Sermon on 2 Corinthians 5:1–21: Paul's heavenly mindset and the great exchange
A sermon from Latimer Church expounding 2 Corinthians 5:1–21, exploring how a heavenly perspective shaped Paul's motivations and ministry.
Summary
This sermon works through 2 Corinthians 5:1–21 in three movements, each centred on a different aspect of Paul's heavenly mindset. The preacher argues that the common dismissal of being "so heavenly minded you're no earthly good" is wrong — that it is precisely a heavenly perspective, rightly focused on Jesus, that produces the most earthly good. The three movements are: Paul captivated by a greater future with Jesus (verses 1–10); Paul compelled by the greater love of Jesus (verses 11–15); and Paul committed to a greater ministry in Jesus (verses 16–21). The sermon culminates in verse 21 and the doctrine of the great exchange — that Jesus took on human sin and gave his righteousness in return — as the foundation of everything Paul does and the heart of the gospel message.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Introduction: The heavenly mindset
Just a quick hands up — if you've ever heard the phrase that someone is being so heavenly minded that they're no earthly good. You heard of that? Some have. I think I understand what they mean — that you can have your head so much in the clouds that you don't really focus on what's going on in front of you. But I want to call garbage on that phrase today. As Paul shows us in this passage, I think it is only with a heavenly mindset — albeit the right one, focused in Jesus — that brings the most earthly good. That's what we're going to be thinking about today: a heavenly mindset. We open the doors to look at Paul's heart and motivations for his life in Jesus. It's a wonderful passage to be looking at.
Now, last week, if you were here, we heard Paul as he closed chapter four with those encouraging and wonderful words. Paul said, "Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles — the difficulties in this world — are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." Now that glory is the glory of coming to a knowledge of God through Jesus, which begins now in the light of the gospel as it is preached, and it will continue perfectly and eternally when Jesus returns.
But what does that mean for Paul now? He carries on: "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, what's in front of us, but what is unseen. Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." This, for Paul, marks the beginning of his heavenly mindset — fixing his eyes on the unseen and eternal.
Overview of the passage
As we continue into chapter 5, Paul expands on what this heavenly perspective looks like, what its foundation is, and what it means for his life and his ministry. Now, it's worth mentioning in passing — and we're not going to spend too much detail on this — that Paul is still at this stage of his letter mainly defending his ministry against false teachers and teaching which has crept into the Corinthian church. Paul's main point for the Corinthians is to be able to understand and recognise proper gospel ministry when they see it, and to ignore anything which is leading them astray. That's his main premise. But that doesn't stop us from learning from Paul's example — it's just something to keep in mind.
We're going to look at the passage in three sections — three aspects of a heavenly perspective which shape Paul's heart and mind and change him to live for his Lord Jesus. Paul is, one, captivated by a greater future with Jesus — that's verses 1 to 10. He is compelled by the greater love of Jesus — verses 11 to 15. And he is committed to a greater ministry in Jesus — verses 16 to 21.
Part One: Captivated by a greater future with Jesus (verses 1–10)
Despite mixing a few metaphors in these verses — or maybe because he mixes a few of his metaphors — Paul's point becomes abundantly clear. Paul is undeterred by his human weakness and mortal body, that's his earthly tent that he mentions. Why? Because he knows that one day it will be replaced with an eternal house in heaven built by God. That's verse 1.
Paul then says that he's looking forward to being clothed with his heavenly house, or dwelling, in verse 2. It's confusing a metaphor a little bit, but with a purpose, I think. Behind this verse — and if you're interested in such things — I think the reason he's mixing his metaphors is the idea that while he is currently, spiritually speaking, clothed with the righteousness of Christ, he will one day, when clothed in the new dwelling, not be found naked, as verse 3 puts it. It will be by being clothed with a righteousness of his own. Now we'll see before the end a little bit more of how we take on the righteousness of Christ in this life, and Paul's trust rests entirely on Jesus, as we'll see.
But while he's on earth, Paul is in many ways frustrated by his own weakness, insofar as he knows it will make him fail in the life he so desires to live in pleasing his Lord Jesus. It's why Paul continues in verse 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 instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." Paul doesn't even really want to wait around for death — he'd really prefer Jesus to come back now. Some of you may appreciate that. Come, Lord Jesus.
It's so clear that Paul longs for this new life to come. But here's the most important thing to note. Why is it that Paul longs to be there?
Let me ask you: when you think about heaven, the eternal life to come, and what's so good about it, what do you think about? Is it the picture of a beautiful place — mountains, or oceans, or forests, or whatever type of terrain you particularly like? Do you like the thought of being able to explore the whole earth, and maybe even the wonders of space, with an eternity in heaven? Or do you picture something more like an extended home? Or do you picture something more like an extended holiday, where finally the work of this world will stop and you can just rest, sleep in, spend time in the garden, catch up on your reading — Christian books obviously, the Bible and whatnot?
Whatever you long for, do you long for what Paul longs for? It's captured in just those last three words in verse 8. Where does Paul most desperately want to be? With the Lord. What's the best part of the new creation to come? The Lord will be there.
Now yes, all those benefits I've just mentioned will be there too. I'm hoping for a huge library with one of those ladders — you know what I mean, those ladders — that's great. It will certainly be a great place, an active and restful existence with many blessings to enjoy, because the Lord is abundantly good and generous and he knows what we love. But the best part of the life to come is that God will be there in the person of Jesus.
So it's worth asking: do you long for heaven, or do you long to see Jesus? There's a difference. And it makes a difference to the way we think about the Christian life here, now.
This is the difference it makes for Paul. He carries on: in the light of the future, when he'll be at home with the Lord, he lives presently here to please him. Verses 9 and 10: "So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad."
Friends, each of our three sections today ends with a huge statement about Jesus — verses 10, 15, and 21 — none of which we'll be able to cover in great depth. But you might come to this verse and think that Paul has somehow snuck salvation by works into his theology. We need to see that that's very far from the case. He's already stated twice that his confidence of entering the new life in Christ is based on faith — he's mentioned that in verses 6 and 8. But even more importantly, verse 5 makes clear that this confidence isn't based on anything he's done, but on the presence of God's Spirit within, who guarantees that inheritance to come. This is not a works-based righteousness. This is not Paul earning his way to heaven, and this will be even clearer by the end.
So why is Paul concerned about pleasing Jesus? Because Paul loves Jesus. Jesus is his Lord and his Saviour. Jesus is his all in all. Jesus is his very reason for being and the one who enabled him to know the glory of God in all his splendour and majesty.
When I was a kid — and this was a different time — it was never the threat of physical punishment from Dad that made me start doing the things he said were best for me, even though I didn't agree at the time. It was never that threat. I wanted Dad to be proud of me. I didn't want to disappoint him. Because more than almost any other human on this planet — and frankly I hate disappointing anybody — more than almost anyone else, I want my father to be proud of me. Because I love my father and I respect my father. I couldn't bear knowing that I disappointed Dad, that I'd let him down.
How much more, then, should we feel about our Lord and Saviour Jesus?
Now many of us might feel uncomfortable, again, at an aspect of Jesus' judgment to come as a motivator for how we live now. We worry — and not without reason — about the danger of slipping into a mentality that we're saved by what we do, not by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Those are truths we must protect at all costs. But Paul, as confident as he is in Christ alone, wants to hear more than "welcome." He wants to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
Don't you want to meet the Lord with a mentality like Paul's? That although he considers himself the worst of sinners, far from perfect, he has also — this is directly from 2 Timothy — fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith, all by the strength of Jesus, so that now there is in store for him the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to him on that day. And not only to him, Paul says, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
And so in the end, that's the question to ask: do you long for the appearing of the Lord Jesus? Paul is captivated by a greater future — a future with his Lord. But that heavenly mindset doesn't make him do no earthly good. It leads him to live a life which is pleasing to his Lord. And as Paul continues, it leads him to persuade others of the same reality to come.
Part Two: Compelled by the greater love of Jesus (verses 11–15)
Paul is captivated by a greater future with Jesus, but he is also compelled by the greater love of Jesus. Paul continues in verse 11: "Since then we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others." To Paul it's a no-brainer that, in the light of the greater future with Jesus in mind, with the confidence he has in that reality, he wants to persuade others of that same reality — because not everyone can share his confidence if they don't have a foundation for that confidence.
Again, just as a bit of a side note, at the same time you want to keep in mind that he's also setting proper gospel motivation against these false teachers who are leading the Corinthians astray. He's already made a comment back in chapter 2, verse 17, that he doesn't — unlike maybe others — peddle the word of God for profit. He wants the Corinthians to know that a proper motivation and mindset for Christian life and ministry isn't profit, nor power, nor prestige, nor any temporary benefit based in the present. We are, Paul says, to be moved and motivated by Jesus.
And still, notice he's not worried about his eternal salvation being somehow in jeopardy based on his performance. See how he continues: "What we are is plain to God, and I hope it's also plain to your conscience. We're 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 what is in the heart." This mention of self-commendation simply continues the condemnation of these false teachers who base the merit of their ministry on earthly recommendations and measures. This is another nail in the coffin of their self-centred ministry, which might have all the outward markers of success and power, but misses the point — which is not to make oneself or one's ministry look good, but to have a heart changed which desires to please and bring glory to God, and to work for the good of those God has called.
So Paul continues in verse 13: "If we are out of our mind, as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you." There are a couple of different interpretations as to what Paul means by he and his fellow apostles being out of their mind, or beside themselves, as some translations put it. It could be that their own personal spiritual experiences, which might look strange to outsiders, they keep between themselves and God. Or it could be — as I'm inclined to think — that while their ministry looks weak or a little bit bonkers from a human perspective, Paul doesn't care what it looks like because he's doing it for the Lord. In the end it doesn't matter precisely what the phrase means, because his point is that what he does is first and foremost for God, and then secondly for the Corinthians themselves. My motivation, Paul says, is pure at heart — for God and for you.
But Paul's not saying this so that they'll think he's great. He wants them to know the greatness of the one who made all this possible. Why? Verse 14: "It is Christ's love which compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died, 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."
That's another statement worth more time than we can give. The main thing I want you to see is that it's not Paul's own love which is his primary driver. He doesn't tell the Corinthians that it's his love for them, nor even Paul's love for Jesus, as you might expect in an argument like this. It's the reality of Jesus' love which is the compelling factor for Paul. And in particular, it's the selfless nature of Jesus' love, seen in his sacrificially dying on the cross for others.
Now it's true, if you carry on into verse 15, that the purpose of Jesus' death and resurrection was that those who live in him should also then live for him. And that might seem a little less than selfless on the surface — it's ultimately for Jesus' glory at that stage, isn't it? However — and go with me here, brains engaged — even that purpose has a prior motivation. We need to understand this from earlier in the letter to the Corinthians. The ultimate, ultimate reason why Jesus did what he did. Paul covered that back in 4:15, where he says that all of this — the gospel that comes out in Christ — is for your benefit, that is the Corinthians and all those who die and are raised in Christ. But even that isn't the end goal, as Paul continues: "so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God." Why does Jesus do what he does? For the good of those made in God's image, and for his Father's glory. Even Jesus works with a heavenly perspective which shapes his earthly actions.
What's helpful for us to know is that Paul is not driven from within by his own emotions. Our own emotions ebb and fade, don't they? But he is compelled first by Jesus' selfless love — an external object shown most clearly in Jesus' death on the cross. Because sometimes, if we struggle with motivation in the Christian life, we will never solve that by looking within. We will never solve that by trying to muster up energy and feelings which may or may not be there. Times of struggle and spiritual lowness will come in the Christian life, and you can't dig up things out of your own energy. We're finite. We'll never be able to continue if we just look at ourselves. We must keep looking back to Jesus. We must remind ourselves of his love if we are to continue.
Part Three: Committed to a greater ministry in Jesus (verses 16–21)
Paul is captivated by a greater future with Jesus. Paul is compelled by the greater love of Jesus. And because of both of these, Paul is committed to a greater ministry in Jesus. These final verses, 16 to 21.
Now it's pretty easy to see that this ministry he speaks of is the ministry of reconciliation. If you've got an NIV, that will even be the title that someone has put there for you. Now I don't know about you, but when I think about the English word "reconciliation," what I picture is the bringing together of two things — the rejoining in peace of two parties which were once at war. And in one sense that's a great translation, because that's exactly the result of the ministry which Paul is speaking of. I'm not sure there's a better word you can translate it with, because the result is that restored and peaceful relationship with God where once there was enmity and alienation.
But interestingly, the underlying word here has more to do with the concept of exchange — replacing one thing for another, trading one thing for another — than it does with joining together. It was often a term used for exchanging money or goods. The word carries that idea of the exchange of things. The only reason I point that out is because the concept of exchange governs every part of these verses, and in fact much of the verses we've seen before.
If you remember back at the beginning of the chapter, Paul began with speaking about the earthly body that we have as a tent, which would one day be destroyed and replaced — exchanged — with a new eternal house built by God. He's literally just ended the last section of verse 15 saying that the result of the death and resurrection of Jesus means that all those who live in him now start living for him instead of living for themselves. That is, they exchange self-governing and self-pleasing and replace it with a desire to serve and please Jesus. And now in these final verses Paul notes that he's had his whole mindset exchanged — from the worldly to the heavenly.
So from verse 16: "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. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone, the new is here."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the famous German theologian, said that Christians, when they speak to one another, no longer speak directly person to person, but in a spiritual sense they speak to Jesus who resides in that other person by his Spirit. So essentially, Christians as they talk to one another are always somehow talking through and to Jesus. Bonhoeffer was a deep thinker — his thoughts are often next level. But imagine for a moment, if instead of looking at the people around you and seeing not just them but Christ in them — I wonder how that would change the way you thought of them and spoke to them.
If you've seen that classic piece of cinema, Avatar, the native twelve-foot smurfs of Pandora greet each other with the phrase, "I see you." They mean: I see you for who you truly are. Paul doesn't look at Christians at merely a surface level — which is probably helpful, because all people, yes, even us Christians, are often a pain when taken at only a surface level. But Paul first sees them for who they truly are in the Lord Jesus. They are new creations in Christ. The old is gone, the new is here. His Spirit is dwelling in them.
So I ask again and wonder: how would you speak to those around you if you thought, first and foremost, as if you are speaking to Jesus in them? Would that change how you spoke to them? Would it change what you spoke to them about?
And this doesn't just have to apply strictly to Christian conversation. Every human being — the Bible is very clear — is a being made in the image of God. Imagine if you thought of every person and saw them, first and foremost, as an image-bearer of God, created to glorify God and reflect that glory to the world. Well, I imagine if you thought like that, you'd start to think like Paul.
And Paul says of himself in the next few verses — this is verses 18 to 20 — that he is one changed by God, given new life, and made a minister of reconciliation and an ambassador of Christ to the world. Now we all don't have the same job as Paul, but we are motivated by the same things as Paul. He's been given that new ministry, new life, new way of thinking, and it drastically changes what he does with it.
And we should note what Paul's only concern is in these verses. At the end of verse 20, you get Paul's only instruction in this entire chapter to the Corinthians — and it's really more of a passionate plea than it is a command. You can hear the heart in his words: "We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God." Get rid of the old, take hold of the new in Christ. More than anything else, this is why Jesus came, and it's why Paul does what he does. He's not interested in money, he's not interested in power, he's not interested in looking good, he's not interested in worldly methods, measures, or success. He wants everyone to exchange their old and temporary selves and be reconciled to God, so that they can know him and delight in his glory.
The great exchange: verse 21
And how is all this possible? By the greatest exchange of them all. Verse 21: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
My friends, I am thrilled that we have all eternity to ponder such treasures as this verse and others — not tonight, this is eternity, eternity. The Lord knows no sermon is enough to do things like this justice.
At the heart of the gospel message lies this great exchange. And if you're here today and you don't know the Lord Jesus, pay attention. Because sometimes we think that Christianity is about earning our way to God, or twelve great steps to an easy life. At the heart of the Christian message is the great exchange of Jesus — where Jesus, who lived the perfectly righteous life and knew no sin at all, became sin, took all of our sin on himself and bore it to death on the cross, took our sin and gave us his righteousness, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. That is the astounding heart of the gospel.
Friends, all of us need to keep Jesus and this great exchange front and centre in our minds at all times. We'll get to more next week about how that affects our earthly good. But the heavenly mindset is what's so vital. It's why Paul has been so long defending his ministry and message before he asks anything else. He implores that the Corinthians — that all people — would be reconciled to God through faith in the great exchange of Christ's righteousness for our sin.
It's Jesus who so centrally shapes Paul's mind. He is captivated by a greater future, and he longs to be with Jesus. He is compelled by the greater love of Jesus, and he longs to live to please him. And he is committed to a greater ministry in Jesus, and he wants others to know him. Jesus is Paul's heavenly mindset. Is he yours?