>> Jen: Good morning, faithful listeners, and welcome to the Bible Explained podcast. We're going to be going through second Corinthians 5 today and finishing up this chapter. So make sure to grab your cup of coffee or your cup of tea and stay tuned for second Corinthians 5. So I told you a couple weeks ago about somebody who sent me some really beautiful, beautiful magnets in the mail, and I stuck one to the side of my computer.
Well, apparently you're not supposed to do that because my husband comes in, he's Mr. IT guy, he comes in and he's like, is that a magnet stuck to the side of your computer? I'm like, yeah, it's fine. He's like, no, it's not fine. You gotta take that magnet off your computer. And I was like, what? What's it gonna do? He's like, it could mess up the computer. I was like, oh, okay. I didn't realize that. So now the magnet is no longer on the computer. It is on, like, um, a little basket thing that
I have hanging on my wall. So, yeah, I can still see it, but it's no longer on the computer. But my computer's fine. It did just fine. There was really no problems with the magnet being on it. So I don't really know what the problem was. Anyway, faithful listeners, let's go ahead and read 2 Corinthians 5, verses 11 through, uh, 21, the rest of the chapter. And I'll be reading this actually today out of the amp, the Amplified
Bible. So go ahead and grab the version of the Bible that you prefer, and let's enjoy reading God's Word together. Therefore, since we know the fear of the LORD and understand the importance m of obedience and worship, we persuade people to be reconciled to Him. But we are plainly known to God. He knows everything about us. And I hope that we are plainly known also in your consciences, your God given discernment.
We are not commending ourselves to you again, but are giving you an occasion to be rightfully proud of us so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in outward appearances, the virtues they pretend to have, rather than what is actually in the heart. If we are out of our mind, just unstable fanatics, as some critics say, it is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for your
benefit. For the love of Christ controls and compels us, because we've concluded this, that one died for all, and therefore all died, and He died for all, so that all those who live would no longer live for themselves. But for Him who died and was raised for their sake. So from now on, we regard no one from a human point of view according to worldly standards and values. Though we have known Christ from a human point of view, now we no longer
know Him in this way. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ that is grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior, he is a new creature reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit. The old things, the previous moral and spiritual condition have passed away. Behold, new things have come because spiritual awakening brings
new life. But all these things are from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, making us acceptable to Him and gave us the ministry of reconciliation so that by our example we might bring others to Him. That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people's sins against them, but canceling them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation, that is restoration to
favor with God. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We, as Christ's representatives, plead with you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. He made Christ, who knew no sin, to judicially be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we, we would become the righteousness of God. That is, we would be made acceptable to Him and placed in a right relationship with Him by His gracious, loving kindness.
I love the AMP version, but I almost never read it for the initial reading on the podcast because of all the extra words. You might have noticed that while I was reading, but I wanted to read the AMP today because it did so well at describing just what we're talking about today. So let's start in verse 11. Therefore, since we know the fear of the LORD and understand the importance of obedience and worship, we persuade people to be
reconciled to Him. And that is what we are going to be talking about in this entire portion today is Paul is just encouraging people to be reconciled to God. What does reconcile mean? That means to be made right with God. We are plainly known to God. He knows everything about us. And I hope that we are plainly known also in your consciences, uh, your God given discernment. We know that Paul and the other apostles had a lot of pushback in the
Corinthian Church. In fact, the Corinthian Church had a lot of issues that Paul had to address in the book of First Corinthians. You know, the Corinthians were very, um, holier than thou acting. They had one guy in their congregation who was living in a incestuous relationship. With his mother in law just, you know, being part of the membership. And Paul was like, yeah, you gotta, you gotta do something about that. And on top of that, they also
didn't have very orderly services. So everybody would be speaking at the same time, everybody would be talking over each other. Everybody wanted the gift of tongues. And so there was a, uh, lot of chaos in the Corinthian church that Paul was trying
to address in the last letter. And so now he's telling the Corinthians, you know, I really hope that through your God given conscience, your God given discernment, that you understand that we are telling you the truth, that we're not just trying to put these rules and regulations on you, but we are telling you the truth and we hope that you accept that truth with
your, uh, discernment. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but are giving you an occasion to be rightfully proud of us so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in outward appearances. So Paul's like, look, uh, we apostles, we're not writing you these letters and commending ourselves, you know, bragging about ourselves just for the sake of bragging, like some people do. If it looks like we are bragging about ourselves, that's not
our intention. Our intention rather is for you to be proud of us and to be proud of the ministry. And by the way, I think some people get kind of confused with the difference between pride and being proud of something. So pride, obviously is when you have self interest. You are really only interested in whatever you're doing and not really what other people are doing. That is pride. But being proud of something is different because you can be proud of something without having any self interest.
So Paul is saying the same exact thing, you know, to the Corinthians. He's like, you know, I hope you Corinthians are proud of our ministry. I hope you're not ashamed of it because, you know, there's people out there who claim all sorts of things about me and the other apostles. You, you know, the apostles were always being accused of something. They'd be accused of, you know, being out of their mind one day, they'd be accused of being drunk
the next day. Uh, you know, in the case of the Pentecost, they were always being accused of something. And so Paul says, I really hope you don't listen to these accusations and become ashamed of us because of what non believers are saying. Rather, I really hope you're, you're proud of this ministry and are not ashamed of it and are able to actually give an answer to these people who are constantly accusing not just us, but the whole ministry of Christ in general. Then he kind of
defends himself in verse 13. He says, if we are out of our mind, just unstable fanatics as some critics say, then it's for God. But if we are in our right mind, it is for your benefit. So he says, look, you know, we're always getting accused of something and just know that when we get accused of things, we're either doing it for your benefit or we're doing it for God. Now actually if you turn to Acts 26 and read verse 24, there's actually a story of um, a governor telling Paul he was out of
his mind. This was when Paul appeared before Festus and I believe King Agrippa as well. So after Paul basically preached the gospel to King Agrippa. And Festus says in verse 24, at this point Festus interrupted Paul's defense. You are out of your mind, Paul. He shouted, your great learning is driving you insane. So yeah, people were always saying, oh, Paul is out of his mind. He's very learned. And so because of that he just, he's gone crazy due to too
much book learning basically. And Paul defends himself. He says, look, you know, if it looks like I am acting crazy, crazy as some critics say, I'm doing it for God. I'm um, not actually out of my mind, but I'm doing it for God. And if it looks like I'm in my right mind, well then I'm doing it for you. So either I'm doing it for your guys' benefit or for God. But either way, verse 14, the love of Christ controls and compels us because we've concluded that One died for all and therefore all
die, died. And He died for all. And of course this verse is discussing Jesus, that Jesus died for all. And you might be like, well how did He die for all if you know only some people are saved? Well if actually, if you turn to the most famous verse in the entire Bible, John 3:16, and you look at it in the Greek, it says, for God so loved the cosmos. The word cosmos is usually translated as world, but it actually means the universe, the entirety of
everything God created. Jesus died for the cosmos. So yes, Jesus died for all. Now that doesn't mean that all are saved because everybody is going to make a choice whether or not they want to become a Christian or not. But because Jesus, uh, died for all, anybody who wants to become saved can become saved. Like m. There's no limit to the amount of people who can become saved for the past 2000 years and beyond. Anybody who wants to believe in Jesus can become saved because Jesus died for all.
He died for the cosmos. So therefore, all died. Verse 14. And that part's the more confusing part. But most likely here Paul is talking specifically about those who do end up believing in Jesus. There are verses that discuss how when we believe in Jesus, we actually crucify our old selves to the cross. And that's basically what Paul goes on to describe here in verse 15. He died for all, so that all those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised
for their sake. So the old self has been crucified to the cross and we don't live for the old self any longer. Instead, we have been given new life, new spiritual life rather. And because we have this new spiritual life in Christ, we now live for Christ. We live for the one who died and was raised for our sakes. So from now on, verse 16, we regard no one from a human point of view according
to worldly standards and values. So when it comes to those who have been saved, we should no longer be viewing them from the outward appearance. We should be viewing that person differently than we did before. Now, that being said, does that mean that we view non Christians differently, as if they're trash or something like that? No, obviously not. That is not biblical. Every single person has been created in God's image. And so we should be treating people as if they are created in God's image.
But. But that being said, when somebody becomes a Christian, they now are accepted into God's family. And so they have become basically kind of like our brother and sister, if that makes sense. Because as Christians, we're also adopted into God's family. And that's why you'll hear some churches call their congregants like brother and sister. They'll be like, oh, sister Jen, how are you doing? Oh, brother Mike, it's been a while. They'll say stuff like that. Um, that's more common in,
like, Baptist churches. I grew up in a church like that. But moving on, in verse 16, it says, though we have known Christ from a human point of view, now we no longer know Him in this way. So for those of us who become saved, we have a different understanding of who Christ is than the rest of the world. The rest of the world might think, oh, He was just a good man. Oh, He was just a person in history, or He's just A fairy tale. He doesn't even exist. That's what the world thinks
of Christ. It's a human understanding of who Christ really is. But once we become saved, we now have a spiritual understanding of who Christ is. Something very different than what we understood before. We did know Christ from a human point of view, but now we no longer know Him in this way. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit.
And that's why we have a different understanding of Christ, is because we've been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, who gives us knowledge and understanding of who Jesus really is. The old things, the previous moral and spiritual condition have passed away. And the new things have come because spiritual awakening brings a new life. And that is very true. I'm sure all of you have a story of how dark things felt before you really understood about Jesus or before your faith really started to grow.
I have that story. I know my husband has that story. So many people I know can point to how different their life was before they became saved. After salvation, we truly do become new creatures. Basically, verse 18. But all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, making us acceptable to Him, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation so that by our example we might bring others to Him.
So not only did God reconcile Himself to us, meaning He made us right with Him, He made things right. But He also gave us, us Christians, the responsibility to go and make other disciples so that those other disciples can be also reconciled with God. That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people's sin against them, but canceling them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation, that is restoration to favor with
God. So Jesus, who was God in human flesh, it mentions here that God was in Christ. I really like that phrasing. God was in Christ. Christ came down to earth. He gave us the gift of salvation, and He didn't count people's sin against them, but He canceled those sins. And He gave us the message of reconciliation so that we can go and help other people be also reconciled or restored to God. So then, to conclude verse 20 and 21, we are ambassadors for Christ as
though God were making His appeal through us. We, as Christ's representatives, plead with you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. So Paul is doing it right here. He's saying, look, you Corinthians and everybody else who is going to read this letter throughout, all be reconciled to God, be made right with God, because you can be. God died for all. Anybody who chooses salvation can have it. And how did God do this?
Well, uh, because He made Christ, who knew no sin, to judicially be sin on our behalf so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God. That is, we would be made acceptable to Him and placed in a right relationship with Him by His gracious loving kindness. So Jesus knew no sin because He was God. God does not sin. He cannot sin. So Jesus obviously could not sin.
But He became sin for us. And by becoming sin, God the Father poured out His wrath on Jesus instead of on us, because we were the ones who deserved God's wrath. It says the wages, the payment for sin is death. That is the wrath of God. Our sin separates us from God. And Jesus endured that separation from God on our behalf. He experienced death and suffering and torture and all of these terrible things just so that we don't have to die in our sins and experience that
separation from God. And honestly, I believe that separation from God is hell. It's the most miserable existence you can have is being separated from God. And Jesus experienced that for us so we don't have to. So now I'm going to make the same charge that Paul made to the Corinthians be reconciled to God because God has room for you.
Well, faithful listeners, I hope you enjoyed today's episode and if you did share it on your social media platforms, tell people that the Bible Explained podcast exists and uh, write a nice review on Apple Podcasts or Audible or wherever else you can review the podcast. I would love to see those reviews and also they help the podcast get found by more people. So I appreciate all of that and faithful listeners, I hope you have a fantastic
and wonderful rest of your Thursday. I will see you guys on Monday unless you want to become a member and tune in tomorrow for the uh, Bible Explained on Fridays. If you want to become a member, you can find the information for that linked in the description below. Have a fantastic weekend, happy listening and God bless.