2 Corinthians 5:16–6:2

¹⁶So from now on we don’t look at anyone the way the world does. At one time we looked at Christ in that way. But we don’t anymore.

¹⁷Anyone who believes in Christ is a new creation. The old is gone! The new has come! ¹⁸It is all from God. He brought us back to himself through Christ’s death on the cross. And he has given us the task of bringing others back to him through Christ.

¹⁹God was bringing the world back to himself through Christ. He did not hold people’s sins against them. God has trusted us with the message that people may be brought back to him. ²⁰So we are Christ’s official messengers. It is as if God were making his appeal through us. Here is what Christ wants us to beg you to do. Come back to God!

²¹Christ didn’t have any sin. But God made him become sin for us. So we can be made right with God because of what Christ has done for us.

6We work together with God. So we are asking you not to receive God’s grace and then do nothing with it. ²He says,

“When I showed you my favor, I heard you.

On the day I saved you, I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time God shows his favor. Now is the day he saves.