“God was in Christ” This is the main issue of Christianity. Was God (the God, the OT YHWH), in Jesus of Nazareth, reconciling the world to Himself (cf. Gal. 1:3–4)? If so, Christianity is true; if not, it is false. Is Jesus truly the image of God (cf. John 1:1–14; Col. 1:15–16; Phil. 2:6–11; Heb. 1:2–3)? Is He truly the only way to reconciliation and forgiveness (cf. John 14:6)? If so, then the gospel is the most important information that people will ever, can ever, hear! We must tell the truth; we must preach the gospel; we must lift up Christ; we must offer a free salvation to a lost world.

“not counting their trespasses against them” This may reflect Ps. 32:2, which is quoted in Rom. 4:6–8. Before the Law, sin was not imputed to individuals (cf. Rom. 4:15; 5:13–14; Acts 17:30). But this text has an even greater truth. In the face of known human rebellion there is forgiveness in Christ. Jesus’ blood cleanses from all sin! Sin is no longer the barrier between God and mankind, but now it is unbelief, rejection of faith in Christ, unwillingness to respond to God’s offer.

The ministry of reconciliation therefore involves more than simply explaining to others what God has done in Christ. It requires that one become an active reconciler oneself. Like Christ, a minister of reconciliation plunges into the midst of human tumult to bring harmony out of chaos, reconciliation out of estrangement, and love in the place of hate.

God’s act of reconciliation is summed up in his canceling the debt of sin (see Col 2:13–14). The word translated “sins” by the NIV is “transgressions” (paraptomata). Transgressions are not simply sins that one commits in ignorance. Transgression is deliberate sin, doing what we know to be disobedience to God. This defiant mutiny is far more serious and created what seemed to be an unbridgeable gulf between us and God. But God wiped clean the register of transgressions through Christ’s death. The files containing the records of our shortcomings and offenses have been deleted

How did God make Jesus become sin? This may be an OT allusion to a sin offering (cf. Isa. 53; Rom. 8:3). God offered Jesus as the sinless lamb (cf. John 1:29, 36).

I think Jesus’ words from the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me” (cf. Mark 15:34), which is a quote from Ps. 22, reflects the spiritual reality of the Father turning away from the Son (symbolized by the darkness, cf. Mark 15:33), as He bore the sin of the world. This is theologically parallel to Gal. 3:13, “having become a curse for us”!

God provided Jesus to stand in for sinful humanity. Even though Jesus was sinless, God deals with him as though he were a sinner by letting him die an accursed death. In the Jewish cult the animal offered up to atone for sins “had to be holy, without defect, precisely so that both priest and offerer could be confident that the death it died was not its own.” The result of this transaction is that “we might become the righteousness of God.” We do not simply have righteousness from God, we are the righteousness of God as a result of being in Christ (see 1 Cor 1:30; 6:11). We are given his righteousness only as we are in him, and will be raised like him only if we live in him.

Paul has reconciliation on his mind throughout 2 Corinthians. His opening prayer mentions or alludes to the comfort of God and Christ no less than ten times in the space of five verses (1:3–7). This theme alludes to both the comfort we have in the gospel as well as to the comfort Paul now feels because the Corinthians have submitted to his authority and repented of their sin. The heart of the letter, 3:7–5:10, not to mention 5:11–6:2, gives us perhaps the most uplifting and comforting words in the entire New Testament. The comfort of these passages comes in a discussion of Paul’s intense suffering and persecution.

While 2 Corinthians was written to deal with problems in the church, and bears the marks of the strain of the extreme emotion under which Paul wrote it as evidenced by the numerous passages which are grammatically difficult and convoluted, it also contains unique theological treasures found nowhere else. His digressions on the new covenant, on the resurrection body, on the relation of weakness and suffering to glory and successful ministry, and on the theology of ministry itself are developed here as nowhere else in his writings. It also reveals Paul’s personal struggles to an extent and depth not shown in any other epistle.

Ch. 5 includes two interesting doctrinal teachings, with references to life after death and to the doctrine of the atonement—reconciliation (v. 19), but they are only the undercurrent of the letter.

Paul is hurting. He has felt rejected by the Christians at Corinth. Although he founded the church, they have now been attracted to the new teachers—‘super-apostles’—who have arrived in Corinth since Paul left for Ephesus.

Paul writes to explain that he is a true apostle. He may not have a charming manner, impressive presence and smooth words; but he is genuine. He preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ and bears the suffering involved.

This is a love letter. Paul loves the Corinthian Christians so much that he has been in great pain. It is a heart-to-heart talk about their relationship, with its joys, complaints and misunderstandings. Paul hopes that they will read it and feel as he does:

The gospel message is that Jesus Christ died for all people. He died to pay for our sin, so that we can be released into a new life with God. When we accept his death for us, our own old life can die. We die to our self-centred life and rise to the free, loving, God-centred life of Christ

No letter of Paul’s is more personal and intimate in nature than 2 Corinthians. In it he bared his soul and professed his abiding love for the Corinthians despite the apparent fickleness of their affection for him.

Paul is the author of this letter (1:1; 10:1). It is the apostle’s most personal and pastoral letter.

For Paul truth is not relative or simply a matter of personal taste; it rests in the objective reality of what God has done in Christ.

Paul’s self-centered devotion to the law had blinded him to the glory of God in the person of Christ. Only when the Lord encountered him on the Damascus road was he constrained to recognize the truth. This compelling encounter caused him to change his mind about everything he had previously held dear, but it also changed his mind from one corrupted and veiled by sin to one that could now see the very heart of God. Jesus had been raised by the power of God; he was the Son of God, and the exalted Lord. Paul learned that Jesus’ crucifixion was not God’s retribution against some imagined blasphemy committed by a counterfeit prophet but a vicarious sacrifice for the sins of humanity.

9:3–6 As Paul approached the gates of Damascus, suddenly a great light from heaven flashed around him. The light must have been intense, for the time of the occurrence was “around midday”

9:3–6 As Paul approached the gates of Damascus, suddenly a great light from heaven flashed around him. The light must have been intense, for the time of the occurrence was “around midday”

There was no elaboration of Paul’s vision. All the emphasis was on the fact that Paul saw the Lord—nothing more. This is very much in keeping with Paul’s own testimony about his conversion, which concentrated on one fact—that he saw the Lord (cf. 1 Cor 9:1; 15:8; Gal 1:16).

Rather, the picture is of Paul in his brokenness and helplessness. The radiance of his vision had blinded him. Reduced to total powerlessness, he had to be led by others into the city. That he neither ate nor drank for three days could be an expression of penitence on Paul’s part17 but is more likely the result of his shock, confusion, and utter brokenness of will.

It would be hard to overestimate the significance of Paul’s conversion, not only for the subsequent narrative of Acts but for the history of Christianity as a whole. He was, in his own words, called to be a missionary to the Gentiles (cf. Gal 1:16), and Acts certainly confirms that picture. For Luke and for Paul (cf. 1 Cor 15:9f.) there was no more certain evidence of God’s power and grace than in his transformation of the church’s persecutor into its greatest witness. Paul’s was a radical conversion experience, a total turnabout accomplished by Christ himself. Its importance for Luke is evidenced by the fact that he told the story in some detail three times in Acts—here in 9:1–30, then in Paul’s speech before a Jewish crowd in the temple area (22:3–21), and finally in Paul’s defense before the Jewish King Agrippa (26:2–23).

Verse 1 picks up the picture in 8:3. Paul was still the church’s number one enemy, still raging against it, “breathing out murderous threats.” Paul’s role was not one of executioner but of arresting officer. His intent was to stamp out the new movement; and when it did come to a question of execution of Christians, he did not hesitate to vote for the death penalty (cf. 26:10).

Originally, Paul’s activity had primarily been directed at the Christians in and around Jerusalem (8:3; 26:10). Evidently, some had fled the city and taken refuge in Damascus. Paul approached the high priest, who probably was still Caiaphas at this time. He requested not official extradition papers but more likely introductory letters from the Sanhedrin to the synagogues of Damascus in order to secure their support in his efforts to apprehend the Christian fugitives and return them to Jerusalem for trial.