Bible Truth #222 - 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

2 Corinthians 5:17-19

17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

18  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

19  that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

If a man is in Christ, he is a new creation. You have to be a new creation before you can do ANYTHING opposing the sinful nature, or the flesh. Becoming a new creation COMES FIRST. And since a lost man can’t become a new creation apart from GOD DOING IT, man has NOTHING to do with it. Salvation is monergistic. Verse 18 makes it clear - “ALL this is from God,” not some of it, not most of it, ALL of it is from God.

Now let’s go to verse 19. Again, here is an example of the word “world” NOT meaning everyone on the planet. Surely every Christian will agree that God did NOT reconcile everyone on the planet to Himself in Christ, and that He IS counting men’s sins against them. So what does “world” mean here?

World means the same thing here it does almost every place else. It means Jews AND Gentiles, not just the Jews. Or to put it more accurately: a people from among the Jews AND Gentiles. Verse 19 - that God was reconciling Jews AND Gentiles [the world] to himself in Christ...