2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2
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, 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. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. 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, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
6 As God’s partners, we beg you not to accept this marvelous gift of God’s kindness and then ignore it. 2 For God says,
“At just the right time, I heard you.
On the day of salvation, I helped you.”
Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.
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A very rich passage! The whole ministry of reconciliation is described God doesn’t count our sins against us, so sin is removed from the problem. Instead, the question is how will we respond to the plea, come back to God? This is all true because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross–the one who knew no sin became our sin offering. Our sins not longer are a problem, because of Jesus’ sacrifice, sin has been forgiven!
Some believe that our primary calling is only to evangelize–to lead people to the Lord. I have been a failure at that. But what if our primary calling as evangelists is to be a minister of reconciliation, then I’m on track. The good news–your sins have all been forgiven! And you are invited to be reconciled to the forgiving God. But it seems that if we don’t focus on the task of being reconciled to God, who has solved the sin problem for us, we miss the point. Satan loves to be our accuser, and keeps us focused on our sins rather than our reconciliation with God. That’s one of the ways he tries to keep us off track.