Most Read Bible Verses---#43---II Corinthians 5:18-21

II Corinthians 5:18-21 (NLT)

And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”  For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Paul has just written in II Corinthians 5:17 that anyone who belongs to Christ is a brand new person with a brand new life; the old life has passed away.  Then he writes what being a new person in Christ means.  Just reflect carefully and rejoice personally at all the promises and all the good news in these verses:

·  Gift from God

·  Brought us back to Himself

·  Given us the task of reconciling people to Him

·  God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself

·  God no long counts people’s sins against them

·  God gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation

·  We are Christ’s ambassadors

·  God makes His appeal (to the world) through us

·  We speak for Christ

·  God made Christ to be the offering for our sin

·  We are made right with God through Christ

Think of God in heaven and people on earth with an infinite chasm separating the two--holy God from sinful man.  There is no way that sinful man can connect with God (Isaiah 59:2), nothing man can ever do to earn or somehow establish a linkage with God (Romans 3:23).  Yet God took the initiative to establish that linkage over the great chasm and that was to send Himself in the form of His son, Jesus Christ, to receive the penalty for all the world’s sins and all of mankind’s sinful nature.  That penalty was to be crucified on a cross.  Think of the cross as the linkage, as the bridge between heaven and earth, between God and man.  The cross, representing the offering for our sin, enables you and me to be made right with God.  The natural man, one whose thinking and actions are controlled by human nature (biblically referred to as the flesh), cannot comprehend the truth of the cross.  Only the person who is open to the Spirit of God can believe and accept the cross and its meaning.

This passage represents another declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The gospel in its simplest explanation is the cross of Christ bridging the chasm of separation between God and man.  God has made it our responsibility to declare the gospel to others.  It is our task as ambassadors for Christ.  As the Scripture says, “God is making His appeal through us”.

When was the last time you made an appeal on behalf of God?  When have you been an ambassador for Christ?  You may be afraid to share your beliefs with others, afraid of rejection and persecution.  There’s the old saying, “Say nothing, do nothing, be nothing”.  Your richest rewards in eternity will be those for whom you planted seeds of the gospel through your words and actions. 

Meditate more carefully on this passage and let these words saturate your mind and then may you act upon them.  Have you forgiven yourself as God through Christ has forgiven you?  Have you forgiven others because of the forgiveness you feel?  Exactly how do you feel as a brand new person?  Do you feel the promise of being made right with God Can you name at least three people to whom you can serve as an ambassador for Christ?