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In Christ Reconciliation and New Order

(2 Cor. 5:11-21)

Paul's missionary labour was a turbulent affair. He laboured for more than fifteen years, of which practically nothing is known after his Damascus road experience until he presented himself before the Jerusalem Council. As he emphatically contended in his letter to the Galatians, his apostolic commission was not from man, and he firmly believed that it was from Jesus Christ and from God the Father.

Paul's apostolic authority was constantly challenged by the different groups of Jewish Christians. Shortly after Paul's first letter to the Corinthian church was sent (and it seemed to have had some effect in settling the internal skirmishes), Paul was once again forced into a much more serious struggle.

This time the Corinthian Christians allowed certain itinerant "Christian" preachers to come upon the scene. Their arrival was fairly recent (2 Cor. 3:1; 10:12ff; 11:4,22ff),

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and they were outsiders and had forced their way into the Corinthian community with recommendations from other churches. They called themselves "apostle", "worker", and "servant (diakonos) of Christ" (2 Cor. 11:13-15, 23).

Obviously, Corinthian Christians were impressed by the series of demonstrations of power, and by the arguments against Paul, by these intruders. They visibly manifested their power by performing miracles (12:12), demonstrated their skill of speech (11:6), showed their possession of the Spirit by the vision and revelation of the Lord (12:1).

Paul was nearly lured into a competition with these so called "angels of light" (11:15) and "servants of righteousness" in the matter of these powers and excellencies. However, Paul refused because he knew and believed that his boast is precisely the weakness for which they mock him; "the power of Christ is made perfect in it" (12:9).

"Who is equal to such a calling? At least, we do not go about hawking the words of God, as so many do; when we declare the word we do it in sincerity, as from God and in God's sight, as members of Christ" (2 Cor. 2:17).

In his struggle against these false prophets who were roaming around the Mediterranean area, Paul had to defend his apostolic authority and, more importantly, the Gospel he was preaching and what he understood to be the integrity of the Christian church.

To the agitated Corinthian church, Paul wrote a letter of general concern (2 Cor. 2:14-7; 4), but it did not have the desired effect. Paul changed his plan and paid a short visit to Corinth, and found the situation totally intolerable. Then he returned to Ephesus in deep anguish and frustration, and sent another letter to those who made his stay in Corinth miserable. He wrote the letter in love, but with a very deep sense of anxiety and distress after having shed

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much tears over the situation in Corinth (2 Cor. 2:4). Along with this letter, Titus was sent to Corinth in order to help settle the matter. His report was received in Macedonia as Paul had cut short his stay in Asia and rushed to Macedonia (2 Cor. 7:6). Upon receipt of a satisfactory report, he writes a further letter to Corinth (2 Cor. 1:1-2:14; 7:5-16). Paul's third and last visit to Corinth was a joyful experience because he found the church at peace.

The second epistle of Paul to the Corinthian church is, therefore, the story of Paul's struggle, not so much for his personal honour and prestige as for the authenticity of the Gospel and the integrity of the Christian community. In the formative period of the early Christian community, the struggle of the Corinthian church was of far reaching significance.

Keeping this background in mind, we shall consider two important themes which Paul introduced to the Corinthian church in chapter five – Reconciliation and New Order in Christ.

According to the Bible, bringing in the new order and the act of reconciliation are works of God from first to last (2 Cor. 5:17-18). In the words of James Cone,

Reconciliation is not a human quality or potentiality, although it affects human relationships. It is a divine action that embraces the whole world, changing our relationship with God and making us new creatures. Formerly we were slaves but reconciliation means that we are free. Formerly we were separated from God, alienated from his will and enslaved to the evils of this world. Now that we are reconciled, fellowship with God is possible because Christ, through his death and resurrection, has liberated us from the principalities and powers and rulers of this present world.

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Formerly our knowledge of our identity was defined by those who had power over life and death in this world. Now that God has redeemed and reconciled us, we know that true life is found only in him who conquered death on the cross and was resurrected on the third day (God of the Oppressed, p.228).

The Pauline understanding of reconciliation as we see in 2 Cor. 5:19 must not be taken only as a cancellation of human sin and misdemeanours. We further must not understand the soteriological implication of "reconciliation" as protection against evil and the gift or promise of earthly riches; or moralistically, as merely a pious religious instruction. It is a consequence of the love of Christ (5:14) who died on behalf of all.

Concerning reconciliation, Paul is quite clear about who the subject is. God reconciles (katalassein) and people are reconciled (katallagenai). It is we who must be reconciled to God through Christ. Therefore, here, there is no reciprocal relationship between God and the people: God and people are not on equal terms. The sovereignty and supremacy of God is carefully guarded in Pauline thinking.

In the Old Testament, the objective reality of reconciliation is demonstrated in the active participation of God in the history and the story of liberation of His people. The people of Israel were invited to enter into covenant relationship with God only when God took the initiative to free them from their economic, social and political captivity. This experience of Exodus was summed up in a liturgical confession of the people of Israel:

My father was a homeless Aramaean who went down to Egypt with a small company and lived there until they became a great, powerful, and numerous nation. But the Egyptians ill-treated us, humiliated us and

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imposed cruel slavery upon us. Then we cried to the Lord the God of our fathers for help, and he listened to us and saw our humiliation, our hardship and distress; and so the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and outstretched arm, with terrifying deeds, and with signs and portents. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey (Deut. 26:5-10).

It is clear that God is the initiator of reconciliation and liberation. However, this does not mean that human beings are merely objects of God's work of reconciliation. God invites us and helps us to receive reconciliation. Further, he pushes us to be active in the service of reconciliation.

Reconciliation is more than a mere adjustment of personal relationships. Definitely, there is an important personal dimension to it as well. However, it should be seen as the work of God in concrete human history. But it does not stop there. Reconciliation also has the cosmic dimension (Col. 1:20; Rom. 8:18ff). The chasm between God and us has been created by sin (2 Cor. 5:19; Rom. 5:15ff). This alienation exists not only between God and people, but also runs through the entire creation. So, in order to reconcile this sinful and seemingly unmendable creation to Himself, God made his Son one with the sinfulness of men (2 Cor. 5:21). In this sense, reconciliation has an important priority in the scheme of God's salvation.

God's work for reconciliation has some important implications for the missionary dimension of the Christian community. The message for reconciliation is entrusted to the Christian community, and that community has to be structured and organized to carry out that commission. In order to do that, the Christian community must first undergo a profound and thorough-going experience of reconcilia-

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tion within its own boundary.

Therefore, Paul's concern for a peaceful settlement in the quarreling Corinthian community was a real one. However, Paul's concern for reconciliation cuts through the structural aspects of the church wherein are entrenched humanly incurable rifts on the basis of race, nationality, culture and even of sex. Reconciliation in the life of the church which is called to discharge its missionary responsibility in this world and for the people means, in the final analysis, a creative reformulation of the church's structure. This should be an important ecumenical issue.

It is clear to us that the work of God's reconciliation reaches down to the deepest level of human predicament and contradictions. This means that our responsibility as co-workers in the reconciling work of God through Jesus Christ pushes us to confront the principalities and powers of this world.

There are all kinds of protagonists around us telling us how our security is in danger; and most of these people suggest a military solution. The more people talk about "security" as purchasable with military expenditure, the deeper we are being plunged into the catastrophic danger of global extinction. This does not mean that there are no "ten righteous" or "seven thousand who did not bend their knees to Baal". There are enough Christians who are concerned about this historical crisis, but the structure of our world, and the way we have organized our world, is such that, unless there is a radical change in the ordering of things, this global village has a very slim chance of survival.

Facing the probability of apocalyptic threats to the human race and the whole creation, the Christian community is called upon to express its sense of responsibility for peace and human development.

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As a collective expression of Christian concern at the growing militarization of this world and the increasing pace of the arms race, the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches approved the Programme for Disarmament and against Militarism and Arms Race, and stated in January 1979 that "the immediate emphasis of the programme should be on dissemination of information on the issues in such a way as to stimulate discussion and action by the churches at local, national and regional levels".

Very often, when we, Asian Christians, are confronted with a challenge for a specific political action, we tend to shy away saying that Christians as a minority in our societies would have no significant impact on governmental policy decisions. Whether we have a visible impact on the national policy or not, the responsibility to speak up and act for the establishment of a more humane world order is entrusted to us. In this perspective, an immediate and crucially important phenomenon which disrupts the fundamental welfare of human society is the demonic force of militarism which consumes the world's already scarce resources for destructive military equipments.

As a consequence of the love of Christ (2 Cor. 5:14) who died on behalf of all of us and if we are in Christ, not in a mystical sense but in an eschatological sense, there is a new act of creation. "In Christ" does not mean our being incorporated into the institutional structure of the church. This understanding pushes us further to see that the love of Christ, through its reconciling ministry, helps us to see that the consequence of it is far more important than a series of reordering of various dimensions of personal relationships. Therefore, we can believe that Paul is not merely suggesting an individualistic personal conversion, however important it may be.

Through creation, God placed men and women in history. Through the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ we

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are given the promise of eternal life. In the context of this eschatological understanding of history, Paul is suggesting that, as a consequence of Christ's love, all the old things have gone and new things have come into being. God created the world out of nothing and now, in Christ, we are given the promise of a new creation which is qualitatively a new entity, radically different from the old.

It is not something which will happen in the future, but something that already has happened. New creation, the new order, has already broken into history by the coming of Jesus Christ in this world. It is an ever present promise for the ultimate realization of God's messianic kingdom.

Then what are some of the tasks of reconciliation entrusted to us?

More than 36 million people are today under arms, with another 25 million in reserves and 30 million civilians in military related occupations. Fully one half of the world's engineers and scientists working at research and development focus all their attention on military research and development" (Ernie Regehr, Militarism and World Military Order, p.3).

It is said that the world spends 1 million dollars per minute on military forces and weapons. The Third World countries at the moment account for more than 15% of the world's military spending. Now, the most sinister aspect of militarism and the arms race is the nuclear arms race. The 'gang of five' in the nuclear arms race are USA, USSR, France, UK and China. Together, they possess enough explosives to destroy this world.

The relationship between armaments and development can be put plainly in the following equations:

1. The military expenditure of only half a day would suffice to finance the whole malaria eradication programme of

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the World Health Organization, and less would be needed to conquer river-blindness, which is still the scourge of millions.

2. A modern tank costs about one million dollars; that amount could improve storage facilities for 100,000 tons of rice and thus save 4000 tons or more annually: one person can live on just over a pound of rice a day. The same sum of money could provide 1000 classrooms for 30,000 children.

3. For the price of one jet fighter (20 million dollars) one could set up about 40,000 village pharmacies.

4. One-half of one percent of one year's world military expenditure (450 billion US dollars) would pay for all the farm equipment needed to increase food production and approach self- sufficiency in food-deficit low-income countries by 1990.

(North-South: A Programme for Survival, Brandt Commission Report, p.14.)

Our situation today is strikingly different from that of Paul. The pressing demand of the Gospel on the Christians of today is to face the ultimate implication of the reconciling work of God in our world, to break away from the status quo of the present order, and to work towards and announce the need for a new world order. We can envision this order only when we are thoroughly immersed in the sufferings and anguish of the people in this world.