2 Corinthians 5:11-21
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
(2 CORINTHIANS 5:17)
A dear friend once told me about her family coming to Christ. She was a teenager when it happened; someone shared the gospel with her parents, they believed it, and they began living for Jesus. I'll never forget the way she described the change: "It was as if the world went from black and white to living color." In their home there were new behaviors, new goals, and an entirely new way of seeing the world.
Paul writes that a Christian is "a new creation." The old identity is gone. A hopeless, futile life has been replaced with purpose and fruitfulness. We have, in a sense, new eyes that can see new beauties, such as righteous living and communion with God. We enjoy new things, such as Christ's love. In fact, a believer has an entirely different worldview from an unbeliever. We have a new motivation: Christ's love and not people's approval. We have a new goal: to live for God and not ourselves. Most wonderful of all, we have a new account: the credit of Christ's righteousness and not the debt of our sins.
INSIGHT
HOW DOES YOUR WORLDVIEW, AS A CHRISTIAN, DIFFER FROM AN UNBELIEVER'S? HOW HAS YOUR LIFE CHANGED BECAUSE OF JESUS?
READ THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
Jeremiah 51-52
Psalm 127
2 Corinthians 8
2 Corinthians 5:11-21
New Living Translation (NLT)
We Are God’s Ambassadors
11 Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. 12 Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us,[a] so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. 13 If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. 14 Either way, Christ’s love controls us.[b] Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life.[c] 15 He 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.
16 So 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! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
18 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. 19 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. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,[d] so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Footnotes:
a. 2 Corinthians 5:12 Some manuscripts read proud of yourselves.
b. 2 Corinthians 5:14 Or urges us on.
c. 2 Corinthians 5:14 Greek Since one died for all, then all died.
d. 2 Corinthians 5:21 Or to become sin itself.
GOD IN CHARGE [PART 3]
Politics tend to bring out the worst in people. But for Christians there is an even greater danger ... we are tempted to put our ultimate hope in the kingdom of man rather than in the kingdom of God.
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