(4:16) - 10 Living by Faith
"Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day." Paul insists that even though we are getting older and will die, there is the promise of a greater life in God later. "5. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee."
Paul states that we walk by faith and not by sight.
11 - 21 Ministry by Reconciliation
We must preach the gospel and (16) "regard no one from a human point of view"
Good line for memorization: (17) "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!"
God conconciled himself through Christ - that in is Christ He reconciled the world. Here it is - the line that states that Jesus died for our sins!
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Paul gives an excellent comparison of our earthly bodies being like a tent and our heavenly bodies being a building or house built by God. As long as we are in our "tent" we groan and are miserable because it doesn't offer much protection and comfort from the "elements" of this world. We long for our heavenly dwelling in hopes of its eternal comfort and security.
Paul says that our proof of this is that the Holy Spirit is our deposit to guarantee what is to come. Because the Holy Spirit dwells within us we are confident of all that Christ and scripture assure us of the future.
9-10 "So we make it our goal to please him. For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad."
11 "Since, then, we know what is is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men."
Paul still addresses the false teachers that the Corinthians are dealing with. His evidence is that spirit and heart (both unseen) are the proof of faith, not visible things and words. He says that if they appear to be crazy to the world it is for God's sake. If they appear to be sane, it's for their sake.
15 "He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."
18-21 Paul concludes this section talking about reconciliation.
The whole point of the Bible is to explain how we fell from the perfection that God created us in through sin and how we can "correct" or reconcile this situation to be the people God created us to be.
Old testament people had to go through all the rituals we've been studying to attempt this but there was no way to "do" anything to achieve this reconcilliation. Also, they ("God's chosen people") were the only ones on earth who had this opportunity. They were an elite group. The rest of the people in the world were doomed to remain outside God's redemption.
21 "God made him wo had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." JESUS became the pure, sinless "sacrificial lamb" (to use OT terminology) whose sacrifice could achieve this reconcilliation. He was the only human capable of achieving this BECAUSE he (amazingly and supernaturally) remained sinless.
Because of Jesus, all we (ANYONE in the world) has to do to is to hear and read about this story and its truth and BELIEVE it. At that point the Holy Spirit will enter their hearts and begin the (earthly) lifelong process of "correcting" the imbalance which sin has caused.
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