Full Text for Sermon Study for Good Friday 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (Text)
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LEHRE UNO WERRE
MAGAZIN PUER, Ev.-LUTH. HOMILETIK
THEOLOGICAL Q UARTERLy-THEOLOGlC. .. L MO!'ITHLY
Vol. XU April, 1941 No.4
CONTENTS ....
Verb.1 tnllpiratian - a StumbHng-BlltCk to the .JeWll
Foolishness to the G~ks. Th. En(eldu ~~
l\.dvent Qlld Lent "Clv~ed SeasOI15"? F. A. Kolcb
'Dd
~~_ Zll
___ '66
Sermon Study f OT Good Friday, 2 COl'.5:J4·21. Th. LaetRh _., _ Z71
Outltnea on the Wuer U"Dlhcrg Gospel Selections _" ___ _ %86
- ".
Theological Observer. - Kirchlieh·Zcltgeschlchtllc1le8 . ___ ._ 303
Book Review. - Liter.tul' . _______ . ___ . ____ . __ . __ .. __ ., 313
I!:I.n Pret.
man, God's rage,.is as holy and sinless as
God Himself. This is the mystery which man will never under-
that God so loves the sel£same man He hates that He
His own Son into death in order that He may love those whose
enemy He was and, because man was a had to be. 0 mys-
tery of love divinel
Paul says that God "reconciled us unto Himself." That was
the only way in which a reconciliation between God and man could
ever be effected. Man indeed was the the sole cause of
the mutual enmity. Man should have made the effort to establish
a reconciliation. Man, had neither the Rom.
8: 7, nor the power, Ps. 49: 7,8, to reestablish the relation of peace
and once between God and man. Therefore the
God of grace and mercy past has done what was
man's duty but what man could not and would not undertake. God
Himsel£ has the relation of mutual enmity to one of peace
and love as far as His relation to man is concerned. He reconciled
us, says Paul. He still is of himself and as he
is still demonstrating love of Christ constrains them.
What he says of himself and his coworker he will
God reconciled Jesus Christ," the anointed Savior. The
reconciliation of man is God's a demonstration of God's great
love toward His enemies. At the same time it is the
manifestation of the marvelous love of Jesus Christ, without whom
there would have been no who was to carry
out God's with all it involved. For that purpose Christ died
for vv. to bear the punishment which the punitive
of God demanded and to procure that for man
before he
for the un:sut'Pa:ssable
of God could not be satisfied.
verses. But
adds another
God and Christ which constrains him
Sermon Study for Good Friday 279
and his fellow-preachers. God has not only reconciled mankind,
He has also given to them the ministry of reconciliation, that
ministry, that glorious service of telling others of the reconciliation
which God had brought about for themselves and for all the world,
"the ministry which is devoted to reconciliation, which is the
means of reconciliation for men, inasmuch as through this ministry
reconciliation is preached to them and they are brought unto
faith on the tt..ClO"'ttlQLOV [propitiation], Jesus, which faith is the
causa apprehendens of the reconciliation, Rom. 3:25; compare
lItaxovlCI. 'ti'j(; lItXCl.LOc:n!vrJ(;, 2 Cor. 3: 9." (Meyer.)
The two statements of v. 18 are explained in greater detail
vv. 19-21: "reconciled us" in 19 a, "hath given," etc., in 19 b-21.
The construction of -1jv and the three participles has been variously
explained. * We prefer the construction suggested in Expositors'
Greek Testament. "The A. V. 'God was in Christ, reconciling,' etc.,
is not accurate; -1jv goes with both xCI.'ta.t..t..aO'O'(l)V and ihlJ,tEVO(;." The
second participle, "not imputing," etc., independent of -1jv, merely
describes more fully the mode of the reconciliation. Both activities
of God in Christ, the reconciliation and the non-imputation, are
placed into the past by the imperfect -1jv. The imperfect and the
two present participles denote durative action, both activities
running contemporaneously; or if one prefers, the second participle
is the descriptive participle, with greater emphasis on the descrip-
tion than on the duration. The aorist xCI.'ta.t..t..aSCl.(; in v.18 was
constative. In v. 19 Paul purposely uses a different tense, the
periphrastic imperfect, which brings out very clearly that the
reconciliation was not a work of a moment. It was a far more
difficult work to redeem man than to create him. God in Christ
was reconciling the world unto Himself in an activity which began
at the moment of Christ's conception in the womb of Mary and
extended through all those years of humiliation and poverty, of
persecution and shame, of pain and torment, of degradation and
the agony of hell on the cross, and was not completed until Christ
cried "It is finished." . That was the price paid by the Son of God
in order that He might make the reconciliation of the world unto
God possible, 1 Cor. 6: 20; Rom. 5: 6-8. Such love manifested by
Christ constrained the apostle, v.14.
God in Christ was reconciling the world. The reconciliation
that has taken place is an all-comprehensive one, embracing the
world. In restricting the reconciliation to the elect and interpreting
• For a full discussion of the various possibilities of construction and
the proof that none of the various constructions permits us to understand
this passage of the subjective reconciliation through faith, see "Objective
Justification," Dr. Theo. Engelder, CONC. THEOL. MONTHLY, Vol. IV, 1933,
p. 564 if., 664 if.
280 Sermon Study for Qood FIiday
"the world" as including only the believers faithful to the end,
Calvinism exactly reverses the meaning of this word. If Calvinism
would exclude the elect from God's reconciliation, it might point to
passages where quite evidently the elect are excluded, where evi-
dently only unbelievers are spoken of; e. g., John 17: 14,16,25;
2 Cor. 7: 10, etc. But, as already Calov observes, the word is not
once used of the sum total of the elect. Whenever x60J.l.o~ is used
of man, it designates either the wicked, the unbelievers, or man-
kind as such, the aggregate of human beings. The latter sensE'
obtains in our passage. The whole world, believers and unbe-
lievers, were reconciled by God in Christ. It is not dogmatic bias
when the Lutheran Church insists on universal reconciliation.
The clear words and the Biblical usage of the term x60J.l.o,; compel
such an interpretation.
"Not imputing." This word was used by the LXX in trans-
lating such Old Testament passages as Gen. 15: 6; Ps. 32: 2; 106: 31,
which speak of imputed righteousness and non-imputation of sin,
the very subject treated by Paul in our passage. The Greek and
the Hebrew wores denote a reckoning.. putting one's account
on either the credit or the debit side; to impute. God did not
impute "their trespasses." "Their" points back to "the world," the
latter designating mankind in its totality, while the two pronouns
refer to all the individuals making up the world. "Trespasses";
the original denotes a falling beside, a lapse, a deviation. The
term is not used to minimize the wickedness of sin or to imply
that only minor faults, momentary lapses, sins of weakness, were
not imputed. In Rom. 5: 13-20 the term (there rendered offense)
is used interchangeably with sin and disobedience, and Paul states
that one lapse of one man caused death to rule, v.17, and judg-
ment to come upon all men unto damnation, v. 18. The word in-
cludes every lapse from righteousness, from the slightest evil
thought to the most heinous crime.
And now we are told that God was "not imputing their tres-
passes unto them." The present participle "not imputing" describes
the non-imputation as contemporaneous with the reconciliation and
therefore, like the latter, an act of God lying in the past. There
was a time, already in the day of the apostle lying in the past,
when the sins of all individuals that had lived, were living, and
shall live on earth were not imputed to them. In other words, not
one sin, great or small, ever committed by any man was laid to his
charge, counted against him, written on the debit side of his
account with God. How that was made possible was already
indicated by the words "in Christ" in the first clause and will be
further elucidated in v.21. Non-imputation of sins actually com-
mitted, of sins that are their sins, is only a different expression for
~rQ1on Study for Good Friday 281
forgiveness, or remission, Qf sins. God forgave, remitted, sin com-
mitted by man by not placing these sins on the lIinners' account.
Looking at the account of man, God saw nothing to rouse His
anger. The debit side was blank. There were no longer any debts
charged against man, and therefore there was no longer any occa-
sion for wrath and hatred against man on the part of God. The
mutual hatred and enmity existing between God and man had
ceased, as far as God was concerned. Though man still is and
remains God's enemy until he has been made a new creature, v.17,
God has become his Friend. God is at peace with the world, with
every individual.
And hath committed unto us the WOTd of Reconciliation, v.19.
We connect this participle with the words "God was in Christ,
reconciling." For the imperfect with the aorist participle, see
Luke 23: 19. lii"EVO!;, having placed for Himself, for the execution
of His purpose (cp. on this usage 1 Thess.5:9; 1 Tim. 1:12), into
our hands, in our possession, in our charge (cp. on this usage of iv
1 Pet.5:2) the Word of Reconciliation. The ministry of recon-
ciliation is here defined as a ministry of the Word, the Word of
Reconciliation, the Gospel. That is folly and foolishness to the
unbelieving world, yet it is the only means, the only power given
to the messengers of Christ, to carry out their ministry. And they
need no more. For this is the word of a reconciliation wrought by
the great God Himself, and He who has given to His preachers
this Word stands behind this Word with all the omnipotence of
His grace and love. Read 1 Cor. 1. 2. Paul and his fellow-
preachers had experienced the power of this Word, and far from
being dissatisfied with having been equipped with no greater power,
the apostle glories in this gift and forges from its possession an
unanswerable argument for the dignity of his ministry. This be-
comes even more apparent as he continues.
Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did
beseech you by 'US; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled
to God, v. 20. ''Now, then." Since God has committed unto us the
Word of Reconciliation, v. 19, cpo 18 c, therefore we are ambassadors
for Christ. The verb l'tQfaj3EUCl) occurs in the New Testament only
here and in Eph. 6: 20. It means to be old and, since important
offices were usually entrusted to older people, to be an elder, speci-
fically an ambassador, a person commissioned by a ruler or a
government as official representative in a foreign country. In Eph.
6: 20 Paul calls himself an ambassador for, imiQ, the Gospel. There
the preposition evidently cannot be understood in the vicarious
sense. Paul is not an ambassador in the stead, but in the in-
terest,in the service of, the Gospel. Yet -that does not war-
rant us to take the preposition in our passage in the same
282 Sennon Study for Good Friday
sense as in Eph. 6: 20. The situation is an altogether differ-
ent one. In Eph.6 it is an object; in our verse, a person for
whom the apostle is an ambassador. Paul is an ambassador for
Christ, for the Gospel; but Paul's relation to the two is different.
In both cases it is "over" lm:£Q, in the one case standing "over" the
Gospel, protecting and serving the interests of the Gospel; in the
other case, standing "over" Christ, so that people see not Christ,
but only the ambassador, who is sent, not merely in the service and
interest of his government but as its representative. In the person
of his ambassador the President appears before the governing
powers of the other countries. The ambassador takes the Presi-
dent's place. An insult to him in his ambassadorial office is
resented by the President as a personal affront to himself and the
country he represents. In this sense Paul is the ambassador for
Christ. He is Christ's representative on earth, serving not only on
His behalf, in His interest, but in His place as preacher of the
Gospel. That this is the sense of "for" is also evident from the
explanatory clause added by Paul, "as though God did beseech
you by us." Note the interchange of "God" and "Christ." Because
God in Christ committed to Paul and his fellow-preachers the
Word of Reconciliation, they are Christ's ambassadors. Being
Christ's ambassadors, God beseeches. God beseeches through them.
When they speak, they speak not only on behalf, in the interest of,
God, but as men through whom God speaks, as men who speak in
the place of God, as His representatives. Hearing them, you hear
God. Although one sees and hears only them, as ambassadors they
stand "over" Christ, spokesmen of Him who invisibly stands behind
them, whose cause they have made their own, even as, and just
because, He made their cause His own. So they ask, beg, plead,
beseech, in Christ's stead, again lm£Q. "Be ye reconciled to God."
In this entire verse Paul does not state whom he and his asso-
ciates are addressing. That plea describes their message wherever
they go as the ambassadors for Christ, who has commissioned
them, Matt. 28: 19, 20, and particularly Paul, Acts 9: 15; 26: 14-18.
Note the passive aorist, Be ye once for all reconciled. Men can
do nothing to effect the reconciliation, nor need they. The recon-
ciliation, the forgiveness of their sins, is an established fact, and
God beseeches them to enter into that state of peace which God
has created; to accept the non-imputation of their trespasses, the
forgiveness of their sins, which God has provided in Christ and
proclaims through His ambassadors; to cease their enmity toward
God and so make the reconciliation which on the part of God took
place at Christ's death on Calvary a mutual one. The plea of the
ambassadors is clothed in the form of a command. Cpo Acts 2: 38;
3:19; 17:30; Matt. 11:28; Luke 14:17. It is an expression of the
Sermon Study for Good Friday 283
good and gracious will of God, whose finn and earnest will it is
that all men come into the peace prepared by Him. And this plea
is efficacious. It appropriates to man, the sinner, the enemy of
God, that very reconciliation, that very forgiveness, which it
offers to them and commands them to receive. Only if man con-
tinues his enmity and refuses to be reconciled, will this sincere
and efficacious plea be rendered ineffective. Strange, mysterious
power of man to reject the mystery of love divine and what
it offers!
For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, v. 21. The
connection between v.20 and 21 is well determined by Calov:
"The apostle states the reason why they ought to return into favor
with God and explains in what manner and why God does not
impute their sins to the world nor will impute them to the believers,
because He has made Christ to be sin for us and in our stead by
imputing our sin to Him who knew no sin." "The one not knowing
sin." The !-til does not, in distinction to QU, stress a subjective
knowledge, as, e. g., the Expositor's Greek Testament refers it to
"God's knowledge of this fact" (Christ's sinlessness). In the New
Testament !-til is the usual negative with participles. There is no
need to ask who this One not knowing sin is. There is but One.
The apostle does not mean to say that Christ never had been con-
scious of sin, which might admit the possibility of His having com-
mitted an unknown fault, cpo Ps. 19: 12, nor that Christ had no
knowledge whatsoever concerning sin. In the Sermon on the
Mount He explains with greatest clarity that Law whereby is the
knowledge of sin, Rom. 3: 20. Speaking through His prophets and
apostles and during His lifetime speaking Himself, He paints the
clearest picture ever presented to man of sin, its source and origin,
its true nature, its wickedness, its dire consequences. Christ knew
all about sin. And yet He knew not sin. The word know is here
used, as so frequently in Holy Scripture, of a nosse cum afJectu
et efJectu, a knowing affectionately and effectively. Christ and
sin never entered into a relation of personal friendship and affec-
tion. Much as sin tried to win Him over, there was no responsive
chord in His heart answering to the lure and temptation of sin.
Christ was and ever remained that bitter, irreconcilable enemy of
sin promised in Gen. 3: 15. He was from eternity the holy, sinless
God. When He was conceived a true human being, Mary's Son,
He was that Holy Thing, Luke 1: 35. Throughout HIs life He
remained the One who knew not sin, Heb. 7: 26; 1 Pet. 1: 19. Him
the Lord made sin. Already in the Old Testament the sin-offering
was invariably called n~l!)n, sin, translated in the LXX usually
l'tEQL u!-taQ"tLa;, but in seve;~l passages by the simple Uf,taQ"tLa, sin;
284 Sermon Study for Good Frida,.
cpo Lev. 5: 12; 6: 25. In eating the sin-offering, the priests became
bearers of the iniquities of the congregation for the purpose of
making atonement for them before the Lord, Lev. 10: 17. The
reason for this strange terminology and obligation lies in the fact
that the sin of guilty man was transferred to the sacrificial animal
by the symbolic laying on of hands, Lev. 1: 4; 3: 2; 4: 4; 16: 21, 22.
In this manner the sacrifice was made sin, and the priests eating
the sin-offering ate, as it were, the sin of the people, made them
their own, became bearers of other men's sins, responsible for
their atonement.
In Christ these types were literally fulfUled. The Lord laid
upon Him the iniquity of us all, Is. 53: 6. So completely did God
make the sins of mankind Christ's own that He numbered His
Son, the obedient, righteous Servant, Is. 53: 9 b, 11 b, with the trans-
gressors, v. 12, Mark 15: 28; that God looked upon His well-
beloved Son as sin, seeing in Him no longer the spotless God-man,
seeing only the sin of the world, sin which He hated and on account
of which the fierceness of God's wrath and anger centered upon
Him, who, being made sin was made a curse, Gal. 3: 13, whom He
forsook, Ps. 22: 1, turning Him over to the torments of hell and
the diabolic fury of Satan. And Christ, knowing no sin, willingly
submitted to the will of the Father, since God's will is Christ's
will. He willingly suffered Himself to be made sin, He felt the
sin of the world, the guilt and burden of it as if it were His own.
He prayed already in the word of prophecy, Ps. 40: 12-15; He
came to Jordan to be baptized with the baptism of repentance and
remission of sin, Matt. 3: 13-15; Mark 1: 4. He bore the penalty
of man's sin, Is. 53: 3-5, though it oppressed and afllicted Him, v.7,
though it wrung from His agonized heart that anguished cry,
Ps. 22: 1; Mark 15: 34.
All this "for us," MEl! TijAiiiv, standing over us. God took our
guilt and placed it on His own Son, who as the Mediator of recon-
ciliation lovingly, protectingly, stood over, unEI!, us. All the wrath
and punishment and damnation fell upon the Christ, who knew
no sin, but who for love of mankind was with His own consent
made sin for us, in our place. In the original "for us" stands in
the center. On the one side Christ, the Son of God, knowing no
sin; on the other side the God-man made sin. In the very center,
connecting the two and explaining the seemingly irreconcilable
facts, "FOR US," the very heart of Christianity.
Paul does not end by stating that Christ was made sin. He
shows the blessed result of this strange act of God and ends in a
climactic outburst of triumphant joy. Again we marvel at the
skill with which the writer has formulated the sentence. "We" at
the beginning, "Him" at the end. What a contrast! Sinful we,
Sermon Study for Good Friday 285
sinless He; we, the unholy, He the only holy God! Yet the words
in the center connect us with Him and Him with us. We are
made the righteousness of God in Him. In the same manner as
He was made sin, our sins being imputed to Him, laid on Him,
reckoned to His account by the Lord, in the same manner in
which, and at the same time when all this occurred we were
made righteousness. Our sins, having been laid on Him, were
no longer being imputed to us. His righteousness, which He who
knew no sin and fulfilled all righteousness by His obedience unto
death had procured for us, was counted our righteousness.
That is the glorious message which Paul and Timothy pro-
claim to all the world. Note that v.21 furnishes the motive for
the plea "Be ye reconciled." This plea is directed to such as
have not yet accepted the reconciliation, to unbelieving mankind.
And they are simply told that all that is necessary for the recon-
ciliation on the part of God has been done long ago. Paul here
includes himself and his fellow-preachers with the great mass of
mankind and, pointing to the cross on Calvary, tells all the world:
There God has made Christ to be sin for us, for you and for me,
that we, you and I, might be made the righteousness of God in
Him. We have accepted that reconciliation. Oh, be ye also
reconciled!
As our lesson opens with the love of Christ toward us, so it
ends with our righteousness in Him, Him alone. Why should
not every sinner accept the reconciliation, so complete, so cheering,
so transporting, accomplished by Him? Why should not the love
of this Jesus constrain every man to love Him who died for all
and henceforth to live no longer unto himself but unto Him who
died for him and rose again?
This text teaches us to understand the Mystery of Calvary
as far as this is possible for finite mind. From various angles this
mystery may be presented to the congregation. Paul Revealing
to Us the Hidden Wisdom of Christ's Suffering. 1) In Christ all
died, v.14. 2) By Christ God has reconciled the world unto Him-
self, vv.1B-21. 3) In Christ all things are become new, vv.15-17.-
The Love of Christ Constraineth Us: 1) To be reconciled unto God.
Christ has redeemed us from the guilt, v. 21, and penalty of sin,
v. 14. Therefore God no longer imputes sin but is reconciled to
the world, v.19. This is proclaimed through the Gospel, vv.19 b,
20, 21. Let us not despise its plea. Let us know Christ as our
Savior, v. 16 b, and be reconciled to God, v. 20 b. 2) To live unto
Christ. In Christ we are new creatures, v.17, created by God
through Jesus Christ, who by His Gospel brought us to faith, v.1B.
Therefore let us heed the admonition vv. 15, 16 a. - The Over-
286 Outlines on the Wuerttemberg Gospel Selections
whelming Love of Christ. 1) It has freed us from sin's guilt,
vv. 19-21, offering us this freedom in the Gospel, vv. 19 b, 20.
2) It has redeemed us from sin's penalty, v.14. 3) It has delivered
us from sin's power, vv.15-17, offering us this deliverance in the
Gospel, v.18. - Christ Is All in All. 1) In Him we have been
reconciled. 2) In Him God has established the Word of Recon-
ciliation. 3) In Him we have been renewed. - Calvary's Message:
1) God is reconciled, therefore be ye reconciled. 2) Christ died
for you, therefore live unto Him.
The pastor might preach a series of seven Lenten sermons on
this text. 1) V. 14, The Miraculous Death of Christ. He died
for all. We all have died. 2) V.15, The Purpose of Christ's Death.
We should live not unto ourselves. We should live unto Him.
3) V. 16, True Knowledge of Christ. Its nature, v. 16 b. Its effect,
v.16 a. 4) V.17, A Christian Is a New Creature. That is a glorious
fact. That is possible only through Christ. 5) Vv.18,19, God
Reconciled the World unto Himself. That is an actual reconcilia-
tion. That is a universal reconciliation. 6) Vv. 19 b, 20, God has
Committed unto Man the Word of Reconciliation. That is a glorious
fact. Let us heed His plea. 7) Good Friday. V.21, The Vicarious
Atonement. Christ was made sin for us. We are made righteous-
ness in Him. THEo. LAETSCB
~ . ,
Outlines on the Wuerttemberg Gospel Selections
Palm Sunday
Luke 19:29-40
Today begins Holy Week in memory of the last days of Christ
in the state of humiliation. The holy writers record every detail
in the life of our Savior during these last days.
Momentous days! They bring us ever nearer to the great day
of the all-atoning sacrifice and to the day of triumphant victory
over devil, death, and hell. Today's text brings to our attention
in a forceful manner that our Savior is not an ordinary man;
that His going to Golgotha is not forced upon Him. He is the God-
man who of His own free will lays down His life for our salvation.
Behold Our King!
1. He is the King of Power 2. He is the King of Grace
1
Vv.29-31. The omniscient King commands, and everybody
must obey. He knows where the colt is tied, vv. 32-34. His word
is enough to make the owners yield. From afar He causes the
strangers to obey. The owner's question (v. 33) shows that nothing