A New Creation

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:17-18a

Paul is almost Semitic in the brevity of his language here. The Greek literally reads, “So if anyone in Christ, a new creation; the old/former passed away, behold it has become new.” The word used for creation can mean the act of creation (as in Romans 1:20) or the result of a creative act, that which is created. A footnote in the RSV (omitted in the NRSV) indicates that “creature” is an alternative translation, underscoring the latter meaning.

Consider how revolutionary this is. Paul is saying that by virtue of baptism into Jesus Christ, Christians are a completely new kind of “thing.” Knowing the resurrection of Christ, Paul anticipates the resurrection of all who have died in Christ, to a new body like Christ’s resurrected body. It is proleptic, to use a technical term: speaking of what is to come as though it has already happened.

The Greek word translated “reconciled” is also more nuanced than first appears. It means the reestablishment of an interrupted or broken relationship, or the exchange of hostility for a friendly relationship. Both, of course, are illustrations of reconciliation. Our relationship with God was broken through our sinfulness, and only through Christ is it repaired.

Yet this is not the end. As always with Paul, a statement of who we are is a preface to what God expects of us. We can’t just revel in being something new, or in being reconciled to God. We are now to be God’s agents of reconciliation to the rest of the world.

Priests are sometimes called icons of reconciliation, just as deacons are icons of service and bishops icons of oversight. Paul clearly states that by virtue of their baptism, all Christians have the ministry of reconciliation. The priesthood models that reconciliation to the rest of the Church. Whether individual priests do that well or not, the call to reconciliation remains. “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself…and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.” May we always fulfill that trust which God has in us.

Lent 4: Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32. The Greek lexicon I use is often referred to as BDAG after its various editors.