A New Creation, Reconciled through Christ

… us” (John 1:14), and He underwent death in the flesh for the life of all, and so we have known Him; but from now on we know Him so no longer. For even though He is in the flesh, since He came back to life on the third day and is with the Father in heaven, yet He is understood to be above the flesh. For having died once, He “dies no more; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God” (Romans 6:9–10). If, then, the Author of our life (Acts 3:15) has come to be in this state, it is altogether necessary that we too, following in His footsteps (1 Peter 2:21), be understood to be not in the flesh but rather above the flesh. Very rightly, then, does the inspired Paul speak.

“So if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” he says; “the old things have passed away; behold, they have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

For the old is the saying, “Earth you are, and to earth you shall return” (Genesis 3:19), and also that word in the book of Moses, “For the mind of man is intently set on evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). Old as well, besides these, are the things in the law. All these, he says, have passed away; for we have been justified through faith in Christ, and the power of the curse has ceased. He who trampled the might of death came back to life for us, and we have come to know Him who is God by nature and in truth, as we fulfil the worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23–24), while the Son mediates and gives the world the blessings from above and from the Father. Hence the inspired Paul says very wisely: “All things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:18). For truly, the mystery of the economy in the flesh, and the renewal made through Him, are not against the Father’s will.

Our guide into the mysteries adds to this that the Father Himself reconciled us to Himself through Christ: us Greeks, who had been made His enemies by straying into the worship of many gods, and Jews, by wishing to stay fastened to the shadows of the law and not accepting the message of true worship. For through Him we have obtained access (Ephesians 2:18), and “no one comes to the Father,” as He Himself says, “except through” Him (John 14:6). So “all things are from God, who reconciled us through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18).

Notice again, I ask you, that although it was Christ who gave them the ministry of reconciliation, for they were appointed to apostleship through Him, he said that God was the giver. So they proclaim Him God, equal in glory to the Father, knowing that the two have one lordship and authority. What sort, then, is this word concerning the ministry, or what is the manner of the reconciliation? He goes on to say: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19), that is, He who was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ was God. For through faith in Christ, as I said, we have made peace with God (Romans 5:1), that is, we have been reconciled. And a clear proof of this is the forgiveness of our offences, which the God and Father grants; and the Son in turn, as God, extends it with authority, saying to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven you” (Matthew 9:2; Luke 5:20). So “in Christ,” that is, in the person of Christ, God reconciles the world to Himself, “not counting” their trespasses against those who have sinned (2 Corinthians 5:19).

Since, he says, we have been appointed to the sacred service of the gospel’s decrees, and the word of reconciliation has been placed in us (2 Corinthians 5:19), for we are God’s ministers (2 Corinthians 6:4), we must make entreaties to those who have believed in this way, for their own sake; and, taking up as it were the very person of Christ, we say to those who wish to drift away: “We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20), by believing in Him, that is, clearly, in the One on whose behalf we are ambassadors. For Christ is the door (John 10:9), and He Himself is the way (John 14:6).

But since it was likely that some would disregard the gospel preaching, count as nothing the truly “acceptable time” of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2), and after this thrust the faith aside, our guide into the mysteries devises something more for them, well able to shame them and to persuade them readily not to …