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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 2 Corinthians 5:18 - 5:18
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2Co_5:18. On 2Co_5:18-21, see appropriate remarks in Fritzsche, ad Rom. I. p. 279 f.
τὰ δὲ πάντα ] leading on from the γέγονε καινὰ τὰ π . to the supreme source of this change; hence, contextually, τὰ πάντα is nothing else than: the whole that has become new. Everything, in which the new state of the Christian consists, proceeds from God; and now by τοῦ καταλλάξαντος … καταλλαγῆς is specified the mode in which God has set it into operation, namely, by His having reconciled us with Himself through Christ, and entrusted to the apostle and his fellow-labourers labourers the ministry of reconciliation. The reconciliation has taken place with reference to all humanity (hence κόσμον , 2Co_5:19); but Paul uses ἡμᾶς in the person of believers, as those who have experienced the reconciliation of the world in its subjective realization. This in opposition to Leun, Ewald, Rückert, Hofmann, who refer it to the apostle and his fellow-workers, Hofmann, indeed, finding nothing else affirmed than the conversion, in so far as it was “a change of his relation, and not of his conduct, towards God.” And that ἡμῖν does not apply to men in general (Olshausen), but to Paul and the rest of the apostolic teachers, is clear from ἐν ἡμῖν , 2Co_5:19, which is evidently (seeing that Paul has not written ἐν αὐτοῖς ) distinguished by a special reference from κόσμος ; besides, the inference, 2Co_5:20, ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ οὖν πρεσβ ., manifestly presupposes the special reference of ἡμῖν and ἐν ἡμῖν in 2Co_5:18-19. This also in opposition to Höfling. Kirchenverf. p. 225, ed. 3.
τοῦ καταλλάξαντος κ . τ . λ .] who has reconciled us with Himself through Christ. For men were, by means of their uneffaced sin, burdened with God’s holy wrath, ἐχθροὶ θεοῦ (Rom_5:10; Rom_11:28; Eph_2:16; comp. Col_1:20 f.), Deo invisi; but through God’s causing Christ to die as ἱλαστήριον ,[237] He accomplished the effacing of their sins, and by this, therefore, God’s wrath ceased. The same thought is contained in Rom_5:10, only expressed in a passive form. Tittmann’s distinction between διαλλ . and ΚΑΤΑΛΛ . (Synon. p. 102) is of no value; see on Rom_5:10, and Fritzsche, ad Rom. I. p. 276 ff.
τὴν διακον . τῆς καταλλ .] the ministry, which is devoted to reconciliation, which is the means of reconciliation for men, inasmuch as through this ministry reconciliation is preached to them, and they are brought unto faith on the ἱλαστήριον Jesus, which faith is the causa apprehendens of the reconciliation, Rom_3:25; comp. διακονία τῆς δικαιοσύνης , 2Co_3:9. The opposite: ΔΙΑΚ . Τῆς ΚΑΤΑΚΡΊΣΕΩς , 2Co_3:9.
[237] i.e. διὰ Χρ . Comp. ver. 21. Pelagius erroneously adds: “per Christi doctrinam pariter et exemplum.”
REMARK.
Rückert erroneously explains the reconciliation from the active enmity of men against God. God, according to his view, caused Christ to die for men, that He might, no doubt, on the one hand, be able to accomplish the μὴ λογίζεσθαι of their sins; but through this manifest proof of His love He filled men with thankfulness, and gave them encouragement to accomplish the reconciliation on their side also, and so (as was Baur’s opinion also) to give up their enmity towards God. And thus strictly regarded, the death of Jesus, according to Paul, has not so much reconciled humanity with God, as it has removed the obstacles to the reconciliation, and given a stimulus to the heart to enter into the only right and friendly relation with God.
No, the death of Jesus operated as ἱλαστήριον (Rom_3:25; Gal_3:13), consequently as effacing God’s holy enmity (Rom_11:28), the ὀργὴ θεοῦ , so that He now did not impute to men their sins (2Co_5:19), and in this way, actu forensi, reconciled them with Himself (2Co_5:21), while simple faith is the subjective condition of appropriation on the part of men. Comp. on Col_1:21. The thankfulness, the new courage, the holy life, etc., are only a consequence of the reconciliation appropriated in faith, not a part of it. Comp. Rom_5:1 ff; Rom_6:1 ff; Rom_8:3-4, al. This, at the same time, in opposition to the doctrine of reconciliation set forth by Hofmann (see on Rom_3:25), who at our passage calls in question the view that τοῦ καταλλάξαντος κ . τ . λ . expresses an act of God, which takes place once for all in and with the history of Christ, and defines the notion of καταλλ . (in which ἡμᾶς is held to apply to Paul, in whom God had wrought faith), as amounting to this, that God through Christ, “whom He Himself gives and ordains for the purpose, makes sin cease for Him to be the cause of wrath against the sinner.” Comp. on the clear and correct notion of reconciliation, according to our passage, Weiss, bibl. Theol. p. 325.