The Ministry of Reconciliation and the Call to Receive Grace
2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2
5
Chapter 5
11Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade people, but we have been manifested to God; and I hope also in your consciences to have been manifested.12We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast on our behalf, so that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.13For whether we are beside ourselves, it is for God; whether we are sound-minded, it is for you.14For the love of Christ constrains us, because we have concluded this: that one died for all; therefore all died.15And he died for all, so that those who live no longer live for themselves but for the one who died for them and was raised.16So from now on, we know no one according to the flesh. Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, now we no longer know him.17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.18But all things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,19as God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and having entrusted to us the word of reconciliation.20On behalf of Christ, therefore, we are ambassadors, as God exhorts through us. We beg on behalf of Christ: "Be reconciled to God."21He who knew no sin, he made sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
6
Chapter 6
1Moreover, as we work together with him, we exhort you not to receive the grace of God in vain.2For he says: "In an acceptable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is an acceptable time; behold, now is a day of salvation."