Sunday 04:21:13

2 Corinthians 3 - Moses' face shone after he received the OT Law, but his glory faded. The new covenant - faith in Jesus brings forgiveness of sins - that glory is ever growing. We are being transformed more and more into the glory of the image of Jesus. 2 Corinthians 4 - God has shone the light of the knowledge of the glory of Christ in our hearts. Now, it's like we are ordinary clay jars with something extraordinary inside - the glory of Christ. We are ordinary people, look ordinary, have struggles, common, nothing special on the outside. But on the inside, there is something extraordinary, a treasure, from God. It has a preserving affect on us. We face all kinds of trouble, but are not destroyed by it. Paul is describing the difference that Christ makes in the life of a believer. The follower of Christ is being transformed to be more like Jesus Christ. The follower of Christ is a common person with common problems, but they have been changed forever on the inside. They will never be the same. Paul will continue to talk about the effect of believing in Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 11-12 - Paul is defending his ministry to people in Corinth who are listening to false teachers who have "who is Paul?" we have letters of recommendation from important people. "Knowing the fear of the Lord" - Paul knows that his work will be judged by God, so he wants to be faithful 13 - perhaps Paul and his associates were accused of being out of their minds. 14 - Because they had received Christ's love, they were compelled to show Christ's love. Christ's love motivated or compelled Paul in his ministry. Throughout the history of the church, the church has failed over and over again. When the church fails, it is almost always because it failed to be compelled by the love of God. Love is the compelling reason we give, minister, invest in other people's lives. "One died for all, therefore all have died" - Christ died out of love for people, to set them free from sin and death. Christ's love for Paul resulted in Paul loving people. Has Christ's love for you resulted in love for people? 15 - He died so that we might live for him. Christ's death on the cross - the greatest demonstration of love the world has ever known. The innocent laid down his life for the guilty. The hero who sacrificed himself so others could live. He did it out of love for us. That, now is our motivation for living in the life he gave us. He died for us, now we should live this new life for him. 16 - Regarded Christ in the flesh - looked on his lowly humanity and disregarded his glory. Likewise, we should not look on other believers and see all their faults, but recognize that God has done and is doing miraculous work in their lives, just like he is doing in ours. 17 - Remember - the effect of believing in Jesus Christ. "New creation" - something new, created out of nothing, completely new and completely different "old has gone" the "new has come." 18-19 - God reconciled us to himself through Christ. Reconciled - exchanged. The great exchange of Christianity - because we could not do anything to save ourselves, We were enemies of God, but through Christ, God made an exchange: our punishment to Christ so that we could be forgiven. His perfect lift to us so that we could have a new life. THEN God said, now that I have done this for you, go do this in the lives of others. Tell them about how to go from living for yourself and being an enemy of God to being reconciled, forgiven, given a new life. 20 - We are ambassadors of Christ - "presbyters" or "elders," representing Christ to others. Doing his business - "living for him" Imploring people, "be reconciled to God" - He has made a way for everyone to come to him. 21 - God made Christ, who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus was perfect. He was the only one who could pay our debt - everyone else had debt of their own. He died the death we deserved so that we could be made new.