Be Ye Reconciled to God
2 Corinthians 5:18-21, the great exchange, as the early church read it
Paul's summary of the gospel is breathtakingly compact: God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, has given us the ministry of reconciliation, and made "him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him." Chrysostom presses two things: it is God who initiates ("God never beareth enmity", the enmity was all on our side), and the exchange is total, the righteous One treated as a sinner, even as cursed, so that sinners might become not merely righteous but "the righteousness of God." The Father in his own words below, with a plain restatement.
The Father's words are verbatim and attributed (Chrysostom, Homilies on 2 Corinthians, NPNF, public domain; selected from the running prose, footnote apparatus omitted). The box marked "In plain terms" is our own restatement, never the Father's words.
2 Corinthians 5:18-20 · KJV…God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation… Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
"And what doth He entreat? 'Be ye reconciled unto God.' And he said not, 'Reconcile God to yourselves;' for it is not He that beareth enmity, but ye; for God never beareth enmity… He was outraged who had conferred innumerable benefits… He not only exacted not justice, but even gave His son that we might be reconciled. They that received Him were not reconciled, but even slew Him. Again, He sent other ambassadors to beseech, and though these are sent, it is Himself that entreats."
St. John ChrysostomNotice the direction of the reconciling. Paul does not say "reconcile God to yourselves," as if God were the one holding a grudge to be talked down; he says "be ye reconciled," because the enmity was ours, not His. "God never beareth enmity." The whole movement is from His side: the offended party gives His own Son, and then keeps pleading, through the apostles, through us, "it is Himself that entreats." This is not us appeasing a reluctant God; it is God begging His enemies to come home.
2 Corinthians 5:21 · KJVFor he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
"'Him that knew no sin He made to be sin, for you.'… He hath… suffered Him that did no wrong to be punished for those who had done wrong… Him that was righteousness itself, 'He made sin,' that is, suffered as a sinner to be condemned, as one cursed to die. 'For cursed is he that hangeth on a tree.'"
St. John Chrysostom"For the righteous, He made a sinner; that He might make the sinners righteous… he said not 'made Him a sinner,' but 'sin'… that we might become, he did not say 'righteous,' but 'righteousness,' and 'the righteousness of God.' For this is the righteousness of God when we are justified not by works… but by grace, in which case all sin is done away."
St. John ChrysostomHere is the great exchange, stated as starkly as the Fathers ever state it. The One who "knew no sin", righteousness itself, was treated as sin, condemned, "cursed" on the tree (as Deuteronomy said of the hanged), in our place. And the result is not merely that we are let off, but that we "become the righteousness of God", Paul's strongest possible word, and it comes "by grace," not by works, so that "all sin is done away." The sinless takes our place; we take His standing.
Where this stands among the traditions
This passage holds the whole atonement together, and Chrysostom holds it whole. The Eastern accent rings clear, that God "never beareth enmity," that reconciliation changes us toward a God who already loves and initiates. The Western accent is here too, the sinless One "punished for those who had done wrong," "cursed" in our place, the substitution the Reformers would emphasize. All the traditions confess that in Christ God reconciles the world and bears our sin; the drift to avoid is flattening this many-sided wonder into a single formula, whether a God who is only wrath needing appeasement, or a love that never touches sin's penalty. The early church kept both: God who never hated us, and the cross where our sin was really borne. (See The Triumph of the Cross, Justified by Faith, and the letter What Did the Cross Do?)
Patristic text from Chrysostom's Homilies on 2 Corinthians (NPNF, public domain), selected from the running prose with footnote apparatus omitted; nothing added or paraphrased within the quotation marks. Scripture in the King James Version; the plain-language lines are our own restatement. This passage in the Study Bible; 2 Corinthians 5 at BibleHub.