ACC ~ 2 Corinthians 5 v16 - 21

OVERVIEW:

Until the cross there was a suspicion that Christ was weak, but once he rose from the dead all that vanished (AMBROSIASTER). There was a time when we knew Christ in his earthly life, but now we know him from his resurrection (JEROME, CHRYSOSTOM). Those who have been baptized must put to death the ways of the world (SEVERIAN OF GABALA). It is not only God who has been reconciled to us, but we who have been reconciled to him (HILARY OF POITIERS, THEODORET OF CYR, CHRYSOSTOM), making us new creatures (BASIL, GREGORY OF NYSSA, AUGUSTINE). The old things that have passed away refer to our sins and wickedness, as well as all the ceremonial rites of Judaism (CHRYSOSTOM, CAESARIUS OF ARLES). God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them (AMBROSIASTER, THEODORET OF CYR, CHRYSOSTOM). We do not say that Christ became a sinner, but being righteous, the Father made him a victim for the sins of the world (EUSEBIUS, GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). God allowed his Son to suffer as if he was a condemned sinner, so that we might be delivered from the penalty of our sins (CHRYSOSTOM). Christ was called what we are in order to call us to be what he is (THEODORET OF CYR). He fully shared our humanity with us (AMBROSE, PELAGIUs).

5:16a | Not from a Human Point of View

WE SUSPECTED CHRIST WAS WEAK. AMBROSIASTER: Now that Christ has risen from the dead, birth according to the flesh loses its importance, bodily weakness ceases to count and the sufferings of death no longer matter either. Right up until the cross there was a suspicion that Christ was weak, but once he rose from the dead all that vanished and what was previously doubted came to be believed. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

A HUMAN POINT OF VIEW. CHRYSOSTOM: Even if believers are still in their earthly bodies, we do not relate to them in that way, because the life according to the flesh has been transcended. We have been born again by the Spirit and have learned a different kind of behavior, which is that of heaven. It is Christ who has brought about this change. There was a time when we knew him in his earthly life, but now we know him in the perfection of his resurrection. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 11.3.

5:16b | Regarding Christ from a Different Viewpoint

IMITATING THE BEHAVIOR OF HEAVEN. SEVERIAN OF GABALA: When Christ was a man, he lived in a human way, fulfilling the law. But when he died and rose again, immortal, he abolished the things of the law and took on the ways of heaven. Therefore those who have been baptized must also put the ways of the world to death and imitate the pure behavior of heaven. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

REGARDING HIM THUS NO LONGER. THEODORET OF CYR: There was a time when Christ had a body which was capable of suffering, but after his suffering and death it became incorruptible and immortal. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 317.

THE BODY OF LIFE. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: After the resurrection it was the same body which had suffered except it no longer had the human infirmities in it. For we assert that it was no longer receptive of hunger, or of weariness or of anything else of such a kind but was thereafter incorruptible, and not only this but also life-giving. For it is the body of life, that is, the body of the Only Begotten, for it has been made resplendent with the glory most proper to his divinity and is known to be the body of God. Therefore, even if some might say that it is divine, just as, of course, it is the human body of a man, he would not err from proper reasoning. Whence I think that the very wise Paul said, “And even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.” For being God’s own body, as I said, it transcends all human bodies. LETTER 45.12.

THE GREAT ADVOCATE. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: Even at this moment he is, as man, interceding for my salvation, until he makes me divine by the power of his incarnate humanity. “As man,” I say, because he still has with him the body he assumed, though he is no longer “regarded as flesh”—meaning the bodily experiences, which, sin aside, are ours and his. This is the “Advocate” we have in Jesus—not a slave who falls prostrate before the Father on our behalf. Get rid of what is really a slavish suspicion, unworthy of the Spirit. It is not in God to make that demand nor in the Son to submit to it; the thought is unjust to God. No, it is by what he suffered as man that he persuades us, as Word and Encourager, to endure. That, for me, is the beginning of his “advocacy.” THEOLOGICAL ORATION 30.

CONTINUITY AND GLORIOUS DIFFERENCE. JEROME: Just as before the Lord suffered his passion, when he was transformed and glorified on the mountain, he certainly had the same body that he had had down below, although of a different glory. So also after the resurrection, his body was of the same nature as it had been before the passion but of a higher state of glory and in more majestic appearance, in fulfillment of the words of Paul: “So that henceforth we know no one according to the flesh. And even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.” HOMILY 61 ON PSALMS.

5:17 | A New Creation

WE HAVE A NEW LIFE. CHRYSOSTOM: We ought to live for Christ not just because we belong to him, not just because he died for us and not just because he rose again on our behalf. We ought to live for him because we have been made into something different. We now have a new life. The old things which have passed away refer to our sins and impiety, as well as all the observances of Judaism. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 11.4.

BORN AGAIN IN BAPTISM. THEODORET OF CYR: Those who believe in Christ have entered a new life. They must be born again in baptism and renounce their former sins. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 317.

THE ODOR OF LIFE. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: The Old Testament was good, but without spiritual understanding it dies with the letter. The New Testament, through grace, restores the odor of life. SERMON 168.4.

ORDERED FREEDOM. AUGUSTINE: We are then truly free when God orders our lives, that is, forms and creates us not as human beings—this he has already done—but as good people, which he is now doing by his grace, that we may indeed be new creatures in Christ Jesus. Accordingly the prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” ENCHIRIDION 9.31.

THREE CREATIONS. BASIL: But, if we must go on with our discussion and make a deeper study, let us from this point contemplate especially the divine power of the Holy Spirit. We find three creations mentioned in the Scripture; the first, the education from nonexistence into existence; the second, the change from worse to better; and the third, the resurrection of the dead. In these you will find the Holy Spirit cooperating with the Father and the Son. … Now, humanity is created a second time through baptism, “for if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.” LETTER 8.

A NEW AND SHINING CLOAK. CHRYSOSTOM: You heard today that the blessed Paul … told us in his letter to the Corinthians: “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.” To prevent us from interpreting the text as applying to a visible creation, he stated: “If any man is in Christ,” teaching us that if any man has gone over to the side of those who believe in Christ, he is an example of a new creature. Tell me, if we see new heavens and other portions of his creation, is there a profit in this which can match the benefit we gain from seeing a man converted from evil to virtue and changing from the side of error to that of truth? This is what the blessed Paul called a new creature, and so immediately he went on to say: “The former things have passed away; behold, they are all made new!” By this he briefly showed that those who, by their faith in Christ, had put off like an old cloak the burden of their sins, those who had been set free from their error and been illumined by the light of justification, had put on this new and shining cloak, this royal robe. This is why he said: “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the former things have passed away; behold, they are all made new.” BAPTISMAL INSTRUCTIONS 4.12.

CITIZENS OF A NEW WORLD. CHRYSOSTOM: Do you see why faith in Christ and the return to virtue are called a new creation? I exhort you, therefore, both you who have previously been initiated and you who have just now enjoyed the Master’s generosity, let us all listen to the exhortation of the apostle, who tells us: “The former things have passed away; behold, they are all made new.” Let us forget the whole past and, like citizens in a new world, let us reform our lives, and let us consider in our every word and deed the dignity of him who dwells within us. BAPTISMAL INSTRUCTIONS 4.16.

THE APOSTOLIC RULE. GREGORY OF NYSSA: “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, the former things have passed away.” The “new creation” is the apostolic rule. And what this is Paul makes abundantly clear in another section, saying: “In order that I might present to myself the church in all her glory, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she might be holy and without blemish.” A new creature he called the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in a pure and blameless soul removed from evil and wickedness and shamefulness. For, when the soul hates sin, it closely unites itself with God, as far as it can, in the regimen of virtue; having been transformed in life, it receives the grace of the Spirit to itself, becomes entirely new again and is recreated. ON THE CHRISTIAN MODE OF LIFE.

5:18 | The Ministry of Reconciliation

ALL THINGS COME FROM GOD. AMBROSIASTER: Although Christ has redeemed us, all things come from God, because all fatherhood comes from him. Therefore [in triune reasoning] precedence must be given to the person of the Father. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

GOD GAVE US THE MINISTRY. CHRYSOSTOM: When I say that Christ is the cause of our reconciliation, I say that the Father is also. When I say that the Father gave, I mean that the Son gave also. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 11.4.

GOD HAS RECONCILED US TO HIMSELF. THEODORET OF CYR: It is not just that God has been reconciled to us; we also have been reconciled to him. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 317.

THE RECONCILIATION OF THE WORLD. HILARY OF POITIERS: Since all things are reconciled in him, recognize … that he reconciles all things to the Father in himself, which he will reconcile through himself. The same apostle says: “But all things are from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. For God was truly in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.” Compare the entire mystery of the evangelical faith with these words! He who is seen in him who is seen, he who works in him who works, he who speaks in him who speaks is the same one who will reconcile in him who reconciles. Accordingly, there is the reconciliation in him and through him, because the Father himself, who remains in him through the identical nature, restored the world to himself through him and in him by this reconciliation. ON THE TRINITY 8.51.

5:19 | Reconciling the World to Himself

NOT COUNTING OUR TRESPASSES. AMBROSIASTER: God was in Christ, that is to say, the Father was in the Son, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them. Creation sinned against God and did not repent, so God, who did not want his work to perish, sent his Son in order to preach through him the forgiveness of sins and thus reconcile them to himself. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

IN CHRIST. CHRYSOSTOM: Can you see how great God’s love is for us? Who was the offended party? He was. Who took the first steps toward reconciliation? He did. Some will say that he sent the Son in his place, but this is a misunderstanding. Christ did not come apart from the Father who sent him. They were both involved together in the work of reconciliation. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 11.5.

5:20 | God Makes His Appeal Through Us

DEVOTION AND BELIEF. AMBROSIASTER: Paul wants to show both his devotion to God’s providence and his belief that it is his duty to love the whole human race. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

BE RECONCILED. PELAGIUS: We are reconciled to God if we believe in Christ. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 5.

AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST. CHRYSOSTOM: The apostles are ambassadors for Christ because they have succeeded to his ministry. And not only his, for they represent the Father as well. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 11.5.

THE SIGN OF THE NEW LIFE. AUGUSTINE: He says, “He [Christ] who knew no sin, he [God] made to be sin for us.” The God to whom we are to be reconciled has thus made him the sacrifice for sin by which we may be reconciled. He himself is therefore sin as we ourselves are righteousness—not our own but God’s, not in ourselves but in him. Just as he was sin—not his own but ours, rooted not in himself but in us—so he showed forth through the likeness of sinful flesh, in which he was crucified, that since sin was not in him he could then, so to say, die to sin by dying in the flesh, which was “the likeness of sin.” And since he had never lived in the old manner of sinning, he might, in his resurrection, signify the new life which is ours, which is springing to life anew from the old death in which we had been dead to sin. ENCHIRIDION 13.41.

5:21 | Becoming the Righteousness of God

THE SAME SUBSTANCE. AMBROSE: This proves that his body and soul are of the same substance as ours. THE SACRAMENT OF THE INCARNATION OF OUR LORD 7.76.

AN OFFERING FOR OUR SINS. AMBROSIASTER: Christ did not have to be born as a man, but he became man because of sin. It was only because all flesh was subject to sin that he was made sin for us. In view of the fact that he was made an offering for sins, it is not wrong for him to be said to have been made “sin,” because in the law the sacrifice which was offered for sins used to be called a “sin.” After his death on the cross Christ descended to hell, because it was death, working through sin, which gave hell its power. Christ defeated death by his death and brought such benefit to sinners that now death cannot hold those who are marked with the sign of the cross. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

HE SUFFERED AS IF A CONDEMNED SINNER. CHRYSOSTOM: God allowed his Son to suffer as if a condemned sinner, so that we might be delivered from the penalty of our sins. This is God’s righteousness, that we are not justified by works (for then they would have to be perfect, which is impossible), but by grace, in which case all our sin is removed. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 11.5.

A VICTIM FOR SINNERS. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: We do not say that Christ became a sinner, far from it, but being righteous (or rather, righteousness, because he did not know sin at all), the Father made him a victim for the sins of the world. LETTER 41.10.

TO DELIVER US FROM THE LAW. SEVERIAN OF GABALA: Paul shows here how much he grieved for those who obstinately kept the law. For by keeping the law, he says, we become sinners. Christ became sin in order to deliver us from the law. God says to us that we should accept this freedom by no longer remaining in bondage to the commands of the law. PAULINE COMMENTARY ON THE GREEK CHURCH.

CALLED TO BE WHAT WE ARE. THEODORET OF CYR: Christ was called what we are in order to call us to be what he is. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 318.

THE BLESSED CURSE. AMBROSE: But if you hold to the letter, so as to think from what is written, namely, the Word was made flesh, that the Word of God was turned into flesh, do you not deny that it is written of the Lord that he did not make sin but was made sin? So, was the Lord turned into sin? Not so, but, since he assumed our sins, he is called sin. For the Lord is also called an accursed thing, not because the Lord was turned into an accursed thing but because he himself took on our curse. He says: “For he is accursed that hangs on a tree.” … It is written that he was made sin, that is, not by the nature and operation of sin … ; but that he might crucify our sin in his flesh, he assumed for us the burden of the infirmities of a body already guilty of carnal sin. THE SACRAMENT OF THE INCARNATION OF OUR LORD 6.60.

THE CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP. BASIL: In yet another passage, contemplating the still more wonderful benevolence of God in Christ, he says: “Him who knew no sin, he has made sin for us, that we might be made the justice of God in him.” In view of these utterances and other similar ones, we are under the strictest obligation, unless we have received in vain the grace of God, first, to free ourselves from the dominion of the devil who leads a slave of sin into evils even against his will. Secondly, each of us, after denying himself present satisfactions and breaking off his attachment to this life, must become a disciple of the Lord, as he himself said: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” CONCERNING BAPTISM 1.1.

THE RIGHTEOUS VICTIM. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: For this reason, we say that he was named sin; wherefore, the all-wise Paul writes, “For our sakes he made him to be sin who knew nothing of sin,” that is to say, God the Father. For we do not say that Christ became a sinner. Far from it, but being just, or rather in actuality justice, for he did not know sin, the Father made him a victim for the sins of the world. LETTER 41.

THE WILLING SACRIFICE. EUSEBIUS: And he, since he understood at once his Father’s divine counsel, and because he discerned better than any other why he was forsaken by the Father, humbled himself even more. He embraced death for us with all willingness and “became a curse for us,” holy and all-blessed though he was. … “He that knew no sin, became sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” Yet more—to wash away our sins he was crucified, suffering what we who were sinful should have suffered, as our sacrifice and ransom, so that we may well say with the prophet, he bears our sins and is pained for us, and he was wounded for our sins and bruised for our iniquities, so that by his stripes we might be healed, for the Lord has given him for our sins. So, as delivered up by the Father, as bruised, as bearing our sins, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter. PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 4.17.

THE CURSE THAT DESTROYS THE CURSE. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: But look at it in this manner: that as for my sake he was called a curse who destroyed my curse, and sin who takes away the sin of the world, and became a new Adam to take the place of the old, just so he makes my disobedience his own as head of the whole body. As long, then, as I am disobedient and rebellious, both by denial of God and by my passions, so long Christ is also called disobedient on my account. But when all things shall be subdued to him on the one hand by acknowledgment of him and on the other by a reformation, then he himself also will have fulfilled his submission, bringing me whom he has saved to God. THEOLOGICAL ORATION 5.

A WICKED BURDEN BORNE BY RIGHTEOUSNESS. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: And so the passage “The Word was made flesh” seems to me to be equivalent to that in which it is said that he was made sin or a curse for us; not that the Lord was transformed into either of these—how could he be? But because by taking them upon him he took away our sins and bore our iniquities. LETTERS ON THE APOLLINARIAN CONTROVERSY 101.

THE DAY OF SALVATION 2 CORINTHIANS 6:1-10

OVERVIEW: The grace of the Holy Spirit possesses the soul, filling it with gladness and power, making sweet our sufferings in the Lord and taking away the perception of present pain because of the hope of the things to come (GREGORY OF NYSSA, JEROME, SAHDONA). The Christian life is the opposite of what it appears to be (ORIGEN, CHRYSOSTOM, PELAGIUS). The acceptable time is the time of the gift, the time of grace, when it is decreed that not only will no account of our sins be demanded from us but also we shall enjoy abundant blessings, righteousness and sanctification (CHRYSOSTOM). This is the time for repentance; the next life will be the time for reward (BASIL) or judgment (FULGENTIUS). Paul like a heavenly physician (MAXIMUS OF TURIN) cuts away everything that might cause the negligent to stumble (AMBROSIASTER). The weapons of righteousness on the right hand are those which are pleasing to the mind; those on the left hand are those which are not (THEODORET OF CYR, CHRYSOSTOM, DIDYMUS THE BLIND).