Daily Chapel

Date: 01-23-2024

Scripture Lesson:2 Corinthians 5:14-20

Preacher: Hugo Ugalde–Bemer 

Description: Tuesday, January 23rd  Reading 2 Corinthians 5:14-20  A key concept throughout this section is the concept of “reconciliation.” God has taken us, who by nature were estranged from him and hostile to him and made us what we were not. He has made us his children. He has put an end to the hostility that existed between us and him and has established peace between us and him through Christ. The relationship that was broken when Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden has been restored in Christ. This reconciliation forms the backbone of this entire section.   We have God’s action of reconciling us to himself through Christ. Sin had broken our relationship with God. In order for that relationship to be restored, sin had to be removed. Notice the object of God’s work of reconciliation: the world. No one is left out. God has reconciled the world to himself, not counting their sins against them. Yet, God can’t just ignore our sins. As a holy God, he must punish sin, or he ceases to be a holy God. How could God accomplish our reconciliation by not counting our sins against us and yet remain a holy God? Verse 21 answers that question: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” God didn’t ignore our sins. He punished them in Jesus. In fact, so complete was God’s charging of Jesus with our sins that Paul says Jesus became our sin. On the cross, Jesus was our sin.   The love that Christ has shown to us (subjective genitive) compels us. As God’s new people, we really have no choice. Not that we want a choice. No, as we look at the people around us, we also see them differently. We view them from God’s perspective now as people for whom Christ died, people whom God in Christ has reconciled to himself. And so, we join Paul’s plea: “Be reconciled to God!”  Speaker Hugo Ugalde–Bemer  Advisor N/A  Hymns CW 546 – “Lord Jesus, You Have Come” v. 1-3  CW 546 – “Lord Jesus, You Have Come” v. 4-5  Color Green  Order Standard  Pianist M. Sims