2 Corinthians
Below is a brief summary of what I found in 2 Corinthians concerning each of my four questions. The full evidence and commentary are available in the 2 Corinthians Study Bible linked above.
Conclusion: Insight from 2 Corinthians
1. Who is God?
In 2 Corinthians, God is principally identified as the Father—the God and Father of Jesus Christ—and as the ultimate source toward whom everything is directed.
Paul calls Him:
“God our Father”
“the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”
“the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.”
God raises the dead, delivers His people, establishes believers in Christ, anoints them, and gives them the Holy Spirit.
The basic movement throughout the letter is repeatedly:
through Christ → to God.
Paul has confidence “through Christ toward God,” and God reconciles humanity to Himself through Jesus Christ.
God is also the ultimate source of resurrection power: He raised Jesus and will raise believers with him.
Specifically, who is the Holy Spirit?
2 Corinthians contains some of the strongest New Testament evidence that the Holy Spirit is truly God—indeed, that the Spirit is the Lord encountered by Moses.
Paul first calls Her “the Spirit of the living God.” She writes God's covenant upon human hearts and “gives life.”
The new covenant is specifically called the “ministry of the Spirit,” whose glory surpasses the ministry associated with Moses.
Then comes the extraordinary statement:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit.”
Paul's context is Moses, the veil, and the glory of the Lord. He then repeats the identification by saying believers' transformation comes:
“from the Lord, the Spirit.”
Within the Moses context, “the Lord” is the God of Israel. Thus, within your interpretation, this is extremely important evidence that the Spirit is not merely God's power, messenger, or created agent. The Spirit is the Lord. The Spirit shares the identity of Yahweh.
And Her work is deeply personal: She gives life and transforms God's children “from glory to glory” into God's image.
Paul also says God gives believers the Spirit as the down payment or guarantee of their future transformation and resurrection.
The letter closes by distinguishing the three central figures:
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
That verse distinguishes Jesus, God, and the Spirit relationally; it does not erase the remarkable statement earlier that “the Lord is the Spirit.”
2. What is God's plan for the world?
2 Corinthians presents God as reconciling the world to Himself through Christ, with Christ’s death encompassing all, although by itself the letter does not explicitly describe the final reconciliation of every individual.
The strongest passage is 2 Corinthians 5. Paul reasons that:
“one died for all, therefore all died”
and then says that:
“God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses.”
The scope is striking: all are included in Christ's death, and God's reconciling purpose concerns the world.
Reconciliation is presented as something God Himself is accomplishing through Christ, and its stated scope is the world.
However, 2 Corinthians also speaks of those who are presently “perishing” and of everyone appearing before Christ's judgment seat. Neither passage necessarily disproves eventual universal salvation, but they mean that 2 Corinthians alone does not explicitly describe the final salvation of every individual after judgment.
Conclusion from 2 Corinthians: The letter strongly supports the universal scope of Christ's death and God's reconciling purpose, especially in 5:14–19. The final claim that every individual will ultimately be reconciled requires the wider biblical case.
3. Who is Jesus?
2 Corinthians presents Jesus as God’s Son, the Lord and Christ, the image of God, and the one through whom God reconciles humanity to Himself. It strongly distinguishes Jesus from God rather than identifying Jesus as God.
Paul explicitly calls the Father “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”—both at the beginning and near the end of the letter. Jesus therefore has a God, the same God whom Christians worship.
This distinction continues throughout the letter. God establishes believers in Christ and gives them the Spirit; Christians have confidence through Christ toward God; and God reconciles the world to Himself through Christ.
Jesus is called “the image of God,” meaning that he reveals and reflects the invisible God. Paul distinguishes the glory of God from the face through which that glory is revealed—Jesus Christ.
Perhaps most strikingly, Paul says Christ “lives through the power of God.” Jesus therefore depends upon God for life and power, just as believers will live with him through God’s power.
Conclusion from 2 Corinthians: Jesus is the uniquely exalted Son of God, Lord, Messiah, image of God, and mediator through whom God acts to reconcile and transform humanity. The letter repeatedly distinguishes him from the God who is his Father and his God.
4. Who are Christians?
In 2 Corinthians, Christians are people being transformed into the same image, manifesting Christ’s life, and destined to share his glorified resurrection life.
The clearest passage is 2 Corinthians 3:18:
“we all … are transformed into the same image from glory to glory.”
Paul does not merely say Christians imitate Christ externally. He describes an actual transformation into the same image.
Immediately afterward Christ is called “the image of God.” Together these passages form a remarkable sequence: Christ is God's image, and Christians are being transformed into that same image.
Paul also says that “the life of Jesus” is being manifested in believers and that the God who raised Jesus will also raise Christians “with Jesus.”
Chapter 5 continues this expectation: mortality will ultimately be “swallowed up by life,” and God has prepared believers for precisely this destiny.
Finally, Paul parallels Christians directly with Christ:
“he lives through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we will live with him through the power of God.”
Conclusion from 2 Corinthians: Christians are not merely followers standing permanently beneath an entirely different kind of being. They are being transformed into the same image, manifesting Christ's life, and destined to share his resurrection life through the same God whose power gives Christ life.
Comments