Motivated By The One Who Died For All

Transcript

GR 1807
05/17/2015
Motivated by the One Who Died for All
2 Corinthians 5:11-15
Gil Rugh

I would invite you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 5. Paul has been talking so far in this letter about the ministry that God has given to him, one entrusted with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Back in 2 Corinthians 3:5 Paul said, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God who made us adequate as servants of a new covenant,” new in contrast to the old Mosaic covenant. This new covenant makes provision for the salvation that God provides for Jew and Gentile alike through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Down in 2 Corinthians 4:1, “Therefore since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the Word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.” You see here where we are going to be in 2 Corinthians 5 shortly, Paul is not only telling them of the ministry of the Gospel God has given him, but he is defending that ministry. False teachers have infiltrated among the church at Corinth and they are having an impact on that church. And even believers saved under Paul's ministry, growing through the teaching that he brought to them, both when he was there and through the letters he has written, are having doubts about Paul. These false teachers want to put the doubt in people's minds, because if they begin to doubt the credibility of Paul, his trustworthiness, that will be a platform for them to say, if you can't trust him, then how do you know what he says is true. And he does not have a ministry characterized by the dynamic and the power that you would think. So that's why he says in verse 2, “We are not walking in craftiness or adulterating the Word of God; by the manifestation of truth we are commending ourselves to every man's conscience.”

When he came down into chapter 5 he said in verse 6, “Therefore being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith and not by sight. We are of good courage I say and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” We noted the three stages at which a believer may live—present in this physical body in physical life, upon physical death a believer's spirit leaves the body and goes into the presence of the Lord. There he is living out of his physical body but in the presence of the Lord. And the third state is the culmination and completion of it all when God raises the body glorified and the spirit moves back into the body and God's salvation provided in Christ is completed in us.

That brings him to a point to talk about going to meet the Lord and we read in verse 9, “Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.” Whether I continue living in this body or I leave this body and go into His presence in glory, I have one consuming ambition—to please Christ. The reason he gives in verse 10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for the deeds done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” And we noted that word bad means worthless. This is not a judgment to determine eternal destiny, this is a judgment to determine the rewards that will be bestowed upon those who have faithfully served Christ. Our life, this physical life as believers is of great importance. We will be recompensed, verse 10, “for his deeds done in the body,” while we are living in this physical body. What we are doing in our service for Jesus Christ has eternal significance—not to determine where we will spend eternity, but the rewards we will receive. And Paul is consumed with a passion to be pleasing to Christ in all that he does in light of the fact he will someday give an account to Him.

As you come to verse 11 down through the rest of this chapter, Paul is going to be talking about his motivation in ministry. We're going to look at verses 11-15. He's going to talk about the fact of not only that future anticipation of giving an account to Christ motivates me to be pleasing to Him, but understanding that He died for me and now I have new life in Him motivates me to want to be pleasing to Him.

So he picks up with verse 11, “Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord we persuade men.” You'll note he keeps tying things together here. Verse 6 began with the word therefore; then verse 7, for; verse 9, therefore; verse 10, for; verse 11, therefore; verse 13, for; verse 14, for; verse 16, therefore. This all ties together as he makes the point he lives his life for Christ, his ministry is carried on as faithful servant to Christ. So “Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord,” verse 11, that ties to verse 10, “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” We will give an account, we will be recompensed, whether our service has been good or worthless. We talked about the details of that. This is not a fear of condemnation, it is that reverential fear, that awe. Paul does not want to stand before Christ and find that much of what he has done with his life as a believer was worthless. That was a cause of fear for him—I will stand before the Lord that I love, that I serve and He will evaluate my service. And that causes me fear, awe, my reverence of Him causes me to want to be pleasing to Him.

Turn to 1 John 4, a reminder here of the fear that Paul is talking about. It's not a fear of condemnation, punishment, but in 1 John 4:16, “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.” He's going to talk about the love which God has for us in a moment in 2 Corinthians 5. “God is love. The one who abides in love, abides in God and God abides in him. By this love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the Day of Judgment because as He is so are we in this world. There is no fear in love.” So when he says knowing the fear of the Lord we persuade men, it's not that fear of punishment. Same word that we're talking about here. But fear of judgment and condemnation and separation from God for eternity. But here that fear of future judgment is gone, I have no fear that I will be rejected by Christ, that I will spend eternity in hell. Not because I am worthy, but because of the provision He has made for me. And Paul will be talking about that in a moment. “Perfect love casts out fear, fear involves punishment. The one who fears is not perfected in love.” So the fear Paul is talking about is not the fear of eternal punishment, but the fear of being displeasing to the One that he loves, the One that he wants to honor, to please. That's what is in view.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 5. In light of that fear, that reverence of the One that he serves “we persuade men.” Paul's ministry was to bring them the Gospel, convince them of the truth that there is a Savior, that the Son of God has died to provide salvation. He wants them to know the truth. He has been called of God to be a servant, to be a slave, and to carry the Gospel to those who must hear. “We persuade men.”

Come back to 2 Corinthians 4:5, “For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Christ's sake.” See, that's his ministry—we preach Christ and we are serving you by bringing you the message of Christ. What is the best thing I could do for you? Bring you the message of God's salvation provided in Christ. That's what Paul says. I am your slave for Jesus' sake, I have sacrificed whatever must be sacrificed, I have suffered whatever must be suffered so that you can hear the truth of the Savior who loved you and died for you, as he is going to go on and talk about. That's his point, that's his emphasis, that's why we persuade men. I will someday give an account of my stewardship of the Gospel, my faithfulness with the Gospel. And so I am motivated by the fact I will someday give an account of my life and service for Jesus Christ. And so I persuade men.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 5:11. “But we are made manifest to God and I hope we are made manifest also in your consciences.” Back in 2 Corinthians 4:2 where I said Paul was coming to in a moment in 2 Corinthians 5, he said, “We are not walking in craftiness or adulterating the Word of God, by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.” Over in 2 Corinthians 5:11, “I hope we are being made manifest in your consciences.” Paul's ministry has been under attack, his integrity, his trustworthiness. If you were here, back in 2 Corinthians 1 he had to answer the accusations, Paul wasn't reliable, he wasn't trustworthy. He said he was going to come and visit Corinth on this schedule, and he didn't. If you can't believe and trust him on those basic matters of when he'll visit and when he won't, how can you trust him on matters of greater importance? You see how the false teachers want to undermine the Corinthians' confidence in Paul so that they can then begin to undermine their confidence in the message that Paul preached.

And Paul is answering that, “We are made manifest to God.” That word manifest, up in verse 10, “We must all appear,” if you were here, that word translated appear is the word manifest. We all must be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ. Now down in verse 11, “But we are made manifest to God.” Paul's desire, remember, in verse 9 was to be pleasing to God, whether present in this physical body or gathered in His presence. So he is confident, as much as he could evaluate himself, I am serving with a good conscience. Before God I am being manifest and revealed. And he said earlier in his writings to the Corinthians, I know nothing against myself. But the ultimate judge of my motives and actions will be God.

So here Paul is in effect saying, “We are made manifest to God,” He sees my heart, He sees my motives, He sees me as I am. And I hope we are ”being manifest also in your consciences so that you will have confidence in us and know.” I know in my heart, I know in my conscience, in my mind that Paul is preaching a genuine message. I mean, the Corinthians ought to know it. How did the Corinthians come to place their faith in Christ? Paul came to Corinth and preached the Gospel. Why is there a church in Corinth? Paul brought the Gospel to the lost sinners in Corinth and some believed and the church was established. How have they grown in Christ? Paul spent a year and a half there teaching them the Word. He has written them several letters, teaching and instructing them so he can say, I hope we are being manifest in your consciences as well, your confidence in us, your trust in us has not been shaken.

He says in verse 12, “We are not again commending ourselves to you.” Back in 2 Corinthians 3:1, “Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Do we need as some letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter.” Verse 3, “Being manifested that you are a letter of Christ.” You are the result of my ministry. Do I have to come and convince you of the genuineness of the Gospel I preach? Do I have to try to convince you I am a trustworthy person? Stop and think about the ministry that I have had with you.

So back in 2 Corinthians 5:12, “We are not again commending ourselves to you.” That's not my purpose. That trying to defend himself and go into all that detail. What do you do? You led them to Christ, you taught them the Word. What more could I say to convince you? You are the letter. I shouldn't need a letter of recommendation for you to accept me. You are the letter. “We are not again commending ourselves to you, but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us.” In the sense of thankfulness to God for His ministry, that they could speak highly of Paul. There may be attacks that come, but let me tell you, I can tell you what Paul is really like. He is a man who has been faithful with the Gospel, he came and preached the truth of the Gospel and I heard it and believed and was saved. He is a man who has been faithful in explaining to us the Word of God so that we could grow. We have found him to be trustworthy, we have found him to be faithful. So you could give you “an occasion to be proud of us so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart.”

As we are removed from this and look back and know something of the testimony of Paul's life and ministry, it is a little difficult to think that a church that Paul established, that he faithfully ministered to, and he has to remind them. Come over to 2 Corinthians 10, you get an idea of what is going on. Over in 2 Corinthians 10, and you see how the chapter begins in verse 1. “Now I, Paul myself, urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who am meek when face to face with you but bold when absent.” Sarcasm here, the accusation, he is one thing when he is with you, he is another thing when he is away. “I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with confidence which I propose to be courageous against some who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh.” They were accusing him of being one thing in appearance and another thing in heart. That's what he is addressing. He wants them to have confidence in him so they have confidence to address those who are bringing accusations against him.

He goes on further down, he says, “We walk in the flesh, we don't war according to the flesh.” Down in verse 7, “You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ's, let him consider this within himself that just as he is Christ's, we are also.” So stop looking at just physical appearance. What is that like? Verse 10, “They say his letters are weighty and strong, his personal presence is unimpressive, his speech contemptible.” You see the kinds of accusations—when Paul was with you, he was pretty bold, but that's not what he is like. He writes a strong letter but . . . We like people that are winsome. We have a speaker coming to town and you read the article in the paper—how dynamic, how compelling, how appealing. And he is motivational. He is all those things Paul wasn't, but Paul is all that he isn't, either. Paul brought the truth. He may not have been much to look at, he might not have been the best speaker. But he brought the truth of God that transforms lives.

So that's what he is dealing with when you come back to 2 Corinthians 5 and he talks about I want you to be able to respond to those, the end of verse 12, “who take pride in appearance, not in heart.” I mean, what can Paul say? He looks like he looks. If he came and spoke today here we might say, I expected a little more. How often you have heard about a speaker and people have talked and you go and hear him and you say, what did you think? Well, I was a little disappointed. If Paul came you might say, I could hardly see him above the lectern, and he just wasn't very compelling, I had to really work to pay attention. But do you know what? When he was done there was something about the truth that gripped my heart. Paul says I want you to be able to respond and take pride in appearance. How easily we get swept along. The Spirit has recorded this because this happens to us. Think about believers who have been used in your life and somebody comes and tells you something about them and pretty soon you think, I wonder… The devil is masterful. And here Paul has to write another letter to the Corinthians to try to restore their confidence in him so that they feel confident in defending him against those who would oppose.

“For if we are beside ourselves,” verse 13, “it is for God. If we are of sound mind, it is for you.” If we are out of our minds, if we seem irrational, it is for God. In other words they may be accusing him of one thing but I have to give the message God gave me. And unbelievers, some of them are going to think that makes no sense.

Come back to Acts 26, there are examples of this attitude toward Christ and His ministry, but we'll take it from Paul's ministry. In Acts 26 he has been brought before Festus and King Agrippa, and you love Paul. His message is the same wherever he is, whatever he is preaching. It's not, I'm before a significant Roman official and a significant leader among the Jews, Festus and Agrippa. But what does he do? He shares his testimony of how God has changed his life. And then he says in Acts 26:22, “So having obtained help from God I stand to this day testifying to small and great,” he is before the “great,” so to speak, Festus and Agrippa. I testify the same thing to the small and to the great. “Stating nothing but what the prophets and Moses said was going to take place, that the Christ was to suffer, that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles. While Paul was saying this in his defense, Festus said in a loud voice, Paul, you are out of your mind. Your great learning is driving you mad. This makes no sense, you are irrational, that the Son of God, the Jewish Messiah should come and die on a cross and be raised from the dead and bring light and life to the lost. Paul, you are crazy. That's what Paul has in mind.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 5. When he says if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. I go preach to people and they think I'm crazy. That's because I am serving God faithfully. Remember when he came to Corinth? He reminded them in his first letter in chapter 1, I came to Corinth, I know the Greeks want wisdom, we preach Christ crucified. I know the Greeks want wisdom, we determined to know nothing among you except Jesus and Him crucified. What happened in Acts 17 when he preached the Gospel on Mars Hill and he told them about the resurrection of Christ, and some began to sneer. This is craziness. We need to remind ourselves, Paul says, verse 13, “if we are beside ourselves, it is for God.” I do what it takes to be faithful to Him. People may think I am out of mind. Think what they will, I will be faithful to Him. “If we are of sound mind, it is for you.” And they ought to see what the world looked at as craziness was God's message that brought salvation to them.

People come in and talk about Paul is not trustworthy and he is really a little bit out of it and he has crazy ideas. And you start to think there is something to that. No, those of you who have trusted Christ know that I am of sound mind and it was for your benefit. So two different perspectives—the unbeliever, he is out of his mind; the believer, that's Gospel truth. That's Paul's ministry.

And you come now to verse 14, “For the love of Christ controls us.” Now we have the second motivation that Paul is talking about here. Remember, “Therefore,” verse 11, “knowing the fear of the Lord,” in light of that coming time when I will give an account to Him, that future day when I am evaluated by my Lord and master, now the love of Christ controls us. Another motivating factor that gripped hold of Paul, hedged him in, controlled him, determined how he would live, what he would do is the love that Christ had for him. And that's what he is talking about here because he goes on to say His death. “The love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, one died for all, therefore all died.” Christ's love, God's love is a controlling factor. If you have come to understand and believe and experience what God provided in love, what Christ did in love, your life can never be the same again. It controls us. Verse 15 will say we “no longer live for ourselves,” it has changed me. From the day that Paul confronted Christ on the Damascus Road in Acts 9 his life was never the same. I'm now consumed and controlled by the love that God had when Christ died for me.

“For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. And He died for all so that those who live may no longer live for themselves but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” I want to talk a little bit with you about a theological subject, limited atonement and unlimited atonement. If you are not familiar with this, limited atonement, reformed theology connected back to the Reformers, covenant theology by and large. Not limited to covenant theologians because some dispensationalists are inconsistent. But limited atonement teaches that the atonement, basically says the salvation provided by Christ was limited only to those that God had chosen. He didn't die for all people, He only died to bring salvation to the elect. Sometimes called particular redemption, that Christ died to bring salvation to a particular people, the elect. And this kind of thing, where does this come from? It comes basically, although some don't deal with this, supposedly in eternity past. We talked about covenant theology, God the Father entered into a covenant with God the Son and the plan was God the Son would come to earth and die to provide salvation for those that God had chosen to belong to Him. I don't think that's a biblical teaching, either.

Some of you are using a study Bible by a person who is not a covenant theologian, but there is a note on 2 Corinthians5:14, “then all died.” And here is what the note says, with this short phrase Paul defined the extent of the atonement and limited its application. This statement logically completes the meaning of the preceding phrase, in effect saying, now listen, Christ died for all who died in Him. Now here is what the Bible says, verse 14, “One died for all, therefore all died.” Three times in these two verses he uses the word all—One died for all, therefore all died, and He died for all so that. Now this person says Christ died for all who died in Him, or One died for all, therefore all died. It says One died for all, therefore all died; it does not say Christ died for all who died in Him. He is taking a position of limited atonement—the death of Christ was only for a certain group of people. I think that's an unbiblical doctrine and I think it points up the danger that we establish a theological position and then we read it into Scripture. The text says One died for all, therefore all died. I take it that means when Christ died on the cross, He was not only acting for our benefit, He was taking our place, acting as our substitute. Now they would say, therefore, then, everybody has to be saved. No. Well, if He died for all, the penalty for all has been paid. Yes, but it has not been applied. There is a difference. No one is saved by the death of Christ. Now if that's all you hear, I'm in trouble. But you are not saved because Christ died for you, you are saved because you believed in the death of Christ on your behalf. There is no salvation apart from faith. The death of Christ in and of itself does not save anyone.

Come back to Ephesians 2. Here is the condition of a person before he is saved by God's grace. Verse 1, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we, too, all formerly lived in the lust of the flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” The fact that Christ had died in my place did not change the fact that I was a miserable, hell-bent, Satan-serving sinner. The death of Christ on my behalf didn't change anything. I was lost as lost could be.

So this idea that if Christ died for you, you have to be saved. And they use expressions like, not one drop of the blood of Christ will be wasted. I have tried to think through that until I get a headache. I don't know what in the world it means. Well, if Christ died for someone who doesn't get saved, the intention of God is frustrated. Well, who ever said it was God's intention to save everyone for whom Christ died? They have developed a theological system that says that, but the Scripture doesn't. Crucial, here.

Come back to the book of Romans, and we'll go to chapter 3. And if you have studied Romans with us, you probably have your Bible marked. If you start with Romans 3:21 and come down to Romans 5:2, so the rest of Romans 3 from verse 21, all of Romans 4 and the first two verses of Romans 5, the word faith or believe is used 28 times. I counted those again, but if I missed it, you get the idea. It is used a lot. Some of you probably have it marked, the word faith or the word believe, it's the same basic word in Greek—you have a noun and a verb and you can hear it in Greek. Pistus is the word faith, pistuo is the verb which would translate to believe. In English they don't sound the same, but you just put a different ending on the basis word. For someone to believe is to have faith. And you'll note verse 21 talks about the righteousness of God, we'll get to that in a next study, in the end of Romans, because we have to deal with active obedience and passive obedience. We'll deal with that. “The righteousness of God has been manifested, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.” The fact that Christ died for you and in your place doesn't mean you have the righteousness of God, it means He has stood in your place to pay the penalty you should pay. But until you believe, it is not applied to you. The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. And there is no distinction here, it is for Jew, for Gentile, for anybody. We are justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, “whom,” verse 25, “God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood.” Period. No, His death won't bring you righteousness, it's when you believe in His death that righteousness is credited to you. That's the point. It is as a satisfaction in His blood through faith. The end of verse 26, “so He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Verse 28, “We maintain that a man is justified by faith.” Verse 30, “Since indeed God who will justify the circumcised Jews by faith and the uncircumcised Gentiles through faith.” This idea that Christ died on the cross and everyone that He died for has to be saved. He died for the world, He died for all. And the looming tragedy in your life is that Christ the Son of God came to this earth, took your place, died on the cross and you say, I'll have none of it. I reject it, I refuse it.

So down through Romans 4 he demonstrates Abraham believed God and God credited it to him as righteousness. Verse 16, “For this reason it is by faith in order that it might be in accordance with grace.” You get the reformed people that say you have to be regenerated so you can believe. Then I read Romans 5:1, “Having been justified by faith;” they say I was justified before faith. Who has created this system? We come to the Word of God to get our theology? Or do we develop a theology and then come and arrange the Word of God to fit it? Verse 2, “Through whom we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.”

Romans 4:24, “But for our sake to whom it will be credited as those who believe in Him, who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” It's all about faith, faith, faith. Now your faith won't save you, just like the death of Christ won't save you. People believe a lot of things—believing in your church, believing in your religion, believing in your baptism, believing in your good works. That faith won't save you, but neither will the fact that Christ died for you save you. You can only be saved when you believe the truth that Christ died in your place. He's coming to this, then you will be identified with Him and you will have new life brought to you as His resurrection brought life.

Come over to the last part of Romans 5, see where we go with this. Verse 12, verse 10 says, “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.” We were saved by His life, we're going to talk about the doctrine of reconciliation in the last part of chapter 5, not today. Verse 12, “Therefore just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned.” One man's act affects all, that's the comparison from verse 12 to the end of the chapter. The one and the all or the one and the many.

Verse 15, “For by the transgression of the one the man died,” and the word many is used for all as you see. He said that in verse 12, and we know all are sinners, the many died. “Much more did the grace of God by the gift of grace of the one man abound to the many.” And the one, the many; the one, the many. Verse 17, “If by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness,” how did you do that? We read chapters 3, 4, the first part of chapter 5, faith “will reign in life through the one. So then through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all. Even so through the one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all.” The one, the all; one act of sin, one act of righteousness. The whole idea of the active obedience of Christ and it was His life of obedience to the Law that provided righteousness is a reformed doctrine, it is not a biblical teaching. And it's all confused in the Mosaic Law and that confusion. We'll have more to say about that as we move through 2 Corinthians 5.

It is one act, and they say that one act could be viewed as taking in its entirety the life of Christ. Is that what you are going to say about the one man's disobedience? Adam had a whole life of disobedience? I mean, once you create a theology, no matter how logical it seems in your mind, and then try to come and fit Scripture into it, you are wandering around. Let the Scripture be what teaches your theology. So this is the same analogy. Christ acting as the second Adam. The first Adam sin and death, the second Adam righteousness and life. He died and brought life; Adam sinned and brought death. That's the comparison.

Come back to Hebrews 10, then we will come back and wrap up 2 Corinthians 5. Hebrews 10, Christ took your place, He died as a substitute for you. I take it that includes every person, every man, woman and child, the whole human race. What happens when you refuse to believe in that? You reject it. Hebrews 10 speaks of that, verse 26, “If we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” For these Jews, that's whom the letter to the Hebrews is written to, they think I can go back to Judaism and they have sacrifices and a sacrificial system. But you understand there is only one sacrifice that can take away sin, there is only one sacrifice that can pay the penalty for sin. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, good works could never deal with the penalty for sin. There is only one sacrifice. If you go on sinning by rejecting the only sacrifice there is that can bring forgiveness to you, everywhere else you go, you can change churches, you can change religion, you can change your philosophy of life and thinking, but you can't have salvation. All that awaits the person who rejects the sacrifice made by Christ is “a certain terrifying expectation of judgment.” Incidentally, that word terrifying is the word we talked about translated fear. Here it carries that negative idea of the frightfulness, the fearfulness of the condemnation of hell, “the fury of fire which will consume the adversaries.”

And there was punishment under the Law of Moses. Listen to verse 29, “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified and has insulted the Spirit of grace.” This is a terrible thing. This is why Christ came and suffered and died, He took your place to pay your penalty and now you say, I'll have none of it, it is of no value to me. I reject it. God says it's just like you treat it like dirt, you trample it under your feet. This is a very serious matter. Christ did die, He did take your place. But the benefit of that only comes to you when you place your faith in Him. Just like if someone, the analogies break down but you get the idea, says I put $100 million in your bank account. Now if you write the check you can benefit from it all. You take the check and tear it up and say, I'll have none of it. The payment is there, it was done on your behalf, but you don't reap any of the benefit. You've said no. My Son died for you, He took your place and you say no and you treat it as worthless. You'll do it your way. You know the song “I Did It My Way,” that's the way people are with their religion and they can get pretty riled up if you tell them their way is not God's way. That's what the seriousness is.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 5. “For the love of Christ controls us,” verse 14, “having concluded this, One died for all, therefore all died.” In the sense the substitution was made, the penalty was paid. He died for all, repeating it. “So that they who live,” now he sorts out and better grammatical commentaries note this. We've brought out a different group here. He doesn't just say so that those He died for, now it's those who live. Not everyone that Christ died for will live because their penalty is not credited to them as paid until they believe. “So that they who live,” those who respond in faith, who are justified by faith, believing the provision God made for them in Christ, they not only died with Christ, they are raised with Christ in newness of life, become the recipients of the life He has provided. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.” You have the universality of the provision, but the limited application. If you have the Son, you have life; if you do not believe in the Son then you have the wrath of God.

“He died for all so that those who live may no longer live for themselves but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” You don't enter into the benefits of the death and resurrection of Christ until you believe in Him. Now that means you don't any longer live, note verse 15, “so that they who live may no longer live for themselves.” Before salvation we are a selfish, self-centered people. That's what we read in Ephesians 2, that's the foolishness of trying to bring personal renovation to a life, helping people clean up their life as sinners, slaves to sin, to the devil. We are self-focused, self-centered, our pleasure, our likes, our world revolves around us. We live for our self, self-fulfillment. That's the appeal of some preaching today. It's the title of a book, You Can Be a Winner. Wonderful. That's biblical theology? When we are to no longer live for ourselves? That's why a person who is in the pursuit of their sin, pursuit of a selfish life, you have to say, have you ever come to the freedom that is given in Christ that you might have new life to live for Him? We bring the truth of the Gospel to people so that by the grace of God they might come to believe in this One who loved them and died for them, be made new and no longer live for themselves. You cannot change the heart and focus and motivation of the unregenerate person. Their best works are selfish at heart. But when you come to salvation in Christ, you no longer live for yourself.

Stop and think about that. How are you living? I think I deserve certain things, and I like certain things, and I want certain things, and it's all about me. It's all about me. Then I say, what makes you think you are saved? Why would you claim that you have experienced the saving grace of God and you are continuing to live for self? Christ died so we would no longer live for our self. I realize we battle this, that's why Paul said it is a motivation for him and he understands it and now his driving passion is no longer live for himself. That's why Christ died and those who believe in Him will live and have new life, have the benefits of His death. And no one will be able to say, Christ didn't die for me. No, He died for you, He took your place. Why would you treat it like dirt? Why would you treat it as worthless? That is an insult to the Spirit of God. That is going to add to the severity of the judgment.

So a great and gracious message, we are motivated. One day I as a believer will give an account to the One who loved me and died for me so that I might no longer live for myself, but for the One who died and rose again on my behalf so I could have new life. I have to realize I am no longer my own, I have been bought with a price. Therefore I must glorify God in my body, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 6. That's why I don't tell people you ought to clean up your life. I think you ought to quit trying to clean up your life. You ought to bow before the living God and acknowledge the wretched sinfulness of your condition and say, God, I am in awe of Your love that You would have Your Son die for me, for one so undeserving. I want to place my faith in Him, Lord, acknowledging that only He can be my Savior. I want to trust Him, I am believing in Him now so your grace might change me and make me new. Then you find as a new person you live a new life. You no longer live for self, you live for Him who loved you, died for you, then rose again. That's to be the testimony we have, the motivation we have in our lives as believers.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your grace, the wonder of it all. We begin where Paul begins, when Your grace took hold of him and he came face to face with the reality that Jesus is the Savior. How awesome it is that in love He died in our place so that we through faith in Him might experience the completeness of forgiveness and new life. Lord, I pray for those who are here, might be regular attenders at Indian Hills, may have been baptized here, serve here, may have been raised in a Christian home. Lord, You know the condition of the heart, all things are open and naked before You. You see the condition of our hearts and minds, the love of our hearts, the motivation of our lives. Lord, may we come to grips with where we really are spiritually. Lord, as Your children may we take these truths to heart in our own lives. We will some day give an account to you, Jesus Christ the One who loved us and died for us, who set us free from slavery to sin and self so we might live for Him, will evaluate our lives. Lord, we want to make every day count. May that be true in this day and the days before us. We pray in Christ's name, amen.