2 Corinthians 5

11 Therefore, since we know the Lord’s intimidation,*God’s holiness is an aggressive quality that attacks anything evil that tries to approach. That holiness is truly intimidating, and we will all be judged by it. Jonathan Edwards preached on that basis, with extraordinary effect, but there are few in our day who follow his example. On a lower level, worldly people tend to feel uncomfortable in the presence of someone who is holy, sometimes to the point of reacting aggressively. As Satan increases his hold on the world, such aggressive reaction will become ever more common. we try to convince people.

Why Christ died

We are well known to God, and I hope in your consciences as well. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity of boasting on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.*Paul will enlarge on this later on in the letter.

13 If we are ‘out of our senses’, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love impels us, having concluded this: if One died for all it follows that all died;*They all died in Him; just like all sinned in Adam. 15 and He died for all so that those who now live should no longer live for themselves but for the One who died for all*I follow the best line of transmission, along with a minority of the manuscript total (35% here), in reading "all" instead of the familiar ‘them’. and was raised again.*The clearest statements giving why Christ died begin with Romans 14:9, "that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living"; followed by this verse, that we should no longer live for ourselves, but for Him. Philippians 2:8-11 refers to the final victory. Hebrews 2:14 refers to destroying Satan; saving us from hell is a by-product. As it says in Romans 10:9, "if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord…’, you will be saved".

We are Christ’s ambassadors

16 So then, from now on we regard no one from a fleshly perspective—even if we have ‘known’ Christ in this way, we do so no longer*The unregenerate are forever trying to explain or understand Jesus in purely humanistic terms. We who are in Christ must not do so. Further, we should not try to understand anyone in such terms—we need to take account of what is happening in the spiritual realm. (As a student Saul of Tarsus had certainly seen and heard Jesus.)— 17 so then, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old things have passed on; look, all has become new!*This is neither immediate nor automatic; it is potential. No benefit of the shed blood of God’s Lamb is automatic; it must be appropriated. 18 And that ‘all’ is from the God who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus*Perhaps 3% of the Greek manuscripts omit "Jesus", to be followed by NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc. Christ and given us the ministry of the reconciliation,*Yes, the reconciliation—no other reconciling compares with reconciling men to God. 19 namely that in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself,*Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! not imputing their trespasses to them, including committing to us the message of this reconciliation.

20 So then, we are Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God! 21 Because He made the One who did not know sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become God’s righteousness.*Here we are face to face with the mystery of our redemption. Jesus, God’s Son, never sinned, did not ‘know’ sin, experientially, but He was "made to be sin" on our behalf. It is a grim picture, as though on the cross He was changed into a bundle of sin. And in exchange He gave us His righteousness. How can we ‘measure’ or understand such love? It is beyond our comprehension. As Romans 11:33 expresses it: "Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!"