Does a Human Being Still Have to Let Himself Be Conciliated (2 Cor. 5:20)?

No. In 2 Corinthians 5:20 Paul does not say, “Let yourself be conciliated to God,” but: “Be conciliated to God!” The difference is decisive. In Greek, the appeal is in the passive form: it is a command in which the effect is undergone by the human being. Exactly as the leper heard, “be cleansed” (Matt. 8:3). Or the deaf man to whom it was said, “be opened” (Mark 7:34). Or the dead man to whom the Lord spoke, “be roused” (Luke 7:14). In all those cases a command was spoken, while the recipient was completely passive. They could do nothing, and nothing was asked of them either. God’s word did the work. Not mostly, but entirely.

Conciliation is not a process in which man must take a step or give permission. Paul says precisely: “Yet all is of God, Who conciliates us to Himself through Christ.” –2 Corinthians 5:18– God is the Acting One; man is the recipient.

When Paul “implores,” that is not a desperate appeal, but the urgency of an ambassador who proclaims what God is doing. The evangel is not an offer, but an announcement: God is conciliating the world to Himself. And faith says in response: Amen!

See in more detail:
be conciliated – not: let yourself be conciliated

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