2 Cor 5:20 For Christ therefore we are ambassadors, God as it were exhorting by us, for Christ, we beseech you, be reconciled to God.
Paul concludes that we have been constituted by God as ambassadors of the reconciliation accomplished by Christ, that is, the man through whom God reconciled the world. He says, and almost immediately repeats, for Christ, that is, by the authority of Christ, in order to touch upon what is proper to the ministers of the New Testament. For the prophets were indeed ambassadors of God to the people of God, but not for Christ; the ministers of the New Testament, however, are not only ambassadors of God but are substituted for Christ — whence Paul also said, I in the person of Christ have given... AS GOD EXHORTING THROUGH US, BESEECHING THROUGH US, WE BESEECH FOR CHRIST.
But stop here, prudent reader, and know that Paul's intention is to declare, by way of execution, the ministry of justice entrusted to the ministers of the New Testament. And he makes subtle use of two distinctions — one on the part of the ministers, the other on the part of the things themselves. For certain things of God's justice that the ministers of the New Testament administer by word are the deeds of God in Christ, which are not imitable; while others, which they administer by word and deed in imitation of Christ, are the graces of the New Testament. Using Paul's own words, Paul distinguishes the ministers of the New Testament either insofar as they perform the pure office of ambassadors, or insofar as they are also cooperators. He first treats what they do as ambassadors, and then what they do as cooperators. He treats both by way of execution, that is, as one who carries out. More clearly understood is that all that sounds like execution is written materially. Thus, when he says as beseeching through us, we beseech God for Christ, Paul is not beseeching, but describing the office of the ambassadors of the New Testament insofar as ambassadors are meant to beseech on behalf of Christ, as if God were beseeching through them.
Note here the many conditions in this embassy: that not by commanding but by beseeching for Christ, that is, on behalf of Christ the man; as God who sends, beseeching through us, that is, we pray in Christ's place, as if God were not praying through us but beseeching you. Great is the humility of the Apostles in beseeching sinners, but far greater is the mission of the divine embassy extended even to this, that how much this humility makes God beseech sinners through His own ambassadors, in order to signify the immense love of God toward sinners, to omit no useful means for the conversion of sinners. Therefore, both by the example of God and the Apostles, we prelates are instructed to embrace humble actions useful for the conversion of sinners.
RECONCILE YOURSELVES TO GOD. Here, from the office of the embassy, what we ask and whom we ask — namely the enemies of God, for they alone need reconciliation to God. But a question arises: How do we ask "reconcile yourselves to God" if the world is already reconciled to God? For he who is reconciled does not need reconciliation. But he said that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ. The solution is that in the death of Christ reconciliation was made, but it was not commanded to be executed in the death of Christ; in the death of Christ the sacrifice of reconciliation was offered, but reconciliation itself was not applied by execution — rather, the execution and application of reconciliation obtained through the death of Christ occurs through the faith, hope, and charity of individuals. Whence to ask "reconcile yourselves" is to ask that the reconciliation that has been made have execution in you through the faith and charity of Christ. And both this and what follows are to be understood materially, that is, to explain the matter of the office.
2 Cor 5:21 Him who did not know sin He made sin for us, that we might become the justice of God in Him.
He continues the matter to be proposed by the ambassadors, namely the reason why they should reconcile themselves to God. And He explains at the same time the mode of reconciliation by which God reconciled both the ministers themselves and the world in Christ, that is, all the elect. And therefore he speaks in the plural in the first person, saying that we might become.
The mode and reason is that God made Him — that is, Jesus — who did not know any sin by experience of commission, omission, or origin — sin for us, not a sinner but sin, that is, a victim for sin. For the sacred Scripture calls a victim for sin "sin," according to that of Hosea 4: The sins of my people they shall eat. For God made Jesus a victim for our sins, defining and commanding the man Christ to offer Himself out of charity for the world on the altar of the cross. God also made the man Christ "sin," using the human nature personally joined to Him as an instrument joined, as we use the tongue or the hand — using, I say, that for the material of sacrifice to reconcile us to God.
He transferred our sins to Christ so that we might become the justice of God in Him, that is, in Jesus. The justice of God: the justice of God in God is that by which God is just; the justice of God in the reprobate is the just punishment of the reprobate; the justice of God in Christ is the merit of Christ, sufficient even to satisfy on our behalf, to justify us, etc. It is called "of God" both because it is personally God's and because it is true justice before the divine tribunal, as distinct from our own justices which before the divine tribunal are as a menstrual cloth. When, therefore, the merit of Christ is communicated to us, we become the justice of God in Christ, because we become just not by our own justice but by the justice of God in Christ communicated to us. For we become just before God by merit, by sanctification, by the reconciliation of Christ. Paul uses this manner of speaking — that we might become justice — to signify that in the justice of God in Christ communicated to us we are so transformed that we are nothing else in intellect, in affection, in operation, and in suffering, except what we are from the justice of God, which is the merit of Christ. For then, and not before, we are made the justice of God in Christ, progressing and beginning step by step by participating in it.
2 Cor 6:1 And we helping do exhort you that you receive not the grace of God in vain.
Ponder here, prudent reader, first the justice of God in Christ that Christ Himself willed to satisfy for us. For the passion of the innocent for sinners is indeed a species of commutative justice — the justice of the New Testament — that pays the penalty for an injury. This is the justice of the New Testament. Next, consider that the same justice is communicated to us; indeed, it is ordered toward this, that we might be transformed into it. Truly, then, is the ministry of the New Testament a ministry of justice. Finally, attend to how provocative this reasoning of men is toward reconciling themselves to God. Lastly, consider the matter of the embassy and see that it is the deeds of God in Christ, which are not imitable by men. For this reason Paul does not bring forward that Christ suffered and died — for these are imitable by us — but brings forward that He was made, entirely without sin, a victim for our sins, which is manifestly not imitable by any man. These are what the ministers, as ambassadors, must evangelize, beseeching on behalf of Christ, and as God beseeching through them, to signify also on the part of men complete freedom toward reconciliation, just as he who is asked and besought is free. And therefore he says cooperating.
As if he had said more openly: insofar as we are ambassadors, we ask "reconcile yourselves," because Christ suffered for us; insofar as we are cooperators, etc. For just as cooperation is distinguished from passive embassy, so cooperators from ambassadors — this is not a distinction of persons but of offices of the same person. For one thing is the office of carrying out the embassy, another is the office of cooperating. The former belongs to the tongue, the latter to deeds; foreign deeds suffice for the former, one's own deeds are required for the latter. We have from this also that the ministers of the New Testament are not instituted as pure ambassadors but as cooperating ambassadors — cooperating with God and with Christ. What these cooperations are, Paul will declare diffusely.
Do exhort. Whether from the embassy or from cooperation, we do not command but ask; indeed we beseech. In both cases the Evangelical discourse intervenes in the manner of beseeching, so that humility on the part of the ministers and freedom on the part of the hearers may be described.
That you recieve not the grace of God in vain. Just as the matter of the ambassadors was described — reconciliation, because Christ suffered, etc. — so the matter to be evangelized by the cooperators is described: lest the grace of God be received in vain. And lest there be any question about which grace of God is spoken of, he explains it.
2 Cor 6:2 For he says — undoubtedly God to Isaiah, chapter 49 — in a time acceptable I heard you, and on the day of salvation I aided you.
Two works of God are contained in this grace of God. One is the work of hearing, at an acceptable time — the time in which all things are rendered acceptable to God — and this pertains directly to the supplication, which is an act of religion. The other is the work of aid on the day of salvation, which is the same as the acceptable time but is called "acceptable" relatively to God, to whom it is pleasing, and "of salvation" relatively to men, to whom it is salutary. For through both times the New Testament is signified, because it is truly a time rendered acceptable to God through the advent of Jesus Christ to hear sinners everywhere on earth, and it is truly the expected day of the salvation of the world to aid all so that they may operate rightly, so that they may persist strongly in the adversities that arise.
Thus the proper grace of the New Testament is described — but grace not as a gift in the soul, but as the benevolence of God gratuitously offered to us, prepared at this time to hear and to aid all. The incredulous, rejecting this grace of God, in no way receive it; indeed they contempt it. Christians who are bad receive it indeed, but in vain, for they receive it by faith but without works; they receive it by faith but with empty fruits of faith, and therefore in vain. For this reason God offers so great a grace that we may use it so that we may be heard by Him — undoubtedly petitioning for eternal beatitude, for this is what the time of the New Testament is accepted by God for — previously, however much one petitioned, it was not given; so that we may be aided by God both toward good operation and toward strongly sustaining evils and pains, for the day of the New Testament is the day of spiritual salvation. This grace of God, proper to the New Testament and common to all who are willing to embrace it — encompassing whatever belongs to religion as well as morals — Paul describes as the proper matter of the ministers of the New Testament insofar as they are cooperators, because in this grace they are truly cooperating with God from Christ. For they themselves first received this grace of God not in vain, but with such fullness that not only for themselves but for others they received it. They themselves received it not only operating for themselves but also cooperating with God from Christ toward the hearing and aid of others. Understand "cooperating" as in deeds, for what is said — we beseech — pertains to the tongue. Cooperating in deeds, beseeching in words, so that we may understand that the most fitting ministers of the New Testament, when they cooperate most, most humble themselves by asking and being free helpers of free will, seeing as they are asked. What the cooperators beseech and whom is already clear.
Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold now is the day of salvation. The matter that the ministers of the New Testament evangelize insofar as cooperators from the testimonies of the Old Testament they bring forth, and therefore he brought in the Scripture of Isaiah. But they do not leave it obscure. For he declares it, and therefore Paul explains the prophesied time and the expected day to be now — for this particle is part of the matter they evangelize, so that we may understand the matter to be had from the testimony of the prophets — but declared through the ministers of the New Testament demonstrating visibly that the acceptable time and the day of salvation have arrived.
CONTINUE
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