter that sphere from which we have alienated ourselves, our true home-- the righteousness of God in him. Christ, an absolute Stranger to any rebellion against the Father (John 8:46; Heb 4:15; 1 Pet 2:22), was treated as fully responsible for the world’s rebellion against God (Isa 53:6; 1 Pet 2:24). Christ suffered what God does to sin and makes visible what happens when we have God against us. Christ became "a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13; see Deut. 21:23; Isa 53:12; Luke 22:37; Rom. 8:2). God made him indicates the unity of the Father and Son in the identification with sin (ee John 10:30). In the ultimate sense it is God who, for the sake of forgiving love, suffers within himself the consequences of human sin.
[5]
From a description of identification Paul goes on to elucidate the phrase in terms of exchange in the second half of the verse: so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Through our relationship with Christ (en autō) we exchange our old sinful situation for a new situation described by Paul as the righteousness of God (dikaiosynē theou). In this context of personal reconciliation the result is none other than forgiveness in the fullest sense, the restoration of a right relation to God with the deliverance and newness of life which that requires. Although Paul’s language here is forensic, that of court-room justification (cf. Rom 5:19), it all takes place “in Christ,” in union with his personal being. It is not a matter of any imputed or alien righteousness.
[6]
The righteousness of God is rather an activity of God (Rom 1:17) vindicating God’s cause and accomplishing God’s purposes in the world. Stemming from God as righteous it is a regal act, not merely of acquittal, but of pardon (Rom 3:24-26). Justification in Paul is not a mere bookkeeping concept, but a word of God that works and creates life. So one is taken up into the righteousness of God, into a new condition of life (vv 15, 17) whose merit is the cross of Christ and whose substance is the Spirit of Christ. The resultant righteous character is that of the rightness of his new relation to God (Phil 3:9) and the possession of that right Spirit, the transforming Holy Spirit (3:18), who has been given to us (Rom 5:5). Again justification reaches out to involve sanctification, for it is a righteousness “in Christ” (v 17) who has become to us "righteousness, holiness and redemption" (1 Cor 1:30).
[Conclusion to 5:16-21]
In relation to his apostolic ministry, in verses 16-21 Paul is announcing as a kerygmatic [proclamation] statement the advent of the new creation “in Christ,” the dramatic recovery of an alienated and dislocated world, by God who has acted eschatologically [at the end times] in Christ and placed the world under his rule (Martin 1986, 104). Paul's approach to his ministry is thus supremely "in Christ." (1) As a new creation "in Christ," Paul looks out on the world of humankind (vv 16-17). As such (2) he has been entrusted with the message of God's reconciling act "in Christ" (vv 18-19), in order that (3) he might offer us the free opportunity "in Christ" to become the righteousness of God (vv 20-21).
The outline of 2 Corinthians as followed in the Commentary. An Apostolic Introduction, 1:1-11 Paul Greets the Church, 1:1-2 Paul Praises God for His Comfort, 1:3-11 The Apostolic Ministry, 1:12—7:16 Paul Reveals His Intentions, 1:12—2:17 Paul Characterizes His Ministry, 3:1—6:10 1. Thanksgiving for Triumph in Christ (2:14-17) A Ministry of the Spirit (3:1—4:6) 3. A Ministry of Suffering (4:7—5:10) A Ministry of Reconciliation (5:11—6:10) C. Paul Has Confidence in the Church, 6:11-7:16 The Grace of Christian Giving, 8:1—9:15 A. Paul Collects an Offering, 8:1-15 B. Paul Chooses Messengers, 8:16—9:15 Vindication of Paul’s Authority, 10:1—13:14 Paul Answers His Opponents, 10:1-18 Paul Boasts in His Foolishness, 11:1—12:13 C. Paul Plans for a Third Visit, 12:14—13:10 D. Paul Concludes the Letter, 13:11-14
The words in brackets [ ] are my comments added for the sake of the presentation of this lesson. Scripture in bold type is the NIV text of the verse under consideration. The bold italics is my translation from the Greek of the text at hand. Ralph P. Martin, Reconciliation: A Study of Paul’s Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, rev. 1989), 103. Martin, Reconciliation, 46. The Trinity (FC 25:316). Robert H. Mounce, The Essential Nature of New Testament Preaching (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1960), 154. John Albert Bengel, Gnomon of the New Testament, trans. James Bryce (7th ed., Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1895), III, 385. L. S. Thornton, The Common Life in the Body of Christ (London: Dacre Press, 3rd ed., 1950), 45.
PAGE 80 5.2.10 (IX) TIME \@ "h:mm AM/PM" 11:22 AM DATE \@ "M/d/yyyy" 6/1/2007
Frank G. Carver