Reading: “We
are ruled by the love of Christ, now that we recognise that one man died for all……” 2
Corinthians 5.14 (GNB)
Chapter 5 of second
Corinthians, is like many of those Roman mosaics that have been discovered in
the British Isles – at Leicester, or Woodchester. What almost always happens is
that first one small area of mosaic is uncovered, by pipe layers, or a digger,
or a farmer’s plough. But it turns out to be part of a whole floor, a whole
corridor. Part of a much bigger pattern or picture.
2 Corinthians chapter
5 is like this, one of the those passages where what Paul writes is part of a
much bigger picture.
For in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we read those famous
words by the apostle, famous words about reconciliation……….. reconciliation
between men and women and God, reconcilation among ourselves………
But what Paul says here about reconciliation is part of a
bigger pattern or picture……
and if we want to begin to grasp what Paul is saying
here,
we need to look at the bigger picture………
for of course, reconciliation only takes place when something
has gone wrong, when a relationship has broken down……
The film Forgiveness was made in South Africa in 2004, directed by Ian Gabriel. Its about a
policeman, Tertius Coetzee, who goes back to a place called Pater Noster, a
fishing village on the coast, to meet a
family there, looking for reconciliation for all that happened in the years of
Apartheid…. the film deals with the effects of the Apartheid system and the reconciliation that takes place when things have
gone terribly wrong, when a relationship between peoples has broken down…
What Paul
writes in 2 Corinthians 5 is about reconciliation………..
The question
is, when Paul writes about reconciliation – what is it that has gone wrong ? What relationship has broken down
?
Well – to
discover this we need to look at the bigger pattern, picture,
what Paul writes
in the first chapter of Romans………..
And the
message at the beginning of the book of Romans is that men and women have
turned their back on God……..
that is what has
gone terribly wrong, that the relationship between men and women and the living
God has broken down – and the consequences can be seen all around us: The world
is in crisis.
The letter to the Romans goes on to declare that God’s anger is
revealed from heaven against all the sin and evil of the people...(Romans 1.18)
because His purposes for
what this world should have been, have been damaged and distorted…….
What does God do in this situation
?
What does the Father do ?
In Jesus Christ, His Son, He has come looking for us
like the shepherd
seeking, searching for the sheep,
or the woman for
the lost coin....
God has
shown us how much he loves us........
and like the
Father looking and waiting for the son to come home,
when we return to Him, we
find not judgment on all we have done, not a catalogue of where we went wrong,
but His forgiveness and love….
And the New
Testament declares that God himself has restored this living, intimate
relationship with himself:
verse 18: All this is done by God, who through
Jesus Christ has changed us from enemies into his friends...
How ? How has God done this ?
At the cross,
says verse 14 & 15 where Jesus died
for all, as Paul says
What does this mean ?
These days, I think that this is one of the most
difficult things for us to understand:
Think of the old hymns
To the old Rugged Cross,
I will always
be true,
Its shame and
reproach gladly bear….
In the cross of
Christ I glory,
Towering oer
the wrecks of time,
All the light
of sacred story
Gathers round
its head sublime
Or that chorus
At the cross,
at the cross
where I first saw the light
It was there by
faith
I received my
sight
and now I am happy all the day……..
The older generation grasped what the cross meant,
deeply understood it,
and its light filled their
lives……….
So What does it mean, verse 14 ?
We are ruled by
the love of Christ, now that we recognise that one man died for all
Well, what it means is this,
turning to the letter to the
Romans,
there in chapter 6, Paul
writes
We know that
our old being has been put to death with Christ on the cross…..
Now, it is clear that what Paul is saying there is
that Jesus Christ has taken this life, our old sinful human nature, to death on
the cross,
and, Jesus - raised to life
again in God’s power, offers us the new life that is His,
He shares with us His new life….
This is why Paul so often speaks of dying with Jesus
and rising to life with Him,
our old sinful human nature
is dying,
but each day, that new life
whose source is in Jesus is rooting, growing
within us……….
This is why Paul says –
When anyone is
joined to Christ…….. he is a new being
the old is gone, the new has
come……….
new life, friendship with
God,
who through Jesus has changed us from enemies into His friends……
This was, of
course, exactly the experience of Paul on the
Paul on the
Filled with hatred, and hostility to the Church and the followers of
Jesus……..
Paul met
Jesus Christ, there on that road – and was reconciled to the living God....
and it was the beginning
of a new life for Paul, life rich beyond compare..
Paul knew to the depths of his
soul,
all
that he owed to Jesus Christ, and the cross…….. he
says of himself….
We are ruled by
the love of Christ, now that we recognise that one man died for all
We are ruled by
the love of Christ, now that we recognise that one man died for all
Corrie ten
Boom knew that same love of Christ too. Years after her concentration camp
experiences in Nazi Germany, she went to speak at a meeting in
After the meeting there was a man waiting to speak to her. She recognised him.
He had been
one of the most cruel and heartless German guards that she had ever encountered . He had been brutal to her and her sister. Now there he stood before her.
And before
she could do anything he reached out his hand and said, "Will you forgive
me?" She writes: "I stood there
with coldness clutching at my heart............I prayed, Jesus, help me!
Woodenly, mechanically I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me and I
experienced an incredible thing. The current started in my shoulder, raced down
into my arms and sprang into our clutched hands. Then this warm reconciliation
seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. 'I forgive you,
brother,' I cried with my whole heart. For a long moment we grasped each
other's hands, the former guard, the former prisoner.
I have never known the love of God so intensely as I
did in that moment!"
The source
of that love in Corrie ten Boom’s life, was rooted in the cross –
this is the same
love that Paul speaks of –
We are ruled by
the love of Christ, now that we recognise that one man died for all.
Generations
gone by knew the light that gathers round the cross of Jesus,
they sang of it,
wrote of it, thought of it, and lived it
by the grace of
God, so may we…. AMEN.