🧠 2 Corinthians 5:17 | Reconciliation, New Creation & Butterflies

📧 In today’s email…

• 🤝 The ministry of reconciliation

• 🦋 The paradox of being a new creation

• 🤓 Quotes from Guzik and Spurgeon

• 📚️ Resources to help you connect further with 2 Cor 5:17

 🧠 Memorize

_{see if you know what words go in the blanks}

Therefore, if _______ __ __ ______, __ __ _ ___ creation. The old has passed ____; behold, ___ ___ has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17

🤝 The Ministry of Reconciliation

Yesterday, we learned that the original audience of 2 Corinthians was the church in a city known for immorality of many kinds.

And that in his first letter, Paul addressed signs that the Corinthians were acting in the flesh (division within the church, sexual immorality, etc.)

Look at the language Paul uses in his first letter to the Corinthians:

Now, let’s look at 2 Corinthians.

When you read Chapter 5, you’ll probably notice a heading that says:

The Ministry of Reconciliation

This idea is central to what our memory verse is getting at, so let’s dig in.

What is the ministry of reconciliation?

Let’s look at 2 Cor 5:18-19 (directly after our memory verse):

📖 3 key aspects of the ministry of reconciliation

1. God did the reconciling, not us.

The work is done, not by our efforts, but by Jesus’ work on the cross.

2. Although God did the work, we must actively receive it.

Paul urges the Corinthians in verse 20 to “be reconciled” - to live as if they were actually reconciled to God.

This is the rhythm of the gospel. And it’s the only way we can truly be a new creation.

God acts, we respond.

Jesus died on the cross, paying the penalty for our sin.

We respond by living our life as people who have been:

1. pardoned from punishment we deserve (forgiven)

2. gifted the righteousness Jesus deserves (justified)

3. God entrusts us to share this message of reconciliation with the world and to represent Him as ambassadors.

God gave us work to do until he returns:

• 🗣️ In word: Share with the people around us that they have been reconciled to God through the work of Jesus

• 💼 In deed: Live our lives as a new creation, representing God to the world in every area of our lives.

💡 Tomorrow, we’ll connect our memory verse to the larger story of Scripture!

🦋 The Uniqueness of Being a New Creation

Yesterday, we talked about this unique idea of being a “new creation.”

We said it’s not just some moral upgrade or God’s way of pressing the “undo” button and starting over from scratch.

On one hand, we’re still us. We have the same name and might live in the same place or have the same job. So much of us feels the same.

But on the other hand, we are brand new…we’re a totally new creature.

It almost seems like a paradox - as if both things can’t be true at the same time.

But in many ways, I think this transformation we experience in Christ mirrors the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly.

The greek word for ‘transform’ used in Romans 12:2 (“be transformed by the renewing of your mind”) is metamorphoō.

Which is where we get the word metamorphosis, which describes the change a caterpillar undergoes when it becomes a butterfly.

A caterpillar shares the same DNA makeup of a butterfly, but it takes on an entirely new form.

It becomes a new creature.

In the same way, when the Spirit of God comes into our life, we are made new.

Or in the words of Jesus, we are born again.

Apply & respond: Reflect 🤔 

The process of being transformed is just that…a process.

In the second part of our memory verse, Paul says:

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Read 📖 

In Ephesians 4, Pauls instructs the Christians in Ephesus:

Reflect 🤔 

As you read Paul’s words in Ephesians 4, is there a specific area of your life you need to let God transform?

Are you struggling with:

• Selfishness?

• Unforgiveness?

• Bitterness?

• Idolatry?

• Unrepentant sin?

✍️ What’s one way God is inviting you to “put off your old self” and walk in your life as a new creation?

Wisdom 🧐 

It is unfair for us to expect those who are not in Christ to live as if they were a new creation. However, it is not unfair to expect a changed life from people who say they are Christians.

David Guzik

I know no language, I believe there is none, that can express a greater or more thorough and more radical renewal, than that which is expressed in the term, ‘a new creature.’

Charles Spurgeon

Recommended Resources 🎙️ 

Here are a few resources to help you dig deeper into this week’s passage and topics:

• 📚️ Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard (link here)

• 📚️ Being God’s Image by Carmen Joy Imes (link here)

• 📹️ Bible Project: Overview of 2 Corinthians (link)

• 🎵 2 Corinthians 5:17 by The Corner Room to help you memorize this verse (listen on Spotify | listen on Apple Music)

💻️ We recently spent hours turning our lessons on John 15:5 and Psalm 63:1 into a 14-Day Scripture Memory eDevotional.

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Answer key ✅ 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17