NOTES for Co2 5:20-21

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²⁰Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

²¹For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

It is clear to Paul that the Kingdom and remaining in it are inseparable from the relationships that bind each of His followers to Christ, but those relationships themselves are possible only when a person remains in Christ to the end and completely as a poor one - in the spiritual sense of the word in which the prophet Isaiah of Jerusalem had already spoken of poverty. And in this sense of the word, poverty carried through to the end is nothing other than becoming nothing, even to the point of physical death, if such death is required for witness. And for the Messiah, it means going as far as complete, unreserved, and unconditional immersion in the sinful life of the fallen world, into whose depth He had to bring the fullness of the Kingdom that was contained in Him.

And the evil of the sinful world really does take the Messiah Himself captive: it cannot penetrate the depth of His heart or His human nature, free from the power of sin, but it was able to bring Him to the cross. The One who knew no sin came under the power of sin, became sin for our sake - this is how Paul describes it. Such is the Messiah's poverty carried through to the end, a poverty without which the Kingdom would not have entered the world, because the Messiah Himself could not have entered the world in any other way than as a poor one.

And this is understandable: any other kind of entry would have meant submission to the laws of the world that lies in evil. Not to submit to them meant to leave the world; but to leave the world and at the same time remain in it means to die. Such a path for the Messiah, bearing within Himself all God's fullness, all the fullness of the Kingdom, could end on earth only with the cross. And with the resurrection, of course, too - but that is already the reality of the Kingdom, not of the fallen world. The Kingdom to which the fallen world can belong only to the extent that, being transformed, it ceases to be fallen.

And we Christians become participants in this process, as the apostle reminds us. If we are alive and remain in this world, it is only insofar as the world itself has already ceased to be fallen, insofar as it has already managed to be transformed and become part of the Kingdom. If the Kingdom were not in the world, nothing would remain for us but to die. Or to live as the righteous lived while awaiting the Kingdom in pre-Christian times. If, of course, we are Christians not only in name.

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For Co2 5:15-21

¹⁵And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

¹⁶Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

¹⁷Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

¹⁸And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

¹⁹To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

²⁰Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

²¹For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

In practically every one of his letters, Paul in one way or another touches on the question of what the essence and meaning of Christianity are... Read more

In practically every one of his letters, Paul in one way or another touches on the question of what the essence and meaning of Christianity are. And Second Corinthians is no exception. Here Paul reminds us again that Christianity is not some new religion or new moral teaching, but a new life, whose newness consists in the fact that it belongs not to us, but to Christ, who came into the world in order to share it with each of us who is willing to receive it. Only in this way can we both share in the Kingdom and be freed from sin.

This new life that enters us through Him is like a blood transfusion in certain serious illnesses: there are cases when the patient's blood has been irreversibly poisoned, so that the only thing left is to replace it with other, fresh blood. And our life, given to us by God, has been poisoned by sin so deeply that the only way to keep us from dying is to replace that former life with another, new one, free from sin.

Is that not why Christian life is so joyful and so difficult at the same time? Living in the Kingdom is certainly joyful, but then one has to consent to a "transfusion of life," and therefore to renounce once and for all something so familiar, habitual, and in many ways comfortable, despite all its problems. But this is renunciation for the sake of the Kingdom. And each person makes his own choice.

For Co2 5:11-21

¹¹Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

¹²For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart.

¹³For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.

¹⁴For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

¹⁵And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

¹⁶Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

¹⁷Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

¹⁸And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

¹⁹To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

²⁰Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

²¹For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Continuing the discussion of the Kingdom, Paul draws attention to what is in fact... Read more

Continuing the discussion of the Kingdom, Paul draws attention to what is in fact the foundation of Christianity: Christians are those who live one life with the risen Christ, the life of the Kingdom that He brought into the world. They become a "new creation," being renewed by the breath of God that permeates this Kingdom (v. 17). Therefore it is pointless to approach witnesses of the Kingdom by the usual human measure, because what they say expresses not their own assessments of what is happening or their attitude toward it, but God's view of the situation, which the witnesses simply convey to those to whom they preach. And if the assessments at times prove severe, this is only an objective given, not the ill will of a witness who, on his own initiative, would never resort to such severity (v. 13).

The proof of a witness's sincerity can only be his openness both to God and to people (vv. 11-12), an openness without which no witness to the Kingdom is possible. When it comes to witness, the witness, more than anyone else, is guided by the spiritually understood principle of "nothing personal." All human sympathies and antipathies move into the background, since they are conditioned mainly by the limitation of fallen human nature and have nothing to do with the Kingdom. A Christian no longer lives his own natural life; he lives the life of the Risen One, for which these sympathies and antipathies mean nothing (vv. 14-15). Even the attitude toward the Savior Himself ceases in such a case to be purely human, as it necessarily was, for example, for the apostles who associated with Jesus during His earthly ministry (v. 16). The only goal of witness is the salvation of each person, his reconciliation with God through Christ, and his receiving in Christ the Kingdom that the Savior opens to everyone who seeks and is ready to trust Him (vv. 18-21).

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NOTES for Co2 5:20-21

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