September 8, 2023
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in 2 Corinthians? Here’s today’s reading:
2 Corinthians 5 (NIV)
Awaiting the New Body
1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.…..Continue Reading
So much hope and so many important scriptures to remind us of our eternal purpose in this chapter! Walk by faith not by sight….everything we do right down to each simple step we take should be done with Christ and for Christ.
20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Ch. 5. Walk by faith. Not by sight. Need to be reminded of that everyday. New creations in Christ. Certainly, Paul is a tremendous example of that, but reading Peter on Wednesday nights and to think who he was before the Holy Spirit, and who he is now when he wrote his two letters totally a different person. We are ambassadors for Christ here on earth. What a privilege and honor it is to be given that position, but it also comes with great responsibility.
2 Corinthians 5
We thank God that by Jesus Christ we are reconciled to God. Jesus took our place and became sin for us. This is why He cried [ It is finished] shortly before He died. Now we are righteous before God. This is how God sees us now. We are a new creation in Christ for He has given us a new heart and the Holy Spirit dwells in us. Because of what Christ has done for us we need to live for Him and not ourselves. We are now ambassadors for Christ whether we realize it or not. We are either good ambassadors or bad ones. Sometimes as the Apostle Paul shared there is a battle within us of the old man and the new man. This will continue to happen as long as we are in this physical body that we have. We know how we should continually surrender to the Lord but then we fall so quickly to the old man. Satan wants us to dwell on our past but we need to be pressing on in our walk with the Lord as God wants us to do. Philippians 3;13 [ Brethen, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.] It is good to share our testimony but never to keep dwelling on all the horrible things that have happened to us before we were saved or after we came to Christ. Jesus is walking with us even through the bad things sometimes even carrying us. Sometimes our grief could be so bad that we can`t even pray with our lips but it is deep sighs. We don`t deserve to be God`s children which is true but Satan will remind us of this very thing. When everyone around us points fingers at us that we are not worthy of God because of our past we have to remember to look to Jesus for He died and arose again for us. Even Dennis. I am far from perfect actually not even close and have been guilty of pointing fingers and complaining. Even getting angry for no good reason. The answer of course is to fully surrender to the Lord confessing our sins before Him and make things right with those we have wronged and start with a fresh start. I hope this helps each one of you as you grow in the Lord. When we fully give everything to the Lord we must allow Him to work. Our plans, our health, our relationships, etc. for God knows best. I know these things but the old man still wants to take over. God bless us as we seek to always surrender to Him.
2 Corinthians 5
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
I think we all understand the groaning that Paul refers to here as we recognize the struggles of life and health we have, knowing that a heavenly, spiritual body awaits us. And yet until we attain that state what we do in the body is important. We need to live by faith and make it our goal to please Him. We will face the One who has purchased our salvation and give an account of how we used the resources He gave us on this earth to live the life He desired for us. One of the primary things we seek to do is to persuade people of the faith and fidelity they should have towards God. Certainly what we are is plain to God, but people need more convincing. But we don’t promote ourselves to people, we promote Jesus because He is the One who has died for all. And we assess everyone according to their spiritual condition as opposed to what they are in this world. And the reality is that if anyone is in Christ then they are a new creation. This is all based in the work that God called Jesus to do to reconcile the world to Himself. Outside the cross, we are separated from Him. With the cross we are reconciled because it was at the cross where He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might have the righteousness of God. There is no better exchange offered to humankind than that. Now when we believe we then become ambassadors for Christ, bringing the message of reconciliation and imploring people to be reconciled to God. May we always be ready to speak a word about salvation and pray for open doors to present the message….
When we die, we will not be spirits without bodies. We will have heavenly bodies, and God has given us the Holy Spirit as a deposit to assure us that this will happen. We live by believing, not seeing. This is not an easy thing to do because the world wants tangible proof that something is real. Faith in something they cannot see is difficult. Despite this, we want to work hard for the Lord, persuading others about his love for them. God works through us to plead to the unsaved to “Come back to God!” and to believe that God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that they could be made right with God through Christ.
Amen, Shelly!
2 Corinthians 5 done