John Calvin Commentary 2 Corinthians 5:20

"We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beseech [you] on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God." — 2 Corinthians 5:20 (ASV)

As if God did beseech you. This is of no small importance for giving authority to the embassy; furthermore, it is absolutely necessary, for who would rest upon the testimony of men concerning his eternal salvation? It is a matter of too much importance to allow us to rest content with the promise of men, without feeling assured that they are ordained by God and that God speaks to us through them. This is the design of those commendations with which Christ himself distinguishes his Apostles:

He that heareth you, heareth me, etc. (Luke 10:16).

Whatsoever you shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven (Matthew 18:18),

and similar passages.

We entreat you, in Christ’s stead. From this we infer how appropriately Isaiah exclaims,

How blessed are the feet of them that preach the Gospel! (Isaiah 52:7).

For that one thing, which is of itself sufficient for completing our blessedness, and without which we are most miserable, is conferred upon us only through the Gospel. If, however, this duty is enjoined upon all ministers of the Church, so that he who does not discharge this embassy is not to be regarded as either an Apostle or a Pastor, we may very readily judge from this the nature of the Pope’s entire hierarchy. Indeed, they desire to be looked upon as Apostles and Pastors; but as they are dumb idols, how will their boasting correspond with this passage of Paul’s writings?

The word entreat is expressive of an unparalleled commendation of the grace of Christ, inasmuch as He stoops so low that He does not disdain to entreat us. Our depravity is all the less excusable if, on encountering such kindness, we do not show ourselves teachable and compliant.

Be reconciled. It is to be observed that Paul is here addressing believers. He declares that he brings this embassy to them every day.

Christ, therefore, did not suffer merely that He might once expiate our sins. Nor was the gospel appointed merely for the pardon of those sins which we committed previously to baptism. Rather, it was so that, as we daily sin, we might also, by a daily remission, be received by God into His favor.

For this is a continued embassy, which must be diligently proclaimed in the Church until the end of the world; and the gospel cannot be preached unless remission of sins is promised.

We have here a clear and suitable declaration for refuting the impious tenet of Papists, which calls upon us to seek the remission of sins after Baptism from some other source than the expiation effected through the death of Christ. Now this doctrine is commonly held in all the schools of Popery—that, after baptism, we merit the remission of sins by penitence, through the aid of the keys (Matthew 16:19)—as if baptism itself could confer this upon us without penitence.

By the term penitence, however, they mean satisfactions. But what does Paul say here? He calls us to go, not less after baptism than before it, to the one expiation made by Christ, so that we may know that we always obtain it gratuitously. Furthermore, all their prating about the administration of the keys is to no purpose, inasmuch as they conceive of keys apart from the Gospel, while they are nothing else than that testimony of a gratuitous reconciliation which is made to us in the Gospel.