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Explore the concept of living accountable to God through sharing faith based on 2 Corinthians 5:11-21. Discover how Christians are called to represent God and reconcile others to Him. Engage with the teachings of C.S. Lewis on the divinity of Jesus and the importance of living for Christ. Reflect on the compelling message of being reconciled to reconcile and the transformative power of faith in action. Challenge yourself to consider who you are truly living for and embrace the role of being God's ambassador on earth.
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Who are you living for? 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 Lewis Winkler
Accountableto God (11-13) • The “fear of the Lord” should motivate us to share our faith. • As Christians, we will be judged and rewarded for the way we live our lives. • Non-Christians will also be judged for where they stand as sinners before a holy and righteous God.
Accountableto God (11-13) • Some in Corinth were questioning Paul’s credentials as a minister of the gospel. • They were taking “pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart.” • Christians who share the gospel may seem crazy (“out of their minds”) in the world’s eyes, but the gospel is God’s wise means of salvation.
1 Corinthians 2:1-6 “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom on this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.”
Accountableto God (11-13) • This should be a source of confidence and encouragement to every Christian. • We need not be polished, good-looking, or exceptionally articulate to be powerfully used by God. • Rather than what others think of us, our primary concern need only be what God thinks of us.
Accountableto God (11-13) • Do you see yourself as accountable to God? • Do you see others around you as also accountable to Him? • Is it your greatest desire to please Him and persuade others to know Him as well?
Compelledby Christ (14-17) • Since Christ gave His life for us, we ought to live our lives for Him. • While it is tempting to see people—including Jesus—through our fleshly eyes, our Christian faith gives us a whole new way of seeing people in general and Jesus in particular.
Contemporary Views of Jesus • Jesus was a mythical figure. • Jesus was a charlatan who deceived people with pseudo wisdom and magic tricks. • Jesus was an alien.
Contemporary Views of Jesus • Jesus was a prophet but nothing more. • Jesus was a bodhisattva. • Jesus was a concrete manifestation of the divine concept of Brahman.
Contemporary Views of Jesus • Jesus was the highest created being, but not equal with God. • Jesus was an exceptionally God-conscious person, but not equal with God. • Jesus was a wise rabbi and good moral teacher who was later deified by his followers.
C. S. Lewis on Jesus “I am here trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Compelled by Christ (14-17) • When we open ourselves up to God’s revelation in Christ and we are able to see and know Jesus as He really is.
Compelled by Christ (14-17) • We are also able to see people as they really are, persons in desperate need of salvation through Jesus Christ.
Compelledby Christ (14-17) • When we place our trust in Jesus Christ, we become a radically new person. • As a result, our lives should now be characterized by the righteousness of Christ.
Reconciledto Reconcile (18-21) • We were once enemies of God, but now through Christ’s sacrifice, we have been reconciled to Him. • More than this, we now have “special clearance” to come to God, the Master of the universe, at any time.
Reconciledto Reconcile (18-21) • Even more amazingly, God has chosen us to represent Him on earth as His special envoys and ambassadors. • We are therefore called by God to plead with everyone who will listen so that they can also know the eternal joy and privilege of being reconciled to Him.
Conclusion and Application • Who am I really living my life for? • Am I genuinely living my life for God as His special representative on earth? • Does my life reflect His heart and His priority to seek and save the lost?
Although from a non-Christian family, Tim had become a Christian in high school.
A Few Barriers to Overcome • He had a highly desirable job. • His non-Christian parents would not approve of or understand his change of occupation. • He would have to raise his own financial support.
