Christ in 2 Corinthians

Christ Connection - Co-Source of Grace and Peace

Paul sends grace and peace from God the Father *and* from Jesus Christ together, as if they were a single source (Philippians 4:9; 1 Corinthians 1:3). This simple greeting embedded Christ’s full divinity into early Christian practice. He is not subordinate to the Father in the giving of grace; He is co-equal in bestowing it.

After a hard letter and a painful visit, Paul writes again, and Christ stands at the center of every turn. The forgiveness he asks the church to extend to the penitent offender is not his own magnanimity but Christ’s: he forgives in the person of Christ (v. 10), and the appeal echoes the gospel command, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye (Col. 3:13). The refusal to let godly sorrow harden into despair - lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch so…

Christ Connection - Sufficient Through Christ

Paul says our sufficiency is of God, and specifically through Christ. This echoes his earlier word to the Corinthians: "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9) - Christ speaking. The sufficiency is not a thing we accumulate. It is a Person we turn to. And it is offered not to the strong but to those who know their weakness. The one who rests on his own righteousness is lost. The one who rests on Christ is complete.

Christ Connection - Jesus in Gethsemane

Jesus faced a moment when He might have fainted - a moment of soul-crushing darkness in the garden. Yet He pressed through. Paul writes later, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13). The refusal to faint is not human resolve. It is the strength of the risen Jesus working through a weak vessel.

Christ Connection - The First Resurrection Body

Christ was raised in a body. Not as a ghost, but in flesh - a real body that bore the scars of the cross, that could be touched, that ate fish. Yet it was transformed, passing through locked doors, appearing and vanishing. This is the prototype. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Your resurrection body will follow the pattern of His.

Christ Connection - The Appointed Now

When Paul writes "now is the accepted time," he is speaking of the entire era opened by Christ’s resurrection. Hebrews echoes this: "Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts" (Heb. 4:7). Christ has made this moment sacred. The invitation stands. The offer is real. The gospel is not a future promise - it is a present call.

Christ Connection - Cleansed by His Blood

Paul says “cleanse ourselves,” but He knows - and his readers know - that the cleansing power is not our own. John says it plainly: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Our part is to come with open hands; His part is to wash. Christ’s blood is the only thing that cleanses away filthiness of the spirit.

Christ Connection - The Gift of Self

This is precisely what Christ did. He "gave his own self" (Gal. 2:20). He did not send money. He did not hire someone else. "Christ loved us, and gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God" (Eph. 5:2). The Macedonians, in their generosity, imitated Christ’s model of self-surrender. Every true gift begins when the self is handed over first.

This chapter closes Paul’s long appeal for the relief fund the Gentile churches were raising for the poor saints in Jerusalem, and from its first lines to its last it keeps tracing every gift back to God’s own giving. The Corinthians are to have their gift ready as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness (v. 5) - freely, gladly, never extorted. And the temper God prizes is named in the verse the chapter is known by: Every man according as he purposeth in his heart,…

Christ Connection - His Meekness, His Power

Jesus himself claimed meekness: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matt. 11:29). Yet the same Jesus overturned tables, cast out demons, and will one day judge the living and the dead. Meekness in Scripture is never weakness; it is power held under the control of love. Paul’s gentleness in person - his willingness to be thought lowly - does not diminish his apostolic authority. Like Christ, his authority rests not on impressive appea…

Christ Connection - The Church Betrothed to Christ

Ephesians 5:25-27 develops this same bridal metaphor: Christ "loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it… that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle… but that it should be holy and without blemish." The Corinthians are not Paul’s to own. They are Christ’s bride, and Paul is merely the friend of the bridegroom, preparing them for their covenant.

Christ Connection - Communion with Christ

Paul heard God speaking directly. This is the deepest communion with God possible in this life - a foretaste of resurrection, of eternity. Jesus promised His followers, "I will not leave you comfortless" (John 14:18), "I will sup with him, and he with me" (Rev. 3:20). Paradise is where that fellowship is unbroken.

Christ Connection - Christ’s Word Is Power

Jesus said, "My word shall not pass away" (Matt. 24:35). And Paul wrote elsewhere, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). The same power that spoke light into darkness, that raised Lazarus, that cast out demons - that power works through an apostle’s preaching. The test is not eloquence or signs, but lives changed by Christ’s living word.