A Reformed Identity
2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (ESV) The Ministry of Reconciliation
11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[b] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling[c] the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Introduction: A Reformed Identity
It is quite a privilege and an honor to preach this evening at the 6th meeting of the New River Presbytery. In some ways it feels as though I am coming full circle in my journey with the Presbytery. As I have shared with many of you, I came into the Presbytery of the Mid-Atlantic in 2007 right here at Rivermont. I was a student at RTS in Charlotte and had been a member of St. Giles EPC for a handful of years. Like many of you my journey into the EPC was not a straight line. The first half of my youth I was not a member of a church. When I came to faith as an eleven-year-old I was baptized and joined a Baptist church. My father was in the military and so we soon moved, and our family began attending a United Methodist Church in Augusta, GA. Once in college I was involved in the Methodist Student ministry at UGA called Wesley. Despite its denominational affiliation most of the students were charismatic and baptistic in their theology. And that is where I was as well. During my time in college, I was introduced to the Reformed faith through the ministry and writings of John Piper. And through the providence of God, I showed up at RTS as somewhat of a theological mutt with very little knowledge of the Presbyterian church.
But I found a home at St. Giles and then in the Presbytery of the Mid-Atlantic and the EPC. Its adherence to the essentials and to the Reformed Faith but liberty in nonessentials gave me room to grow into the denomination. Following graduation I was called to a small EPC church in Gaffney South Carolina, Overbrook Presbyterian Church. And there in the fall of 2008 was ordained and installed. For the nine years I was there our membership never grew above seventy and if we had over fifty in worship, we felt like the Kingdom was coming. For those of you who remember our former Stated Clerk, Howard Shockley, he would drive up from his home outside of Greenville to mentor me those first several years. We would meet at Cracker Barrel and over coffee and pancakes he would share his wisdom and encouragement.
In 2017 the Lord called me to Rivermont, which has been quite a contrast in ministry from my time at Overbrook. However, despite the outward differences (of size, worship style, location, history) the core identity of these churches is the same. And it is this core identity that unites all EPC churches. The reason that we can have liberty in the non-essentials, the reason we can have charity in all things, is because we are united in the core of who we are, in our Reformed identity. We call this core the Essentials of our Faith. But our unity is so much more than a mere adherence to the seven essentials as such, but it is the adherence to the doctrine and practice that are derived by good and necessary consequence from holding to these essentials.
- It is the expression of our faith in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms.
- It is the expression of our faith in our Presbyterian form of Government.
- It is the expression of our faith in our evangelical calling to the lost - to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.
- It is the expression of our faith to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
And as members of this denomination, we are constantly called to protect and to live out this these principles. That is, whatever our outward circumstances may be ministry-wise, we are called to our Reformed Identity.
And I say all this because I love our Presbytery and our denomination. Therefore it is the call of all elders, both Teaching and Ruling to faithfully preserve what the Lord has so graciously given us.
In our passage for this evening, we come to the Apostle Paul’s defense of his own ministry in 2 Corinthians 5. If you remember Paul’s letters to the church in Corinth are defenses his own Apostolic calling and ministry. There are those who call themselves Apostles and who speak to the weakness of Paul’s ministry. But Paul explains that his ministry is not to be evaluated according to the standards of men but rather according to the standards of God. And in particular in our verse not according to old creation realities, but rather according to the new creation realities brought about through the work of Jesus Christ.
And this is a question that we must answer as well: “How will we as ministers in the EPC regard those who are in ministry or who seek to be ordained to the gospel ministry?” We might think of this personally, how will I evaluate my call? We might think of that relationally, how do I evaluate the call of others? And we might think of it denominationally, what are the standards of calling and ordination in the EPC? What is our Reformed Identity?
And to all these questions what we will see in our passage is that if we would rightly evaluate ministry in the EPC we must judge according to the power of the New Creation given to us in Christ.
[Hear now the word of the Lord 2 Corinthians 5:16-21…Blessed you are, Lord, great God.
For the testimonies of the prophets, we bless you. For the statutes of your Law, we bless you. For the gospel of Christ and the witness of the Apostles, we bless you, O glorious God. Grant us the Spirit of your glory and the brightness of your presence, That we might read your Word and understand. Through Jesus Christ our gracious Lord. Amen]
- Point One: Every Minister of the Gospel Must Be a New Creation Creation (vv. 16-17)
Gilbert Tennent in his provocative sermon, “The Dangers of an Unconverted Ministry” delivered in 1740 amidst the Old Side/New Side controversy said,
"It is impossible that an unconverted man should rightly discharge the work of the ministry to the glory of God."
In this sermon, Tennent powerfully argued for that many of the ministers of his day were unregenerate men and that such men, no matter their wisdom and learning and professionalism and eloquence were not fit for ministry.
And while he preached from Mark 6:34, could have just as well preached his sermon from 2 Corinthians 5. Look down at verses 16-17. There we read,
“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:16–17 ESV)
The first thing we see in our text for this evening is that every minister of the gospel must be a New Creation creation. What do I mean by that? As you can imagine my auto correct does not like the repetition of the word creation, but it is important.
The verse begins by saying “from now on.” This means that there is something that has changed. We used to do something one way, but from now on we will not do that anymore. And what is it that we will stop doing? We will stop evaluating, regarding, or judging believers according to the flesh. That means according to worldly standards of evaluation. Glory, influence, wealth, power. All things that are derived from the present realities. As Calvin says, “…everything apart from regeneration…”
Paul acknowledges that at one point we did judge people, even Jesus according to the flesh. That means that there was a point when we would see the outward works of Jesus and judge who he was and what his ministry meant by the bare facts of what he did. Prior to his conversion Paul knew the facts about Jesus. He had heard the claims of the gospel. But he was merely evaluating them according to what the eye of flesh could see.
But that changed when he was confronted by the resurrected Christ. He was headed to Damascus to destroy the spread of the gospel, but then Christ radically and irresistibly saved him. In a point of irony his eyes were blinded by the revelation of Jesus Christ. He once regarded Christ according to the flesh, but now by the miraculous intervention of God he sees and regards him thus no longer.
So then how do we regard? How do we see rightly, if it is not by the flesh? Here Paul answers that question by saying, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ…New Creation!”
The Greek construction of this phrase is abrupt. And to smooth it out our English translations supply the “he is a.” I do not object to this rendering however we must not miss the vital importance of the objective New Creation reality that is being addressed. For the Apostle is not merely saying that individuals who are united to Christ through faith are new creations individually. Rather he is saying that there is an objective reality called the New Creation that has come into existence through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And therefore, all who are united to Christ are now in said New Creation.
The term flesh is connected to all that is according to the Old Creation. To use covenantal language, it is our Adamic nature. Broken by sin and death. Held captive by Satan, the god of this world. But because of the work of Jesus Christ a New Creation reality has broken into this present world. For Jesus Christ died and he rose again. And in doing so he initiated the eschaton. That is to say he brought the future New Creation into the present Old Creation world. So that now the life of the world to come is present in all who by faith are in Jesus Christ.
It is as though an embassy of a foreign country has been planted in the middle of a hostile country and it provides escape for all who would flee to it for asylum.
It has been noted that Paul is drawing on the New Creation language of Isaiah 43. There Isaiah says,
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18–19 ESV)
To be joined to Christ by God’s grace through faith means that the life you now live is not rooted in the old creation but rather in the New Creation. This is what Paul means when he says elsewhere,
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20 ESV)
You see if you are in Christ, it means that you have died to this world, and you are now alive in the world that is to come. Seated with Christ in the heavenly places. And this is how we must regard ourselves and how we must regard one another, New Creation creations. For,
“The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)
We must begin here. Have you been born again? Has the old passed away and has the new come? How do you regard yourself? Where do you root your identity? Is it in the old broken creation or the new living creation?
This question of identity is so important because we do still live in this old creation and it beckons us. We still have bodies that are broken by sin and they tempt us. We have been born again however the body of our first birth has not yet been glorified and it is weak. And therefore, we can easily regard ourselves according to the flesh. And it is easy to regard others according to the flesh. But if we continue to identify ourselves and others with the fallen old creation (whether it be a particular glory – such as Pharisaical Righteousness - or a particular sin – such as Homosexuality or Same-sex attraction), we deny the power of the new creation and the new birth. We deny that we are regenerate. If we claim an identity other than Jesus Christ. We deny the new creation if we are unwilling to disavow ourselves from the old creation.
And therefore, it takes faith not to remember the former things as Isaiah calls us to do. It takes faith to believe that we have been crucified with Christ as Paul says. It takes faith to believe that the old has passed away and the new has come. For the eyes of flesh see the old brokenness but the eyes of faith see a New Creation in Christ. If we would hold on to our essential identity as a denomination we must not regard one another according to the flesh, but according to the New Creation. Our reformed identity means that we must be New Creation creations, in Christ.
- Point Two: A New Creation Power (vv. 18-19)
We must maintain the new creation as the foundation of ministry. And this is why it is so very important that when candidates for ministry come under care and when they come for ordination that they share their testimony, a witness that they have been born anew through union with Christ and are to no longer be regarded according to the flesh. The next thing that we see in our text is that we must regard ministry as a new creation power.
In 1 Corinthians Paul explains the nature of his own ministry in these words,
“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:1–5 ESV)
It is so very tempting to evaluate ministry (both our own and others) from the perspective of lofty speech and wisdom. To evaluate the worth or power of a ministry by how it sounds and looks. This is a central problem in the Evangelical movement. We so often build ministries around powerful and gifted communicators and leaders. Those who rise to places of prominence tend to be those who are able to gather large crowds and not necessarily those who come in weakness and fear and trembling.
The problem is that such ministries that are built on human power do not remain. Rather we are called to regard our ministry in a new creation power. Look at verses 18-19. There we read,
“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18–19 ESV)
The verse begins by saying “all this.” All what? Well, everything that we have just gone over. The New Creation in Christ. The new birth. The old passing away and the new coming. All of this is from God. To put it simply, salvation is from the power of God and not the power of men. And therefore, we must regard one another not by human accomplishment and wisdom but rather by the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. The power of ministry comes not from the minister but rather from the God who sends the minister. For salvation is from God.
And this is central to our reformed identity. Not what man can accomplish but what God has accomplished in Christ.
As we see the aim of the gospel is to bring about reconciliation. That is a restoration of the relationship between a holy God and sinful man. We understand by the word of God that Adam broke the covenant of life by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and thereby plunged himself and all his posterity into a relationship of enmity with God. This is what Paul explains in Ephesians chapter 2,
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” (Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV)
You were in the old creation, but God was not willing to allow his chosen ones to remain in this state of enmity under his wrath and curse. And therefore, he sent his Son Jesus Christ to reconcile us to himself, making peace by the blood of the cross.
As the text says God has reconciled us to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. Of course it will not be lost on us Presbyterians but it must be highlighted that the work and the power of salvation is not at all in man but wholly and completely of God. It was willed by the Father, it was accomplished by the Son, and it is applied by the Spirit.
It is so very tempting to take the power of salvation into our own hands either for glory or for despair. For glory we will see our congregations growing and people coming to faith. We will receive compliment and accolades for what a great job we have done. And we will begin to think that maybe some of this is from me. From my gifts, my talents, my wisdom, and winsomeness. On the other hand, we may believe the power of salvation is in our hands for despair. Our churches are dying. No one is responding. The elders are complaining. The budget is not being met. And you think to yourself, it is because I am a failure. If I were only more talented I could turn this ministry around.
I had a lovely congregation at Overbrook. The people there loved me and my family well. And they loved the Lord well. But the church remained small. There were Sunday’s when we had less than two dozen people in attendance. And I began to despair. I told my wife, “I just don’t think I am called to ministry. I can’t seem to get any traction. The church isn’t growing. I don’t want it to fail under me.” And I am sure that every minister here has felt this before.
How do we fight such thoughts of glory or despair? We look to 2 Corinthians 5:18 – “All this is from God.” From start to finish salvation is of the Lord. And therefore, we do not evaluate our ministry or the ministry of others by the outward success or failure but rather by their reliance on the power of God alone to save.
And therefore, we must study, know, believe and preach the doctrines of grace. We must be fully persuaded of God’s sovereign election, of Christ’s particular redemption, and of the Spirit’s irresistible and effectual application of grace. There is no rod of discipline more humbling and no medicine more comforting to the soul of a minister than the reality that all of salvation is of God.
III. Point Three: A New Creation Message (vv. 20-21)
This is our Reformed Identity a new creation creation, a new creation power, and third a new creation message. Look down at verses 18-21,
“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:18–21 ESV)
If we follow the thinking here a minister of the gospel is a new creation, empowered by God, to proclaim a message of reconciliation.
A few things to note from these verses.
The first, is that ministers of the gospel have especially been entrusted with the message of God’s sovereign reconciliation. (Those of you who are not ordained have also been given this message, but ordained ministers have a special calling to proclaim this message).
Second, we are ambassadors. We are not speaking our own message but God is speaking through us. It is his power at work as we have just noted. When you are preaching the word of God, it is God making his appeal through you, even as a president empowers an ambassador to speak on his behalf to a foreign nation.
Third, our call is to implore the lost to faith in God’s reconciling work. To faith in the work of Jesus Christ.
Fourth, the crux of that message is the substitutionary life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, summarized in verse 21.
This verse contains the heart of the message that we must preach week in and week out. It is what makes a sermon a Christian sermon. It is what we heard Paul proclaim earlier in 1 Corinthians 2, I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. It is what theologians call the great exchange.
First, we must proclaim the message that Christ who knew no sin became sin. This means that on the cross the spotless lamb of God took on the guilt of sin. He became a curse for us. The sin of all God’s elect was imputed or reckoned to Jesus Christ. Although he had never sinned, he died for sinners. He took the place of his sinful people and poured out his blood. And the wrath of God against sin was fully executed in the propitiation which is Christ.
Second, we must proclaim the message that through the death of Christ all who believe become the righteousness of God. That is to say, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed or reckoned to us, that is our new creation identity. And now we are forgiven by God and accepted as his children because he no longer regards us or judges us according to the flesh but according to the new creation. That is to say he see us as righteous because of the righteousness of Christ given to us.
This is the message of reconciliation that cannot be lost. We are justified by grace through faith. Declared righteous according to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. No longer in the old creation but a new creation.
And whether you are preaching from the Law or the Psalms or the Prophets. Whether you are preaching from the Gospels or the Epistles or Revelation, this must be your message.
As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1,
“we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:23–24 ESV)
When we preach to our congregations each Sunday or gather to hear candidates for ministry preach at presbytery, this must be the message that is clearly articulated – be reconciled to God through the atoning work of Jesus Christ! For this is message is our Reformed Identity.
Conclusion: Shall the Progressives Win (Again)?
On May 21, 1922 Harry Emerson Fosdick delivered what might be the most famous Presbyterian sermon of the 20th century, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” If you know the background the “Fundamentalists” were seeking to impose new ordination standards on the main line Presbyterian church. These included the many of the very things that we call the seven essentials of the faith. However, Fosdick argued that there were sincere evangelicals who, in light of modern science, could not hold to such doctrines as the virgin birth, penal substitutionary atonement, and the bodily return of Jesus Christ.
Fosdick painted the Fundamentalists as intolerant conservatives who had arbitrarily drawn the lines of orthodoxy. And that to maintain unity there needed to be a more liberal and tolerate approach to such issues.
The conservative Presbyterian pastor Clearance Macartney responded to Fosdick with his own sermon called, “Shall Unbelief Win?” He argued that secularism had made its way into the church and if not addressed would lead to, “a Christianity of opinions and principles and good purposes, but a Christianity without worship, without God, and without Jesus Christ.”
So who won? If we look at the mainline denominations, we see that the Progressives have clearly won the institutions. Fosdick’s vision of a liberal and tolerate approach to such issues as are essential to the faith has led to denomination after denomination falling not merely into lose theology but into rank heresy.
Even this week we have seen the UMC fall to the cult of the LGBTQ kingdom, the latest denomination to alley themselves with the flesh and the old creation.
In the PCUSA the Olympia Presbytery has tried to up the ante in this regard. They have recently proposed an amendment to the church’s ordination standards. Quoting now from an article by Richard Burnett in the winter edition 2024 of Theology Matters,
“The upshot of this amendment is that every ordination and installation of an officer in the PCUSA, whether teaching elder, ruling elder, or deacon, ‘shall include’ henceforth, an examination of the candidate’s willingness to affirm an unlimited number of sexual orientations, identities, and practices. Candidates would also have to ‘guarantee full participation and representation’ of ‘our LGBTQIA+ siblings’ in the church’s ‘worship, governance, and emerging life.’”
It is clear who has won these institutions.
And as we look to our own denomination, our beloved EPC, forged out of a desire to adhere to the fundamentals of our faith without exception, we must ask will the progressives win again or will we hold fast to our Reformed Identity?
Last Presbytery meeting we unanimously passed an overture to the General Assembly that seeks to guard and preserve our reformed identity. But in response there have been many calls to delay. There has been pressure to take our time. There are voices that echo Fosdick. They say, “Well-meaning evangelicals differ on such matters. We need tolerance to maintain our unity.”
But I say to you, there need be no delay in this regard. The study has been done. The questions have been asked. We have seen where this goes. Therefore, we must hold fast. We must not delay or relent.
If we would maintain the identity of our denomination then we elders must not regard anyone according to the flesh but rather see with the eyes of faith that unbelief shall never win but rather in Christ we are more than conquerors. We must hold firm to the truth that Jesus spoke that even the gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church.
Yes, there are battles to be fought. Yes, there are arguments to be made. But in the end the church’s foundation will not faulter, for it is the unshakable rock of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Shall the Progressive win? They never have won. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul?
Our faith is not in the things that we see but, in the Power, and the Message of the New Creation in the crucified and risen Christ! That must be our Reformed Identity!