Connect Time- 2 Corinthians 5
2 Corinthians 5: 15-21
15He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
16So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
18And 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. 19For 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. 20So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Connect
This section of scripture is such a beautiful and challenging section of scripture. It is beautiful in the way that it shows us how we are made right with God. It is through the love, grace, and death of Christ. Nothing on our own accord, but a free gift of life through him. It is beautiful because when we respond to this free gift we are “MADE NEW”. The old is gone!!! For me that is a life changing message. I think about my own testimony…drugs, alcohol, causing pain to people because I was searching, hurting, and far from God (I’ll tell you the full testimony later), but in short I was a “notorious sinner”. Yet when I surrendered to Christ he made me NEW. Not kind of new, not refreshed, not just cleaned up…HE MADE ME NEW. He made me new in Christ. He made me new in his mind. He didn’t look at me as the old Josh. He saw me as a new creation. It’s beautiful because of what he did for me…AND WHAT HE DOES FOR ALL WHO TURN TO HIM. That can be your dad, your friend, the student, the convict, etc. He makes people NEW…and doesn’t hold their sin against them! It’s beautiful!
But it is also challenging. It is challenging in two ways. First, when we come to him we are called to no longer live for ourselves but for Christ (verse 15). It means as a new person we have a new mission. Our dreams, desires, sins, habits, hobbies, money, time, etc. all have to be surrendered to Christ because we are no longer living for ourselves but for Christ. Unfortunately many of us don’t accept this challenge. We accept Christ into our lives as Savior but not as Lord. Instead of living for Christ we still live for ourselves with a little be of Christ sprinkled in. That isn’t the calling he has for us. As a new creation we have a new mission…to live for him! And one way we live for him is as an ambassador. We carry the message of reconciliation to those who need to be made right with God. In other words we have a mission that matters and that mission is to help people come back to God and find what matters! We have to “implore”, “plead”, “beg” people to “come back to God.” He has given us this “task” and this “message”. Let’s accept the challenge and live for Christ by living out this message!
It’s a beautiful and challenge section of scripture that I have committed my life to carrying out. Will you?