God Reconciled Us
Comments for Study 4
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I. Forgiveness (5:1-10)
>1. How did Paul use his tent making skills as an illustration of God's promise? (1; Acts 18:3)
* 2 Corinthians 5:1 "Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands."
* Acts 18:3 "and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them."
* God created humans with 3 parts; a physical body, a soul, and a spirit. The soul is my emotions, thoughts, and will. My spirit was dead until Jesus gave it new life when I first believed in him many years ago.
My physical body temporarily contains my soul and spirit. My physical body is like a tent that contains my soul and my spirit. Paul was in the tent business. This craft consists of mostly mending tents and occasionally making new ones. People use tents as temporary residences. Homes made of wood, brick, and metal are preferred to tents.
When I was young I was in the Boy Scouts. My troop often took trips usually staying in tents. One late fall we stayed near a small river winding through my grandparent's dairy farm. Most stayed in tents except my friend and me. We decided to make a tent out of a rope and a large plastic sheet. The ends of the sheet overlapped under our sleeping bags.
The first night the weather changed from pleasant to a bitter cold freezing rain downpour. At first, my friend and I were safe and dry in our flimsy tent. However, after 15 minutes ice cold water began sleeping through the overlap under our sleeping bags. We became shivering cold and wet. We soon escaped the poor tent for the warm dry shelter of my grandparent's farmhouse.
My physical body is like the plastic tent my friend and I made. When all is pleasant my physical body adequately houses my soul and spirit. However, from the day I was born my physical body contained flaws that do not keep well when life's weather turns for the worse. In bad storms of life, I groan and am burdened. I feel naked, wet, and cold.
However, I have great hope. I believe that Jesus has made something better for me. When my current physical body finally fails I know that God has made a strong dry and warm home for my soul and a new spirit. He will place my soul and my new spirit in a new physical dwelling.
When my body dies I will not be naked. I know this is true because God's Spirit within me spiritually reminds me of all the time. I live by faith even though I cannot physically see my new spirit, nor God's Holy Spirit, nor have I seen my new resurrection physical body. Like Paul, I make it my goal to please Jesus who has given me this wonderful hope.
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>What do we wait for? (2)
* 2 Corinthians 5:2 "Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,"
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>How are we clothed? (3; Rev. 7:14)
* 2 Corinthians 5:3 "because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked."
* Revelation 7:14 "I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
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>2. When will our mortal body be swallowed up by life? (4; and 1 Cor. 15:42-44)
* 2 Corinthians 5:4 "For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life."
* 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 "So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body."
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>What is a deposit and why are they given? (5)
* 2 Corinthians 5:5 "Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."
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>How does the presence of the Holy Spirit assure us of our future? (6)
* 2 Corinthians 5:6 "Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord."
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>3. What does it mean to live by faith? (7; Gal. 2:20)
* 2 Corinthians 5:7 "We live by faith, not by sight."
* Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
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>How does faith in Jesus give Christians a different perspective than people in the world? (8)
* 2 Corinthians 5:8 "We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord."
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>4. What aspect of life is no different whether in this world or in heaven? (9)
* 2 Corinthians 5:9 "So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it."
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>5. What should Christians always remember about their future? (10; Luke 9:26)
* 2 Corinthians 5:10 "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad."
* Luke 9:26 "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."
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>How will some who claimed to believe in Jesus and yet their life did not reflect their faith be shocked when they stand before Jesus' judgement seat? (Matt. 25:28-30)
* Matthew 25:28-30 "'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"
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II. A New Creation (5:11-6:2)
>6. What is fear of the Lord? (11a)
* 2 Corinthians 5:11 "Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men."
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* I had estranged myself from God. I did this by not believing he loves me and that His ways are best. I harbored lust, envy, greed, and other kinds of godlessness in my heart. I thought about these and occasionally acted on those thoughts. God told me not to do these for it was harmful. Yet I did not accept his direction. I had a form of religion without the true God leading me. I sinned.
Then I read about Jesus. God showed me that Jesus reconciled me to God (19). Through Jesus God does not hold my sins against me. He takes them away through Jesus (14-15).
Jesus had no sin. Yet when he was on the cross he accepted my and everyone else's sin into himself (21). So he who had no sin was punished and died. I accept his selfless sacrifice for me. Because of Jesus, I will not be punished. The old me is gone. The new me is now and forevermore (17).
Now I live for God (15). Living for God to me means more than doing what God says is best for me. It is to try to persuade others of what God revealed to me and has done for me. I try to show that he can so also do this for them (21). Jesus's love causes me to lovingly share the good news with others through actions and when appropriate also in word (14). I share only when they are ready to listen.
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>How does understanding of God's judgment compel us to preach the gospel?
* "we try to persuade men"
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>7. What is more important; that which is seen or in the heart? (11b-12)
* 2 Corinthians 5:11b-12 "What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart."
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>How does verse 12 point out the different between false and true religion?
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>What should compel us to preach the gospel? (13-14)
* 2 Corinthians 5:13-14 "If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died."
* "For Christ's love compels us"
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>Why?
* "we are convinced that one died for all"
* "and therefore all died"
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>8. Who do we live for? (15)
* 2 Corinthians 5:15 "And 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."
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>What is to be our perspective? (16)
* 2 Corinthians 5:16 "So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer."
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>How does verse 17 help us understand the difference between an world point of view and a godly point of view?
* 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
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>9. What does it mean to be reconciled to God? (18-19)
* 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation."
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>How did God do it?
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>How do we participate in this work of God?
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>10. How are Christians like ambassadors? (20)
* 2 Corinthians 5:20 "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God."
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>Who does verse 21 refer to? (Heb. 4:14-15)
* 2 Corinthians 5:21 "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
* Hebrews 4:14-15 "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin."
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>How could a person received God's grace in vain? (6:1-2)
* 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 "As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation."
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>What them should all do?
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