Bible Commentaries
2 Corinthians 5

Verses 1-15

XXVIII

THE GOSPEL MINISTRY AND THE GLORY THAT IS TO COME

2 Corinthians 4:1-5:15.

This discussion commences with 2 Corinthians 4, and I will call attention only to points of special interest as we pass along in the exposition. We made a point in the preceding chapter that when the Jew read the Old Testament he read it with a veil over his eyes. In this chapter Paul anticipates this objection. "Is not the gospel itself veiled to some, as well as the law?" Here is his reply, 2 Corinthians 4:3: "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." His reply is that the gospel is veiled only for a certain class of people – them that perish.

The reason it is veiled in that case is that the devil has blinded their eyes that they cannot see. The veil is on the eye, and not on the gospel. That is a very important matter. If at night we should point to a lamp in a room and ask a bystander, "Do you see that light?" and he were to say, "No"; if we take him out of doors and show him the Milky Way, and the stars, and ask, "Do you see those lights up yonder?" "No"; or if we should show him the moon and say, "Do you see that light?" "No"; or wait until morning and point out the sun rising in the east, and say, "Do you see the light of that sun?" "No"; what would that prove to us? That the man was blind! If he were not a blind man he could see the light. In that case those lights were not hid, but were shining in all their brightness. The trouble was with the beholder, who had no eyes to see. Preachers oftentimes wonder that the unconverted cannot see how very plain the gospel of Jesus Christ is. They look at the people and talk contrition: "Do you see that light?" "No." They talk about repentance and explain it: "Do you see that?" "No," They talk about faith in Jesus Christ and ask, "Do you see that?" "No, I don’t understand it." Whenever a case of that kind occurs the fault is in the vision of the one addressed. The truth is that the devil has blinded his inner spiritual eyes that he may not see and be converted.

Paul says that his commission was to the Gentiles, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. There is a spiritual blindness. Our Saviour referred repeatedly in his preaching to people having eyes to see and seeing not, and having ears to hear and hearing not. That is one thing we must always take into account – the power of Satan to blind people so that they cannot see. Suppose I shut my left eye, and hold a dollar over my right eye and look up – can I see anything? The light is shining, but there is an object between me and the light, and it does not take a very big piece of money to hide the spiritual light from some people; a quarter of a dollar will sometimes do it. As a quarter laid on a dead man’s eye keeps his eye closed, so the love of money shuts out everything else in the world from the vision. That is his reply to the objections about the gospel being veiled.

Look now at his comparison between conversion and the creation of light in Genesis 1. It is there said that the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and God said, Let there be light. And there was light. Paul says, "Seeing it is God that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." As the brooding of the Holy Spirit over the chaos of original matter brought out light, so in the spiritual world the unconverted man is in a chaotic state, everything mixed, darkness on the deep of his mind, and the first sign of regeneration to him is light. "Whatsoever maketh manifest is light."

I may be standing by a man perfectly satisfied with himself. "Not a wave of trouble rolls across his peaceful breast." He has committed a great many sins, but has no spiritual realization of his state. I may keep preaching to that man, and presenting one truth after another, and whatsoever that will make manifest to him that he is a sinner, that is light. After a while I may present a thought, and as if a lamp had been lighted and carried down into his heart, the secret things of his inmost soul are revealed to him. As that light shines down there, he sees himself a sinner against God. Paul in the first letter gives a description of it, 1 Corinthians 14:24: "If all prophesy, and there come in one unbelieving or unlearned, he is reproved by all, he is judged by all; the secrets of his heart are made manifest; and so he will fall down on his face and worship God." When a man is in a cellar he may think that he is as clean as an angel, but bring him up out of that dark pit into daylight and he will see the smut, coal dust, and dirty hands. The light does not create those spots but simply manifests them. Paul says, "I was alive without the law once, that is, I felt myself all right. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. As soon as the light shone into my heart, and I saw myself a lost sinner in the sight of God, dead in trespasses and sins, I died." That is a very impressive biblical illustration.

Take 1 Corinthians 4:7: He is talking about his ministry – indeed all this is about Paul’s ministry – the chapter commencing: "Therefore seeing we have this ministry." Here he says that they had this gospel treasure in earthen vessels, that the power might be shown to be of God, not of the man vessel, or earthen vessel. What a theme for a sermon I Paul and Barnabas quarreled – both great preachers and good men – earthen vessels. We see a preacher who seems to be a great power in leading souls to Christ. When we get close to him and he is off his guard, we detect frailties and infirmities. We are disillusioned. A preacher sometimes wonders why a gospel so pure, intended to bring about purity, to fit one for heaven, should have been placed in the hands of such frail beings for administration. Why not have placed it in the hands of spotless beings? Why not have made the angels preachers? Paul says one reason is that when a man is converted God wants it to be known that the greatness of the power of conversion did not lie in the messenger that brought the message. The messenger was an earthen vessel, but the message was divine. He goes on to illustrate this earthen vessel, and answers another question: How is it, then, if the vessel be earthy – if the preacher be a man of such infirmity and frailty – that he can go on and be a successful preacher? He responds to that this way: "We are pressed on every side, yet not straightened; perplexed, yet not unto despair; pursued, yet not forsaken ; smitten down, yet not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body. . . . So then death worketh in us, but life in you." His explanation is that the omnipotent power of God sustains this messenger of light, though he be frail, perplexed, pursued, cast down. "The bruised reed he will not break and the smoking wick he will not quench until he hath brought forth judgment unto victory." This is a great consolation.

In 1 Corinthians 4:16 we reach our next thought. If the preacher that preaches this glorious gospel of God is himself earthly and frail, why does not the thought of this mortality utterly crush him? Here is his explanation: "Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

The part of the preacher that is earthy, breaking down all the time, is the outward man. The inward man does not break down; he is renewed day by day, and lives the life of Christ who lives in him, and while he is conscious that the human side of him is mortal, and constantly crumbling, that does not discourage him.

Nothing of that kind can discourage him, because he is not looking at the temporal things, but he is looking at the invisible and eternal things.

He then comes to the climax of death. A preacher, though he be as great as Paul, may die at any time. What about that? He commences the next chapter with his answer: "For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands," but God will give a heavenly home for the soul. Finally, Jesus will come and raise and glorify the body in the grave, and this glorified body will never die. He carries that thought about with him all the time. It is one of the sweetest thoughts to me in all the Bible.

When this outward man perishes, and the soul tenant has been evicted by death, or when the approach of death has chilled his feet and hands and crept up to his body, chilled his vitals, stopped his breath and the pulsations of his heart, and he is dead) there is no stop to the inward man. And this outward man that perished will be raised from the dead and glorified.

But we come to a more important thought than that – the resurrection is a long way off. Now, if the enemies of the gospel kill Paul, as they did kill him nearly 1900 years ago, what about him from then till now? Here is his answer to that (1 Corinthians 4:6): "Being therefore always of good courage, and knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight); we are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord."

When the body perishes, when the man’s work is ended, without a break in the continuity of his being, instantly upon his death, his soul is where Jesus is.

Right here I have a controversy with the "middle-life" brethren. They say that the soul of a Christian does not go directly to heaven, but lodges somewhere in a halfway house; that here it is under guard and safe keeping, and must wait until the judgment day. I frankly confess that that would not comfort me much, but if I know that at the very moment I am absent from the body I am present with the Lord, that is comfort. The question is, Where is the Lord? We know that he ascended into heaven, and we know that he ascended soul and body, and we know that he is sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Certainly, after the resurrection of his body the Lord Jesus Christ did not lodge anywhere: "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Stephen says, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of the Majesty on high."

Is Jesus lodged halfway between here and heaven? Paul says, "The very minute I die I am present with the Lord and that is the reason I am not discouraged." It is not only a beautiful thought but an intensely practical thought. I wish that all of my religion was as strong as my faith in the resurrection of the body. There is not a shadow of a doubt in my mind about either of those two points.

When I was a teacher and had just commenced preaching, a beautiful girl I used to know when we were in school together, a very gifted girl, and a particular friend of mine whom I thought to be the genius of the school, married a worthless man (as it proved), the son of a very wealthy man, very handsome, though he proved to be a great rascal, who broke her heart and abandoned her. I did not know what had become of her, and one evening there came a note from her saying, "Dear friend: It has been a long time since I saw you. I want to see you once more before I die. Come to see me tonight if you want to see me one time before the judgment." I went to the house and she was propped up in bed, dying. She said, "I did not send for you to lead me to Christ, or to teach me how to die. I know that. I have been a great sufferer, much of it in body, but the most of it has been spiritual suffering. You have some idea, but you cannot have a full idea of the darkness that has clouded my life. You remember how bright my prospects were when we were at school. This is my last night on earth. I go out forever tonight. I want you to get somebody who believes as we do about the future life to come and sing to me of heaven." So I gathered a few members of the church and we sang, O, sing to me of heaven, When I am called to die, Sing songs of holy ecstasy, To waft my soul on high.

As we sang you could see the play of light on her face, and when we got through she took up the last verse, and in a very faint, sweet voice, sang that verse, and it ended in a whisper, and that whisper was her last breath. She understood just what Paul means in our text, "When I am absent from the body I am present with the Lord."

Whoever does not believe that, cannot be a happy Christian. If the preacher believes it with all his heart and soul, he can comfort people, even though the treasure they have is in an earthen vessel – a poor frail old vessel – full of aches and pains subject to sickness and death.

The next thought is in 1 Corinthians 4:9: "Wherefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing unto him." In other words, "Whether in the body or out of the body, I want him to see that I am trying to do what he told me to do, trying to’ live as he told me to live, and if he looks at me out of the body, I want him to see that I am coming right up to him."

His track I see and I’ll pursue

The narrow way till Him I view

He tells us the reason why that is an ever present thought with him. "For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad." Then if we ask Paul, "Why do you all the time seek to be well pleasing to God?" he answers, "Because I know that at the judgment seat of Christ there will be a perfect revelation of my whole life." The same thought is presented in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, where he tells about the work that a man does: "If any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; each man’s work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire." If a man is a Christian, on the foundation of Jesus Christ, he will be saved. But salvation is not everything.

We see two ships coming into a harbor from distant ports. As one comes in sight we see that every mast is broken and every shroud torn, its cargo lost, it has sprung a leak, and a harbor tug must tow it in. It just barely gets into port. The other ship comes in with every mast standing, with every sail filled, cargoed to the water’s edge, meeting the shout of men and boom of artillery from the shore. That is the difference in dying Christians. Some have no reward. Others have great reward on account of their fidelity. When they believed in Christ, they were justified. That does not have to be done over. But a Christian’s fidelity will be judged by what a man does.

2 Corinthians 5:11 contains another thought: "Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men." That accounts for his earnestness in addressing either Christian or sinners. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, and, as Peter says, "The time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God: ... And if the righteous is scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?"

He now explains another thing (2 Corinthians 5:13): "For whether we are beside ourselves, it is unto God; or whether we are of sober mind, it is unto you. For the love of Christ constraineth us." Some of his enemies had accused him of being a crazy man, saying that a man who would talk about hell-fire and judgment and all that stuff, must be seeing visions. Now he replies: "If I am beside myself, it is unto God." As he said on another occasion. "I am not mad, most excellent Festus, but speak forth words of truth and soberness." Here it is: "The love of Christ constrains me and impels me into this zeal which you object to."

The brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ objected to his zeal, and went one day to arrest him as one would arrest a lunatic, because he worked without stopping to eat. Whenever you see an earnest Christian who does not count his life dear unto him, who puts the salvation of men above all bodily ease, lets it triumph over all thought of time, and bestirs himself in the might and power of the commission of God given unto him, a great many worldly-minded people will say, "He is a crank. We want a preacher who doesn’t get excited and who is too polite to say ’hell.’ Let him say ’hades,’ and not talk about eternal punishment."

2 Corinthians 5:15 leads us to another thought: "He died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who, for their sakes, died and rose again." I have heard at least twenty-five sermons preached on that, in which it was expounded in this way: "No man liveth unto himself, other people are interested in him and he must live with reference to other people." That is not the thought, but that we must live unto Christ, not for earthly pleasure or glory, but for Christ who purchased us, must we live. Some may say, "I will not go to my appointment today because it is raining and I might get wet." But another will say, "I am not living for myself, but for Christ. I am going to that place today if I have to swim a creek."

It is the creek-swimming men that shake the world – the brier-cutting men who will not allow obstacles to keep them from doing what God wants them to do.

Let a congregation get the idea of their pastor that he is a pink of perfection, can beat anybody in town tying a cravat, and wears the nicest little shoes, knows how to fasten a nosegay in his vest, and how to enter a room and entertain company; carries an umbrella so as not to burn his delicate skin, then what will be his power to awaken and save the lost? An umbrella is all right in its place, but what I want to impress is this – that a stalwart man, a real man, will accomplish more of the great things in the work than all of these little fellows. He will not stop to consider a thousand things that absorb the mind of the trivial man, but will go right straightforward to the accomplishment of his great purpose. I have heard these dainty essayists preach. I have gone to their churches hungry and tried to get something – and failed.

It reminds me of the story of a preacher who tells this of himself: During the war he went to a house to get some supper. Army rations were poor, and he was very hungry. They had just a little butter and they all wanted to make it go as far as possible, so each one tried to hurry through in order to get another chance at the butter before it disappeared. He said that he could not get rid of the butter in his plate. He even tried to sop it up with his bread, but it did not have any taste to it. At last he looked up and saw through a knot-hole in the roof over his head that the moon was shining down through into his plate, and that all the time he had been sopping moonshine.

QUESTIONS

1. Is the gospel, as well as the law, veiled to some people, and what is the reply of Paul to this objection?

2. What is the reason for their blindness does Paul give, and how does the author illustrate it?

3. How does Paul show from his commission, the spiritual blindness of the lost man, and what the teaching of Jesus on the same point?

4. Give clearly Paul’s comparison between conversion and the creation of light.

5. How is a man led to see himself a sinner, and how may a church convict a sinner, as described in 1 Corinthians 14? Illustrate.

6. How does Paul here show the weakness and imperfection of preachers, and what reason does he assign for the Lord’s commissioning men instead of angels to preach?

7. What Paul’s reply to the question, "If the preacher is so frail, how can he be successful"?

8. Why does not this thought of mortality utterly crush the preacher?

9. How does Paul answer the objection that the preacher may die at any time?

10. What about Paul from his death until now, what the "middle life" theory, and how does the author refute the claim?

11. How does the author illustrate from his own experience his faith in the realities of heaven and the resurrection?

12. In view of this doctrine, what was Paul’s great aim in life, what reason does he assign for it, and where do we find the parallel thought expressed by Paul? State and illustrate.

13. How do we account for Paul’s earnestness from 2 Corinthians 5:11, and what parallel thought expressed by Peter?

14. How does Paul answer the charge that he was crazy, what other similar accusation against him cited, and what his reply? What the meaning of the first clause of 2 Corinthians 5:14, and what the practical application of all this to present day preaching?

15. What is the meaning and application of 2 Corinthians 5:15? Illustrate.

XXIX

THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION

2 Corinthians 5:17-7:16.

This discussion commences at 2 Corinthians 5:17, and extends to the end of 2 Corinthians 7. Before going forward with this discussion, I want to call attention to some critical questions involved in the preceding chapter. In 2 Corinthians 5:11, what is the meaning of the "fear of the Lord" – "Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men"? Does it mean that the dreadfulness of God, or the fear that men may have of God? My answer is that it means God’s fearfulness or dreadfulness, his awful character in holding each sinner to strict account for all of his sins – "Knowing the fear of the Lord."

In 2 Corinthians 5:14, "The love of Christ constraineth us" – does the love of Christ here mean Christ’s love for us, or our love for Christ that does the constraining? My answer is, it means our love for Christ, that is superinduced by our conception of Christ’s love for us. When we relied upon Christ’s love for us, that awakened our love for Christ, and that constrains us to do what we do for Christ. What is the meaning of "constrain"? That is, does it simply mean to impel, or does it manifest its etymological meaning of narrowing down or shutting up to, so that we cannot do anything but that? Virtually it means the latter – that my love for Christ shuts me up to doing what I do. In other words, Luther said when they demanded that he recant, "Here I stand; I can do no other." That is, his love of Christ put it out of his power to abjure his conception of justification by faith.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Wherefore ’if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature." "Therefore" always refers back, and there are two things to which it refers back: (1) 2 Corinthians 5:15, that Christ died for us, and so we are under obligation not to live unto ourselves, but unto Christ. (2) 2 Corinthians 5:16, "As Christ died for us, we henceforth know no man, after the flesh, but according to the Spirit." These are the two reasons why a man is a new creature. The old things have passed away, meaning that old things are covered by new things. After conversion, a man is a new creature. Before conversion a man is his own guide, and the knowledge he has is after worldly understanding. I once heard a sermon preached on this text, and one of the members said, "I have found out by that text that I am not a Christian." I said, "Why?" He said, "Old things have not passed away, and all things have not become new. My wife is not new. The sun shines as it did before, and I get hungry as I did before. According to that sermon I am not converted." That preacher did not understand the force of the "therefore." He did not see in what respects a man was new – that he is new in that he no longer lives unto himself but unto Christ, and no longer forms his judgment by worldly knowledge, but by spiritual knowledge. All of the old things that touch these points have passed away.

I heard a very prominent Baptist preacher, without knowledge of Greek, or a critical study of the text, preach on that text to set forth the evidences of conversion. He enumerated a dozen evidences by which one might know he was a Christian, without noticing either one of the two that the text expresses. When he got through I said, "Whenever you take a text there is always a better sermon in it, according to its true meaning, than any sermon you can preach away from it. Everything you said was true, but you ought to have gotten it from other scriptures."

In preaching on the evidences of conversion from this text one must confine himself to this line of thought – that an unconverted man lives unto himself and decides all questions according to the way it pleases him, but the converted man is a new creature in that respect, and decides things as Christ would have him decide, though contrary to his inclinations.

When the Baptist General Convention met at Belton I preached a sermon on "The Ministerial Office," and commenced the sermon with stating that every preacher was under obligation when he selected a text to give its primary meaning and then its contextual meaning. Then he may deduce from the principles involved a new line of thought. But his new theme must be a logical development from the primary and contextual meaning. He should never take a text and preach a sermon without telling what it means primarily, and in its context. The most suitable description of a sermon that violates this rule is credited to a Negro: First, he took his text; second, he left it; third, he never got back to it.

The new creation may mean a great deal more than Paul says here, but all the meaning here is that a man who is in Christ no longer lives unto himself, but unto Christ, and no longer judges according to the spirit of the flesh, but after the Spirit of God.

We now come to the most important part of this second letter. We may make mistakes about some things in this letter, and the mistakes will not be fatal, but if we make a mistake on the reconciliation part of this letter we have made a radical mistake. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 contain a brief discussion of reconciliation. If one understands these verses, he is a pretty sound theologian. The word "reconciliation," first of all, implies that there has been a previous enmity. Second, the ground of the enmity is that man is a sinner. Third, it implies that, being a sinner, he is lost. All of that can be brought out in this passage clearly.

What does reconciliation mean? That the two at enmity have been brought to perfect peace. Who is the author of this reconciliation? "All things are of God, who reconciled us to himself." There never was a case where a man at enmity with God was himself the cause or the occasion of the reconciliation. Then what is the meritorious ground of the reconciliation? "Who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ." The ground of the reconciliation is what Jesus has done. What the method of the reconciliation? "God was in Christ recon" oiling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses." They must be reckoned somewhere. Look at the last verse: "He hath made him to be sin for us."

The method of reconciliation is to impute the man’s sins to Christ, and not to the man, and impute Christ’s righteousness to the man. Christ is to be accounted a sinner in the place of the man, and the man righteous in the place of Christ. God made the just one to take the place of the unjust one. The strongest passage in the word of God on the doctrine of substitution and imputation is 2 Corinthians 5:21. No man who denies what is called the doctrine of imputation has ever been able properly to interpret this passage.

This method is perfectly in harmony with what the prophet declared in Isaiah 53:5: "Our iniquities were laid on him. By his stripes we are healed. The chastisement of our peace was on him, and because it was on him it pleased the Lord to bruise him." God bruised him. He poured out his soul unto death and made an offering of himself for the sinner.

What is the blessing that hereby comes to the sinner? The forgiveness of sin. If the sinner’s sins are charged to somebody else, and that sinner is acquitted, then he is free. If a brother owes $100 and the surety pays it, the creditor cannot collect that $100 from the original debtor, for the debt has been paid by the surety. So far we have considered reconciliation Godward. God cannot, by his nature and attributes, be reconciled to the sinner until satisfaction be made to his infracted law. He must be propitiated before he can become propitious. His justice claims must be met and satisfied.

But what is the ministry of the reconciliation? The text says, "And hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation." The ministry of reconciliation is God’s appointing men to go and preach the terms of reconciliation. What authority then is conferred upon the preacher that goes to preach this? "We are ambassadors of Christ." What is an ambassador? The United States sends an ambassador to England, and gives him credentials. At the court of St. James in England he is the representative of the United States. Whatever he does under that authority binds the United States. But an ambassador is not allowed to go beyond his instructions, and any ambassador that goes beyond them must be held responsible to the government that sent him.

A preacher then goes with divine instructions not to say, "peace, peace when there is no peace," but to set plainly before the unconverted the only terms of reconciliation – that the sinner shall repent of his sins and accept the Lord, and the evidence that he has accepted Christ is that he no longer lives unto himself but unto Christ, no longer as the world judges, but according to the Spirit of God. That is the whole subject of the gospel in a nutshell. It is of the highest importance that a preacher should understand it. "We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God." I consider that the most important thought in the second letter. The work of Christ reconciles God to man. The work of the Holy Spirit reconciles man to God.

Taking up 2 Corinthians 6, let us advance in the thought. What is the time to be reconciled? At an acceptable time I hearkened unto thee, And in a day of salvation did I succor thee; Behold, now is the acceptable time; Behold, now is the day of salvation. That is, no minister has a right to treat with a sinner on the morrow, next week, or next year. He has to hold the sinner down in every sermon to immediate reconciliation with Christ.

Mr. Spurgeon, in talking to his preacher-students, tells of an incident that he witnessed. He was visiting an Episcopalian preacher, and a man under conviction of sin came to see his pastor. He told Mr. Spurgeon to stay and hear what the man had to say. The sinner stated his case. The preacher said, "You go home and read a certain book on the ’Evidences of Christianity’ and read certain passages, and pray to the Lord, and in a week come back to see me." Mr. Spurgeon leaped to his feet and said, "My dear sir, don’t dismiss that man that way. You have no right to do it. He comes to you as an anxious sinner, for you to tell him what to do, and you have marked out a line of conduct that may take him beyond his life time. If you will permit me, I will tell him what to do. Let him now accept Christ; let us pray now that he may at once accept Christ." The Episcopalian said, "If you want to do it, do so." Mr. Spurgeon said to the man, "Will you right now look to the Lord Jesus Christ while we pray," and he knelt down to pray and the man arose happily converted.

We should never postpone a convicted sinner’s case. If the man is not under conviction we may work to convict. But when a contrite and penitent man comes, who feels that he is a sinner, and wants to know what to do to be saved, we should deal with him just as Paul did with that jailer at midnight, who said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Paul answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." He was saved that very night. There is the great failure in most meetings.

One Sunday in Oklahoma City I preached three times. I suppose there were fully 2,500 that heard the sermons. The audience room was very large, and it was crowded. In the afternoon I was preaching to men, and I came to the point of immediate reconciliation to God. Since God is the author of this reconciliation, and since the blessing of reconciliation is remission of sins and since that comes by imputation of our guilt to Christ, and the ’imputation of his righteousness to us, what use is there for us to take time? If salvation be a gift, how long does it take to receive a gift? A wonderful impression was made. Three men came to see me after the sermon on the subject of immediate acceptance of Christ. One of them offered me an extravagant sum of money if I would stay and hold a meeting.

I heard a very distinguished preacher take this text: "We beseech you in Christ’s stead be ye reconciled to God." The main thing he preached about was this: That there were two parties to the original enmity, God and man; that the man did not have to do anything to reconcile God; that the man was the only fellow out of it; that God is already reconciled, and the man must bring himself to bear upon reconciling himself. When he got through I said, "Do you know that you have made a dreadful mistake? God’s reconciliation is in Christ, and so long as man rejects Christ, God is not reconciled to that man; the wrath of God is on him," It was Christ that appeased the wrath of God by dying for the sinner, but it does not follow that because Christ died nearly 1900 years ago the law has nothing against us. It has nothing against us only when we accept Christ.

The reconciliation of God to us is not out of Christ, but in Christ, but we get in touch with that reconciliation when we accept Christ.

What then should be the conduct of a preacher who has this ministry of reconciliation? 2 Corinthians 6:3-10 constitute a lesson to a preacher: "Giving no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our ministration be not blamed; but in everything commending ourselves, as ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in pureness, in knowledge, in longsuffering, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."

Now comes another point in the argument – since a man who is a new creature ’is to live not unto himself but unto Jesus Christ, how does it affect his past relations with men and things? 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 answer: "Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity, or what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement hath a temple of God with idols, for we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, And touch no unclean thing. What follows from being a new creature? A man must draw a line of demarcation between himself and every evil tiling and evil association. The argument is tremendous.

We now come to the second and most important part of the whole letter – his discussion of repentance. What precedes repentance? Godly sorrow, or contrition. "Godly sorrow worketh repentance." What does repentance mean? A change of mind toward God on account of sin. How is repentance distinguished from worldly sorrow? Worldly sorrow has a different origin; it is remorse. How is repentance evidenced? Look at verse 11: “For behold, this selfsame thing, that ye were made sorry after a Godly sort, what earnest care it wrought in you, yea what clearing of yourselves, yea what indignation, yea what fear, yea what longing, yea what zeal, yea what avenging." They had partaken of the sin of that fornicator, and were not disturbed until Paul wrote this letter which brought about Godly sorrow in their hearts, and led them to repent. Their repentance was evidenced by its fruits. They cleared themselves of the offense by excluding that man, and what is true of Godly sorrow and repentance there is true of repentance on the part of the sinner. There is no other mill that grinds out that kind of grist. John the Baptist said, "Bring forth fruits meet for repentance. Don’t oppress the poor, but be content with your wage." If a man is a Christian let him prove it by a Christian life.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the meaning of "fear of the Lord" in 2 Corinthians 5:11?

2. What is the meaning of "constrain" in 2 Corinthians 5:14?

3. What is the force of "therefore" in 2 Corinthians 5:17, and what the two reasons given in this passage why a man is a new creature?

4. What is the meaning and application of "old things . . . they are become new" in 2 Corinthians 5:17? Illustrate.

5. What bearing has 2 Corinthians 5:17 on the evidence of salvation?

6. What is the preacher’s duty relative to his text when he goes to preach, and what is an illustration of a violation of this rule given by the author?

7. What, according to the author’s estimate, is the most important part of this letter, and why?

8. What does the word "reconciliation" imply?

9. What does it mean?

10. Who is the author of our reconciliation in salvation?

11. What is the meritorious ground of reconciliation?

12. What is the method of this reconciliation?

13. What is the strongest passage in the Word of God on imputation, and the prophetic teaching on this subject?

14. What is the blessing of reconciliation? Illustrate

15. What is the ministry of the reconciliation?

16. What is the authority conferred upon the preacher? Illustrate,

17. What, then, the preacher’s evident duty?

18. What reconciles God to man, and what reconciles men to God?

19. What is the time of reconciliation, and why? Illustrate.

20. What illustration of a misconception, of reconciliation, and how did the author correct this misconception?

21. What should be the conduct of a preacher who has this reconciliation?

22. How does the "new creation" affect a man’s past relations with men and things?

23. What is the second most important part of this letter?

24. What precedes repentance?

25. What does repentance mean?

26. How is repentance distinguished from worldly sorrow?

27. How is repentance evidenced, and particularly in this case?