Life Study of 2 Corinthians

Message 14 THE MINISTERS OF THE NEW COVENANT (7)

Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 5:16-21

COMMISSIONED WITH THE MINISTRY OF

RECONCILIATION FOR THE LORD’S NEW CREATION
In 5:16-21 we see that the apostles have been
commissioned with the ministry of reconciliation for the
Lord’s new creation. After speaking concerning the
qualifications of the ministers of the new covenant in
chapters three and four, Paul tells us of his longing to
be raptured and of his ambition to please the Lord, not
by working for Him but simply by living to Him.
Spontaneously such persons have a ministry to bring
others fully back to the Lord. This is the ministry of
reconciliation.
According to the context, the ministry of
reconciliation was a commission given to the apostles.
As those who were mature and ready to be raptured,
the apostles were commissioned by the Lord to bring
others back to God in full. This is complete and
thorough reconciliation.
In 2 Corinthians 5 we see that reconciliation has two
steps. Fallen human beings cannot be fully brought
back to God simply by the first step. The second step is
necessary. As Paul speaks of his ministry of bringing
others back to God, he spontaneously presents a clear
view of the two steps of reconciliation.
These steps are typified by the two veils in the
tabernacle. There was a veil separating the Holy Place
in the tabernacle from the Holy of Holies. There was
another veil, called the first veil in Hebrews 9, at the
entrance to the tabernacle. In our translation of
Exodus, we speak of this first veil as the screen. The
function of a screen is to keep out negative things
(such as insects) and to allow the positive things to
come in. The second veil, the veil separating the Holy
Place from the Holy of Holies, is called a veil, not a
screen. The area outside the tabernacle was the outer
court. According to typology, the outer court typifies
the world. Hence, the tabernacle in the outer court
signifies God’s dwelling place in the world. In the world
there is a place where God dwells, and that place is
the tabernacle.
The entire human race is in the world, outside the
tabernacle. But whenever a person repents and
desires to return to God, he comes to the altar. The
altar signifies the cross, where Christ died for our
redemption. In the Old Testament, sacrifices were
offered to God for atonement. But in the New
Testament Christ died on the cross for redemption. In
the typology of the Old Testament there was
atonement, but in the fulfillment in the New Testament
there is redemption. In the outer court there was also a
laver, with water used for washing. Once a person had
repented, had been redeemed, and had
experienced the washing, he could enter the Holy
Place. This is to be reconciled to God. Therefore,
passing through the first veil signifies the first step of a
sinner and a rebel being brought back to God and
being reconciled to Him.
The believers at Corinth once were sinners and
rebels, but they had been reconciled to God.
However, they were still in the Holy Place, not in the
Holy of Holies. Paul’s purpose in 1 and 2 Corinthians was
to bring these believers into the Holy of Holies.
In The Economy of God I pointed out that the outer
court corresponds to Egypt, that the wilderness
corresponds to the Holy Place, and that the good land,
the land of Canaan, corresponds to the Holy of Holies.
For the children of Israel to come out of Egypt and
enter into the wilderness is equal to leaving the outer
court and coming into the Holy Place. This was
precisely the situation of the Corinthian believers. As
the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness,
so these believers were wandering in the soul, in
particular in the mind. Because they were wandering
in the Holy Place of the soul, Paul wrote these two
Epistles for the purpose of bringing them into the spirit,
where Christ is. The spirit is also related to the good land
and the Holy of Holies.
The believers at Corinth had experienced the first
step of reconciliation, but they had not experienced
the second. They had not been reconciled to God in
full. As there was a veil between the Holy Place and
the Holy of Holies, so a veil still remained between the
Corinthians and God. According to Hebrews 10:20, this
veil is the flesh. The flesh was the veil that kept the
Corinthian believers away from the direct presence of
God in the Holy of Holies.
Paul and the other ministers of the new covenant,
those who had been constituted of the processed
Triune God and who were mature in life, were no doubt
in the Holy of Holies. They lived in the spirit, and they
were ripe, ready to be raptured. Their only goal was to
please the Lord by living to Him. Spontaneously, being
such persons, they were able to bring others thoroughly
back to God. For this reason, at the end of chapter five
Paul indicates that they, the ministers of the new
covenant, are those who seek not only to reconcile
sinners to God, but also to reconcile the believers to
God in full. These ministers of the new covenant were
qualified to bring back to God anyone who had not
been fully reconciled to Him.
As long as we have not been brought back to God
fully, we need someone like the apostles to bring us
back to Him. It does not matter whether the distance
between us and God is great or small. We need to be
reconciled to God entirely. The ministry of the new
covenant is to bring people back to God in a full and
thorough way; it is to reconcile us to God entirely and
completely.

A New Creation in Christ

1. Knowing No One according to Flesh
Second Corinthians 5:16 says, “So that we, from
now on, know no one according to flesh; even if we
have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we
know Him so no longer.” Since the apostles judge that
Christ’s death makes us all, through His resurrection, a
new man, a man not according to flesh, they from now
on would know no one according to flesh. They did
know Christ in this way, but now they know Him so no
longer.
To know others according to the flesh is to know
them according to the old creation. But to know others
according to the spirit is to know them according to
the new creation. Formerly, as Saul of Tarsus, Paul knew
Christ according to the flesh. He regarded Him merely
as a Nazarene. The Jewish people all knew Christ in this
way, according to the flesh. But after his experience on
the way to Damascus, Paul’s concept changed from
knowing Christ according to the flesh to knowing Him
according to the spirit. He also learned to know the
saints not according to flesh, but according to spirit.

2. One Who Is in Christ Being a New Creation

Verse 17 says, “So that if anyone is in Christ, there is
a new creation; the old things have passed away;
behold, they have become new.” This confirms what is
mentioned in verse 16. The apostles would know man
no longer according to flesh, because anyone who is
in Christ is a new creation. The old things of the flesh
have passed away through the death of Christ, and all
has become new in Christ’s resurrection. To be in Christ
is to be one with Him in life and in nature. This is of God
through our faith in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 3:26-28).
The old creation does not have the divine life and
nature, but the new creation, the believers born again
of God, does (John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4). Hence, they
are a new creation (Gal. 6:15), not according to the
old nature of flesh, but according to the new nature of
the divine life.
The words, “Behold, they have become new,” are
a call to watch the marvelous change of the new
creation. The word “they” refers to the old things.
Paul, on the one hand, regarded the Corinthians as
the old creation, because they were still living in their
flesh. Nevertheless, on the other hand, Paul regarded
them the new creation, for he knew that they were in
Christ. Because they were in Christ, the old things had
passed away, and they were a new creation.

The Commission of the Ministry of Reconciliation

1.All Things of God
Verse 18 continues, “But all things are of God, Who
has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and has
given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” The “all
things” here refer to all the positive things mentioned in
verses 14 through 21, of which God is the Originator
and Initiator. It is of God that Christ died to save us from
death that we may live to Him. It is of God that we
become a new creation in Christ. It is of God that Christ
was made sin for us that we may become God’s
righteousness in Him. It is of God to reconcile the world
to Himself. And it is of God that the apostles are made
ambassadors of Christ, commissioned to represent Him
for reconciling men to God, that they may become
God’s righteousness and a new creation for the
fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.
Paul had the assurance that the apostles had been
fully reconciled to God. They had experienced both
steps of reconciliation and therefore were in the Holy
of Holies. God had reconciled them to Himself through
Christ and given them the ministry of reconciliation.
Because they had been brought back to God, they
had the ministry of reconciling others to God. In this
Epistle Paul was not seeking to reconcile sinners to
God. Rather, he was seeking to bring the believers into
a full experience of reconciliation. He was seeking to
bring them not from the outer court into the
tabernacle, but to bring them from the Holy Place,
where they were lingering, into the Holy of Holies.
In verse 19 Paul says, “How that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself, not accounting their
offenses to them, and putting in us the word of
reconciliation.” The word of reconciliation is the word
for the ministry (v. 18).

2. Ambassadors on Behalf of Christ

In verse 20 Paul goes on to say, “On behalf of Christ,
then, we are ambassadors, as God entreating you
through us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, Be
reconciled to God.” Paul’s use of the word
“ambassadors” indicates that the apostles are
commissioned with a definite ministry; they represent
Christ to accomplish God’s purpose.
In verse 19 it is the world that is reconciled to God;
in verse 20 it is the believers, who have already been
reconciled to God, who need to be reconciled to God
further. This clearly indicates that there are two steps
for men to be fully reconciled to God. The first step is as
sinners to be reconciled to God from sin. For this
purpose Christ died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3) that they
may be forgiven by God. This is the objective aspect of
Christ’s death. In this aspect He bore our sins on the
cross that they might be judged by God upon Him for
us. The second step is as believers living in the natural
life to be reconciled to God from the flesh. For this
purpose Christ died for us—the persons—that we may
live to Him in the resurrection life (2 Cor. 5:14-15). This is
the subjective aspect of Christ’s death. In this aspect,
He was made sin for us so that we might be judged
and done away with by God in order that we may
become the righteousness of God in Him. By the two
aspects of His death, He has fully reconciled God’s
chosen people to God.
We have indicated that these two steps of
reconciliation are clearly portrayed by the two veils of
the tabernacle. The first veil is called the screen (Exo.
26:37, lit). A sinner was brought to God through the
reconciliation of the atoning blood to enter into the
Holy Place by passing this screen. This typifies the first
step of reconciliation. The second veil (Exo. 26:31-35;
Heb. 9:3) still separated him from God who is in the Holy
of Holies. This veil needed to be rent that he might be
brought to God in the Holy of Holies. This is the second
step of reconciliation. The Corinthian believers had
been reconciled to God, having passed through the
first veil and having entered into the Holy Place. Yet,
they still lived in the flesh. They needed to pass the
second veil, which has been rent already (Matt. 27:51;
Heb. 10:20) to enter into the Holy of Holies to live with
God in their spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). The goal of this Epistle is
to bring them here that they may be persons in the
spirit (1 Cor. 2:14), in the Holy of Holies. This is what the
apostle means by saying, “Be reconciled to God.” This
is to present them full-grown in Christ (Col. 1:28).
I wish to emphasize the fact that the words, “Be
reconciled to God,” in 5:20 were spoken not to rebels
and sinners in the outer court, but to believers in the
Holy Place. Paul seems to be saying, “Corinthians, dear
believers in Christ, you need to be reconciled to God
further. You may say that you have already been
reconciled to Him. Yes, you have been reconciled, but
you have been reconciled only halfway. You have the
first step of reconciliation. Now you must go on to the
second step and be fully reconciled to God. You have
been reconciled to God from the outer court to the
Holy Place. But God is not in the Holy Place; He is in the
Holy of Holies. You have been reconciled to God
through one veil, but there is still another veil separating
you from God. This veil is you yourself, your flesh, your
natural life. As I have already told you, you Corinthians
are still fleshly. As long as you are in the flesh, you are
not in the Holy of Holies. Because the veil of the flesh,
the veil of the natural life, remains with you, you are not
yet in the Holy of Holies. Corinthians, my burden is to
help you realize that this second veil has already been
riven and that you must deny your flesh and crucify it.
Thus, to you who have been partly reconciled to God,
I issue this word: Be reconciled to God in full.”

The Ground of Reconciliation

1. Christ Not Knowing Sin
Verse 21 says, “Him Who did not know sin He made
sin on our behalf, that we might become God’s
righteousness in Him.” Paul had the boldness to say that
God made Christ sin on our behalf. Since Christ knows
everything, how can Paul say that He did not know sin?
Christ did not know sin in an experiential way by
contact or personal experience (see John 8:46; 1 Pet.
2:22; Heb. 4:15; 7:26). In the Bible the word “know”
often has a deeper meaning than to know something
merely in a mental way. According to Matthew 7:23,
the Lord Jesus will one day say to those who work
lawlessness, “I never knew you.” This does not mean, of
course, that the Lord had no knowledge of them. The
principle is the same in 2 Corinthians 5:21. In
experience, in direct contact, the Lord Jesus had
nothing to do with sin, and He did not know sin.

2. God Making Christ Sin on Our Behalf

Sin came from Satan as the rebel against God (Isa.
14:12-15), entered into man (Rom. 5:12), and made
man not only a sinner, but sin itself under God’s
judgment. Hence, when Christ became a man in flesh
(John 1:14), He was made sin (not sinful) on our behalf
to be judged by God (Rom. 8:3) that we might
become God’s righteousness in Him.
In order to understand what it means to say that
God made Christ sin on our behalf, we need to read
John 1:14 and Romans 8:3. John 1:14 says that the
Word, which is God Himself, became flesh. Flesh refers
to fallen man. When Christ became a man, man had
already fallen. This fallen man is the flesh. Thus, when
Christ became man, He became flesh. When we put
John 1:14 together with 2 Corinthians 5:21, we see that
when Christ became flesh, He was made sin. In the
sight of God we, as fallen flesh, are actually sin. We are
not only sinful and are not only sinners—we are sin itself.
Because Christ became flesh, in this sense He was
made sin on our behalf.
Romans 8:3 says, “God sending His own Son in the
likeness of the flesh of sin, and concerning sin,
condemned sin in the flesh.” Yes, Christ was made sin.
But in this verse we are told that He was in the likeness
of the flesh of sin. This means that He was made in the
form of sin. This is what is signified by the type of the
brass serpent. When the children of Israel were bitten
by serpents, they received the poisonous nature of the
serpent. In the sight of God, they all became serpents.
Therefore, God told Moses to hang a bronze serpent
on a pole. This bronze serpent is a type of Christ dying
on the cross as our substitute. As John 3:14 clearly
indicates, this serpent on the pole was a type of Christ
lifted up for us. As that serpent was lifted up in the
wilderness, so Christ was lifted up on the cross.
Furthermore, as the bronze serpent had the form but
not the poisonous nature of a serpent, so Christ had the
form, the likeness, of the flesh of sin, but He did not
actually have the nature of sin. He had the form of the
serpent, but He did not have the serpentine nature.
For us to experience the first step of reconciliation,
it was necessary for Christ to die for our sins. In 1
Corinthians 15:3 Paul declares, “Christ died for our sins.”
But in order for us to be reconciled further, even fully,
to God, it was necessary for Christ to die also for us, not
only for our sins. For Christ to die for our sins is one thing,
but for Him to die for us is something else. Christ died
for our sins so that our sins may be forgiven by God and
taken away. Christ also died for us so that we may be
terminated. Christ’s dying for our sins accomplishes the
first step of reconciliation, and His dying for us
accomplishes the second step.
Paul has this second step in mind when he says,
“One died on behalf of all” (5:14). According to this
verse, Christ died not for sins; He died for persons. The
objective aspect of Christ’s death involves His dying for
our sins. But the subjective aspect of Christ’s death
involves His dying for us. This subjective aspect enables
the believers to be reconciled to God in full.
Furthermore, in the objective aspect of His death Christ
bore our sins. However, in the subjective aspect He
became sin. Today there is much teaching among
Christians about Christ dying for our sins and bearing
our sins, but not much is said about Christ being made
sin on our behalf.
Since we, as fallen human beings, are sin, for Christ
to be made sin actually means for Him to become us.
The subjective aspect of the death of Christ puts us to
death. According to Romans 8:3, God condemned sin
in the flesh. This means that He condemned us; He
condemned the natural man. Furthermore, the veil,
the natural man, the natural life, the flesh, was cleft
through the subjective aspect of Christ’s death. When
sin was condemned and when the veil was rent, we
were terminated. As a result, the second veil was taken
away and we may be fully reconciled to God.
Therefore, we should not remain in the Holy Place; we
should come forward into the Holy of Holies. Moreover,
we should no longer know one another according to
flesh, but we should know one another according to
spirit.
Paul’s concept in this chapter is to show us that the
apostles, as ministers of the new covenant, are those
who can spontaneously bring others back to God fully
and thoroughly. I would ask you to compare the
situation of the new covenant ministers with that
among Christians today. Some are brought back to
God only in name. They are in the outer court. The
situation of others is better. They have been brought
back to God in the Holy Place. The genuine, saved,
blood-washed, and Spirit-regenerated Christians have
all been brought into the Holy Place. However, many
still live in the flesh, in the natural life, and some still live
in gross sin. Those who are in the outer court can bring
others into the outer court, no further. Likewise, the
genuine Christians who are in the Holy Place have
been brought there by some who were already in the
Holy Place. They have been reconciled to God to this
extent, but not to the full extent. How far can you bring
another person? How close can you bring others to
God? It depends on how much you have been
reconciled to Him. Those who have been brought to
God by you cannot advance further than you have
advanced. If you have entered the Holy Place, you
can bring others there. If you are at the entrance of the
Holy Place, you can bring others to the entrance. But if
you are in the center of the Holy Place, you can bring
others there. The point here is that we can bring others
only as far as we ourselves have gone.
This is Paul’s thought in chapter five. Here Paul
seems to be saying, “We apostles have been brought
into the Holy of Holies. God has reconciled us to Himself
fully and thoroughly. Therefore, spontaneously He gives
us a commission to reconcile others to God fully and
thoroughly. Because we have been reconciled to Him
to this extent, we can help others to be reconciled to
the same extent.”
The ministers of the new covenant have been
reconciled to God to the uttermost. All the veils are
gone, and there is nothing between them and God.
They have been reconciled to God completely and
also thoroughly constituted of the Triune God. They
behave according to their constitution. They live a
crucified life for the manifestation of the truth and the
shining of the gospel, and they are mature, ripe, and
ready to be raptured. Their only aim, their only
ambition, is to please the Lord by living to Him. These
are the ones who can bring others back to God
thoroughly. Because they are in the Holy of Holies, they
can bring others there also.
3. Becoming the Righteousness of God in Christ
Eventually, those who have been brought back to
God in the Holy of Holies will enjoy Christ to the
uttermost and even become the righteousness of God
in Him. Paul speaks of this in 5:21 where he says, “That
we might become God’s righteousness in Him.”
Righteousness issues from God for His administration
(Psa. 89:14; 97:2; Isa. 32:1), which is Christ to be our
righteousness (Phil. 3:9; 1 Cor. 1:30), making us God’s
righteousness in Him, not merely righteous before God.
Through His redemption, man as a sinner, even as sin, is
made God’s righteousness, reconciled to the righteous
God, and a new creation living to Him for God’s
eternal purpose. The apostles are commissioned to
minister such a Christ, with all the glorious issues of His
marvelous achievement, to His believers who are His
members to form His Body. Praise and glory be to Him
forever!
The phrase “in Him” means in union with Christ, not
only positionally, but organically in resurrection. We
were enemies of God (Col. 1:21) by becoming sin,
which came from the one who rebelled against God.
Christ was made sin for us by becoming one with us
through incarnation. God condemned Him in flesh as
sin for us, through His death, that we might be one with
Him in His resurrection to be God’s righteousness. By this
righteousness, we, the enemies of God, could be and
have been reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:18-20; Rom.
5:10).
In the organic union with Christ, those who have
been brought thoroughly back to God are made the
righteousness of God. They not only become righteous;
they are the righteousness of God. This means that they
not only become righteous persons, but they become
righteousness itself.
God desires to have a people on earth who are not
only righteous persons; He wants a people who, in the
sight of God, the Devil, the angels, and the demons,
are the very righteousness of God. To be made
righteous before God is one thing; to be God’s
righteousness is another thing. To become the
righteousness of God is the highest enjoyment of the
Triune God in Christ.
In Adam we fell so low that we became sin. Not
only were we sinful before God—we became sin itself.
But now in Christ, having been brought thoroughly
back to God, we may enjoy Christ to such an extent
that in Him we become God’s righteousness. What a
salvation! What a reconciliation! To have this
enjoyment is to be on the peak of God’s salvation, to
be on the peak of our holy Zion.