Crux of the Cross Week 3: Reconciliation – 2 Corinthians 5:16-19
The following is a manuscript of the sermon presented by Senior Pastor Dr. Roger Patterson on Sunday, March 17, 2024 at our West U Baptist campus. To view the sermon in full, check out the link below.
In 2018, a Dallas police officer, Amber Guyger, shot an innocent man when she accidentally entered the wrong apartment. After being sentenced for 10 years, the man’s brother, Brandt Jean took the stand and said,
“I love you just like anyone else and I’m not going to hope you rot and die,” Brandt Jean told Guyger. “I personally want the best for you. I wasn’t going to say this in front of my family, I don’t even want you to go to jail. I want the best for you because I know that’s exactly what Botham would want for you. Give your life to Christ. I think giving your life to Christ is the best thing Botham would want for you.
What a testament of forgiveness and reconciliation. There was still justice for the wrongdoing, but forgiveness and reconciliation was made.
It is because of the cross of Jesus that we can be both reconciled to God and to one another.
Our Text Today is:
2 Corinthians 5:14-19
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
16 From 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 is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
The Cross of Christ…
- Creates a new opportunity between us and God.
- The cross of Christ creates a new opportunity between us and God
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
The Gospel of Jesus offers something new to us that those before the cross only hoped for — Grace from God that reconciles us!
At the heart of Paul’s emphasis on reconciliation is the new covenant. Of course, in order forthere to be a new covenant means there is an old covenant.
When we use the word covenant, biblically we mean “the solemn ratification of an existing relationship involving promises or obligations that are sealed with an oath.”
Another definition provides a fuller understanding: “an enduring agreement which defines a relationship between two parties involving a solemn, binding obligation(s) specified on the part of at least one of the parties toward the other, made by oath under threat of divine curse, and ratified by a visual ritual.”
Consider the covenants with me for a moment.
- Covenants – Old Covenant –
We know from Exodus 32 that Israel did not take long to break their covenant with God. “Even as Moses was receiving the covenant stipulations [i.e., 10 Commandments and Torah], the Israelites were breaking them––graphically depicted by the shattering of the inscribed tablets by Moses when confronted firsthand with people’s apostasy (Exod. 32:19).”
Despite such sinful rebellion, God graciously relents and re-establishes his covenant with Israel. Nonetheless, in his covenant with Israel, God provides blessings for obedience to the covenant and curses for disobedience to the covenant. “Complete loyalty was essential for the covenant relationship between Yahweh and Israel to be maintained. Israel’s continued tenure in the Promised Land depended on it.” Of course, we know what happened next: Exile.
You see, the Law exposes our inability to keep the covenant and it shows us our need for a Savior.
As you continue through the Old Testament, we see that the…
- Prophets began to speak of a new covenant coming.
The prophets of the Old Testament…
“announced various ways in which God would act to deal with his faithless people people and bring his overall plan of restoring his broken creation to fulfillment.
Because the people had broken and violated the Israelite covenant, the prophets announced that God would put in place a new covenant in which not only would he be faithful, but his people would be faithful too.”
Listen to the words of Jeremiah 31:31-34.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
This New Covenant was promised — a covenant written on our hearts. And note what Hebrews 8:6-7 says of the first covenant.
Hebrews 8:6-7
But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
The book of Hebrews declares that the first covenant was faulty…it didn’t accomplish God’s redemptive plan for the nations. So, the first covenant and Israel’s inability to keep it exposed the need for a New Covenant.
- The New Covenant was established…
The New Covenant is a covenant of reconciliation. The covenant between God and Israel had been broken. More so, the covenant between God and humanity had been broken.
As we think about the new covenant and reconciliation, it is important to keep in mind the parallels between the first humans, Adam and Eve, and Israel.
God had orchestrated a relationship with Israel. He had covenanted with Israel, giving them clear expectations for how to be in relationship with him. Israel broke those expectations which in turn led to exile.
Similarly, God created a relationship with Adam and Eve. He gave them expectations. They broke them. Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden.
As Jeremy Treat says it,
“Ever since that day, all of humanity has been in exile.”
Let’s go back to 2 Corinthians 5 and see this reconciling covenant.
2 Corinthians 5:14-16
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
16 From 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.
Look at the words, “that one has died for all…and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him…”
Do you see the new opportunity the New Covenant creates for you and me?
- There is new life found in Jesus Christ.
- There is new purpose…living a life for him…that is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Notice also what we see the Cross of Christ does for us.
The Cross of Christ…
- Creates a new opportunity between us and God.
- Reconciles us with God.
- The cross of Christ reconciles us with God
2 Corinthians 5:18a
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself…
“Reconciliation has to do with ‘reestablishment of interrupted or broken relationships,’ or the ‘exchange of hostility for a friendly relationship.’”
“Reconciliation assumes broken relationships, alienation, and disaffection.”
And we were alienated…because our sin has separated us…and we were unable to keep the covenant.
But, you see, when we are restored to God through Jesus, it changes our outlook on everything.
- We see ourselves differently.
- We see our work differently.
- We see others differently.
One writer says…“The new bases for understanding others stems not simply from the individual person who has been transformed by the gospel but also from the kingdom values put in place under Christ’s rule; a new eschatological order has been brought in.
- The love of Christ constrains (5:14);
- those alive in Christ, live for Christ and they do so
- by Christ’s principles and mandates.”
Again…“Reconciliation assumes broken relationships, alienation, and disaffection.”
So, what did this reconciliation look like?
In describing the effects of Christ’s death, Michael Gorman writes,
“It is clear that this reconciliation involves forgiveness (‘not counting their trespasses against them’; 5:19), but also much more.
As in Matthew’s account of the Last Supper, forgiveness is the prerequisite for participation in the new creation/covenant, the start of the transformation into the the righteousness of God.
But Christ did not die merely to forgive sins, or to create a people who know themselves to be forgiven. Rather, he died to create a covenant-keeping forgiven people, a people that is absolutely devoted to this crucified and resurrected Lord and that embodies the kind of divine righteousness displayed in his self-giving incarnation and death.”
This is what makes Paul’s appeal to reconciliation so important. “For him, there can be no true and lasting peace among humans without reconciliation with God, without a common embrace of the cross.”
Q: Now, why is all of this important? Why is it the CRUX of the CROSS?
A: The answer is God’s reconciliation project—God the Father, providing a new covenant for us through His son.
And there are three key theological assertions that are important here…look again at 2 Corinthians 5:18a.
2 Corinthians 5:18a
All this is from God…
Three Principles about Reconciliation
- God is the driving force behind the redemption of humankind. Reconciliation comes solely at God’s initiative.
But keep reading the second part of this verse.
2 Corinthians 5:18b
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself…
Here is the second principle about reconciliation.
Three Principles about Reconciliation
- God is the driving force behind the redemption of humankind. Reconciliation comes solely at God’s initiative.
- God acted through Christ’s death, and Christ alone is the means of reconciliation with God.
God acted through Christ…Christ and His cross are the means by which we are reconciled!
Three Principles about Reconciliation
- God is the driving force behind the redemption of humankind. Reconciliation comes solely at God’s initiative.
- God acted through Christ’s death, and Christ alone is the means of reconciliation with God.
- God continues to act through those who have been reconciled. They have the privilege and responsibility to share in this great divine enterprise and are to call others to be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:18c
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
And this is going to take us to our third point today.
The Cross of Christ…
- Creates a new opportunity between us and God.
- Reconciles us with God.
- Empowers us to reconcile with one another.
III. The cross of Christ empowers us to reconcile with one another
We have been given the message of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
We have been given the ministry of reconciliation…we talked about this very thing from this passage at Christmas. We said, “Because He came, we have a message…Joy to the World, the Lord is come!”
Jesus and the new covenant, reconciles humanity to God. But He also reconciles humanity to humanity. “The Christian answer to the relational and societal brokenness of the world is the cross of Christ.”
Where this kind of reconciliation should be seen is in the church. The church is a microcosm of the world, but “the grace of God makes the church not just a better version of the world’s community but a different kind of community.” The cross of Jesus “shapes its very existence. . . .The crucified Message forges a cruciform people.”
One writer says it this way…“Paul does not simply proclaim something, namely, that the cross was an event in the past that took away the sins of the world. He lives out the message in the present. . . . It requires that one become an active reconciler. Like Christ, a minister of reconciliation is plunged into the midst of human tumult to bring harmony out of chaos, reconciliation out of estrangement, and love in the place of hate.”
Thus, if we have been entrusted with the message of reconciliation, we are to be a reconciling people.
N.T.Wright says it this way…In order to experience horizontal reconciliation, we must be like our Messiah. The revolution “[Jesus] accomplished was the victory of a strange new power, the power of covenant love, a covenant love winning its victory not over suffering, but through suffering.”
Wright goes on to say powerfully, “Love will always suffer.” It is safe to say reconciliation between two parties requires love and suffering, love for the other person and humbling death-to-self. Any time, the church is pursuing horizontal reconciliation, it is pursuing peace.”
Let me see if I can illustrate this as I close with this story.
Between April 7 and July 15 of 1994, somewhere between 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsi people were killed by the Hutu people. This is what we know today as the Rwandan genocide.
In this terrible violence is a story of reconciliation. Izagiriza, a Tutsi, experienced this violence first-hand:
The militia descended on Izagiriza’s home that morning, killing all her livestock, burning down her house and beating her husband to a pulp, leaving him for dead. The children were miraculously spared. She managed to escape through a hole she had created in the mud wall of her kitchen. When night fell, she returned to her compound to get her husband and children.
“Though breathing, my husband was so badly wounded and bleeding from all parts of his body,” she says, pausing to wipe the tears streaming down her tired face. “The children were scared stiff but unharmed.”
With the help of her children, Izagiriza somehow managed to drag her injured husband to a hiding place where she felt they would all be safe. This would, however, be the last time she would see her husband and children alive.
“Someone we thought was a friend offered to help us, but instead, he delivered my husband and children to the killers. Again, I managed to escape, but this time, with my four-month-old baby strapped to my back. That was the last time I saw my family alive.”
Izagiriza’s family was led to a barricade where a group of young, blood-thirsty men were killing people.
Among them that day was Ntezirizaza. He was only 18 years old at the time. Hatred for the Tutsi people, he says, was planted in him when he was still very young.
Ntezirizaza was later sentenced to 12 years in prison after confessing to his crimes. After 6 years of imprisonment, Ntezirizaza was freed but only then did his work of reconciliation begin.
As a sign of remorse for his actions, Ntezirizaza would work on Izagiriza’s farm under the cover of darkness.
“I would prepare the farm for planting on one night, then plant the seeds the following night and water them the night after. I wanted to do what the children or husband I killed would have done had they been alive,” he says.
Eventually, the two had a sit-down session and he narrated all that befell her family and asked to be forgiven.
At present, the two are genuine friends. Izagiriza asked Ntezirizaza to be her daughter’s godfather at her baptism. When her daughter got married and walked down the aisle, he was there to witness it all.
Reconciliation can be painful, and it is no doubt messy, but it is beautiful. Whether reconciliation with God or one another, it is all of those things, as God brings us into covenant with us and invites us to share his covenant of belonging with others.