2 Corinthians 5:19 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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2 Corinthians 5:19

Comments

At this point Paul seems to pass into a kind of demonstration or a miniature masterclass of how we present the gospel. ‘To wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.’ This is the message. ‘And hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.’ Listen to this – ‘Now 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.’Suddenly he passes from telling us about the message that we are all to witness and to declare, to virtually telling us how to do it. He goes into direct address to people. If you look carefully at the verse, if you have got a King James Version, you will find twice the word ‘you’ is in italics, it is not in the Greek. The translators are just reinforcing the direct appeal to people that the apostle makes here. He is not really making it to the Corinthians, they are his fellow-witnesses. He is showing them how to do it.When you witness to others, it is as though you say, ‘As though God did beseech by us, we pray in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.’ You do not say, ‘Oh Christ is a Saviour, and people who come to him and repent and put their trust in him will be saved.’ No, he says, ‘You deal directly with people. You say, Christ is a Saviour and if you come to him, and you repent, and you must believe, you will be saved.’ We must appeal directly to people and persuade them and bring to their understanding the message of the gospel and the appeal of Christ.

Application

We have that great burden today. This church, the Tabernacle is just currently putting out some 36,000 tracts about God’s love in a pandemic to homes in the postal areas surrounding the Tabernacle. Because of the holdup in the post, they are even now, they have been delivered to some addresses and not to others, but they are finding their way to all those homes by Royal Mail. And that is helpful because of all the blocks of flats, high end, low end, if you like, and the inability to get in because of the security, but all going by Royal Mail. For many thousands of people, this may be the only word they hear that the pandemic has anything to do with God, that he is sovereign, and that he has ordained it. It may be the only time they are told that he has a purpose, that he is appealing to souls, and what his message is. Will it do any good? Not without prayer, not without earnest prayer to God. But how I wish we could send another 36,000 to the next row of postal addresses and so on. We have an obligation to make known this great word of reconciliation.

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2 Corinthians 5:19 Commentary and Bible Study