Chapter 5

Verses 1-4, the perspective of death.

Verse 5 — “For we know.” The importance of knowing Bible doctrine. The only true comfort when you lose a loved one is Bible doctrine. And if it is a source of comfort when we lose a loved one in death it is a source of comfort for every pressure, every problem, every heartache, and every difficulty of life. There is no more important function in life than the phrase “we know.”

“that if our earthly tabernacle were dissolved” — ‘if’ is a third class condition which introduces two possibilities with regard to departure from this earth. a) He can leave his body — physical death; b) the Rapture of the Church. The word ‘dissolved’ is kataluw [kata = the preposition of norm or standard; luw = to unfasten, unloose, untie]. It means we are all untied or loosed according to the same system. The soul and the spirit leave that tabernacle on the same norm, dying grace. This is a reference to physical death. It is in the aorist tense which means we die in a point of time, It is the passive voice which means we receive our death from God. The subjunctive mood is to indicate that death is only potential, and there will be one generation that will not die, i.e. the Rapture.

“we have” — now we go from the aorist tense to the present. The verb is e)xw and it is present linear aktionsart, we keep on having, there never will be a time when we will not have.

“a building” — this is the Greek word for a permanent building, one of those Greek building constructed out of marble, o)ikodomh.

“not made with hands” — this is a noun and it is a reference to the resurrection body. It is not made with hands, it is constructed by God; “eternal in the heavens” — it is eternal, it lasts forever, and it is designed to abide in heaven. This is what God has provided for us, this is the hope of glory. This is our glorious future and this is why we can have confidence now.

The whole story of this passage is knowledge of doctrine.

Verse 2 — “For in this [the human body] we [keep on] groan [groaning].” Groaning is the word stenazw. It means to groan, to sigh. In other words, it means to make noises when things are not right with you. The word really has the connotation of hurting badly and making some kind of noise about it. The human body is the tent and inside it lives the real ‘you,’ the soul. We keep on groaning because in addition to the pressures that come from a pain in the body, loss of health, and so on, there are pressures upon the soul. They start with self-consciousness which can enter into pride or self-pity. Mentality can enter into mental attitude sins. Volition: decisions that are not pleasing to His plan, His operation and desires for the priesthood. Emotion: the failure to have the rapport with God, the rapport of the various categories of love, and the true enjoyment of certain details of life as God provides them. Conscience: the norms and the standards are all mixed up and the person picks up the norms and standards of human viewpoint, the norms and standards of environment. The groaning of the soul is the fact that we have an old sin nature, the fact that we take in false doctrine, the fact that we have human viewpoint and erroneous mental attitudes.

“earnestly desiring” — e)pipoqew [e)pi = upon or near; poqew = an Attic verb meaning to miss someone, to long for someone]. In other words, you long for someone who is near to you, or for something that is near to you. You can’t go out and reach it but you earnestly desire it.

“to be clothed upon” — e)penduw [e)nduw = to pull on clothes; e)p = to put them over something], to put on clothes by putting them over something. In this case it means to put on a resurrection body, putting it on over the soul.

Verse 3 — “If” is a first class condition, if and it is true; “If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.” Being clothed is the second use of the word e)penduw, putting the resurrection body over the soul. This is an aorist tense and it means a once and for all possession of a resurrection body. The middle voice: the believer is benefited by having a resurrection body. It is an aorist participle, and the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb: we shall not be found naked. In other words, once we have a resurrection body, once we possess our eternal house, the soul is never without a body, it will always have an abode. The future tense indicates the believer receives a resurrection body in the future and therefore will not be discovered naked. The passive voice indicates the believer receives such a body at a specific time. The indicative mood is the reality of the future possession of a resurrection body. The Greek word ‘naked’ here is a reference to the soul without either kind of body.

Verse 4 — “For we that are in this tent [reference to the human body in phase 2] do groan” — the soul has its own set of pressures. Groan is the present active indicative of stenazw and it has the same concept, it is the groaning of the soul because the soul is under pressure.

“being burdened” — to be weighed down, to be oppressed, present passive participle; “not for that we would be unclothed” — the desire is not to be unclothed, a reference to physical death; “but being clothed upon” — he is not afraid of death but he simply wants to state a preference. When he leaves this earth he would rather be in a resurrection body than to wait for a resurrection body because he is down here yearning for something that is important to him.

“that mortality might be swallowed up of life.” Mortality refers to his human body; the body dies. Inside of the body is the soul which is immortal. The body is mortal, subject to death. Immortal means not subject to death. So he wants mortality to be swallowed up in life which means a permanent type building. Mortality is the human body; life is the resurrection body. The key here is “swallowed up” — katapinw which means to gulp down [kata = down; pinw = swallow or gulp]. What he wants to do is gulp down his resurrection body. This describes what will happen to people on the earth at the time of the Rapture.

Verse 5 — “Now he that hath wrought us” means to produce according to a norm or standard. In this case God produces according to a perfect norm or standard, katergazoma, and it refers to the work of God in salvation. We received everything in the plan of God at salvation.

“us for [the purpose of] the selfsame thing God [the Father] who hath given unto us the earnest — a)rrabwn means the down payment. At the point of salvation the believer was given the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is a down payment on power for this life, for joy and blessing for the soul in the presence of the Father. So while you do not have a body when you go to be with the Lord you are still indwelt by the Holy Spirit. There never will be a time when you don’t have the Spirit.

“of the Spirit” should be ‘even the Spirit’ bnecause this is a genitive of apposition.

“Therefore,” because of God’s provision for phase two and phase three, “we are confident.” The Greek word is qarrew which means total assurance of mentality. It means that the mind has fixed norms and standards that are unshakeable whether you are in disaster or in prosperity, regardless of the situation you are mentally unshakeable. Qarrew really combines two areas of the human soul. It looks at the mentality of the soul and relates it to the conscience of the soul. The norms and standards are telegraphed up to the mentality and they reside up in the mentality in the face of every situation. In everything there is total and absolute confidence. In other words, you are relying on inner resources that are provided by God, you are relying on doctrine. ‘We are confident’ is a present active participle. The present tense is linear aktionsart, it means we keep on having confidence, it is not an occasional thing. The active voice: confidence is produced. The participle says this is a precedent, a divine precedent for the devil’s world, a precedent that even makes the divine institutions click, it is the thing that changes the course of nations, it is the thing that gives stability to a nation, it is the thing that turns all of the subjectivity that destroys a nation back into objectivity, protecting the rights of the individual, the property of the individual, the freedom of the individual.

But you don’t simply have this confidence, it isn’t something that comes out of the air, it comes through learning Bible doctrine. So the next phrase indicates that.

“knowing” — we have a participle modifying a participle. The fact that we have these two participles together, the fact that they are in reverse order should mean nothing to us. The perfect participle always comes before the present participle. We have to know something before we have confidence. And that isn’t all, the perfect participle says we know it in the past with the result that it belongs to us, it is a part of our inner resources as a believer. When that is true then we have confidence. The perfect participle comes first. The perfect tense is something that happens in the past and the results continue, and as the results continue they hit a point of stabilisation. There is maximum doctrine and that is the point at which confidence comes. That is when you start to live on the inner resources of the Word of God. Confidence in phase two is based upon knowledge of doctrine and the more doctrine we have in the soul the greater becomes our confidence, and the greater becomes our confidence then the more effective our priesthood, the more effective our ambassadorship.

“we are at home in the body” — this is not what this really says. We have another present active participle, e)ndhmew [e)n = in; dhmew = people]. The verb actually means in-people. Who are the in-people? In this context any born again believer with his soul still in his body. Real people are souls and they are inside of a body.

“we are absent from the Lord” — What is the point of this? Why emphasise the fact that with your soul in that tent, your temporary body, you are absent from the Lord in heaven? What is the purpose? It is to show that our relationship as believer priests is based on absence, and the relationship must come through correspondence. Our confidence doesn’t come from personally seeing the Lord or personally being with the Lord, it comes from your correspondence from the Lord. God has written us a letter, the Bible. In the Bible He has given us doctrine and principles and promises and concepts and techniques. So we have a relationship with the Lord even though we are absent and that relationship is contained in the Word of God. So the relationship is carried on with God the Son out of this world and the devil ruling it. We are living in the world and representing Him. Therefore as long as we dwell in our mortal body [phase 2] our fellowship with the Lord, relationship with the Lord will be carried out by means of correspondence, the Bible.

“Therefore we keep on always being confident, having known [in the past] that, while we are the in-people in the body, we are absent from the Lord.”

Verse 7 — “For we walk through faith, and not through sight.” Faith is not only a non-meritorious system of perception by which we enter salvation, and it is not only the principle of phase two, but faith has another concept. The faith is doctrine and in that sense “the faith” or doctrine keeps the scar tissue out of the soul so that light comes in. Sight is human viewpoint.

The doctrine of the Christian walk

1. Walking in doctrine — 2 John 4. Doctrine is the mean of our walk.

2. There is walking by means of faith — 2 Corinthians 5:7; Colossians 4:5.

3. Walking in spirituality:

a) Walk in the Spirit — Galatians 5:16.

b) Walking in love — Ephesians 5:2.

c) Walking in newness of life — Romans 6:4.

d) Walking worthy of our vocation — Ephesians 4:1.

e) Walking worthy of the Lord — Colossians 1:10.

f) Walking honestly as in the day — Romans 13:13.

g) Walking in good works — Ephesians 2:10.

Verse 8 — “We are confident” is a present active indicative, ‘we keep on having confidence.’

“and are willing rather” — the word to be willing is e)udokew [the word for ‘willing’ is qelw] and it means to think well [dokew = to think; e)u = well]. How do you think well? You think well with doctrine. It is taking mental delight in.

“to be absent from the body and to be present [face to face with] with the Lord” — this is a progression. You don’t start out by having confidence with regard to death, that is where you wind up after the intake of doctrine. You have confidence about something that people in general do not have confidence about at all — dying.

Verse 9 — “Wherefore we labour.” If there is one thing we don’t do in this section it is labour. There is no place for human good here. The word for ‘we labour’ is a word which expresses some of the deeper concepts and capacity for love — filotimeomai [timeomai = to honour something or to have a regard for something; filoj = the word for total soul love] means to consider it an honour. This is a present middle indicative. Present tense: ‘we keep on considering it an honour.’ The middle voice: we are benefited by considering it an honour. The indicative mood is the reality of an attitude toward God based on Bible doctrine. When you have a capacity for love you consider it an honour to please the one whom you love. The whole basis of this verse is literally, “we consider it an honour to be well pleasing to you [God].”

“whether present or absent” — whether we are on this earth or whether we are in heaven we know enough about God and have enough confidence in Him that we consider it an honour and a privilege to be well pleasing to Him.

“we may be accepted [well pleasing or acceptable] — ‘we may be’ is the present active indicative of e)imi and it means ‘to be acceptable.’

Translation: “We consider it the highest possible honour, whether present [phase two] or absent [phase three], to keep on being pleasing unto God.”

To be pleasing unto God means first of all your soul attitude, an attitude from doctrine, so that you exhale in response to Him and you consider it the highest honour, the greatest privilege to do something that is pleasing to Him. This leads to occupation with Christ, this is our response to divine love.

Verse 10 — “For we must all appear.” The Greek word is fanerow meaning to make some kind an appearance, to make a manifestation. The aorist tense means at the Rapture. That will be the first time in all history when the entire Church, the body of Christ, will be assembled at one spot. All will receive at that time resurrection bodies. The passive voice: the believer receives the Rapture. The infinitive indicates it is God’s purpose to gather together all born again believers of the Church Age, and at that point they become the bride.

“before the judgement seat of Christ” — the word ‘judgement’ means evaluation. In other words, all believers are going to have an efficiency report. it is described in Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 3:11-16; Hebrews 6:7-12. The purpose of this efficiency report is to measure our love response to the Lord after we becomes the bride. The production of divine good is a love response to God.

“that every one” is literally, ‘that each one.’ We are regarded as individuals; “may receive” — komizw meant originally to receive wages or to receive a reward, but it doesn’t mean that here. The word doesn’t really mean to receive, it mans to ‘receive again, recover again.’ It is used in Hebrews 11:19 for Abraham receiving his son back from the altar. It means to receive back something which was an expression of love. So you are going to receive back at the judgement seat of Christ your expression of love toward God.

“the things in his body” is literally, ‘through the body.’ He is going to receive back the love expression of the things through the body — dia plus the genitive.

“according to that” is proj plus the accusative which means face to face with; “face to face with what he has practised,” literally — prassw. The practice is the intake of doctrine and the output of doctrine.

“whether good or bad” — the word ‘good’ is a)gaqoj, divine good; the word ‘bad’ isn’t really bad, it is fauloj which is said to be refuse, excrement, something that is cheap or trivial. We have to inhale Bible doctrine daily, we have to exhale love toward God, category #1. This takes the filling of the Holy Spirit and the knowledge of doctrine.

Verse 11 — true love demands more than the trivia of life. So we have to have some confidence in His plan, in His person. “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord” is not correctly translated. “Since we know what it is that causes the fear of the Lord” is the correct translation. What is it that causes the fear of the Lord? Ignorance of grace, ignorance of doctrine, ignorance of the gospel. It is ignorance, lack of information that causes the fear of the Lord.

“we persuade men” — peiqw means to present the facts, the information, and the evidence so that the issue is understood by then one to whom you present it. In other words, making the gospel clear, making the issue of the gospel clear. It is a presentation of information whereby the issue is clarified — “we keep on persuading people.”

“but we are made manifest unto God” — fanerow again, and this time it means when you witness for Christ you don’t have to brag about because if you are witnessing [production of divine good] you are doing it because you love the Lord. We are manifest to the Lord because doctrine gives us a love for the Lord and we like to talk about the things we love. It is easy to talk about things we love and to talk with enthusiasm. The important thing is that when you love the Lord what you do is manifest unto the Lord.

“and I trust” — but he doesn’t say trust. This is a present active indicative of e)lpizw which means “I hope.” He is telling them he has given them the message and he would like to say that it is getting through but he can’t. He is telling the Corinthians that he can’t trust that he is hearing, so he adds the statement, “I hope you are getting it” — e)lpizw.

“also are made manifest” — fanerow, and this time it is doctrine; he says this time, ‘I hope it is manifest in your consciences.’ The soul has norms and standards which are designed so that you can have some ruler by which to function. The conscience is a ruler. If you are inhaling doctrine then you are going to get doctrine in the norms and standards, and the norm and standard for absolute love is God so you exhale out of the conscience category #1 love. Then your norms and standards with regard to service and production and details and people will produce divine good. Paul is saying that what he is doing will be manifest to God and that why he is talking about it is so that it will be manifest also to the conscience of the Corinthians, so that they will get the information in their souls and the in exhale of their conscience Jesus Christ will be the norms and standards for love.

Verse 12 — “For we commend not ourselves.” He is not writing this to tell them how good he is. He says ‘ourselves’ because Timothy has been there and Titus is now there.

“but give you an occasion for glorying through us” — we give you the opportunity of glorying. But glory always belongs to God, and so all that he is saying is, ‘We are providing doctrine to go into your soul and when you exhale that doctrine toward God you are glorifying God,’ not Paul or Timothy or Titus.

“that you may have somewhat to answer” should be, ‘that you may have something in opposition to those who boast in outer appearance, rather than the heart.’ In other words, the reason he is giving them this doctrine is because they had people in Corinth that talk about what is outside — pseudo love, someone who seems to prosper, someone who seems attractive — and they boast in that. That is superficial. It isn’t what people see outside, it is what God sees in the soul. So this is designed to remind you that you are not accountable to people, you are accountable to the Lord. The heart refers to the lungs of the soul, what is being inhaled and what is being exhaled.

Verse 13 — emotion is a part of category #1 love, it has a place in the Christian life toward God. There is no such thing as the filling of the Spirit producing emotion. It is all right to emote but don’t confuse it with spiritual life.

“For whether we be beside ourselves toward God” — ‘beside ourselves’ is simply a word for our emotion going in the direction of God, e)cisthmi which means to have maximum emotion, sometimes to be ecstatic. In other words, ‘if we be emotional toward God.’ This is a part of genuine category #1 love when there is doctrine behind it because you have a true appreciation of God. Emotion is an appreciator. Notice that in this particular situation Paul isn’t showing any of this to people.

“or whether we be sober” — sober means to possess a stabilised mentality; “for your cause” should be ‘unto you.’ Toward God we can show this emotion based on doctrine but toward you we just show a stabilised mentality, a relaxed mental attitude.

Verse 14 – “For the love of Christ constraineth us” – ‘of Christ’ is a genitive, it belongs to Jesus Christ. The love of Christ has to do, first of all, with His deity. Jesus Christ is God, only the deity of Christ is not propitiated. Jesus Christ loves you on a different basis from propitiation. He loves you, He always has loved you. He has the power to love in His deity, He has the consistency to love you. He can still be consistent with His righteousness and His justice because, as it were, they became a substitute, the substitute that satisfies the Father. Jesus Christ loves us. How do we know that? “The one who loved us and gave himself for us.” The Father’s love is cleared at the cross, and at the cross Jesus Christ went there to demonstrate His love. The love of Christ is the grace in the human soul of Jesus Christ, grace based on doctrine. The love of Christ is the constrainer in our passage. The love of Christ is grace in His soul, it is something that can be duplicated in us even though we possess and old sin nature. Grace comes by doctrine, doctrine is converted to grace in the soul. In witnessing the first principle is that we must exhale grace through the right bank of the soul for the unbeliever. That means you can’t be full of self-pity or pride in your self-consciousness, it means you can’t have mental attitude sins in the mentality of your soul, it means that you can’t freeze up on your volition and go negative, it means that your emotion must have a rapport love for God and an appreciation of the cross – “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.” It means that the norms and standards of your conscience have a special place for those who are headed for the lake of fire.

What does the word ‘constrain’ mean? The Greek word is sunexw [sun = with; e)xw = to have], to have with. And it means to have with a principle a mental attitude. Here is the principle of witnessing and to have with this principle is the mental attitude. The love of Christ gives us the mental attitude that goes with witnessing. So this word comes to mean to be motivated mentally. The love of Christ motivates mentally. If you are going to be motivated you must be motivated in the mentality of the soul, and in the mentality of the soul there must be the same grace that you have toward other believers. So you exhale grace toward the unbeliever.

“because we thus judge” — aorist active participle of krinw. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb is love and we judge something before we are motivated by love. We judge a point of doctrine, examine it critically. The judge here is to inhale doctrine on the left bank of the soul, so it isn’t like judging on the right bank where you run down some poor character with your mouth. So what is the doctrine that is coming in? The doctrine of unlimited atonement: Christ died for all. But the word ‘judge’ also means to discern and so here it means to discern a point of doctrine. You judge or discern a point of doctrine by getting it in when you can. Illustration: If a person commits a crime he is called a criminal. But you have to catch the criminal before you can judge the criminal. So you have to catch doctrine and get it in your soul before you can discern it. So here is a doctrine called unlimited atonement, you take it into your soul — inhale, and krinw is used for inhaling or discerning doctrine. Translation: “We thus discern that Christ died for all.” Unlimited atonement is the doctrine. Unlimited atonement: 1 Timothy 2:6; 4:10; Titus 2:11; Hebrews 2:9; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 2:2.

“Christ died for all” — ‘died’ here is a)poqnhskw. When it says that Christ died for all you have to know that Christ died twice on the cross. This is referring to His spiritual death only; “for all” — u(per is a preposition of substitution. He died as a substitute for all, and that is spiritual death, not His physical death. He also died physically three hours later when His work was finished, but before He died physically He said, “It is finished.” And then He said, “Father, into thy hands I dismiss my spirit.” So what do we discern here? We discern a doctrine of unlimited atonement that in spiritual death on the cross Christ died for us. He died as our substitute. Unlimited atonement is a grace doctrine. So the doctrine is converted to grace because the love of Christ — He is full of grace and doctrine … and this fullness of grace and doctrine we have received. It is grace and doctrine that motivates us and now we understand the doctrine of unlimited atonement, and we exhale it toward an unbeliever in witnessing. There is a mental attitude grace and there is the declaration of the good news.

Why did Christ die for all? Because they were spiritually dead. So we discern another doctrine in our souls: “that if one died for all, then all were dead.” The aorist tense, ‘all were dead,’ a)poqnhskw, means dead in a point of time. We were dead when we were born. We have always had a)poqnhskw, we were born spiritually dead, and so since we came into the world with spiritual death He died for all.

Ever see a hyper Calvinist? Here is the way he looks. He has scar tissue on the left bank of the soul. He is sitting around waiting for Kismet. If it is the will of God they will be saved, maybe they will and maybe they won’t. If it is the will of God they will, so he sits around and doesn’t take anything in — except the five points. And what does he have? He has TULIP. So what goes out? Not much.

Unlimited atonement: Christ died for all; all are dead spiritually. The believer converts the doctrine of unlimited atonement into grace and out comes witnessing — “constraineth” — motivated mentally. The love of Christ is the mental motivation. The two factors of witnessing here: a) A mental attitude based on the inhale of doctrine; b) A knowledge of doctrine. So we could translate this: “We thus discern that one died on behalf of all, we are constantly motivated by the love of Christ.”

Verse 15 — the next installment of grace in the soul. We are not to live unto ourselves which is subjectivity. When you are not taking in doctrine and converting it to grace, you are minus grace in your soul and you are a legalist. If you are a legalist then you are subjective.

“And he that died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves ” — the word for ‘live’ here is the believer now living on the earth as an ambassador for Christ, and it is a present active participle. As long as he lives on the earth he is an ambassador for Christ [verse 20]; “that” introduces a purpose clause, “that they which live.” If you are a believer you are in full time Christian service.

“should not live unto themselves” — dative of disadvantage. How do you live unto yourself? Forget doctrine, ignore it, reject it, stray from it, build up scar tissue.

“but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”

Verse 16 — “henceforth” means from now on, a)po [ultimate source]tou [the] nun [now]. This verse now responds to that subjectivity in the soul.

“know we no man after the flesh” — ‘after the flesh’ means on the principle of scar tissue. We are going to stop knowing people on the basis of all this scar tissue, and hurting with the old sin nature. We are going to love on the basis of grace which is who and what we are.

“though we have known Christ after the flesh” — there was a time when we didn’t know that Christ died for us. Then the gospel came through and faith in Christ took the scales off of our eyes or the scar tissue off the left bank. When you are born again you start with no scar tissue on the left bank or the right bank of the soul.

“yet now henceforth know we him no more” — no more according to the scar tissue principle. We are not going to look at Christ any more through scar tissue on the soul. We are going to take in Bible doctrine and that doctrine is going to be converted to grace, and we are going to exhale love, faith-rest toward God, toward the Lord Jesus. That is going to have some repercussions because we are going to go on a grace basis with people, we are going to be motivated by the love of Christ.

Verse 17 — confidence in positional truth, or how to orient to the grace of God. This is a very familiar passage, one which is often quoted and often distorted by such quotation. The implications of being a new man often are associated with some experiential change. Many believers when they first accept Jesus Christ as saviour are the recipients of some legalistic bullying of one type or another, or they are simply impressed with certain Christian types and as a result they want to do what that person does, they want to imitate. And so they are either led or inspired or bullied or coerced or shamed or pressurised into giving up something. Anything that the Word of God causes you to give up is fine. Anything you do because of the Word of God is one thing but to simply give up something because of some other pressure is definitely not a bona fide part of the Christian life. And no one ever really gives up something in the energy of the flesh, in the strength of the old sin nature plus the human volition, without wanting to crow about it at some time, some place, somewhere. Unfortunately and tragically it is almost impossible to approach this verse without remembering some of the distortions to which it is exposed. It is fixed in the mind erroneously that we are new creatures because we have changed our lives, we have changed our behaviour pattern, we have changed our modus operandi.

Here is a passage that causes a great deal of trouble because we associate it with what we are doing for God instead of associating it with what God is doing for us.

“Therefore” — the Greek word, w(ste, actually brings us to our first conclusion in the passage. It is better translated “So that,” but it draws a conclusion. It is the conclusion of going through 16 verses of this chapter and seeing all of the marvellous provisions of the grace of God, and seeing the principle of soul breathing. Left bank of the soul, inhale of doctrine; right bank of the soul, exhale of doctrine toward people; left bank, exhale toward God. Doctrine is in the soul, it gives us a relaxed mental attitude, +H, it frustrates the activity of the old sin nature which is constantly sending up approbation lust, power lust, and constantly evacuating from the soul sin and human good. No we have actually come to the conclusion, to the ultimate in the field of grace function, grace orientation. “Conclusion” is a better translation here.

“if” [1st class condition], if and it is true; “any man” — tij means any one, any believer priest; “in Christ” — no verb here. A new creature is ‘in Christ.’ You don’t have ‘new creature’ first, you have Christ first. ‘In Christ’ is referring to positional truth and the only sense in this passage in which we are new creatures is because of our union with Christ. The reason for that is quite obvious. The word ‘new’ is an adjective, kainoj, and it is a word for a new species. It means new but it means new in species. In the devil’s world there is a brand new species that has only existed since the ascension, since Jesus Christ was glorified, and the day that the baptism of the Spirit occurred for the first time a new species was brought into existence. Notice that this does not say salvation, although it includes that. In the Old Testament there were millions of people who were saved and they were saved by believing in Christ as Christ was then revealed. But when people were saved in the Old Testament they were born again, just as we are; they were justified, just as we are; they were given eternal life, just as we are; but they were not kainoj. Why? Because never before in history had anyone been put into union with Christ. Never before the day of Pentecost in 30 AD had the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurred. There is a difference between Old Testament saints and New Testament saints and that difference is that Christ had not been glorified and Christ therefore was the target of Satan in the angelic conflict, and now that Christ is glorified at the right hand of the Father the target is the believer. Christ is absent in the Church Age, the believer is on earth. In order to meet the problems of the angelic conflict, since Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, since operation footstool is now in reality [Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool], since the body is being formed — the body only is the bride, the OT saints are not the bride — and since the body is the bride and Christ is a new species, He is the only person with a resurrection body, and since the next people to get a resurrection body are believers in the Church Age only, for the first time in history we have something that was never true before or after. We have something that no group of believers will ever have again. We are a part of the body of Christ, we have the phrase “in Christ Jesus,” and we are a new species. When the Rapture of the Church occurs that will never be true again. And we are not a new species because we have given up anything or changed our behaviour pattern, we are a new species because at the moment of salvation we were picked up by God the Holy Spirit and entered into union with Jesus Christ. The word “we” is important here, we are new creatures, ‘a new species of creation,’ literally. The word ktisij means a creature or a new creation. We are a new species in creation and we have been made that by what God did, we are not a new species because of anything we have ever done.

“he is a new creature” — but there is no ‘he is.’ Kainoj means new in species; ktisij means a creation. You have been created a new species y the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

“Conclusion, if [and it is true] anyone in Christ [positional truth] a new creature.”

The doctrine of Positional Truth

1. The mechanics of positional sanctification — 1 Corinthians 12:13, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

2. Positional truth belongs to the carnal as well as the spiritual believer — 1 Corinthians 1:2, 30. The carnal Corinthians were “sanctified in Christ Jesus.”

3. Positional truth protects the believer from eternal judgement. Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.” This new species is protected from the last judgement.

4. Positional truth qualifies the believer to live with God forever. There are three qualification necessary for the believer to live with God forever. His sins have to be taken care of, he must have eternal life [1 John 5:11,12], he must have the righteousness of God [2 Corinthians 5:21].

5. Positional truth defines both election and predestination — Ephesians 1:3-6. The word proorizw is usually translated ‘predestined,’ but that isn’t what it means, it means to be preplanned. The point is that God the Father planned a future for Jesus Christ, we are in Christ, we share His proorizw. Jesus Christ was therefore called. We are in union with Christ, we share His election. As it says in Ephesians 1, “elected in Christ before the foundation of the world.”

In other words, there never was a time when Christ didn’t live. He lived in eternity past with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. There never was a time when He didn’t exist but there was some period in eternity when some planning occurred and in that planning Jesus Christ was given an eternal destiny. Now Christ is at the right hand of the Father, we are in union with Christ, we share His destiny. But since it was planned in the past we call that election, and since it was designed in the past we call that predestination. So we share His election, we share His destiny.

6. Positional truth produces a new species on the earth, a species that has never existed before, a species that started on the day of Pentecost in 30 AD, the day the Church began.

7. Positional truth guarantees eternal security — Romans 8:38,39.

Positional truth is located in two categories. The first is retroactive — Romans 6; the second is current — Colossians 3:1,2. Retroactive positional truth: identified with Christ in His death. Christ rejected human good, and the point of retroactive positional truth is, positionally we have rejected human good, now all we have to do is reject it experientially. Jesus Christ is currently at the right hand of the Father, so current positional truth: we are in union with Christ at the right hand of the Father, which puts us as superior to angels in opposition and guarantees that physically in the future we will also be superior to angels.

9. The characteristics of positional truth:

a) The believer shares the life of Christ — 1 John 5:11,12.

b) The believer shares the righteousness of Christ — 2 Corinthians 5:21

c) The believer shares the destiny of Christ — Ephesians 1:5.

d) The believer shares the election of Christ — Ephesians 1:4.

e) The believers shares the sonship of Christ — Galatians 3:26.

f) The believers shares the heirship of Christ — 1 Peter 1:4,5; Romans 8:16,17.

g) The believer shares the sanctification of Christ — 1 Corinthians 1:2, 30.

h) The believer shares the priesthood of Christ — Hebrews 10:10-14.

i) The believer shares the kingdom of Christ — 2 Peter 1:11.

10. Positional truth:

a) Is not an experience. It is neither an emotion nor ecstatics.

b) Is not progressive, it is perfect at the moment of salvation.

c) Is not related to human merit. It is neither human good nor energy of the flesh.

d) Is eternal in nature, it will last forever.

e) Is known only from the Word of God by the teaching of the Word of God, by understanding the Word of God.

f) Is obtained completely at the moment of salvation.

“old things” — one word in the Greek, a)rxaioj in the plural, is ‘that which existed in the beginning.’ It means something that is really old. It obviously doesn’t refer to things we have given up because a)rxaioj doesn’t refer to this generation, or the past generation or 100 years ago. The word is never used in that sense. It is always used for something that is a few thousand years old. It refers to what happened at the moment that the woman sinned and what happened at the moment that Adam sinned. They entered into a condition called spiritual death. Once they were spiritually dead they had lost their human spirit and had picked up an old sin nature. This immediately cuts them off from God. The old sin nature does not breathe through the apertures of the soul, the old sin nature is an evacuator of the soul. Because it is a part of the soul whenever a sin is produced, whenever a temptation becomes a sin, the sin is then evacuated through the old sin nature. And whenever there is a reaction to that and a guilt complex then human good comes through the old sin nature. So both sin and human good are evacuated from the old sin nature.

“old things are passed away,” something that is archaic, something that is older than you are. The old sin nature is older than we are. The old sin nature isn’t passed away, but the old sin nature means spiritual death and you are born with an old sin nature you are born with spiritual death. Spiritual death is a principle of no relationship, with God and the old things, the archaic things is spiritual death which means no relationship with God. Spiritual death is as old as Genesis 2:17. Spiritual death as an anticipated judgement came before sin. God warned the first parents.

Romans 5:12 — “Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin [singular; osn] entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all the human race, because all [the human race] sinned [when Adam sinned].”

Notice, “death passed upon.” It is spiritual death that we have here. Death passed upon all — Romans 5:12. Now, when you accept Christ spiritual death “passes away” — 2 Corinthians 5:17. We were born [in Adam] spiritually dead, but in Christ “shall all be made alive.” He has eternal life, we share His eternal life.

“passed away” — parerxomai, which means a lot of things. It means to go, to pass, to come to an end. It means here that spiritual death has come to an end. At the moment you accept Christ as saviour spiritual death comes to an abrupt end. Never again do you have spiritual death. It is impossible, you are in Christ. It also means to disappear, and we could translate this, “the ancient things [pertaining to spiritual death] have vanished [disappeared]. Spiritual death is gone.

“behold, all things are become new” — ‘all things’ is not found in the original. It is literally, ‘behold they have become new.’ “Become” is ginomai in the perfect tense, they have become new in the past with the result that they will always be new. The word ‘new’ is again kainoj, new in species.

All of this is the work of God, every bit of it. There is nothing that you have done to make yourself a new creature, God did it all. That’s grace.

Verse 18 — “All things are from [the] God,” the all things of doctrine; “who hath reconciled” — God did something that makes it possible for us to stay on this earth; “us to himself” — the word to reconcile is katallassw [kata = preposition of norm and standard; llassw = to change, to alter, to transform] which in this passage means to change from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive because God has taken us over a barrier. God has removed the barrier so that we can cross the line, and we do so by personal faith in Jesus Christ. The word ‘reconcile,’ then, is a picture of the fact of the barrier between man on the one hand and God on the other. The barrier is made up of sin, the penalty of sin is spiritual death; the problem of physical birth, being born physically alive but spiritually dead; the problem of +R, God’s absolute righteousness and man’s relative righteousness; the problem of the character of God; and finally, the position in Adam. This barrier cannot be passed through, around or over, and so it is removed by the planning of God and by the work of Jesus Christ the Son of God on the cross. Sin is removed: doctrine of redemption; the penalty of sin is removed: doctrine of expiation; the problem of physical birth is removed: doctrine of regeneration; the problem of relative righteousness is removed by imputation and justification; the problem of the character of God is removed by propitiation; the problem of position in Adam is removed by position in Christ. The barrier is removed by the cross and now man is reconciled to God by the work of Jesus Christ.

“has reconciled us to himself” — the aorist tense means a point of time divorced from time and perpetuated forever. At the moment a person believes in Jesus Christ as saviour he is reconciled to God, which means that point of time is taken out of time and perpetuated. Therefore he is reconciled to God forever.

“by Jesus Christ” — dia plus the genitive means ‘through Jesus Christ.’ Jesus Christ accomplished reconciliation.

Now because Jesus Christ accomplished reconciliation and because we have personally believed in Jesus Christ God the Father has given us a purpose for being on this earth.

“and hath given to us” — given is didomi, the ordinary Greek word for giving. The aorist tense means in the point of time when we believed; ‘to us” is dative of advantage. It is to our advantage because we have a ministry; “the ministry of reconciliation” — the Greek word for ‘ministry’ is diakonia which means a lot of different things, but basically it has the concept of being in service. It is used in Romans 13:4 for leaders of state — political use; for the specialised ministry of the pastor-teacher in 1 Corinthians 3:5; but its primary use throughout the scripture is found in 2 Corinthians 3:6; 4:1; 5:18, and here is means every believer. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you have a ministry, you are in full time Christian service, you have the ministry of reconciliation. This means that God has left you here for a purpose as His personal representative. Jesus Christ is not going to suddenly withdraw all of His representatives until the Church Age is over. That will be known as the Rapture of the Church. The ministry of reconciliation means that the believer has a responsibility of witnessing for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 19 — the message of reconciliation. “To wit” is actually “As it were.”

“God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself” — when it says that God was in Christ it doesn’t means that God the Father indwelt Christ, it means that God the Father in eternity past designed a plan, operation salvation/grace, and in designing this plan He made it possible for the Son, Jesus Christ, to become incarnate. And Jesus Christ went to the cross, was judged for our sins, He is the only saviour. So God the Father is behind it as the planner, Jesus Christ is the saviour because He is the one who was judged for our sins and was our substitute. So through the work of the cross Jesus Christ reconciles mankind to God. Therefore, ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself’ in the sense that God the Father planned it. The one who planned salvation and the one who planned everything in connection with the incarnation, to the cross, to the resurrection is the same God in heaven who has planned your life on this earth as a believer, who has planned the ministry of reconciliation. Nothing in this world can remove your ministry of reconciliation to mankind as long as God permits it.

“not imputing their trespasses unto them” — in other words here is the message of hope; “and hath committed unto us the word [message] of reconciliation.” The word of reconciliation is simply the message of the gospel.

Verse 20 — the believer’s purpose in phase two. The moment you accepted Jesus Christ as saviour you became the personal representative of the Lord Jesus on the earth.

“Now then we are [we keep on being] ambassadors” — present active indicative; “for Christ” — on behalf of Christ, literally.

The doctrine of ambassadorship

1. An ambassador does not appoint himself. He is appointed by the nation he represents, the king he represents, the person he represents. As ambassadors we are appointed by God the Father because God the Father was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Christ is now at the right hand of the Father through ascension and we are now His personal representatives on this earth. Our appointment is a grace appointment at the moment of salvation.

2. An ambassador doesn’t support himself. This is not talking about man working by the sweat of his brow, we are talking about the sustaining, the surviving, the protection through catastrophe and disaster as well as in time of prosperity, the fact that we are a part of a spiritual warfare, the fact that we are in the intensification of the angelic conflict, and the fact that we are totally and completely sustained, preserved, protected by God the Father. We are in His plan and cannot be removed from this world as long as God’s purpose for your ministry continues.

3. An ambassador does not represent himself. Once you accept Jesus Christ as saviour the door is open to the greatest happiness in the world. That happiness comes from the daily intake of Bible doctrine. That happiness gives the capacity to love God: category #1, capacity to love a member of the opposite sex: category #2, capacity for friendship: category #3. That same doctrine gives the ability to master the details of life, to enjoy them when you possess them and when you lose them to still have inner happiness and stability. As this door is opened we have to remember that our purpose in life has now radically changed. Our purpose in life is to represent the Lord Jesus Christ, to enter into the spiritual conflict which exists in this earth, as well as the historical conflict. And since it is a spiritual conflict we no longer represent ourselves but we represent the Lord Jesus Christ. And since we are His representatives everything is in His hands. Therefore, we have been given techniques, such as faith-rest, in order to put difficulties and problems and pressures in his hands, in order to stay cool under fire, or to have poise when things are difficult. He has provided all of this.

4. He doesn’t belong to the country to which he is sent. There is a sense in which we are now the citizens of heaven although we are the citizens of this country. There is a sense in which our highest responsibility belongs to the Lord,. although it is wonderful to know that as in Romans 13 we can enter into the service of our country and do it as unto the Lord under our type, of government.

5. All ambassadors have instructions in written form. We have our instructions in written form — Bible doctrine.

6. An ambassador representing his country does not treat any insult as personal. This has to do with the relaxed mental attitude in the soul from the inhale of Bible doctrine.

7. When the ambassador is recalled from a country that is tantamount to a declaration of war. When we are recalled through the Rapture of the Church then there will be the most fantastic warfare, spiritual and otherwise, during the Tribulation.

“as though God did beseech you by us: we pray [request] in place of Jesus Christ” — the word for pray is deomai. It meant originally to beg, then it meant to pray, and sometimes it is mistranslated ‘beseech.’ Actually it means to request.

Notice two words here: “God did beseech you.” The word to ‘beseech’ is parakalew which means to come in alongside, to give instructions, or to help. God comes in alongside to help us. Our job is to deomai which means to request. Parakalew does not involve volition, except in response to doctrine, but deomai recognises the volition of the individual. Christ is not here so we request you in place of Christ — “in Christ’s stead.” Christ is at the right hand of the Father, we are here on the earth, “we request you.” Deomai recognises the free willl, the privacy and the rights of the individual unbeliever. So when you come to the unbeliever with deomai you must so present the gospel so as to provide information and to make the issue clear, but you have no right to try to coerce his volition by getting him to raise his hand, by getting some sad story cranked up, to get him to walk an aisle, to pressurise him. All of that is out. Deomai is the order of the day for you as a witness for Christ, you have no right to pressure people. You are responsible for dissemination of information, to make the issue clear. Recognise their freedom to make a decision, God the Holy Spirit will take it from there.

“be ye reconciled to God” — aorist passive imperative. The aorist tense means in a point of time when you hear this message — gospel hearing. The passive voice: it is up to you, you have to receive it. The imperative mood says this is God’s command for salvation. The believer is simply relaying God’s command or God’s way: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

Verse 21 — the mechanics of reconciliation. In order for us to have a ministry, in order for us to have a meaning to our life as believers:

“For he [the Father] hath made him [the Son] sin for us” — ‘hath made’ is poiew which means to work, to do. He has caused Him to do something; “to be sin for us” — Jesus Christ was minus an old sin nature, minus personal sin, minus Adam’s sin. Because He was minus all of these He could go to the cross and be made sin for us. “For us” means that our sins were poured out upon Him. He “who knew no sin” was made sin for us.

“that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” — Jesus Christ was judged for our sins so that we can cross the line, and when we cross the line we receive God’s righteousness and since it is equivalent to His righteousness we are qualified to live with Him forever. This last verse simply tells us that when a person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ God does all of the saving. He doesn’t get any help from anyone else, including the person involved. The moment a person believes in Christ God the Father does something. He credits to out account His own righteousness.