Reconciliation with God through the Death of Jesus Christ

Atonement through Jesus Christ’s Death

The psalmist says that God is “full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth” (Ps 86:15 KJV). For Paul, the supreme example of God’s mercy is not counting our sins against us (5:19) but acting through Christ’s death to redeem us and to create the opportunity for reconciliation with him. God is not like the easily riled, vindictive deities that people tried to mollify with sacrifices. No sacrifice we might offer, however, could suffice to placate God’s holy wrath against sin. Thankfully, Christ is the sacrifice that humans could not offer themselves.

"God’s grace is something that God has done for us through Christ."

God’s grace is something that God has done for us through Christ. It was God, not us, who “presented” Christ “as a sacrifice of atonement” (Rom 3:25–26; see Rom 5:6–10; 2 Cor 5:18–19, 21). What Paul writes in 5:14–21 is a majestic summary of this atoning sacrifice. He says three times (emphases mine) that “one [Christ] died for all” (5:14b); “he died for all,” defined as “those who [now] live” (5:15a); and he “died for them and was raised again” (5:15b). The Greek preposition translated as “for” (hyper) can also mean “in place of,” “as a representative of,” or “for the benefit of” (“in the interest of”). Must one choose only one meaning for this preposition? It is possible that Paul “plays with the meaning” and “shifts back and forth between” the three meanings.

First, the phrase that “one died for all” (5:14b) has a substitutionary significance. Christ died in place of all. Paul’s conclusion in 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for [hyper] us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God,” highlights this interchange in Christ (see also Gal 2:20; 3:13). Christ has done something for others and had done it in their stead “to produce a salvific effect.”

"He died a death under the divine wrath that sinners deserve."

He died a death under the divine wrath that sinners deserve. This interchange “is achieved, on the one hand, by Christ’s solidarity with mankind, on the other, by our solidarity with Christ.” Why does God not just forgive sin and leave it at that? G. B. Caird answers, “To forgive sin by fiat would be to ignore it, to treat it as though it did not exist; like cancelling traffic offences by abolishing the rules of the road.” It is important to recognize that “Divine retribution for sin is real, and humans had better not discount the reality of God’s wrath against sin.”

"The forgiveness of sins required Jesus to stand in for sinners to spare them from facing the supreme penalty for their rebellion against God."

But God does not just avert wrath through Christ’s becoming a sin offering; God also offers to restore a broken relationship caused by human sin. God did not create the problem, “as if God were a cruel tyrant from whom humans rebelled. Human sinfulness created the problem, and this sinful condition had to be dealt with before there could be any reconciliation.” In this case, God, the injured party, took action to resolve the falling out. The forgiveness of sins required Jesus to stand in for sinners to spare them from facing the supreme penalty for their rebellion against God. Christ’s vicarious sacrifice wipes the slate clean and paves the way for reconciliation with God.

Second, Christ’s death has a representative significance. For instance, in 5:20 the preposition huper has a representative sense. As Christ’s ambassador, Paul implores the Corinthians on Christ’s behalf (hyper), that is, as Christ’s representative. The statement in 5:14c, “therefore all died,” also suggests this representative sense. Moyer Hubbard reasons, “A substitute dies so that others do not, whereas a representative embodies the community as its delegate and so includes others in his/her sacrificial act (see Heb 7.9–10).” Hubbard continues: “Describing Christ as a representative whose story somehow affects the whole of humanity, the submerged analogy of Adam-Christ again becomes visible. First Corinthians 15:22 confirms this connection: ‘In Adam all die; in Christ all will be made alive’ ” (see also Rom 5:12–20). Udo Schnelle explains how this could be: “Because Christ is in no way affected by the realm where sin is dominant, he can represent us in becoming sin, in order thereby to effect our incorporation into the realm where he is Lord.”

"Christ’s resurrection breaks the calamitous interconnection between sin and death that menaces humanity."

Third, Christ’s death also is “for the benefit of” believers. Paul speaks of our resurrection earlier in chapter 5 (vv. 1–5) and contends elsewhere that Christ “was raised to life for our justification” (Rom 4:25) so that “we too may live a new life” (Rom 6:4). Christ’s resurrection breaks the calamitous interconnection between sin and death that menaces humanity. Thus, all three connotations of the preposition hyper express what Paul understands Christ’s death for us means.

Paul concludes this unit in 5:21 by describing a mysterious exchange. Christ, who was sinless, is bonded to our sin and condemned as if he were a sinner. Being “in Christ” (5:17) bonds believers, who have no righteousness in themselves, to his righteousness. They “become the righteousness (dikaiosune) of God” (5:21). The word translated as “righteousness” can refer to “ justice”—giving out rewards or punishments that a person is due—and to a person’s right standing before God. Paul knits the two meanings of this noun together: God obtained justice on the cross and gave believers the gift of uprightness.

What Paul says in 5:21 encapsulates what he affirms more fully in Rom 3:25 26: “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

"Christ’s becoming sin for us resulted in God blotting out our sins in the same way that Christ’s death for us swallowed up death..." 

The language of “righteousness” recurs throughout 2 Corinthians (3:9; 6:7, 14; 9:9, 10; 11:15), and Isaiah’s use of “righteousness” (the root zedek appears eighty-one times in Isaiah) helps clarify what Paul means in this context. Paul appropriated from his theological reading of Isaiah, particularly Isa 46:13 and 51:5, 6, 8, the idea that the righteousness of God refers to “not counting people’s sins against them” (5:19). Christ’s becoming sin for us resulted in God blotting out our sins in the same way that Christ’s death for us swallowed up death and gave us the promise of resurrection (1 Cor 15:54; see Isa 25:8).

It is important to clarify the meaning that Christ’s death is “for all” in 5:14–15. It is potentially beneficial for all. However, it is only operative for those who “live by faith, not by sight” (5:7), who believe that Christ died for them and that God raised him from the dead, and who “no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them” (5:15). Those who reject the gospel are perishing (2:15–16).

Reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ’s Death

Paul’s statement that as part of the process of reconciliation God did not count “people’s sins against them” assumes that human sin shatters the relationship with God. That relationship needs mending—but given our weak, sinful, and rebellious condition we can do nothing to restore that relationship on our own. We might make attempts to do so through sanctimonious supplications (contrast 2 Macc 1:5; 8:29), repeated attempts at repentance, and recurrent sacrificial offerings, but they are all futile. Paul’s assertion that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself” (5:19 ASV) means that God took the initiative in restoring the relation through what God did in Christ.

"This concept would have been theologically stunning in Paul’s Hellenistic context."

This concept would have been theologically stunning in Paul’s Hellenistic context. Instead of being on the receiving end of a sacrifice, God chose to be the sacrifice. This reconciliation does not placate God’s enmity; it seeks to overcome our enmity through God’s sacrificial act of love (Rom 5:8).

Furthermore, this is not a matter of the divine judge letting us off the hook and wiping the slate clean. The divine judge is the One whom we have sinned against, and he does far more than forgiving our trespasses and letting us start again. Indeed, God offers himself to us in friendship through Christ and gives us the power to start again through the Holy Spirit.

"God drew near to us through Christ..."

God drew near to us through Christ and was involved in Christ’s death to create the possibility for “the world” (5:19) to enter an intimate relationship with God. “The world” (kosmos) does not refer to the cosmos in this context but to humankind (Rom 3:6, 19; 11:12). In this case it denotes ungodly, sinful humanity.

This article is an excerpt from David Garland's 2 Corinthians, volume 8 in the New Word Biblical Themes series.