What Ministry is All About, Part 7
In our message, THE NEW CREATION (2 Cor. 5:12-17), Paul continued to give thanks to God for making Christians ministers of the New Covenant, and now explained what it means to become a creation of God. Jesus said in John 3:7, “You MUST be born again” to “enter” and even “see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, 5, 6-8, etc., caps my emphasis). When a person trusts God’s way of salvation (1 Cor. 15:3-4, John 14:6, etc.), he or she is changed from God’s enemy, at that instant, into His child (John 3:16-21; 2 Cor. 5:18; Col. 3:21, etc.). This supernatural birth into His kingdom, just like our birth into this world, is a one-time event guaranteeing our destiny, by grace through faith, into heaven (2 Cor. 5:14, 17; John 5:24; John 1:12-13, etc.).
In 2 Cor. 5:11, where we left off last week, Paul said Christians, in view of our coming accountability at “the judgement seat of Christ,” should “persuade” one another to listen to God in our daily lives (2 Cor. 5:10-11; Rom. 12:1-2, etc.) so as to be “confident” when He comes for us (2 Cor. 5:6, 8-9; 1 John 2:28, etc.). And because of this… the apostle continued to defend the Word of God spoken through him by the Lord against the false apostles who challenged it at Corinth (2 Cor. 5:12b; 11:3, 12-15; Gen. 3:1, etc.). The Great Commission means making “disciples” which is achieved not only by sharing the gospel with the lost and baptizing people after they come to faith, but also by teaching Christians “all things [Jesus has] commanded [us]” until He returns for us (Matt. 28:18-20; 2 Cor. 2:12, etc.). That is, the Great Commission mandates every Christian to contend for and defend the faith (2 Cor. 5:12; Jude 1:3-4, etc.).
Paul’s accusers said he was crazy, but the apostle was in good company because they said the same things about Jesus when He walked this world (2 Cor. 5:13a; Acts 26:24; Mark 3:21, etc.). Anytime someone is sold out for Christ, walking by faith, the world will not understand the love of God manifested through them (2 Cor. 2:7; 13, etc.). This love is to compel us and control us in view of the great grace God has showered down on us when He died as our substitute (2 Cor. 5:14; Rom. 12:1-2, etc.). It is because of this that we “SHOULD no longer live for [ourselves], but for [Jesus] who died for [us] and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:15, caps- my emphasis; Gal. 5:16-18, 25, etc.). It is because of our identity in Christ that we SHOULD consider ourselves- moment by moment- “dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” because this is the truth in God’s eyes (Rom. 6:11; Gal. 2:20, etc.). Since we have died with Christ, we can overcome sin (2 Pet. 1:3; Gal. 5:1, etc.) and bear fruit to God (Rom. 7:4; Gal. 2:22-23; Eph. 5:18; John 15:5; Amos 3:3, etc.). “It has been well said, ‘Christ died our death that we might live His life for Him.’” -Dr. Wiersbe
When the Bible says, Paul had “known Christ according to the flesh,” it means, before his conversion, he thought of Jesus from a worldly point of view- as merely another man (2 Cor. 5:16). But after he met God on the Damascus Road, Paul knew and understood the truth that Jesus is God (Acts 9:1-6; John 1:1-3, 14; 10:30, etc.). It was then that Paul, a persecutor of the church, was “in Christ”- saved by grace through faith (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:8-9, etc.). He and all who come to Jesus by faith are a “NEW CREATION” with the “old things [having] passed away” (aorist tense in the Greek- meaning an unqualified past tense of a verb- a one-time event). The Bible shows us here, all who come to Jesus by grace through faith in the Gospel “have become new” being born by God from above (2 Cor. 5:17; John 1:12-13, etc.). And because “all things have become new,” Christians can look at life from a different point of view- through the eyes of faith (2 Cor. 5:16) having been given the Spirit of God “forever” and having been judicially forgiven of all their sin- past, present, and future- through the blood of the Lamb (2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 1:13-14; John 1:29; 14:16-18, 2 Cor. 5:21, etc.). *For more information on this message, please see SBFC’s March 16, 2025 sermon above.