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2Co_5:20. For Christ, therefore, we administer the office of ambassador, just as if God exhorted through us. This double element of the dignity of the high calling follows from the previous θέμενος ἐν ἡμῖν τ . λόγ . τῆς καταλλ . If, namely, it is the word of reconciliation which is committed to us, then in our embassy we conduct Christ’s cause ( ὑπὲρ Χ . πρεσβ .), seeing that the reconciliation has taken place through Christ; and because God has entrusted to us this work, our exhortation is to be regarded as taking place by God through us ( ὡς τ . θ . παρακαλ . διʼ ἡμ .). On ὑπέρ with πρεσβ . in the sense specified, comp. Eph_6:20 and the passages in Wetstein and Kypke. The opposite: πρεσβ . κατά τινος , Dem. 400, 12. The usual interpretation, vice et loco Christi, which is rightly abandoned even by Hofmann, and is defended on the part of Baur by mere subtlety, runs counter to the context; for this sense must have followed ( οὖν ) from what precedes, which, however, is not the case. If the notion of representation were to be inferred from what precedes, it could only furnish us with a ὑπὲρ θεοῦ .
Observe the parallel correlation of Christ and God in the two parts of the verse. The connecting of ὡς τοῦ θεοῦ παρακ . διʼ ἡμ . with δεόμεθα ὑπὲρ Χ . (Hofmann) would only disturb this symmetry without due groun.
δεόμεθα ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ κ . τ . λ .] specification of the contents of the πρεσβεία , and that in the form of apostolic humility and love: we pray for Christ, in His interest, in order that we may not, in your case, miss the aim of His divine work of reconciliation: be ye reconciled to God; do not, by refusing faith, frustrate the work of reconciliation in your case, but through your faith bring about that the objectively accomplished reconciliation may be accomplished subjectively in you. Rückert wrongly holds[240] that the second aorist passive cannot have a passive meaning and signifies only to reconcile oneself (see, on the contrary, Rom_5:10; Col_1:21); that Paul demands the putting away of the φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός , and the putting on of the φρόνημα τοῦ πνεύματος ; and that so man reconciles himself with God. In this view, the moral immediate consequence of the appropriation of the reconciliation through faith is confounded with this appropriation itself. The reconciliation is necessarily passive; man cannot reconcile himself, but is able only to become by means of faith a partaker of the reconciliation which has been effected on the divine side; he can only become reconciled, which on his side cannot take place without faith, but is experienced in faith. This also in opposition to Hofmann, who says that they are to make their peace with God, in which case what the person so summoned has to do is made to consist in this, that he complies with the summons and prays God to extend to him also the effect, which the mediation constituted by God Himself exercises on the relation of sinful man toward Him.
The subject of καταλλάγητε is all those, to whom the loving summons of the gospel goes forth; consequently those not yet reconciled, i.e. the unbelieving, who, however, are to be brought, through Christ’s ambassadors, to appropriate the reconciliation. The quotidiana remissio which is promised to Christians (Calvin) is not meant, but the καταλλάγητε is fulfilled by those who, hitherto still standing aloof from the reconciliation, believingly accept the λόγος τ . καταλλαγῆς sent to them.[241]
[240] See against this, also Weber, v. Zorne Gottes, p. 302 f.
[241] Thereby is completed in their case the task of the apostolic ministry, which is contained in the μαθητεύσατε , Mat_28:19.