Let me pray with us again as we continue. Father, we do thank you for the incredible, even unimaginable gift that you have given us in the redemption, the renewal, the life that's in Christ our Lord. Father, we don't even begin to understand the magnitude of what you have done and the depth of your love. Who could have ever imagined even the sons of Israel that lived before you all those centuries, that had your Torah, that had your prophets, that saw your mighty deeds, that saw your faithful love and preserving kindness towards them, your delivering hand through all those centuries, even they had no real idea of what it would look like when the God of all creation arose to wield the fullness of his power, to redeem the sons of Israel, ultimately that all creation would be redeemed and restored. They could have never imagined that that power would be found in something that seemed so powerless, so unimpressive, actually something to be despised and sneered at, something to be turned away from. Who could have imagined? But Father, we thank you that as those upon whom the ends of the ages have come, that we can look back. We can look back to that time and we can see the amazing, astonishing way in which you accomplished all that you had promised. And Father, if the sons of Israel were obligated to believe you, to trust you, to walk with you, to know that their God was faithful, how much more ought that to be the case with us? We have seen the marvelous way in which you have worked, and we are even made to be sharers in that renewal, sharers in that true human life that is bound up in Jesus our Lord. I pray that we would be faithful people in the light of that. That our faithfulness would transcend even the faithful in Israel because we are those who are sharers in that fullness. They died in faith without receiving what was promised. We are the ones who live in the context of that fulfillment. They have now been made complete together with us. So Father, I pray even as we gather in the name of Jesus, as we gather in his life, I pray that our hearts are truly lifted up, that we are truly gathered as worshipers, and that we find great delight and awe and wonder in having that opportunity in being worshipers. Father, we pray that you will meet us in our need that you will indeed instruct us, that you will encourage us. Father, we pray that as we are gathered together, that this time together and what we take from this time as we go out later today, that this time will build into who we are, not just as individuals, corporately as part of your body, that this time will build into your renewing and perfecting work in Christ, that it will bear its fruit for all eternity. So Father, give us hearts and minds that come before you rightly. And may you be pleased with what is in our heads, what is in our hearts. May your spirit attend to what we hear and what we consider and cause it to be fruitful. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Well, I know we've spent a lot of weeks talking about this topic of incarnation and how to even think about incarnation, but then even the work of incarnation in the life of Jesus and ultimately how we understand incarnation in the light of this concept of atonement. Last time we talked about the relationship between incarnation and atonement. The goal in all of this is for us to hopefully develop a more truly biblical understanding of Jesus himself and the work that he did. that will, in a sense, come to the gospel accounts with an understanding derived from the Old Testament scriptures. We've spent now, I guess, about 50 weeks moving through the Bible and laying a foundation of understanding the Israelite storyline, beginning in creation and the calling of Abraham and tracing out Israel's history, which now has come to its climax in Jesus. And that's really the lens through which we need to understand the person in the work of Christ, if we're to even understand this thing of atonement and the saving work of the cross and what it is to be Christians. So as I say in the notes, just kind of by way of review, we know, hopefully we know at this point, that Jesus came into the world to establish the long-awaited kingdom. What kingdom? The kingdom that God had been promising to Israel, the kingdom that he'd been building the case for. the kingdom that he first promised to Abraham and that was established and brought to its fullness in terms of its Israelite manifestation in David himself. David was that epitomizing king and then that kingdom, because of David's failure and the failure of the nation, that kingdom began to decline, it was fractured, it split, both kingdoms ultimately went into exile, into captivity, and nothing of David's house and throne and kingdom survived. And yet through all of that, God kept saying, I will be faithful to establish this kingdom, I promise, to Abraham and to David as well, and to the house of Israel. So from Babylon forward, for 500 years leading up to the coming of Jesus, The Jews were waiting for God to do what he said he was going to do. They were waiting for him to arise and to do another mighty work of deliverance, another mighty work of gathering his people, establishing this kingdom, and putting the son of David on the throne as he had promised. So Jesus comes into the world announcing it's time for that kingdom. That's the good news. That's the gospel that he proclaims. And as we've seen, his incarnation is the very substantial fulfillment of that kingdom. Why? Because God was going to reconcile himself to his people, cleanse them, forgive them, gather them back to himself, again dwell in their midst, restore his sanctuary among them. And he had done that in substance in this thing called incarnation. God was now present with his people, dwelling with them, Jesus as the true sanctuary. And in the being of Jesus, God had reconciled himself to Israel. Jesus the Israelite and the Father becoming one. So this is the way in which we need to think about the gospel accounts. And even as we come to this theme of atonement, which we tend to associate just strictly with the cross, hopefully at this point we've seen how atonement, as it speaks to a reconciliation between estranged parties, As with the kingdom, atonement had its substantial fulfillment in the Incarnation. That was the place in which God, in the first instance, became reconciled to his estranged covenant people. Jesus the Israelite was the conjoining of God and Israel. That's why I wanted to read this servant song of Isaiah 53. because the servant is one from within Israel who will be Israel indeed, and through whom God will reconcile himself to his people Israel. That was the way the prophet spoke. And that reconciliation happened in the person, the Israelite Jesus of Nazareth. That was the beginning and the substance of atonement. And as we saw, that atoning reality of God being reconciled to his people was worked out, actualized, perfected, if you will, in the living out of Jesus' own Sonship. He was the faithful Son in whom the Father was well pleased, the one who lived out in a successful way Israel's own covenant existence as Son, Servant, Disciple, and Witness. Remember, we considered his baptism and going into the wilderness where he underwent Israel's own testing, but in a way where he prevailed where Israel had failed. The Gospel writers want us to see that Jesus is the true Israel. He is the faithful Israelite, the faithful Son. And through that life of faithfulness, he was working out and perfecting this principle of atonement. But all of that, as I said last time, has only to do with he himself. And that's where we come to the issue of the cross, because God's intent was not just to have one Israelite who is a faithful son in the way that Israel had not been, but even as the prophet said, this one faithful Israelite, the servant, would be the one through whom God would restore Israel to himself. And as Isaiah 49, the second servant song says, it's not enough that you should be my servant Israel for the sake of the remnant of Israel, but you will take my deliverance, my redemption, my salvation to the ends of the earth. The restoration of Israel unto the ends of the earth. So the father had sent the son to redeem the enslaved and cursed creation. That was the ultimate goal. not simply that in himself Jesus should become the sort of human creature, specifically the Israelite that God intended. Redemption was to be a universal reality, to reach beyond Jesus to embrace the entire creation. So all of these themes and ideas that have Israel at the center, this is the way that we need to understand the cross. This is the way that we need to approach the cross. And as I say here, often we strip the cross, the death of Jesus, the atoning death of Jesus, of its scriptural context. And by that I mean its Israelite and its salvation historical context. Israel's scriptures tell the story of Israel, which is the story of God's redeeming, redemptive purposes for the world. That's why we talk about the Israelite history or the scriptural history as the redemptive history, the history of redemption. And that's the lens through which we need to understand the cross. Jesus came into the world and he said, all of the scriptures testify of me. If you want to understand me, who I am, what I'm doing, what this is about, then you need to know your scriptures. That's the context in which we need to look at the cross and not simply separate from the scriptures and talk about atonement theories. Is this a moral government issue? Is this penal substitution? Is this Christus Victor? Is this a ransom paid to Satan? All the different theories of atonement that have emerged in the church over the centuries tend to be processed and wrestled with in isolation from, abstracted from, the scripture itself. There are theories of, okay, how do we understand the death of Jesus in view of this thing of saving souls or whatever it happens to be? And we can't approach it in that sort of a way. Abstract atonement theories or from the vantage point of, again, just soteriological considerations or presuppositions. So we have to keep his death within its scriptural context because that context provides the true meaning. What I want to focus on today, first of all, in the first part of this, is what is the context for the death of Jesus scripturally most narrowly. It's what? Passover. Passover. Why is that important? Was it just arbitrary? Well, you read through the Gospels and you see that there were many times that the Jews sought to kill Jesus, and they were unable to because his hour had not come. Either he slipped away like at Nazareth, or he even took his disciples away from Jerusalem. He ensured that he did not die before the appropriate hour. He knew where this was going to end. But Jesus chose Passover as the situation, the setting for his death. Nothing else. And as I've mentioned many times, the most likely choice that we would come up with if you ask someone, what would be the most appropriate occasion in Israel's calendar for Jesus to die? We'd probably say Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, because that's what the cross was to atonement, right? Why Passover? That doesn't have anything to do with atonement in the way that we tend to think about it. Why Passover? Well, as I argue here, if Jesus had not chosen Passover, his death would not have fulfilled the scriptures. Why? Because Passover is the central biblical theme. If we say that the Israelite history, the scriptural history, is the history of redemption, What is the primary redemptive episode or event that framed Israel's understanding as a redeemed people? It was the Exodus. And what did Passover commemorate? The Exodus, right? If you read through the prophets, and really through all of the Old Testament scripture, but certainly through the prophets, you see that this promise that is set in front of Israel of a future time of redemption is associated with a second exodus. God will arise and do what he did before. God went to his people in captivity in Egypt. He brought them out by his mighty hand. He established their calendar around that. In other words, that was their birth event. Israel as a covenant household, as a formalized people, were born out of this thing called a great redemption from enslavement. At least from the time of the Babylonian captivity, every year or every time that the Jews would celebrate the Passover, they were celebrating it in the anticipation of this future redemption that was to come. Passover looked back to what God had done in Egypt. It was a remembrance, but it looked forward to the day when God would fulfill what he had spoken through his prophets. A second exodus was coming. You can read this throughout Isaiah. God's going to end the exile. Remember again, Babylon established a new exile and it did not end through all those centuries. Even though the people had gone back to Judea, they'd rebuilt the temple, they'd rebuilt the city, Yahweh hadn't returned. He was still estranged from his people. There was still no covenant renewal, no forgiveness, no son of David on the throne. Still, Israel was living under Gentile domination. And so every year at Passover, They were reminded of the fact that God was going to again arise, and he was going to liberate them, and he was going to deal with their captivity and their exile. Bring a renewing of the covenant relationship, which would involve forgiveness of sin. Not so much personal individual infractions as the nation's covenant unfaithfulness. God would deal with that so that he could restore his relationship with them. That's what Passover was all about. And the promise of God arising and doing this mighty work in establishing his kingdom was a new exodus. It was going to be another Passover related event. And so that's why I say if Jesus hadn't chosen Passover, what he did would not have fulfilled the scriptures because the scriptures had said this is what this will be. If he chose Yom Kippur, then it wouldn't match up with what the scriptures had promised. And that, more than anything, connects this idea of the cross or this thing of atonement with redemption, a delivering from captivity. So as I say, Jesus' choice of Passover is absolutely crucial to understanding the meaning of his cross. If we talk about situating Jesus' death at Calvary in the scriptural context, that's the most important feature of that, and not just the Passover celebration but what Passover represented in terms of Israel's history, Israel's life with God. As I say, redemption was at the center of Israel's history, and throughout that history Israel's God had continued to build the case for a future climactic day when he would arise and liberate and restore his people, this time everlastingly. That was the day of Yahweh that was coming, the day of the Lord that God was promising. It would be a day of Israel's deliverance, but it would ultimately reach beyond Israel to see the entire cursed creation having man at the center the entire cursed creation redeemed from its captivity and its exile and reconciled to its Creator. So what began with man's expulsion from Yahweh's garden sanctuary in Genesis 3 would culminate with heaven and earth conjoined in a new all-encompassing Eden presided over by a faithful family of imaged children. This is the story that the Old Testament tells. This is the story into which Jesus is born. This is the lens for interpreting his death at Calvary. This is what it means to understand the cross in a scriptural way, not just finding certain proof texts in Paul's epistles or something, but really putting a scriptural context around Jesus' cross. At the heart of that is this thing of Passover. Because why? Again, the Egyptian exodus was the primary reference point for the scriptures and hence God's treatment of that future day. It was associated with this thing of the Egyptian exodus. That was the primary theme. That was the primary symbol of what God was going to do. And that had Israel's redemption at the center. Why? Because Israel was God's chosen instrument to bring his blessing to all the world. So that cosmic redemption presupposed Israel's redemption and thus the second exodus pledged by Isaiah. This was the reason for my comments when we were reading Isaiah 53 that we tend to want to universalize it and say, all we like sheep have gone astray. each has followed his own way. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." And we say, okay, that's me. Well, ultimately that's true, but in the context of Isaiah's prophecy, this is Israel's hope. This is Israel's lament. He bore the bruising of his people. He bore the bruising, the stripes of his people. Remember I said incarnation is Jesus taking up Israel's life and lot. He becomes the Israelite, the seed of Abraham in whom Israel is restored. This is the way the scriptures deal with it. So Isaiah 53 is talking about this servant who will bear Israel's iniquity, Israel's uncleanness, and Israel's sickness in order to heal them. That doesn't mean that Jesus' death had nothing to do with the rest of humanity or even the rest of creation. But that's the focal point. That's where it begins. That's where it has to be situated at the outset. The second exodus that God had promised was the exodus of the house of Israel, the redemption of the house of Israel. But when Israel was redeemed then the creation itself would be redeemed and renewed. That's the scheme that the scriptures build. So that correspondence between the Egyptian exodus and the promised future redemption is why Jesus chose the Passover festival. Specifically, more narrowly, he chose the actual Passover meal. Remember, the whole Passover festival was more than just the meal. but it was a Passover meal. He chose that specific meal. He sat with his disciples to have that meal in order to instruct them about the meaning of his death. He was going to die the next day, and they had no way to understand what this meant. They had no category for a Messiah who would die. They believed he was the Messiah, but how could he die? We saw even at Caesarea Philippi where Peter says, No, we'll never let this happen to you, right? Get behind me, Satan. Jesus said to him. So he's using the Passover meal to explain to them the meaning of his death. He doesn't give them a theory of the atonement in some abstracted sense. He doesn't talk about, okay, this is how you can go to heaven. He uses the Passover, but specifically the meal, to explain what's going to happen to him the next day and what it will mean for them. This you get in the upper room discourse, particularly in John. That's where you get the fullest treatment of Jesus explaining to his disciples what this is all about. As I said earlier, for all of these centuries, Israel was waiting and waiting and waiting for God to do this work. And every time they gathered at Passover and ate this bread and drank this cup, they were thinking, could this be the time? What could this be the time? Is Yahweh going to arise? They were thinking in terms of this new deliverance, a new exodus. And Jesus is saying, that's going to come through what happens tomorrow. You want to understand my death? This is the way this new exodus is going to come about. So Jesus had to instruct his disciples about, as I've said before, who are actually the powers that need to be overcome. An exodus a redemption is liberation from some captivating, subjugating, holding power, right? And the first exodus had been God crushing the Egyptians. And the Jews expected that when God arose and did this new redemption, he was going to liberate them from the Gentile powers. Throughout their history, from Babylon forward, whoever was the Gentile power occupying Palestine at that time. That's who God was going to rise up against. At this point in time they're expecting he will overcome the Romans. And the next day Jesus is going to die on a Roman cross. He's not going to raise an army and overthrow the Romans. He's going to die at the hand of the Romans. And Jesus is again using the Passover and specifically the Passover meal to speak to that truth. He's indicating to them by saying, take this bread and eat it. This is my body which is given for you. Take this cup and share it amongst you. The cup associated with the redemption of Israel out of Egypt. This is now the new covenant, the renewing of the covenant in my blood. A new exodus would mean the renewing of the covenant, right? That's what had created the estrangement to begin with, was covenant violation. So when Yahweh came back and liberated his people and gathered them back to himself, it would be in the context or in connection with renewing the covenant relationship, the forgiveness of sin. And Jesus said, take this cup and drink of it, all of you. This is the renewed covenant in my blood. shed for you and for many for the remission of sins." It's very much Passover imagery, Passover language. What he's saying is that this great, redemptive, mighty work that you're expecting God to do, he's going to do, but it's going to come through my broken body and shed blood, not through an army marching against Rome. The enemy he'd come to defeat could not be vanquished with swords The messianic battle pertained to the powers behind the human oppressors, the powers that wield the ultimate weapons of death and hell that no human army can even touch, let alone overcome. So Passover and Jesus' instruction in that setting showed the disciples, and it became a part of their message to those who came after them, that Calvary's ordeal was indeed the fulfillment of Yahweh's promise of a second exodus, a great new redemptive work that would result from God's own mighty triumph. As he had promised through his Messianic servant, Yahweh would do what he had done in Egypt. He would crush the enslaving power in a decisive defeat and bring out the liberated captives to dwell with him as his sons and daughters. But this triumph wouldn't come through awesome displays of divine power as it happened in the plagues in Egypt and ultimately through the Red Sea, but it would come through what would be a shocking, even seemingly powerless act of Yahweh delivering over his messianic son, the king, delivering over his king and therefore himself to the enemy to do its worst. And when God had liberated his people this time, he wouldn't gather them to a consecrated land, but he would gather them to himself. Remember, when he brought Israel out of Egypt, he brought them to dwell with him in his sanctuary. What is his sanctuary? Canaan. This time he's going to bring them to dwell with him in his sanctuary that is the Messiah himself. He will bring them to himself as having his true sanctuary in the person of his human son. And I give you some citations here, but this is central to the upper room discourse, what Jesus is explaining, what's going to come from his death, how God's going to liberate his people, how he's going to bring them back to himself, what that will mean, what that will look like. So that's how Jesus wanted his disciples to perceive his impending death and its meaning. And what this means is that any approach to understanding the cross that doesn't sit within these Passover Exodus themes, that approach is flawed. It has to be rejected. And too often I think the reason we get off track is because in books on Atonement or whatever, the work of Jesus at Calvary, they tend to go straight to Paul. They tend to go straight to Paul's epistles and particular passages within Paul read through the lens of certain presuppositions, and they don't treat the Gospel accounts. Think of the books on your shelf that deal with this issue of atonement. How often do they work through the Gospels and through the Old Testament narrative as we've been talking about it? They go to Paul and they deal with justification by faith and penal substitution or whatever it happens to be, and they don't even deal with these background themes. My point is that this is how we have to approach the issue of the atonement. Does it mean that penal substitution, for instance, has nothing to do with the death of Christ? No, I'm not saying that. But even that has to be understood through this lens, not just out on its own, considered just through a lens of a theological system or whatever. We have to view the work of Christ in that sort of a way. And the last thing that I want to mention today is the Israelite-centric nature of the cross, because this is something also that is present in the Gospels that often trips people up. It seems like Jesus is all about the Jewish people, right? I didn't come to the Gentiles. I came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And even after his crucifixion, the disciples on the road to Emmaus are saying, we thought that he was the one that was going to redeem Jerusalem. He was going to redeem Israel. The disciples say, is this now the time when you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel? It all seems very Israel centric. And there's a reason for that. And I've already hinted at it. But the promise of the scriptures was that God would redeem and reconcile Abraham's covenant seed to himself through this servant, Israel. Through the servant who would embody Israel, God would restore Israel. But ultimately, again, for the sake of the world. Why? Because in God's scheme, in God's arrangement, he had chosen Abraham and the seed of Abraham, the Israelite people, as the instrument to minister his blessing to all the families of the earth. Jesus is that Israelite. He is that Israel, the one in whom Israel becomes Israel, and he was going to restore Israel in himself, reconstitute Israel, so that he could then, through Israel, bring this renewal to the rest of the world, ultimately to the whole creation. So it was Jesus the Israelite, the faithful covenant son who embodied Israel in truth, who yielded himself to the cross. We don't want to lose sight of that. Jesus the Israelite, Jesus the one who is the servant Israel. That's Isaiah 53, the last of the servant songs. It was the Israelite, the faithful covenant son Jesus, who submitted himself to the cross, and he did so as the willing price of redemption, the ransom for many, the atoning sacrifice to end Israel's exile and reconcile them to their covenant God. He died to redeem and restore Israel in himself, but for the sake of all of Adam's race, ultimately. So this is why you have the Gospels talking and Jesus himself saying that, I came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It's not right to give the children's bread to the dogs. To give the children's bread to the dogs. He's not talking about literal dogs. It's the Gentiles, right? The dogs. The bread belongs to the children, the sons of Israel. He's distinguishing between his Jewish brethren and the Gentiles. I came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And yet, he says in John's Gospel, when I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself. As the Messiah, he knew himself to be the true Israelite. When the father acknowledged him at his baptism, he said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Jesus was showing solidarity with Israel in going out and being baptized by John. All Israel was going out to be baptized. Jesus goes out to be baptized, and the father demarcates him or delineates him as his son. you are my son Israel, my faithful son, my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." Jesus recognized that as being the Messiah he was the true and faithful Israelite and so he could say, as he did to the woman at the well at Samaria, salvation, redemption, rescue is the idea. This deliverance comes from the Jews. We worship who we know. We Jews worship who we know. You Samaritans don't really know this God of Israel, but we worship who we know because salvation, this redemptive work of God, is out from the Jews. It comes from within the Jews and out through the Jews, but in such a way that Jesus, the one who dies as the embodied Israel, would renew and reconstitute Israel in himself. This is an important thing that a lot of Christians don't get. They are so focused on Israel, the people, and not recognizing that Israel has been and is being reconstituted in the Messiah. All who belong to him are the children of Abraham and heirs of the promises made to Abraham. If you belong to the Messiah, then you are a part of Israel indeed. He's not a Jew who is one outwardly. Circumcision isn't what's in the flesh by the hands of men, but the circumcision done by the Spirit. He's a Jew who's one inwardly. Belonging to the Messiah is what makes you a part of Abraham's family. So Jesus was going to reconstitute Israel in himself, beginning with 12 Jewish disciples, right? Corresponding to the 12 tribes of Israel. So that in this reconstituted Israel, now finally this Israel, this Abrahamic people would fulfill its calling to be the light of the world. Think again of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus says to his Jewish audience, you are the light of the world. A city on a hill can't be hid. Israel was to be the light of the world. And in the Messiah, they would become the light of the world. So how does Matthew's account end? All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. I am the king. I am the Messiah. I am the enthroned messianic king who has now authority over all the earth. So you, my reconstituted Israel, this foundational reconstituted Israel, go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations. The reconstituted Abrahamic people in the Messiah can now be about the work of bringing the blessing of God to all the families of the earth. So Jesus atoned for Israel as the scriptures promised by taking up Israel's unfaithful sonship and then putting it to death in his own life and death. But as an Israelite, he was also a son of Adam. and equally bore the guilt and sin of Adam's race. So his self-giving unto death was his final yes to his Father's judgment against man, his Father's assessment of man, both from God's side and from man's side. As true man, Jesus was agreeing with God both against man as false. He was owning the Father's condemnation of sin, falseness, by his own death. He was agreeing with God against man as man, but he was also agreeing with God for man by living as a true human being and inaugurating a new humanity in himself. His death was the death of sinned, false humanness in order that man should become what God created him to be. I've emphasized this many times. Romans 8 says, God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus. What the law couldn't do, being impotent by the sin nature, God did, taking on the likeness of sinful man in order to condemn sin in the man, Jesus. He didn't condemn man. He didn't condemn people. He didn't condemn Jesus. He condemned falseness. He put it to death. So to conclude, all of this hopefully underscores what I've been trying to emphasize all along, all the way back really to the beginning of Genesis, but certainly through Israel's life and the covenant with God, is that all of this is centered in relational concerns and dynamics, and that's true in Jesus' atoning work. Atonement is about reconciliation. It's about repairing an estranged relationship. It commenced with incarnation. It was actualized through Jesus' life as a faithful son, culminated with his substitutionary death. So Jesus, the Son of Man, fully shared in the human condition and plight in order to confront and condemn it by his own true and faithful sonship, and so finally to put it to death at Calvary. He condemned sin, human falseness in his own flesh, not for the sake of satisfying legal justice, but in order that human beings should become imaged sons by fully participating in him by the Spirit as he fully participated in them by the Spirit. That's how we're to understand this thing of the cross of Christ as bringing this goal of atonement to its apex. And I just would like to close reading with you this last little section in 2 Corinthians 5, and then we'll close with our final song. But this is in a context where Paul is defending his own ministry and his relationship with the Corinthians. They've gotten sideways with him. They're even to the point of some of them are accusing him of being a false apostle. of maybe even being in it for his own advantage, maybe in it for the money. And he's pleading with them to be reconciled to him and holding in front of them the way he has manifested this gospel that he brought to them, not just in his words, but in even the way that he has lived among them, the way he's conducted himself among them. He's pleading with them to, in a sense, have him commended in their own hearts. He's been faithful with them. And this is the context in which he talks about, again, his ministry of the gospel. Chapter 4 is where he talks about his gospel ministry, but then he kind of brings it to a focal point with the Corinthians in chapter 5. He says in verse 11, this is 2 Corinthians 5 verse 11, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. We are bound over to God himself, and that is what motivates us to plead with men, to persuade men. And we know that we are manifest to God. God knows who we are. He knows what we're about. And I hope that we are also manifest in your consciences, that you see us the way God does, that you understand our faithfulness. Our own consciences are clear before God. See, he's pleading with them. to be reconciled to him. We are not again commending ourselves to you, but we're giving you an occasion to be proud of us, that you may have an answer to those who want to take pride in appearance and not in sincerity, not in heart. If we seem to be beside ourselves, it is for God. If we're of sound mind, it's for you. For the love of Christ constrains us, it controls us, it directs us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. And he, the Messiah, died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. And so from now on, we recognize no man according to the flesh. Jesus condemned the flesh in himself. He condemned sin in his own body. So we don't regard any man according to the old order of things. Even though we even knew Christ according to the flesh, according to that old order, we do so no longer. If any man is in Christ, new creation, The old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come. And all of this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. This is our gospel. What is this ministry of reconciliation? That God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us this word of reconciliation. And so we are ambassadors for the Messiah as though God were entreating through us. We beg men on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. Do you see the relational dynamic in all of this? Now here's the verse we all know. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him. This is not imputation, God putting our sin on Jesus and putting this thing called his righteousness to our account. Paul is saying that Christ took up, embodied in himself our sin to put it to death, that we would embody in ourselves the righteousness of God. What does he mean? We are the living, walking, breathing evidence of the faithfulness of God that he has done what he said he was going to do. We embody in ourselves God's fulfillment, the bringing in of a new creation in the Messiah. We embody the gospel that we proclaim. We embody the reconciliation that God has achieved with the world in his Son. We are the living, walking embodiment of that. And Paul is ultimately saying, that's what you see in us. You shouldn't see falseness. When you find fault with us and our ministration, you're not getting this right. Our presence with you is the living evidence of the things that we proclaim. We embody in ourselves. God has taken up our life and lot to put it to death in order that we should be taken up in his life. This is relational, but it's incorporational. I in you, you in me. And that's why I wanted to read this because, again, my last statement is God's goal was that human beings should become imaged sons by fully participating in him by the Spirit just as the Messiah has participated in us. He made him who knew no sin to embody to become sin for us. that we should become that ultimate destiny, that purpose of God, that accomplishment of God in the Messiah, in him. Well, a lot to chew on, but let me go ahead and close us in prayer. And then we'll finish with this final, final song. Father, I pray as always that you will minister these things to us. And I know that we can only scratch the surface when we come together and I'm sure in many ways it feels like drinking from a fire hose at times, and yet, as I say, we're just scratching the surface. These are the things that we have to chew on. These are the things that we have to meditate on. These are the things that have to preoccupy our time and our thoughts, our contemplations, and I pray that we would be a contemplative people. that we wouldn't just have these words go into our ears on a Sunday morning and say, wow, that's weird, or that's great, or I don't get it, or that's wonderful, or whatever, and go away and lose sight of all of this. I pray that these are things that, just like leaven that's introduced into a lump of dough, that these things will work deeply into our hearts and our minds, that they will have a transformative effect as you intend. that we will be renewed, that we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds. So Father, cause these things to be fruitful, not just to be a matter of speculation or intellectual inquiry or, you know, some sort of theological titillation, but that they would be things that would truly, again, transform us. Your goal for us is that we should fully share in your likeness, your life that is in Christ our Lord, that we should become truly, fully human image sons in him. That's the work of your spirit. That's his labor. And may we be co-laborers with the spirit, yielded to the spirit as we seek to have these things have a transformative effect in us. And as always, Father, I pray that we would be ministers of these things to one another. You have not called us to be Christians and to be perfected in Christ alone, but together to grow up into all things into Christ, who is the head. And so I pray that we would be zealous to be ministers, ambassadors of these things to one another, just as Paul pleaded with the Corinthians. It wasn't enough to him that they had believed his gospel and he moved on to the next town. He wanted to see them be reconciled to him in their hearts, just as they were reconciled to Christ, just as Paul was reconciled to Christ. This reconciliation that is bound up in the Messiah because of the good purpose of our God had to be fleshed out in the lives of the people. And Paul had that burden, and I pray that we do as well. So Father, bless us in these things, and even as we go from this time of gathering, I pray again that this will bear its good fruit. May we be seeking the leading of your spirit in all times and in all things, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.