Our scripture reading this morning will come from 2 Corinthians chapter 5. That can be found on page 966. We'll be focusing on verses 16 through 19, but for context, I'll begin at verse 11 and read to the end of the chapter. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, beginning with verse 11. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others, but what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commanding ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance, and not about what's in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this, that the one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sakes died and was raised. 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. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against Him, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Thus we have read. 2 Corinthians 5, 11-21. Let us go to the Lord now in prayer. Gracious Lord in heaven, we do come before You acknowledging that these are Your words inspired by You, and they are useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training us in righteousness, O Lord. Do that this morning. Be with the proclamation of Your Word. so that your people would be edified and that your name would be glorified. In Christ Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Paul here speaks in these verses 16 through 19 about the glorious truth, about the message and ministry of reconciliation. He tells us how the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts changes everything. Salvation changes us, not just a little bit. It doesn't just change part of us. It doesn't just change a few things that we are a new creation in Christ. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Powerful words. That if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are a new creation. That Paul says that means that we are no longer able to view the world according to the flesh. That we regard no one according to the flesh. Paul here does not mean flesh as in outward skin. We still see through our eyes. We still see through the same body. He's using flesh here as the principle of the world. We no longer view anyone according to the way we did when we were unsaved. We have a new understanding, a new view of the world. We should see things differently from the unbeliever. And when we viewed things through the lens of our sinful ways when we were still yet lost, that has passed away and now we have been given the new eyes of faith so that we know no one from a worldly perspective. It tells us you used to know Christ only from a worldly perspective, but now you've been saved, now you know the truth, now you know who He is, that Jesus is the Christ and He died for your sins. And that all that is old has passed away. Conversion has come. And their hearts of mine have been changed. And therefore, the old way of thinking, the old way of looking at things, the old way has passed away and we have a new principle. The grace of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is our motivating principle in our hearts now. For salvation is being freed from the wrath of God by having the righteousness of Christ given to us while He takes the penalty for our sins. But it also includes a new nature, a change from our old one. And this is what Paul wants to stress when he says, you are a new creation. Top to bottom, inside and out, you're a new man. It's no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us, as Paul says elsewhere. That's the new creation. That's the picture of the new man. It's Christ. It's being conformed to the Lord Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. Salvation in Jesus Christ changes everything. We've been freed from the slavery to sin, from all the power of the devil. That means that we no longer live according to the same principles, that we're no longer a slave to the ways of the world, This is the renewal, or what we call regeneration. No longer are we conformed to the image of the world, but we're transformed into the image of Christ. And notice, the beginning of verse 17, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. There is that important statement at the beginning. You have to be in Christ to be this new creation. You have to repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you're a new creation. But also, we can read it from the other direction, which I think Paul wants us to do as well. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. That means Jew or Gentile. Whoever it is who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, they too have been made a new creation. Just like you, just like me. Anyone at all, faith in Jesus Christ saves, and it saves all. Paul is a new creation, but so are all the people in Corinth who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They too are new creations in Jesus. If one believes in Jesus, then they are a new creation. And their old has passed away, and behold, the new has come. All this is from God, it says in verse 18, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Reconciliation. Christ came to reconcile the world to the Father. And in this sentence, in the original language in Greek, the emphasis is actually on Christ. Reconciliation is the word that's repeated, but the emphasis is that Christ brought this reconciliation about. It's Christ's work that does this. It's not done without Christ. Without Christ, there can be no reconciliation. The Lord Jesus had to come to earth. He had to fulfill the law. He had to die upon the cross. He had to rise again from the dead. He had to ascend into heaven. In order for us to be reconciled, Jesus Christ had to accomplish these things. Without it, there would be no reconciliation. If He had not kept the Law, then we would not be righteous. If He had not died on the cross, then He would not have paid for our sins. There is no reconciliation outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. The world may try to find many ways to get right with God, but without Jesus, it's all folly. It doesn't matter how many animals are sacrificed, or how much incense is burned, or how much money is given. That's not the path of reconciliation. The path of reconciliation only is found in Jesus, in His work, in His atoning work. Without Christ, there is no being right with God. There is no reconciliation. Because it's in Christ that He is reconciling the world to Himself. Reconciliation, the healing of the breach or the restoring to a right relationship. This is what reconciliation means. And in this case here, Christ is restoring us to a right relationship with Him, with the Father, by taking care of our sins and our trespasses, by paying the price for them. Thus, it's only in His work of reconciliation that the great and magnificent love of God can be seen and known. For we're unable to reconcile ourselves. In fact, we daily increase our guilt as our catechism confesses. Verse 18 even tells us, all this is from God. It's not from you. It's the work of God. We are debtors who on our own can do nothing but increase our debt. We make things worse. But the Lord loved us and pitied us and sent His Son to pay our debt on our behalf, to reconcile us to Himself. to pay that infinite price that only the eternal God-man could pay. And now He's done the work of reconciliation and we are reconciled. What a great mercy and love! And God is still about this work in verse 19. In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against Him, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. He's already reconciled those who believe, but He is still out there gathering more through the ministry of reconciliation. We who have believed are a new creation and are reconciled, but there are those still in the world who have not yet believed. And Christ is still bringing them in through the ministry of reconciliation, entrusted to the church. Those who are still outside of Christ can still be told, in Jesus Christ, you can be made right with God. It's not too late. He's still reconciling the world to Himself. He's still not counting their trespasses against those who have believed. These participles here are in the present tense because they want us to be able to look at them and take comfort in the fact that Christ is not counting, even now, your sins against you. That He has paid for them all on the cross. that He knew our sins, past, present, and future, when we were saved. And while we are in this world, we are still going to make mistakes, we are still going to sin, and there are times where we might say, I have messed up, and we can look at this verse and say, God is not counting that sin against you. No, He's already forgiven it in Jesus. It's not counted against you, it's not counting against you, it's not that it will count against you. He is not doing it. It's been paid in full. What great hope and comfort there is that forgiveness is a present reality that I can experience now. It's not something that I just have to wait for in the future and say, well, then there will come a time where I'm forgiven and I go to heaven. No, I can know I'm forgiven now. and I can have that comfort that God loves me now, that He has already sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He has paid for all of my sins. And when He sees me, He does not see my sin. He sees His Son, the Lord Jesus, and His precious blood. Right here and right now, We are forgiven of our sins if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Right here and right now, we are reconciled to God. We are a son or a daughter of His if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if so, then He is entrusting us with the ministry of reconciliation. He's entrusting to us the message of reconciliation at the end of verse 19. Because this beautiful promise of being forgiven, of being made right with God, of our sins not counting against us, it must be shared with others. Because there are those who still need to hear the Word about the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's more and more so every day. Look around. Look in the newspapers. You can see. You know people. And you can see it jump off the page and off the TV screens. Many people feel lost and abandoned. And there is no hope. There are people who feel broken and separated. Separated from hope, from God, from all things. Listen to what the culture is screaming around you. If they talk about brokenness, it's a common theme. You can see it everywhere. It's almost a buzzword. They feel broken inside. They have broken relationships. And ultimately, the source of that brokenness is they're unreconciled to God. Their brokenness is a side effect of their sin. a consequence of their broken relationship with God the Father. And it can be undone. There is hope. There is a cure. There is One who reverses the curse and restores unity, restores relationships, restores us. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. The message that He came and He lived and He lived the perfect life and He took our sins upon the cross and He died for us there. paying the price so that we might have everlasting life in Heaven. This message of the Gospel is still needed today. He is the healer of souls, the restorer of people to God, and people with one another. The world doesn't know the Gospel as it ought today. You'll find more and more people who know nothing of what the Bible says. And here Christ is saying, I'm entrusting to you the ministry and the message of reconciliation. Go forth and tell others. And when we're not speaking about it, we ought to be living it out. Our life ought to be a reflection of the reconciliation we have with God. The Christian is to live a life full of reconciliation. Which means we're to be forgiving those who sin against us. We ought to have an attitude of forgiveness at all times. We're to be seeking forgiveness for those that we may have sinned against. Our heart is to be constantly ready to drop anger and drop division and replace it with full-on reconciliation. The world wants us to believe that there are things in this world that just can't be overcome. Walls that are too high. Sins that are too much to move past. Things that are too broken to be restored. But we know better, for we know the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. There are no sins that cannot be overcome by the Lord Jesus Christ. As we read these words, think about who it is that is writing them. Think about Paul's life. Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. who when he first heard the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, wanted to persecute and kill them. Stood by and held everybody's coats so they wouldn't get them dirty as they stoned people to death. He kicked in the doors of people's houses and he drugged men, women, and children out to suffer the same fate. He was actively going to Damascus to find people who were trying to escape the persecution when he met the Lord Jesus Christ. When his eyes were opened. When he no longer knew the Lord Jesus according to the flesh, but rather became a new creation. No longer was he Saul, but now he was Paul. And he preached the message of reconciliation to all who could hear. This is Paul the murderer. This is Paul the sinner. saying, the Lord Jesus Christ has come to save sinners of whom I am chief. The power of Christ, the power of the Almighty is greater than our sin. And He can heal any breach. And out of the two, He can make one. This is the work of God. And it should manifest in our lives as it manifested in Paul's, as it manifests in Christians throughout the ages, We've been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation, guardians of the words of hope. Paul wants us to see the greatness of salvation, the greatness of salvation which is the work of God. Reconciliation is God's work, it's not our own. And we have to understand this. It's been said in other places, the Gospel is not good advice, it's good news. It's not something that we have to do, it's a message that's proclaimed to us. Christ has died for your sins. God is the One who is at work reconciling the world to Himself in Christ Jesus. Thus, there is hope for all. Salvation is accomplished, not attempted. Reconciliation is brought about, not something that is just hoped for. It is accomplished. It is finished. As the Lord Jesus said on the cross, Which also means we have to regard everything, and especially people, through our new outlook in the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot look at people and see only their sin. We can't look at someone, no matter what their situation, no matter how much they are wallowing in sin at the time, and think, that person's beyond hope. No, we know the power of Jesus Christ to transform. There are none that are beyond saving. We know the greatness of the work of the cross. There is hope even for the chief among sinners. No sin is too great and therefore no sinner is too far gone to hear the message to repent and believe and to become that new creation and to have the old pass away and to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Which means one of the things that we as Christians ought to be doing is praying for the lost. For when we see someone who is lost in their sins, to pray for them. Pray for the salvation of their souls because it's God who is reconciling people to Himself in Christ Jesus. Pray for your friends. Pray for your neighbors and your loved ones who don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a simple thing that we all can do. But one that, if we're honest, we too often forget to do. Ask God to save souls. After all, it is His work. And we must model this reconciliation. We are to be reconciling and forgiving one another, which means grudges are not to be held. Anger and bitterness are to be avoided. Lists of sins are not to be kept. Forgiveness easily granted and quickly sought. We must seek others out when we sin against them. We must be willing to admit our own sins, to be willing to ask for forgiveness, and to pray for change in our lives as well as in the lives of others. A Christian needs to be forgiving. He needs to seek it, and he needs to give it. as we come before the table of the Lord in just a few moments, where we remember how that reconciliation was accomplished. Remember these things as we come before His sacrament given to us to remind us that His body was broken for you, and that His blood shed for you, so that you could be reconciled to God. so that you could have a right relationship now and through all eternity with the Father in Heaven, so that you would have a place around His throne. Let us go to Him now in prayer. Gracious Lord in Heaven, We thank You. We thank You for Your Son, the Lord Jesus. We thank You for His work of reconciliation. We thank You for making us a new creation. And Lord, we do ask that You would make us people of prayer. Save those who need salvation, O Lord. We ask that You would use us as instruments that we would be able to share the message of reconciliation in word and in deed, that we would sow the seed of the Word. but to You, O Lord, is the increase, and we give You thanks for that. Bless us as we come around Your table, O Lord. Strengthen our faith and assure us of life everlasting. In Jesus Christ's name we pray, Amen.