¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,^(A) the new creation^(B) has come:^[a] The old has gone, the new is here!^{(C) 18} All this is from God,^(D) who reconciled us to himself through Christ^(E) and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.^(F) And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors,^(G) as though God were making his appeal through us.^(H) We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.^{(I) 21} God made him who had no sin^(J) to be sin^[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.^(K)

A Time for Everything

⁹ What do workers gain from their toil?^{(E) 10} I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.^{(F) 11} He has made everything beautiful in its time.^(G) He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^[a] no one can fathom^(H) what God has done from beginning to end.^{(I) 12} I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³ That each of them may eat and drink,^(J) and find satisfaction^(K) in all their toil—this is the gift of God.^{(L) 14} I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.^(M)