2 Corinthians 5:16-21
16From 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. 17 Therefore, if anyone isin Christ, he isa new creation.The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.18All this is from God,who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave usthe ministry of reconciliation;19that is, in Christ God was reconcilingthe world to himself,not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to usthe message of reconciliation.20Therefore,we are ambassadors for Christ,God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.21For our sake he made him to be sinwho knew no sin, so that in him we might becomethe righteousness of God.
Matthew 18:21-35
21Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how oftenwill my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?As many as seven times?”22Jesus said to him,“I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wishedto settle accounts with his servants.24When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed himten thousandtalents.25And since he could not pay, his master ordered himto be sold, with his wife andchildren and all that he had, and payment to be made.26So the servantfell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’27And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him andforgave him the debt.28But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundreddenarii,and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’29So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’30He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.31When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.32Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.33And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’34And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers,until he should pay all his debt.35So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brotherfrom your heart.”
We’ve been working our way through the Apostles’ Creed over the past several weeks. If you’re here for the first time or haven’t been here week-to-week, we’ve broken the Creed down into three parts because it is the Trinity we are confessing.
- Part 1: God the Father
- Part 2: God the Son
- Part 3: God the Holy Spirit
We said last week that each of the statements that follow the mention of each person of the Godhead explains their particular person and work.
Now we are in the final segment, the part having to do with the ministry of the Holy Spirit. There are five great things the Creed says are the work of the Holy Spirit:
I believe in the Holy Spirit
- The Holy Catholic Church
- The communion of saints
- The forgiveness of sins
- The resurrection of the body
- The life everlasting
If we say this as if there were six independent phrases, unrelated to one another, then the Holy Spirit is merely believed in in vague terms and has no specific ministry.
As we begin to look at this phrase, “the forgiveness of sins”, therefore, we need to keep in mind that God the Father is the giver of the law; Christ is the mediator of the law; but the Holy Spirit is the one who enables us to receive the work of forgiveness granted us in Christ Jesus.
I also want to say something about the scope of forgiveness we’re talking about. Specifically, the Creed is talking about our sin toward God and our sins against God and neighbor that separate us from God apart from the redeeming work of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the counselor who speaks the forgiveness of Christ into our hearts. Jesus said, “Whenthe Spirit of truth comes,he willguide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, butwhatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”
We spend a lot of time in the present culture talking about me “forgiving myself” for the wrongs I’ve done and “letting myself off the hook,” in an effort to “build a better self-image.” The forgiveness of sin is not God letting you and me off the hook. Romans 6:23 tells us, “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We’re going to look this morning at 1 Corinthians 5 starting at verse 6. As we’re going to see, the kind of forgiveness the Scriptures talk about is available to us only in and through Christ by the specific work of the Holy Spirit.
But, I want to begin with this statement: God has the forgiveness of my sins in Christ and my forgiveness of other human offenses tied together in such a way that I ammust and yet am unable to receive what God has done for me in Christ apart from what I must and yet cannot do for others. Therefore, forgiveness is a work of the Holy Spirit, since I am quite unable (and most of the time unwilling) to forgive those who have wronged me deeply. John 16:13 says, “Whenthe Spirit of truth comes,he willguide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, butwhatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” Our situation is not about self-image; our situation is about sin, forgiveness, and redemption. And that is a work of God the Father, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 5 tells us of:
An Impossible Transformation
An Incredible Ordination
An Invaluable Invitation, and
An Intolerable Application
1)The Impossible Transformation
“16From 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. 17 Therefore, if anyone isin Christ, he isa new creation.The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
To “regard someone according to the flesh” is not language we are used to using. This is what Paul means when he says he regarded Christ according to the flesh: it is to see them in their physical being only. All the characteristics of your life in this body? These are your “flesh.”
- Your physical attributes – what you see in the mirror
- Your physical frailties – what diseases and sins you are prone to
- Your physical history – what lineage and nurture have produced in you
a) Son of David (flesh) vs. Son of God (spirit)
My direct line of descent on one side of my family traces my sister, my children, and me as the only people living who go back direct line to all 27 of the original proprietors (incorporators) of the Town of Greenwich, CT. AT one point in time, my immediate ancestors owned every square foot of the wealthiest town in Connecticut. On the other side I’m descended from Armenians who are the most often conquered people on earth. I have lots of family stories on both sides. And if you engage me in conversation about my family history, you do it at your own peril.
Luke 2 tells us Jesus is “son of David, [who was] son of Jesse” and ultimately traces Jesus’ lineage back through Adam to God. In this way it is a unique genealogy; and I believe Luke was trying to establish some kind of direct line to suggest that, even in his humanity, Jesus was descended direct line from God. Thus, Christ in his incarnation was fully human. I believe Luke is suggesting that, from the beginning, Jesus was also fully God. And yet, Luke’s genealogy only “regards Jesus according to the flesh.”
Matthew’s genealogy takes a slightly different tack, again tracing Jesus back to David, but then ending the genealogy at Abraham, establishing that Jesus was descended fully according to the law, and that he was a fully pedigreed keeper of the Hebrew Law, the Law of God. Again, Matthew’s genealogy only appreciates Jesus at this point according to the flesh.
But there is more, you see. “Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.”
By the end of Luke’s Gospel, it has become impossible for Luke, or anyone else, to regard Christ according to the flesh.
i)Luke 24:46-49“Thusit is written,that the Christ should suffer and on the third dayrise from the dead,47and thatrepentance forthe forgiveness of sins should be proclaimedin his nameto all nations,beginning from Jerusalem.48You are witnesses of these things.49And behold, I am sendingthe promise of my Father upon you.
ii)1 Peter 3:18For Christ alsosufferedonce for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous,that he might bring us to God, being put to deathin the flesh but made alivein the spirit
iii)Ephesians 2:1-5 says, “And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sinsin which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. [That’s regarding US according to the flesh] But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us,even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
And so we are confronted with an Impossible Transformation. We regarded ourselves according to the flesh and we were found lacking in every way. The work Jesus accomplished through his sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension is what makes the transformation possible, even though it is impossible.
iv)Colossians 1:14 Hehas delivered us fromthe domain of darkness and transferred us tothe kingdom ofhis beloved Son,14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The Impossible Transformation is not just rhetorical; it is actual. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone isin Christ, he isa new creation.The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
You may wonder at times what proof there is that you are in Christ. The answer is that those who are in Christ live profoundly changed lives. They don’t value what they once valued; they don’t work the same way they once worked and don’t work for the same goals; they don’t regard people the way they once did.
We are people forgiven in an impossible way.
2)The Incredible Ordination (v. 18-19)
18All this is from God,who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave usthe ministry of reconciliation;19that is, in Christ God was reconcilingthe world to himself,not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to usthe message of reconciliation
In a few weeks we’re going to be “ordaining” Chris Johnson to the Christian ministry. Of course, he’s already been doing this ministry for some time now and we are merely giving our “yes” and “Amen” to what God has done in and through Chris.
There’s a real sense in which every believer is ordained, and it is here in vs. 18-19. We are entrusted, Paul says, with the message of reconciliation.
In Ephesians 4:1-6 we hear echoes of the Apostles’ Creed: I therefore,a prisoner for the Lord, urge you towalk in a manner worthy ofthe calling to which you have been called,2with allhumility andgentleness, withpatience,bearing with one another in love,3eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit inthe bond of peace.4There isone body andone Spirit—just as you were called to the onehope that belongs to your call—5one Lord,one faith,one baptism,6one God and Father of all,who is over all and through all and in all.
And what is our calling? To proclaim to all the impossible forgiveness of God in Christ. The law says that those who sin are deserving of death. Paul explains this in Romans 3:23 when he says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and again in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death”. If we regard people according to the flesh, the end of all flesh is what Paul calls it in 1 Corinthians 15, “corruption.” But because we who are in Christ have been freed from the penalty of the Law and raised up with Christ to sit with him in heavenly places; Jesus didn’t experience corruption, and neither will those who belong to him. “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
3) The Invaluable Invitation
There’s nothing better, nor more important you can tell another person than that they are forgiven when they receive the impossible transformation of new life in Christ.
Matthew 28:18-20, the great commission, tells us what our calling is: “Go therefore andmake disciples ofall nations,baptizing theminthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We’ll get into this in the coming weeks; but the reason baptism is so important to a Christian is because we are baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Our baptism is an outward and visible sign of something that has taken place inside: the Impossible Transformation. In our baptism, the Holy Spirit calls and ordains us through the laying on of hands, if you will, to the ministry of reconciliation. It is our great pleasure to proclaim to all the world that forgiveness and reconciliation with God are waiting for them.
That’s why Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 5:20, “Therefore,we are ambassadors for Christ,God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
Why wouldn’t you want to be forgiven of your rebellion against God? And notice what this invitation and all that we’ve talked about does in you: it works salvation not just for the future: it works salvation in you right now. If you’ve been “going to church” all your life and nothing has changed in you; if you’re still just as mean or divisive, stingy or cunning, angry and broken as you ever were; this invitation is for you. I implore you; I beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God through the forgiveness that is in Christ.
4)The Intolerable Application
Finally, the Impossible Transformation that causes the Incredible Ordination that drives us to offer an Invaluable Invitation, leads us to discover an Intolerable Application: “For our sake he made him to be sinwho knew no sin, so that in him we might becomethe righteousness of God.”
The Gospel never ever, ever, ever depends on what you must do for God. It always, always, always depends on what God has already done, and especially who he is. That is to say, there’s nothing in you that is so worthy that Jesus would die for you. And yet, he did. Verse 21 begins with those words, “For our sake.”
Romans 3:11-12 says, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
I recently gave my 2001 Honda Civic to charity because it had finally, at 294,000 miles, become completely valueless. There was no fixing it; there was nothing to be done for it. But it had done its work and parting with it was like parting with an old friend. It owed me nothing; it had given 100% in service to me.
You and I were mired in sin before we were born. It comes from that flesh Paul says we used to regard everyone in. Your sin and mine make us valueless before we even begin life. We are worthless to the progress of the race; more importantly, we are worthless to God. And that’s very, very important to understand.
When verse 21 says, “he made him to be sinwho knew no sin,” it means that on the Cross Jesus became toward God the very thing you and I have always been even though there was nothing in him deserving of that penalty. On the Cross, Jesus became utterly valueless before God so that all who believe Jesus will become of utter value before God. Remember, this was the Son – the second person of the Trinity we proclaim. Some people say, “If I could keep you from what you are suffering, I’d cut off my right arm.” On the Cross God was severed from himself. The impossible indissoluble Trinity was torn apart in dreadful fashion so that I might be found in Christ.
The forgiveness God accomplished in Christ is impossible, it is incredible, it is invaluable, and it is intolerable. When I think of what Christ did on my behalf, I am ruined. But I am also raised.