5:17
“If anyone is in Christ , the new creation has come”. Following Christ, or becoming a Christian, is not a matter of choosing to follow a new set of ideas, nor is it even a matter of using all our strength to follow Christ (we will fail!). It is a matter of being born again, of becoming a new creation. There is a radical spiritual change that takes place. Being “born again” is an excellent (and Biblical!) way of expressing this, for it describes new life, and that the lie has lots of growing and developing to do. When we are saved we are a new creation, but there is much to learn.
5:18
All the blessings of the gospel come from God, they are not the product of man, so to judge things in a worldly way is not a sensible approach to take! And God can give these blessings to us because He has “reconciled us to Himself through Christ”. And we have the ministry of reconciliation. This is not a nebulous thing, or a rather general reconciliation, it is talking specifically about men and women being reconciled to God, and this only takes place through Christ. Our ministry is to end the divide that there is between men and God, and this is why it so stupid of churches then they think that adopting a sin-affirming approach is a senisble thing to do. How on earth is someone going to be reconciled to God by continuing in their sin and thinking that God is quite alright with their sin?! This is doing no one any favours, least of all the sinner.
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