How does the gospel shape us? (2 Cor. 5)

 

The Apostle Paul, by Rembrandt.  Image from WikiMedia Commons.

This week the church in many places celebrates the final week of the life of Christ, culminating this coming Sunday in the celebration of the death of Christ.  This coming Friday is Good Friday, because it was on this day that our Lord died and secured eternal redemption for us.  Every year, I try to preach a sermon on the resurrection of our Lord on Easter Sunday, but every year I also feel funny about that because I always feel like I needed to have preceded it with a message on the death of Christ.  Since I am always usually in the middle of a sermon series when Easter comes around, it means that the sermon before Easter is a sermon in that series, which may or may not deal with the cross of Christ as the explicit theme of the message (though I hope it has always been connected to it!).  But this year, having just finished Romans 8 two week before Easter, I have had a chance to anticipate this.  Therefore, today I want us to consider the death of Christ, and then next week we will (Lord-willing) consider his resurrection.

However, I want to do it this way: I want to consider how the gospel – the message of Jesus Christ and him crucified – shapes us.  In other words, the question is this: what do men and women who value the cross of Christ look like?  How does the gospel shape us?  How does a valuing of what Jesus did on that Good Friday change the way we live, think, and speak?  That’s what I want to think about with you this morning.

To do that, I want us to turn to 2 Corinthians 5.  This chapter ends in the final verses with some of the most profound teaching on the meaning of the death of Christ.  But these verses also are the basis for understanding the previous ones, in which Paul is defending his ministry in the face of his detractors.  Paul gives us the shape of his ministry here.  He shows us what a person who not only preached but who very clearly cherished the cross of Christ looks like, and how it changed his life.  My hope is that we will see ourselves in the mirror of God’s word, or if we don’t, that it will lead us to want to see ourselves there.

To understand what Paul is doing in this letter, we need to know a bit about the background of it.  There’s a lot we could say here, but the relevant thing is to point out that Paul had detractors in the church who claimed that he wasn’t up to snuff, so to speak.  They insulted Paul’s speaking ability (11:6) and undermined his authority (3:1).  He calls them “false apostles” (11:13) and mocks them as “super-apostles” (the KJV translates as “chiefest apostles,” 11:5; 12:11).  They were false apostles because they brought a false gospel (11:3-4).  

One of the chief characteristics of these guys was the fact that they valued appearance – physical appearance, rhetorical ability, personal persona.  They were flashy, men who were constantly comparing themselves with others and measuring themselves by themselves (10:12).  They gloried in appearance and not in the condition of the heart before God (5:12).  They were men whose standards were the standards of the flesh and of the world (5:16).

Paul was not like that.  And he tells us why he was not like that.  It was because what shaped his life was the cross of Christ.  His was a cross-shaped life.  May ours be also.  

So here is what I want to do this morning.  First, let’s look and see the shape of Paul’s life in these verses, especially in terms of how different Paul was to these false apostles and the world they represented.  And then let’s look and see how the cross of Jesus Christ makes all this possible.

The Gospel Shape of Paul’s Life (1-17)

The gospel of Jesus Christ makes you a different kind of person.  It gives you a different hope (1-8), a different goal (9-11), a different love (14-15), and a different perspective (16-17).

A Different Hope (1-8)

Paul’s hope was this: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (5:1).  “We know” – he was assured of this.  Again, we will see why in a moment, but for now just note this.  This wasn’t a wishy-washy desire for something that may or may not take place.  Paul was certain of it.  Paul knows that when he dies, which his body which he describes as an “earthly house of this tabernacle,” he will have a “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”  A tent replaced with a building!  The apostle is referring here to the resurrection and the fact that when Christ returns we will be raised incorruptible.  These bodies are mortal.  They are just tents.  They will be struck down.  But God intends to replace them which buildings that cannot be struck down.  That was Paul’s hope.

He goes on: “For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven” (2).  For the Christian, groaning is not just about the pain we experience now, but is also part of the anticipation of the putting on of resurrection bodies in the age to come.  Note that this is a house that is from heaven.  We don’t just groan to get out of something, which is what the world does.  We groan for something: eternal life!  It is not something you can get from this world.  For all the talk of transhumanism, the fact of the matter is that we will never be able to transcend mortality on our own.  This is a gift from heaven, and only God can give it.  Anything else is a Tower of Babel that will end in disaster.

He continues: “If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life” (3-4).  What does he mean here?  He means that our desire is not to be left as disembodied spirits – which is what he means by “unclothed.”  No, he wants to be “clothed upon,” for “mortality” to be “swallowed up in life.”  Again, the Christian hope is glorification, which happens when Christ returns and raises our bodies from the dead.

Paul’s confidence lies in the fact that God is doing this, and in the fact that he has given us the earnest of the Spirit: “Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit” (5).  The Spirit is the one who will raise us from the dead, who also indwells us.  He is as it were a downpayment of the life to come.  We know we will experience it because we are already participating in the life of the age to come, in the form of an earnest or guarantee.

However, Paul realizes that there might be temporal space between his death and the culmination of all things in the return of Christ and the resurrection from the dead.  He knows that in that time, before the resurrection, the saints dwell in heaven as the souls of just men made perfect, but not yet resurrected.  Paul says that in that case, it is preferable to dwell with Christ in a disembodied state than it is to go on living here: “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (6-8).  Better to be with the Lord and to be in his presence than to live indefinitely here.  Better to be absent from the body and present with the Lord.  As the apostle Paul put it, “to die is gain,” because to die is to “be with Christ, which is far better” (Phil. 1:21, 23).  

Christ is what makes heaven to be heaven.  Even in a disembodied state, we will be able to enjoy his fellowship and friendship.  We will be with him in Paradise.  We will in some way behold his glory and to enjoy the light of his presence.  We will enjoy perfect peace and joy before the throne of his glory.  Now even as we walk by faith and not by sight, we do receive glimmers of this joy and peace and happiness of heaven.  But then we shall know even as we are known .  That is the hope of the Christian.  This is what we long for.  Let the world have its dog biscuits of gold and glitter.  It will pass away and rot and rust.  But the glory to which we are headed shall never pass away.  

A Different Ambition (9-13)

People are not only animated by hopes but also by ambition.  Just as the Christian hope is different, so also is our ambition.  Paul goes on to write: “Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. 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” (9-11). The word “labour ” in the Greek means to have something as your ambition, to make it your aim or goal.  Paul is saying that in light of the hope that we have, his ambition is not to please men but to please Christ.  He made it is aim to be accepted of him, or to please him.  Christian, this ought to be our aim in every area of life!  “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).  “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Col. 3:23).

He also knows that his work is not in vain in the Lord.  This is no vain ambition.  We may try all sorts of things in this world that come to nothing.  But nothing done for Christ is for nothing.  Nothing!  For as Paul goes on to put it in the Colossians passage, “Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ” (24).  Or, as he puts it to the Ephesians, “Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free” (Eph. 6:6-8).  In 2 Cor. 5, he tells us that he lived with a constant eye upon the judgment seat of Christ. This did not dampen his ambition but rather fueled it, for it means that Christ will reward his servants, whatever the world will do.  For the believer, the judgment seat of Christ is a place of reward, whereas for the wicked it is a place of punishment. 

This was not something, as the following verse suggests, a matter of terror for him, but a matter of the fear of God.  Paul knew the fear, or reverence, of the Lord.  This is not fright or panic-stricken fear.  This is the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of knowledge.  This is the fear of the Lord which is a strong tower into which the righteous may run into it and be safe.  This is the fear of the Lord spoken of in Psalm 130, “But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared” (4).  Paul’s whole ministry of persuading men to embrace Christ in the gospel was driven by an ambition, not for his own glory, but for the honor of Christ.  

Paul lived his whole life to please God.  His was a life coram Deo, before God.  That’s why he says, “we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.”  He hopes that they will approve of his ministry.  But whether they do or no, he knows his life is before God and that gives Paul great encouragement!  Does it to you?  Can we say with Peter, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you?”  May we live more and more like this!  Not afraid with our legacy in terms of what men may think of us, but confident that a life lived before the Lord will never be in vain. This was Paul’s ambition, and may it be ours.

In light of this, Paul writes, “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” (12-13).  The apostle is referring here to his detractors, who unlike Paul did glory in appearance and made it their aim to please men rather than God.  They were therefore much more in tune with the way they looked to men and what the world thought of them.  For Paul this was not a big deal.  He didn’t care whether he looked insane or sane, whether they were “beside themselves” or ‘sober.”  He did what he did “for God” – that is, out of an ambition to please him – and “for your cause” – that is, out of a desire to serve the saints for their good rather than his own benefit.

Men and women who live to please God and make that their ambition may look – will look! – strange to the world.  Does that matter?  These are the men and women who please God and love their neighbor.

A Different Love (14-15)

The apostle is not only animated by a different hope and a different ambition, but also by a different love.  He goes on to write, “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.”  

Now the question is, is “the love of Christ” the love of which Christ is the object or the love of which Christ is the subject?  That is to say, is it a reference to Christ’s love for us or our love for Christ?  Because the expression could refer to either one.  Well, in this case I would say that Paul probably means both: our love for Christ which is compelled by his love for us.  Paul was animated by Christ’s love, a love which was manifested in his death for us.

But what is it about the death of Christ that reveals his love?  It reveals his love not only in the sacrifice itself, but in what the sacrifice accomplishes.  Notice what he says: “because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead.”  Paul is saying something very similar to what he says in Romans 6.  That is, that in the death of Christ believers have union with him in his death and in his resurrection life.  Because he died, we died.  All for whom Christ died died with him.  What does it mean to die with Christ?  It means that the benefits of his death go to us.

And then his life as well: “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.”   All those for whom Christ died not only die with him but also rise to walk in newness of life, so that we live unto him.

Paul did not see the atonement as a mere theological or philosophical category to be debated.  For him it was something which deeply impacted his life. Because of what happened on the cross, Paul died to sin and rose to walk in newness of life.  Paul was a changed man, a redeemed man, a saved man.  Not because of what Paul had done, but because of what Jesus had done for him.  And so Paul was not captured by the love of the world.  It was the love of Christ that constrained him, compelled him, and held him fast.  As he put it to the Galatians, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14).  May the love of Christ constrain us too!

A Different Perspective (16-17)

“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.”  Because Christ had died for Paul and made him to rise again to newness of life, there was a profound changed of perspective for him.  That is the point of these two verses.

To understand what Paul is getting at here, we need to remember that the ways of Paul’s competitors, these false prophets, are never far from his mind.  This whole epistle is in some sense Paul’s defense of his ministry against their claims to the attention and allegiance of the Corinthians.  For them, the standards of the flesh and of the world were the defining things.  But for Paul, they no longer were.  The flesh and the world no longer held sway over his allegiance and affections as they once did. He no longer evaluated (knew) men after the standards of the flesh.  Even though he once did, and even though he once did that even to Christ, he no longer did.

Why?  Because Christ had changed him.  He had made him a new creation.  He had transferred him from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son (Col. 1:13).  The old had passed and the new had come.  In the book of Revelation, as we get to peer into the future and the age of the fulfillment of all God’s promises, we hear God say, “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful

 (Rev. 21:5).  Paul is not saying that this has happened yet.  But he is saying that every Christian is already a member of that future reality.  This is our future.  This is the kingdom to which we belong.  This is where our citizenship is.  We belong to a new world; the one Christ is preparing for us.

Do we live with this perspective?  Or are our thoughts and affections and perspectives still controlled by the world and the flesh?  Oh may the gospel shape us into kingdom-minded people who have an eternal perspective, the perspective of a new age and a new world and a new creation!

This was the way the gospel shaped Paul.  It made him into a man who was radically different from the world, especially in terms of his hope, ambition, love, and perspective.  But in some sense these all spring from the same thing.  They are the result of a man who lived before God and in fellowship with God.  These were the qualities and characteristics of a man who wanted above all things to walk with God and please him and to glorify him.  He loved God.  He loved Jesus Christ.  And my friends that it what made Good Friday good for Paul.  That is what made the cross and the death of Christ of infinite value.  For it is only though the cross that any of this could happen.  And that brings us to our final point.

The Gospel Foundation of Paul’s Life (18-21)

What makes this possible?  What makes it possible to have this hope, to have this ambition, to have this love, and this perspective?  It is because God has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ.  This is what the cross is about.  Paul puts it here for us in these amazing words: “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. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”  

Notice that verses 18 and 19 basically say the same thing twice.  We need to hear it.  Twice Paul says that God has reconciled us to himself by Christ, and twice that he has committed to the apostles (and through them, the church) the word of reconciliation. What is Paul speaking of here?  Is he talking about sinners laying aside their enmity against God?  No; reconciliation to God means that God has done what is necessary in order to assure that the barriers between a holy God and a sinful man deserving of his judgment have been removed.  This is all about alienation between men and God; but the solution to it is not what we do but what God has done in Christ.

You see this in the way Paul elaborates the meaning of reconciliation with God by the work of Christ.  In verse 19 he elaborates on it by saying that he does not impute their trespasses to the, and in verse 21 in the fact that by his death Christ took the punishment due to our sin (he was made sin for us who knew no sin) so “that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”  The non-imputation of sins and the imputation of righteousness is what happens when a sinner is justified through faith in Christ.  We are justified by faith apart from works.  We are justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.  We are reconciled to God, not because we have done anything to merit it but because Christ merited it for us.  The basis of our relationship with God from beginning to end is not our righteousness but Christ’s.

What was happening on the cross?  What is the meaning of Good Friday?  It is this: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.”  Jesus wasn’t just dying to display the love of God to man.  He was dying in order to secure salvation for sinners and to make a way for them back to God.  He died in the place of sinners by taking their place at the judgment seat of God.  This was the way that God’s love is displayed.

And then it is announced in the proclamation of the gospel.  This is the other thing that Paul insists on.  God did this thing in Christ.  And now he announces the accomplishment of redemption through the gospel.  God has committed to the apostles and through them to the church in every age the role of ambassadors for Christ, so that through the church God is beseeching, urging, imploring, appealing to men to be reconciled to God.  

This doesn’t mean that God is helpless in heaven waiting on sinners to respond.  God will effectually draw his elect to Christ.  But neither does it mean that the proclamation of Christ as the one who reconciles men to God is merely a declaration.  It is that, but along with the declaration comes an appeal from the King to put away our sins and to find salvation in Christ.  The fact that this comes to us as an appeal to all of us answers the question: “Can I find salvation in Christ?  Can I be reconciled to God?”  The answer?  Yes, for God himself gives you the warrant to come to his Son and to find reconciliation with God through him when we put our trust in him and turn from our sins.  And when you come it will be because God drew you by his Spirit and chose you before the foundation of the world.  

So what should we do with the gospel?  Respond to the appeal and be reconciled to God by receiving Christ by faith as Lord and Savior.  What an amazing offer!  What an amazing promise!  To be reconciled with God!  To have him as our Father and to be able to own all the things that we have been looking at in Romans 8.  To be able to take every problem to him and to know that he cares for you.  To have an inheritance that is eternal, to be an heir of God and joint heir with Christ.  To be on the way to glory.  That is the heritage of all who are reconciled to God.

Christian, this is true of you.  Let it make you a man or a woman who lives in light of this hope, this ambition, this love, and this perspective.  And let it make us people who can say, even in the hardest times of life, “So we are always of good courage” (5:6).  Lord, make it so!