Ambassadors of Reconciliation: A Meditation on 2nd Corinthians 5, for the 4th Sunday in Lent

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;

that every one may receive the things done in his body,

according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;

but we are made manifest unto God;

and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

For we commend not ourselves again unto you,

but give you occasion to glory on our behalf,

that ye may have somewhat to answer them

 which glory in appearance, and not in heart.

 

For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God:

or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.

For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge,

that if one died for all, then were all dead:

And that he died for all, that they which live

should not henceforth live unto themselves,

but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

 

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh:

yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh,

yet now henceforth know we him no more.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:

old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,

and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,

not imputing their trespasses unto them;

and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ,

as though God did beseech you by us:

we pray you in Christ's stead,

be ye reconciled to God.

 

In St. Paul’s second letter to the Christians at Corinth, he made this appeal in chapter five to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.  Noting first that all mankind will appear before the judgement seat of God to give an account of their lives—all their thoughts, words, and deeds, things done and left undone—and that the only path to avoid condemnation is the death and resurrection of Jesus, he articulated again the doctrine of Imputation:  that by grace through faith in Christ alone, our sins are imputed to Jesus in His death, and the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us through His resurrection.  To impute is to count or to assign, so that Jesus was accorded the guilt of all the sins of the world, so that He could give His righteousness to all by the free gift of His grace as He triumphed over sin, death, hell, and the devil’s seething horde.  Now risen in Christ, forgiven and free, Paul described the Apostolic ministry of preaching Jesus to all people, that all people might be reconciled to God through Jesus.  In such a ministry there was no room for regarding the earthly condition of men either for good or for ill, but only as souls needing reconciliation through Jesus, who alone is the saving love of God incarnate.  This apostolic ministry Paul commended to the saints in Corinth, just as it has been commended throughout all generations, times, and places where Jesus has gathered His people in faith and grace, pleading through them to the world:  be reconciled to God!

 

It is always good to keep in mind the context of Scripture, particularly when expositing texts like this.  There was an Apostolic ministry which was unique to the Apostles in their time, just as there had been ministries unique to particular Prophets in times before them.  For example, just as there was one Peter and one Paul, there was one Moses and one Elijah; the Prophets and the Apostles had a peculiar ministry in that they heard and communicated the Word of God directly, so that we might have that Word recorded and passed down into every generation for which that Word was given.  St. Paul, as one of the Apostles chosen and sent directly by Jesus (like one born out of time, he would say, given his conversion on the road to Damascus,) his ministry of reconciliation is a primary reflection of the ministry of reconciliation Jesus first performed and then gave to him and the other Apostles.  Paul’s testimony to the Word of God Incarnate becomes part of the written Word of Holy Scripture, and as such serves as cannon, or rule, of the Church.  Or perhaps said another way, our own experiences in the years after St. Paul do not trump the witness of St. Paul, since the Prophets and the Apostles stand forever as unique, authoritative testimonies to the Word of God.

 

Even so, their ministry and testimony continues in the Church down to the present age because the Word they were given is eternal.  Now, as in the 1^st century AD, and in every age before and yet to come, mankind faces the judgment of God.  There’s no escaping it.  Just as everyone who lives in this world was born into it by the will of God, everyone will leave this world by the will of God, and stand before His everlasting throne to give an account of what they did with the life they were given.  Regardless of modern delusions of atheism, annihilationism, relativism, progressivism, materialism, etc., death and judgment come for all people as a 1-to-1 ratio.  All who live will stand before the judgment seat of their Maker, where every delusion will be wiped from the mind, every lie stripped away, every euphemism or rationalization evaporated, and only the inescapable truth of life will remain.  There, in the full glory of God’s immortal righteousness, virtue, beauty, and goodness, we shall see ourselves in the mirror of His Law for what we really are.  That perfect mirror brokers no deals, hides no defects, and distorts no blemish.  We shall all stand before it, and we shall all know ourselves as we are known by God.  The judgement God will render upon every soul in that moment will be just, and there will be no escaping it, as there will be no escaping the knowledge of the truth.

 

Apart from Jesus, this should be terrifying.  Any yet, for those who live by grace through faith in Christ alone, that divine mirror reveals something very different than we might expect.  Instead of our sins, our failures, our misdeeds, there is only the righteousness of Jesus.  When the Christian stands before that mirror, he pleads only the Blood of Christ which washed him, for he knows he cannot stand before that mirror on his own merit.  There in that mirror, the Christian sees his Savior sacrificed for the sins of the world, his own sins laid upon the Lamb of God as He died in unspeakable misery nailed to that Roman Cross.  But that is not all that he sees, for the Eternal Word rose again triumphant, burying our sins in His grave, and speaking the Gospel Word of reconciliation, forgiveness, and life to all who will abide in Him by faith.  There in that mirror, the glory of the Risen Christ envelopes the Christian, so that the Judge of the World only sees the satisfaction made on his behalf—the imputed righteousness of the Only Begotten Son, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the victorious King of the Kingdom of God.  The Christian is reconciled to the Father by the work of the Son, and this divine work can only be ours by grace, received only in faith.

 

This is the ministry of reconciliation which St. Paul commends to the saints at Corinth, and to every generation of Christians who shall come and go upon this globe until the end of days.  It is Jesus who has reconciled the world to Himself through His Cross, sent His Prophets and Apostles to testify of His great and saving work, then sent all of us to bear witness to Him through the power of His Word and Spirit.  We who know the salvation of God from the terror of judgment are called to breathe that life-giving Gospel to everyone who know, to bear the Word of God given to us by the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells us, that all people might know Jesus as their Savior and Lord.  To us is commended the Word and ministry of reconciliation, that we might share what Jesus has done to save the world—including our friends, family, and neighbors according to our vocations in this life—from the judgement which inexorable comes to all.  Share that Good News with someone today, and rise up in the beauty of the Gospel ministry to which you are called.  Amen.