Message preached Sunday, August 17, 2014 from 2 Corinthians 5:14-17
Theme: Jesus has made all ‘dead’ by His cross, so that those who believe on Him can be made truly ‘alive’.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
This is an exciting morning. Every Sunday that we have a baptism is an exciting one; because we get to celebrate together the salvation of someone in our midst who has placed their trust in the Lord Jesus. It’s a day to officially welcome someone into the family of God; and to commit ourselves, as a church family, to pray for them and encourage their walk in Jesus.
Whenever we come to such a Sunday, I ask the Lord to lead me to preach from a passage of Scripture that highlights the wonder of new life in Christ. I intend for it—in a way—to be a special sermon preached just for that dear believer who is taking the step of baptism. But I also intend for it to be a message overheard by all. I even hope and pray that it will be an encouragement to anyone here today who has not yet placed their faith in Jesus as their Savior. And so, I have felt led to share with you this morning from the words of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:14-17.
Paul was speaking to the Corinthian believers on behalf of himself and those who worked with him to minister the gospel to them. He wanted to explain the motivation that he had for the great sacrifices and trials he underwent in preaching of the gospel. And so, he wrote,
For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:14-17).
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One of the reasons I love this passage is because it reminds me of the greatness of the life-changing power of the gospel of Jesus.
The good news of what Jesus has done for us is the greatest and most powerful life-transforming force in the world. There is nothing else like the message that it’s our privilege to bear to this fallen world. The apostle Paul once said this about it:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17).
Think of that! It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes—whoever they may be, and whatever may be their situation in life. It’s a message that proclaims the fullness of God’s saving grace, and that completely transforms the entire being of everyone who believes it. It brings those who believe it up from the condition of being dead before God in trespasses and sins, and raises them to complete newness of life. Every other effort we can think of to try to change people for their good can only change them from the outside; but the message of the gospel of Jesus works effectively to transformation people from the inside-out. The only thing that other ‘human’ programs of social reform or improvement can do is change people superficially—making them into somewhat ‘modified’ sinners; but the gospel of Jesus makes lost sinners into completely new creations who are declared ‘righteous’ in the sight of God. Other man-made systems of religion in the world today threaten people by saying, “Convert or die!”; but only the gospel of Jesus can speak to people who are already spiritually dead and say to them, “Come to Jesus and live!”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; I hope you appreciate what a marvelous message it is that has been entrusted to us. I hope you appreciate why it is that we should celebrate the fact that our dear sister has received Jesus and is now born again. And I hope that, in thinking of all this, you can appreciate why the apostle Paul would have given himself so completely to the preaching of this wonderful gospel.
I invite you to join me this morning in just walking through this passage, and relishing the wonderful things it says to us about what Jesus has done for us.
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Now; look at verse 14. Paul begin by saying, “For the love of Christ compels [or “constrains”] us . . .” And in telling us this, he is explaining why it is that he and others went to such great lengths, and suffered so much persecution and hardship, in proclaiming this message.
It’s not, of course, the only reason that he gives in this letter. One of the motivations he points to for his gospel ministry is that preaching it shows the power of God at work in him. Such a ministry of hardship and suffering was beyond his human capability to endure; but he said in 4:7 that “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” It would be impossible to account for the tremendous things that Paul and his co-workers endured in their missionary efforts except to say that God was at work in them. Another reason he gave his all is because of the confidence he had in the resurrection day. He wrote in 4:15 that he and his co-workers spoke—even under the threat of the loss of their own lives—“knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus on the last day, and will present us with you.” He also was motivated by the knowledge that one day—before the judgment seat of Christ—he and his co-workers must give an account to their Lord for their faithfulness. In 5:9, he wrote, “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.” All of these are things that motivated him. But I believe that his greatest motivation came from what he said in v. 14 of our passage this morning, “For the love Christ compels us . . .”
What does that mean? I hope you’ll forgive me if I give you a tiny grammar lesson. There are two possible ways that this can be interpreted; and one of them is in what is called an “objective” sense. In that case, Jesus would the object of Paul’s own love; and it would be as if Paul was saying, “Our deep love for Jesus Christ compels us to preach His message.” And while it’s certainly true that Paul loved Jesus very much, what he goes on to say in this passage makes me doubt very much that that was what he meant. But the other way that this can be taken is in what is called a “subjective” sense. In that case, Paul would be saying that Jesus’ own great love for all the sinners of the world—including Paul, and you, and me—was what compelled Paul to give himself over to preaching the life-transforming message of the gospel. And that’s how I believe Paul meant these words; “For the love Christ [for all the lost and needy sinners of the world] compels us . . .”
And if I may say so, dear brothers and sisters; that ought to be the great motivation in life for you and me. Everything that we do for the cause of the kingdom ought to be done with all our energies. We truly ought to give our all for living for Jesus and declaring Him to others. The Christian faith isn’t a mere religion that can be satisfied with an occasional and partial commitment from us. But it must be viewed as nothing less than our whole-hearted response to an immeasurably great act of divine love! And we will be compelled to give our all to it if we are motivated by that love—Jesus’ love for us, and His dying love for the people of this world.
If all of us in this church family become gripped by the love of Jesus for us as we should, I, as your pastor, would never have to persuade you to work for the cause of the kingdom. I’d just have to give you whatever you needed and get out of your way. Like John the Apostle once wrote, “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
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And now, Paul tells us what it was that the love of Jesus motivated him to declare to the world. It might surprise you. It’s that . . .
1. JESUS DIED TO MAKE ALL ‘DEAD’ (v. 14).
Does that shock you? Does it sound offensive? Does it sound a little heretical? Well; surprising as it may seem, that’s what Paul says. Jesus died to officially declare us all ‘dead’. In verse 14, he wrote; “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died . . .” (v. 14).
Now; the kind of death we’re talking about here is ‘spiritual’ in nature—and should be taken in a very particular sense. You see; the sin of Adam has already brought death upon the human race in three ways. First, Adam’s sin brought the reality of physical death upon the whole of humanity. We sadly see that every day. But it also brought about the experience relational death as well. God said to Adam that in the day he ate of the fruit of the tree that God forbade to him, he would surely die. Tragically, Adam disobeyed and ate; and as a result he immediately suffered a broken relationship with God. Now, all of us who are Adam’s offspring are born with a broken relationship with God. And in a third sense, Adam’s sin brought himself—and all the rest of humanity that was in him—under the judicial condemnation of death. We are all—each one of us; no matter who we are or whatever we may do—now born into a state of legal debt before a Holy God; and that; and the satisfaction of that debt can only be brought about by our death.
To illustrate, take a look at this pen in my hand.1 I am placing it on the pulpit from which I am speaking. Pretend that this pen is Adam; and that this pulpit is the Paradise that Adam lived in before he sinned. He lived in a state of perfection before God. But then, he disobeyed God and fell from the perfect state that he was in—just as I drop this pen from the pulpit and it falls to the ground. Well, dear brothers and sisters; that’s what happened to you and me too. Adam’s fall brought all of us down into the condemnation of death with him. Now we are all born into the human family with a debt of death charged to our account. It’s a debt that we can, in no way, pay ourselves in such a way as to restore our relationship with God and be made right with Him.
But that’s when the love of Jesus came in. What Paul is saying is that he and his co-workers have made the following assessment: They judge that if Jesus—the sinless Son of God—died on the cross for all, then it is a certified fact that all have now truly died; that is, all have died in that third sense of a judicial debt owed to God. You see; the Bible presents Jesus to us as the ‘last Adam’. Just as all the human race was summed up in the first Adam when he fell and brought the condemnation of death upon us; so the whole of the human race was summed up in the fact that Jesus, the sinless Son of God, died on our behalf. He Himself paid the penalty of death that was charged to the account of every human being born from the first Adam. It’s just like it says in 1 Corinthians 15:45; “And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” The Son of God was born into the human family, and stooped down to where we were—just like how I reach down to this pen on the ground—and partook Himself of the death that is our debt. He died in our place, and fully paid the death penalty for all of mankind before a holy God.
Now; I know that there are some traditions of the Christian faith that teach that Jesus only died for the elect. I would say that there’s a sense in which that’s true—that Jesus’ death truly is an intentional and effectively atoning sacrifice only for the salvation of all those that God sovereignly chooses in His grace. For them—and for them alone—the atoning work of Jesus is fully completed. But it seems to me that the Bible here tells us—and unmistakably so—that there is a sense in which Jesus truly died for all of humanity. He was the ‘last Adam’; and every member of the human race that was born in Adam was taken up in Him when He died. As it says in 1 John 2:2, “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”
What an immeasurable love it is that Jesus has shown to the world! And it’s the realization of that great love that compelled Paul to tell everyone in the world about what Jesus has done, and to urge them to put their faith in what He has done! To everyone Paul spoke to, he could truly say—with all integrity—“Jesus loves you and died for you.”
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Now; here’s where an important distinction comes in. Jesus died for all. He truly paid the death penalty for the whole of humanity. But that doesn’t mean all will be saved. Not all will “live”. Only some will. And so, Paul goes on to tell us that . . .
2. JESUS ROSE THAT SOME MAY ‘LIVE’ (v. 15).
Now just think for a moment of what a terrible fix we’d be in if Jesus died for us; but then stayed dead in the tomb! We would have no assurance that we will live. But Paul went on to write, “and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (v. 15). So we can see from this passage that Jesus lives—and that some will live with Him!
You see; as Paul said, “we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died.” So, it can truly be said that Jesus has paid the penalty of death for all of humanity in His own body; and has legally satisfied the required payment for sin before a holy God. But just as “the wages of sin is death”, so also “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). The payment has been made; and God credits that payment to the account of whoever believes on Jesus. Those who believe ‘live’.
When I think of this, I remember what Jesus Himself said in John 5:21-25;
“For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live” (John 5:22-25).
Let me again illustrate. Look at me as I reach down to the ground to pick up this pen with my hand. Jesus descended to death on our behalf, but He was also raised from the dead. And just as I lift up my hand again with the pen in it, whoever now places their faith in Him are also raised up with Him to newness of life.
And that, by the way, is a big part of what we picture in baptism. We’re not just celebrating today that someone has judicially died in the death of Jesus. If that’s all we were conveying, then (and forgive me for saying this!) when we lowered our sister in the water, we’d leave her there! But we’re also celebrating that she has believed on Jesus; and that she is now raised with Him, and is among those that Jesus spoke of—one of the formerly ‘dead’ that has heard His voice and now lives!
And there’s a practical application to this. It means that she, and everyone else who has heard and believed on Jesus and now lives, are now no longer to live for themselves. As Paul said, Jesus “died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” That’s another thing that we are celebrating in baptism—that our dear sister is, from this day forward, going on to live for the One who died for her. It’s just as the apostle wrote in Galatians 2:20;
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20).
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Now; look at this pen in my hand. All that we have been saying teaches us that—because of what Jesus has done—we cannot look at people in the same old way anymore. It teaches us that . . .
3. ALL PEOPLE ARE NOW EITHER ‘DEAD IN SIN’ OR ‘ALIVE IN CHRIST’ (v. 16).
Paul went on to say; “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer” (v. 16). All the people of the world—before Jesus rose from the dead—only knew Jesus in terms of the flesh; that is, in terms of the outward appearance of His body. In John 7, we’re told of how the people who saw and heard Jesus had all kinds of questions about Him. “How does this Man know letters,” they asked—that is, how is it that He is so scholarly—“having never studied?” (John 7:15). Some thought He was a prophet, others thought He was a deceiver. He even warned them, “Do not judge according to appearances, but judge with righteous judgment” (v. 24).
They only knew Him according to the flesh. But because of what He did, we don’t know Him that way any longer. We now know Him in terms of the victory of His resurrection. He sits at the right hand of the Father in power and glory. And now, we also know all people differently. We now know all the people of this world in terms of the only distinction that really matters. We know them in only one of two conditions: either as still on the floor, or now in the hand—either as still dead in sin, or alive in Christ and seated in the heavenlies with Him.
What a difference that makes in the way we view people! In the outward appearance of the flesh, we divide people in all the wrong ways. We know them only by whether they are black or white or red or yellow; by whether they are rich or poor; by whether they are famous or obscure; by whether they are powerful or weak; by whether they are democrats or republicans; by whether they are wise or simple; by whether they are attractive or plain; by whether they are young or old; by whether they are important or insignificant.
But that’s how fallen man sees things. It isn’t how God sees things. As it says in 1 Samuel 16:7, “For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” From God’s perspective—which, by the way, is the only truly ‘correct’ one—there are only two kinds of people: ‘dead in sin’ or ‘alive in Christ’.
And if we are gripped by the love of Jesus as we should be, we will only view people as God sees them. We’ll say, with Paul, “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh.” We’ll look at all the people of the world—whoever they may be, whatever else the world says about them—and either have our hearts broken for the deep spiritual need of those who are ‘dead in sin’, or rejoice with a holy joy over those who are ‘alive in Christ’.
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And what will we think of those who are alive in Christ? What will we say about our dear sister who is being baptized today? What will we even believe about ourselves if we have trusted Jesus as our Savior? We will acknowledge that . . .
4. ALL WHO ‘LIVE’ ARE NOW ‘NEW CREATIONS’ (v. 17).
Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (v. 17). We will know that real life-transformation is possible for those who are in Christ. We will know that God doesn’t simply remodel them and merely give them a super-spiritual ‘make-over’. He brings them from death into life as completely brand-new creations—those for whom the old things of the past are gone, and for whom all things have become new!
You see; when Jesus raised us from the dead, He didn’t simply restore us to the place that Adam was before he fell. He didn’t, as it were, simply pick the pen up off the floor and put it back on the pulpit. He placed us in an even greater place of honor. Just as I take the pen now and put it in my pocket, it illustrates how Jesus has taken us and seated us with Himself at the right hand of the Father—sharing with Himself the place of highest honor, close to the Father’s heart! He raised us up to a place that is far greater than the one from which Adam fell! We can now say, as Paul Himself said elsewhere;
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).
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Now; what are we to do with all this? We’ll; certainly one thing that we’re going to do today is celebrate the ‘new-createdness’ of our dear sister through baptism! But I can’t stop there; because Paul himself doesn’t stop there.
I must also close with the invitation Paul himself gives in the verses after this morning’s passage. He writes—as if to those who are still ‘dead in sins’ and who have not yet accepted the offer of life in Jesus;
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).
am adapting this illustration from H. A. Ironside, Addresses on The Second Epistle to The Corinthians (New York: Loizeaux Brothers, Publishers, 1939), pp. 144-5.