2 Corinthians 5: Be reconciled to God

Sermon 9.6.26 - 2 Corinthians 5: Be reconciled to God 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 What Does It Mean To Be Reconciled? The word signals the bringing together conflicting parties into harmony. Paul adopts the common term and gives it spiritual depth: enemies of God become His children. The word was originally used for the exchange of coins; "to properly exchange money; therefore, concerning people, it means to change from enemies to friends - to reconcile" Why Do We Need Reconciliation? We were at war with God. Colossians 1:21 “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.” Isaian 59:2 “Your iniquities have separated you from God; your sins have hidden his face from you,” Our sins made us enemies. Psalm 51:4 “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.” Consider the words of the Prodigal Son: Luke 15:18 “I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.” It follows the pattern of the great commandment (Mark 12:29-31); God first, fellow man second. As sin against man is a sin against God. Reconciliation Is New Construction, Not Restoration. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” Romans 6:6-7 “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin — because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.” Ezekiel 36:26 “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Jesus warned about just “fixing things up” - Matthew 23:27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” 1 Samuel 6:7 “For man sees the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart.” 2 Timothy 3:5 “They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly.” Reconciliation Harmonizes Us To God, Not God To Us 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 “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.” God does not lower his expectation to match ours, we must raise ours - Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. He has established his expectation (be ye perfect) and he will not change - Numbers 23:19 “God is not human…not a human being, that he should change his mind.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 1 Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” We must NOT make God in our image - Acts 17:29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design.” 2 Peter 3:8 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever!”