In today’s epistle text, the Apostle Paul speaks of three different things: First, he talks about our being made new creatures in Christ. Then he talks about the ministry of reconciliation held by Paul, the other Apostles, and pastors today. And finally, he talks about the message of reconciliation - how God reconciled the world to Himself by making His Son who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. But Paul speaks in reverse order here, starting with the result and working back towards the cause of our salvation. We are new creatures in Christ, because we were brought to faith in God’s message of reconciliation, which is about what He did for us in Jesus. In today’s sermon, then, I’m going to start at the end of this text, talking about what God did for us in Christ first, and then move to the beginning, where as a result of the ministry of God’s Word and Sacraments we have been reconciled to God and made new creatures in Christ.
To help you to understand this a little bit better, think of it in terms of a gift. Someone buys you a gift, he/she gives you the gift, and now the gift is yours. God has a gift for you. It is the gift of reconciliation with Him. He purchased this gift with the blood of His Son. He gives you this gift by way of the Office of the Holy Ministry through His Word, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. And now the gift is yours: you are reconciled with God and are a new creature in Christ.
So, let’s talk about the gift itself first. It is the gift of reconciliation with God. There are lots of gifts that we are happy to be given, gifts we want. Then are those gifts that we are not so happy to receive but know that we need them and are glad to have them all the same. But then there are those gifts that we neither want nor think we need. That is the way God’s gift of reconciliation is received by the world. We ourselves in our sinful, fallen state neither wanted nor believed that we needed this gift. By nature we despise it. Even now we struggle with the temptation to leave it unwrapped, to find others things to do on a Sunday morning or during the week, rather than taking the time to rejoice in our gift and hear God’s Word of reconciliation spoken to us on a regular basis. But by the work of the Holy Spirit through this Word, we were brought to love and cherish this gift. It is a gift that God purchased for us with the blood of His Son. With His blood shed on the cross, Jesus reconciled us to God; He worked peace for us with God. Prior to this, mankind was separated, alienated from God on account of sin. The Scripture tells us that at one time we were hostile towards God, constantly warring against Him and His will. It was not that God had turned away from us, but we turned away from Him. We were like the younger son in today’s Gospel text, who wished his father were dead, demanded his inheritance, and left, never to return. But while we were still far off and though we deserved His wrath, our heavenly Father ran after us with His love and reconciled us to Himself through the death of His Son, who took God’s wrath upon Himself, so that we might live under His peace.
That reconciliation happened on Calvary some 2,000 years ago. It is what Jesus was referring to when He said, “It is finished” just before He died on the cross. There, as Paul writes, God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. There at Calvary an exchange took place: our sin was given to Jesus, making Him the Chief of sinners in our place, so that we might be given His righteousness, making us saints - holy, righteous, and blameless people - before God.
This brings us to Paul’s words about the ministry of reconciliation. Though our reconciliation took place at Calvary some 2,000 years ago, you personally were reconciled to God when Christ’s righteousness was given to you in your Baptism. Again, using gift language, though the gift was purchased for you on the cross with the blood of Christ, it was delivered to you (and still continues to be delivered to you) through the administration of God’s Word and His holy things here among His holy people. Martin Luther puts it this way: “The work is finished and completed, Christ has acquired and won the treasure for us by His sufferings, death, and resurrection, etc. But if the work remained hidden and no one knew of it, it would have been all in vain, all lost. In order that this treasure might not be buried but put to use and enjoyed, God has caused the Word to be published and proclaimed, in which He has given the Holy Spirit to offer and apply to us this treasure of salvation.” Luther is referring to the ministry of reconciliation that Paul speaks of here. Because faith in Christ comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word about Christ, Jesus Himself instituted the office of the Holy Ministry, in order that His work of reconciliation might be proclaimed and given to you. According to Paul, God gave this ministry of reconciliation to Paul and all pastors, entrusting them with the message of reconciliation, that God was in Christ reconciling you to Himself, not counting your trespasses against you.
This is the message that all pastors are supposed to be preaching today. If they don’t proclaim this message, then they aren’t faithful pastors. If they do proclaim it, people are to receive it not as the pastor’s word, but God’s. So Paul calls himself and other pastors “ambassadors for Christ,” because it is through such men that God makes His appeal to you, “Be reconciled to God!” Notice that God doesn’t say, “Reconcile yourself!” These are simply words of invitation, similar to an invitation to a party or an invitation to receive a gift. The reconciliation has already been achieved by Christ; He’s done all the work for you. Simply receive it now for the gift that it is, and give God thanks for it. Rejoice in the gift, and you won’t be talking about yourself and your reception of it, which is itself a work of God, but you’ll be talking about your Savior and what He’s done for you. Just as it was the father’s love that moved his prodigal son to come back home, so it is our heavenly Father’s kindness to us in Christ that leads us to repentance.
Having received the gift of reconciliation with God which was worked by our Savior, Jesus Christ and delivered to us through the ministry of reconciliation, we have now been made new creatures in Christ. Paul writes, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” This new creation is what Jesus Himself was speaking to Nicodemus about when He spoke of the new birth of water and the Spirit. Through Baptism you have been born again, born from above, born of God. And though you still have the old sinful nature you’ve had from your first birth, you now have a new nature created in the likeness and image of Christ, a nature that loves God and wants to do His will. But Paul says that the old has passed away. What does he mean by this? In another place he talks about the Christian’s warfare between his old nature and his new one. In Romans he writes, “We know that our old self was crucified with [Christ] in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin... So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” The Apostle John, too, writes in a similar way, when he says on the hand that anyone who denies that he sins makes God out to be a liar, and yet on the other hand he also says that no one who is born of God sins. The fact is, it doesn’t seem like the old has passed away, as our sinful nature refuses to die and often seems to triumph over our new nature. But for Christ’s sake, God does not see your sin. He only sees you as the new creature in Christ that He’s made you to be. He sees you through your Baptism, clothed with Christ, for whose sake you have been reconciled to Him and are now His beloved child. Someday we will be able to see with our own eyes the way God now sees us - holy, righteous, blameless, and sin free. But that will come at the resurrection of the dead. Until then, we live by faith in God’s words that even though it appears that we are the same old sinful creatures we were before our Baptism, we have been washed, sanctified, and justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
It is important not only to see ourselves as God sees us now in Christ, but also to see one another this way, too. Just as we are all too aware of our own sins, faults, and weaknesses, so we often tend to see only these in our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we end up judging them, because if they were true Christians they wouldn’t be doing such things. Instead, however, we must do as Paul does, who writes, “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh [that is, according to our fallen, sinful way of thinking].” Even though a fellow Christian may not appear all that sanctified or holy to you, if he/she is in Christ, he/she is a new creature, just like you are. We must learn to see Christ’s Church and her members the way Jesus sees her - as His beautiful Bride, whom He has sanctified, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that He might present her to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. And that is what you and your fellow believers in Christ are in God’s eyes.
And so, Paul takes us through God’s work of reconciling the world to Himself. First, He achieved this reconciliation through His Son on the cross. Then, God instituted the ministry of reconciliation, in which pastors proclaim and deliver what God has done for us in Christ. And finally, God brings us to faith in this work of His, making us new creatures in Christ. “All this is from God,” writes the Apostle Paul. God purchased the gift for you with the blood of His Son. He gives the gift to you through His Word, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. And He has also given you the ability to receive this gift, so that you may not boast except in the Lord.
Have joy of the gift, then, again today. For your sake, God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for you, so that in Him you might become the righteousness of God. Gift given, gift received! Amen.