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All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and 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.

The late great Liverpool football manager, Bill Shankley, famously said, ”Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that.” Clearly he was being ironic, and yet, although his tongue was no doubt firmly in his cheek, this does show his passion for the game.

Recently I saw some video footage from a local football derby. It showed a portion of the vast crowd appearing to be violently aggressive in manner and speech towards the opposing supporters (who were probably goading them). I thought, ‘And there lies the whole divided world in miniature.’

”What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?² You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.” James 4:1,2a ESVUK.

The world looks hopelessly divided, I know. But ”the message” and ”the ministry” of reconciliation offer hope. They tell us that when people are first of all reconciled to God, it is then possible for them to be reconciled to one another. Where Jesus, ‘the Prince of peace’ is allowed to reign, it is possible for peace and harmony to transcend and overcome all barriers erected by hatred, prejudice, fear, unforgiveness, and the like. Every local church should at least be a foretaste of what the universe will one day look and feel like when it is perfectly ruled by Christ.

 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and 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. 

In verse 19, Paul highlights two things God was doing in Christ:

1. He was ”reconciling the world to himself”. At the heart of this, He was dealing with the sin problem. (Note, this will be explained a little more in verse 21. How can it be that God will not ‘count’ our sins against us when we are so obviously sinful and such blatant sinners? We will see shortly);
2. He was ”entrusting” to the church ”the message of reconcilation”. So the order is that reconciliation was achieved at the Cross; then it is announced by the church. Still today the church has this sacred stewardship of the gospel.

‘…the reconciliation by God of sinful men to himself, effected once and for all in Christ, has lasting effects. It is not applicable merely to one period or to one group of people, but to all the world. Whenever the word of reconciliation is proclaimed by those to whom God has committed it, and whenever it is appropriated by an individual sinner, whoever and wherever he may happen to be, that person is reconciled by God to Himself, and his reconciliation means that God no longer imputes to him his trespasses, i.e. He no longer counts his sins against him.’ R.V.G. Tasker.

 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and 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. 

For anyone who has eyes to see, there is clearly something wrong with the world – very wrong indeed. The Bible diagnoses the root of our problem in terms of estrangement from God. This alienation, which is deeply felt, if not always understood, lies behind the need for ”reconciliation”. We live in a dislocated world; on which is ‘out of joint’ with its Maker, and therefore in pain.

One year, just before Christmas, some of the lads at my High school were playing football on the outside hard courts in a lunch break. My friend, Leslie, was shoulder charged by a hunk of a guy, who had fairly recently moved over from Australia. Les was immediately in great pain. I can’t remember ever seeing someone turn so white, and he was sickly. I accompanied him in the ambulance to Wigan General Infirmary, and for a time I didn’t see him while the staff attended to him. When I did see him again, it was a different Leslie. The pain had gone; the bone had been reset, and relief was written all across his smiling features.

God has made a way for a dislocated, out of joint, in pain world, to know the relief of healing. It is possible – and it is only possible – through Christ and His Cross.

 All this is from God… ESVUK

As God’s sovereignty is seen in creation, so it is with the new creation. We do not save ourselves. We cannot reconcile ourselves to God. This is a humbling truth, but one to be received with great gratitude.

 “We do not cause the new birth. God causes the new birth. Any good thing that we do is a result of the new birth, not a cause of the new birth. This means that the new birth is taken out of our hands. It is not in our control. And so it confronts us with our helplessness and our absolute dependence on someone (namely, God) outside ourselves.” John Piper

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ESVUK

The change of perspective regarding people, and above all about Jesus, comes from being made new: ‘’a new creation’’. A Christian is not a patched up old person; not like a tuned up old car. He/she is a whole new person.

“To be born again is, as it were, to enter upon a new existence, to have a new mind, a new heart, new views, new principles, new tastes, new affections, new likings, new dislikings, new fears, new joys, new sorrows, new love to things once hated, new hatred to things once loved, new thoughts of God, and ourselves, and the world, and the life to come, and salvation.” J.C.Ryle

Tasker observes: ‘…Paul in the latter part of this verse is in fact saying, not only that the entire world of his experience changes for a man who is ‘in Christ’, but that because there are new men in Christ the new order of things foretold in the prophet Isaiah has now become a reality (see Is.43.18). Each man regenerated by the Spirit of God is a new creation, and a world in which such new creations exist is potentially at least a new world.’

Tim Keller puts it like this: ‘The new birth is the power that God is going to use to regenerate the world, brought into your present.’

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. ESVUK

When we are converted we see everything with new eyes. A hymn puts it like this:

‘Heaven above is softer blue,
Earth around is sweeter green;
Something lives in every hue
Christless eyes have never seen:
Birds with gladder songs o’erflow,
Flow’rs with deeper beauties shine,
Since I know, as now I know,
I am His, and He is mine.’ George Wade Robinson.

But, in particular, we get a whole new perspective on people, and especially with regard to Jesus. We may have admired Him as a very good man (indeed – the best), or thought of Him as a great moral teacher, and a fine example. We may indeed have viewed Him as a martyr in a noble cause. Or perhaps we gave Him little, or no, thought at all. But then one day, by the Holy Spirit, we see Him as He really is, and life makes sense. All the pieces fall into place. Now we wonder how we could not see Him this way before, and why the people we try to share our convictions with can’t see either!

At one time Paul had regarded others, including Christ ”according to the flesh”: in other words, judging by appearances and trite considerations. Tasker argues that the right interpretation of this verse seems to be that ‘…Paul admits that in his pre-conversion days he had judged Jesus by external considerations in the light of the prejudices of his upbringing, and had considered that it was impossible that one born in such obscurity, living in such restricted circumstances and dying such a humiliating death, could be the Christ that the Jews were expecting. Consequently he had dismissed Him and persecuted His followers. But…from the moment of his conversion, he knew Jesus so no longer.’

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; ¹⁵ and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. ESVUK

An understanding of the meaning of the ‘wondrous Cross’ is central to a life ‘controlled’ by Christ’s love. Paul had come to see that, in some mysterious sense, all the redeemed were included in Christ’s death (even before they experienced redemption). But once people do come to the foot of the Cross personally, and believe on Jesus, this alters the entire trajectory of their lives. They come ‘under new management’. They ”no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised”. They make it their ”aim to please him” (9). Jesus becomes their Lord. They acknowledge that ‘love so amazing, so divine, demands’ their ‘soul’, their ‘life’, their ‘all’.

Tasker puts it like this, ‘…for all who accept it in faith as an atonement made for them it puts an end to the unregenerate life, in which the old sinful self was regarded as the proper centre of reference, and begets a new life centred upon Another; not just upon any other but upon One other, the Lord Jesus Christ who died for them, and rose again. The resurrection cannot be divorced from the crucifixion in the atoning work of Christ…’

If we claim to be Christians, today is a good day to search our hearts and ask, ‘Who am I living for?’

”Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ²⁰ for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” 1 Cor.6:19,20 ESVUK

God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. ¹² Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. ¹³ If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. ¹⁴ Either way, Christ’s love controls us.

Christ’s love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do. The Message

‘Paul now states the primary reason why he cannot live for himself. He is under the all-compelling constraint of Christ’s love for him. this love holds him in its grip; so powerful is its influence that he has no choice but to live a life of loving service for others.’ R.V.G. Tasker.

Paul hopes that others will understand the purity of his motives, but he knows that sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. Furthermore, he will always be the butt of unfair criticism. But he seeks to live transparently before God. So whether understood or misunderstood; whether it appears he is mad or sane, he can’t help doing all he does out of love for Christ, and people.

R.T. Kendall says that to receive Christ’s personal commendation, when He looks into our eyes and says, ”Well done”, is what will ultimately matter most to us. It won’t be whether we get recognition, vindication or success here below. ‘What we receive here below is a mere shadow of what Christ’s commendation will mean.’

That is ultimate.

Nevertheless, Paul does want his loyal supporters in Corinth to know that his critics are wrong about him; and he wishes to provide them with sufficient information to be able to defend him. Again though, as we have seen previously, this is not primarily for the sake of his own name, but so that the gospel will not be tarnished.

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. ESVUK

One of the great Christian motivations for evangelism is the understanding that there will be a day of judgment. This doctrine can, and should, turn the wheels of mission.

If you can swim, and you can possibly save another from drowning, you want to save them, right? To sit on the shoreline carelessly spectating would surely be unthinkable.

Angela Bradley was the granddaughter of a lady who lived next door to my grandma in Lancaster. When I was visiting my grandparents, as a very little boy, Angela and I would play together. But I hadn’t seen her in years when, in 1983, I heard the tragic news that Angela, a serving police officer, had died alongside two other colleagues while trying to rescue a man who had gone into a rough sea in an attempt to save his dog. She was just 23. It was a very stormy day in Blackpool, and it seems the little dog had been swept away. A plaque commemorating the bravery of all three officers is now to be found in Jubilee Gardens, Blackpool.

Sadly, the man who tried to rescue his pet also lost his life.

But concern for others can move people to great acts of courage

That keeps us vigilant, you can be sure. It’s no light thing to know that we’ll all one day stand in that place of Judgment. That’s why we work urgently with everyone we meet to get them ready to face God. The Message.