16th May 2025

In Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul speaks very boldly about the nature of his ministry and the motivation that drives his message. Chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians opens with Paul striking a solemn note, reminding his readers that we are all on a pathway that leads to death and judgement, but, although we are presently clothed with this temporary dwelling, we have been graced with God’s Spirit as a token of our future inheritance (vv.1-5). Our sole motivation and goal, therefore, as we abide in this earthly residence, is to please him (v.9) whose resurrection is the guarantee of our own (2 Corinthians 4:14), and whose gracious mercy is the very ground of our hope (v.1).

Paul knows what it means to ‘fear the Lord’ (2 Corinthians 5:11), to have a healthy awareness of the greatness, power, and majesty of God, and, though the judgement seat of Christ – the day of accounting, is ever a present thought, it is the love of Christ which compels him to minister the word (v.14), deeply desiring to persuade men and women to believe the gospel, the saving message that, in Christ, our old self has ‘died’ with him on the cross, that we may live anew in the power of his resurrection (vv.14-15).

The new life is a life in Christ, a new creation in him who has purchased us with his own precious blood (v.17) so that nothing remains the same, and our view of ourselves, others, and especially our view of Christ, is forever altered (vv.16-17). There are those who are presently members of Christ’s spiritual body, by grace through faith, and those who are presently outside of Christ, in the sense that they are waiting to be drawn by faith in him as their confessed true Lord and Saviour. Therefore, Paul explains, God, from whom are all things, has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation (v.18). It was God who loved us first, who came to us in the person of his Son and was in Christ as he suffered on the cross, reconciling the world to himself, not counting our sins against us but, rather, imputing the righteousness of Christ, who died for us and rose again, to our own account (vv.19, 21).

Knowing the power of God in our lives, and living for Christ in the new age of the Spirit, as citizens of heaven we find ourselves in the role of ‘ambassadors for Christ’ (v.20): commissioned by him to plead with all men and women, on his behalf, to turn to him who alone is able to save. Though we may carry the message, it is actually Christ himself who is imploring, pleading, and beseeching all to be reconciled to God.

Therefore, the gospel should never be presented as a threatening or harassing message; no one can be pressured into the Kingdom of God by captious or aggressive preaching. The gospel is a gracious invitation and is to be extended with tenderness by those whose own hearts have been moved to compassion. However, the message is an imperative: ‘be reconciled to God’ (v.20), because God in Christ has rescued us from sin and death by Jesus’ cross and the power of his resurrection, which is both the foundation and the motivation of the gospel (v.21).

Local congregation:
Grace Communion Peterborough
Farcet Village Hall                                                    
Main Street
Farcet
Peterborough
PE7 3AN

Meeting time:
Sunday 11.00 am

Local congregational contact:
Richard Dempsey
Email:  richard.dempsey@btinternet.com
Local church website: GRACE COMMUNION CHURCH PETERBOROUGH – Landing Page

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church