“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;”
II Corinthians 5:14 NKJV

Paul is saying, “If you want to know what’s driving us, what’s motivating us, what’s pushing us, what’s moving us and ruling our hearts; if you want to know what’s getting us up in the morning, it’s the compelling love of Christ!” Paul get’s right down to their core, eternally sustainable and compelling Why. Their Why is not a what, but it’s a Who. Said more fully, it’s the faithful love of God manifested in Jesus Christ, that is the only truly sustainable Why! So what brought Paul and his ministry associates to this conclusion? He said because they judged thus, which means they evaluated this thing, they carefully thought through this thing and took the time to study this thing out and reflect on this thing. And the conclusive, ocean-like evidence that overwhelmed and stirred their hearts is that the love of Christ is the most compelling Why, especially it’s most vivid revelation in what Jesus’ death on the cross accomplished for us! The mind-blowing, historical reality is that God in Christ placed all humanity past, present and future, with all our self-destructive sin, in Himself on the cross, willingly, and let all our hellish condemnation snuff out His life out of sheer love for all us! In exchange His death has given you some benefits. Just check some of these benefits you have right now through the death of Christ: the complete forgiveness of all your sins, being fully justified or declared right with God by grace, being totally accepted by God, adoption as a son or daughter of God, a perpetual royal heir to His throne, your salvation eternally secured, being considered righteous, holy, perfect, blameless, free from sin and innocent by God now before this reality matures in your life, and not to mention the free gift of eternal life! All of this and more is yours right now, as a concrete reality, by faith in Christ and His accomplishment for you on the cross. You see, the love of Christ is the compelling why for our lives because…

HIS DEATH WAS OUR DEATH.

It’s kind of like if I saw you struggling to pay your bills and came to you to tell you the good news that I deposited a large sum of money into your account. You begin to smile, say thank you and then you ask how much was deposited. I look straight at you and say that I’ve deposited one billion dollars into your account. You stand their initially stunned and barely able to take in the overwhelming good news I just dropped on you, when suddenly your countenance changes and you start looking at me sideways with suspicion. You look me up and down, wondering how could I even begin to afford to give you this kind of money. You know the kind of money a pastor makes, and though you may have seen me as a kind person, you now begin to wonder if this is some kind of sick joke. Now what you don’t know, in this scenario, is that my father is a multibillionaire and has already given me a huge portion of his money, yet I just enjoy serving as a pastor. And I actually really did deposit one billion dollars of my own money into your account that morning out of sheer love, grace, compassion and over the top generosity, with no strings attached. Now you are left with a choice. You can decide to trust what you’ve seen in my character, go to the bank to confirm if what I’ve said is true and then benefit from it by making a withdrawal. Or you can decide not to believe a word I’ve said and not go to the bank. Now you choosing to not believe me doesn’t change the fact that I actually did provide you with one billion dollars in the bank. Your unbelief just means that you can’t benefit from what was so abundantly provided for you by your own choice. My friends, through the death of Christ, it’s like God has already generously and abundantly provided for you a billion dollars of grace in the bank. It’s literally yours right now, but it’s up to you to choose whether your going to believe this Good News and make a withdrawal. And it’s all possible because His death was our death!

This is why Paul could say in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ…” Galatians 2:20a NKJV. Jesus didn’t just die for you, but as you. He died as the corporate representative of all humanity, willing taking upon Himself the full weight of our condemnation. This is why Paul will also say in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…” Romans 8:1a NKJV. This means that if you believe the Gospel and are in union with Jesus Christ by faith, you are not condemned! Notice Paul stresses that there is no condemnation “now”, which means every time you come back to this text it will still say “now”! Your not being condemned by God is a present continuous reality in Christ. This means that as long as you are in a relationship with Jesus there is no condemnation coming at you from God, because your condemnation already fell on Christ, in full, over 2000 years ago on the cross. If you happen to stumble along the way, confess it, turn from it and receive this beautiful truth of the Gospel again. Make a withdrawal from the billion dollars of grace that has been so abundantly provided for you, because His death was your death!

My question to you is, “Have you considered this? Have you, like Paul and his associates, “judged thus” or evaluated this? Then, have you received this by faith?” Because I’m telling you, your faith in the Good News about Jesus and Him crucified needs to be nurtured daily. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing or reading the word. However, the context of Romans 10 is telling us, more specifically, that faith comes by internalizing the word in the context of the Gospel! So go to the four Gospels and slowly read the last week of Jesus’ life and familiarize yourself with the imagery and meaning of the cross. Then anywhere else you read in all of Scripture, look for this theme of the cross, for I guarantee you it’s there! This is a great way to keep your compelling Why before your eyes daily.

Now Paul also wants you to know that the compelling love of Christ didn’t just lead Him to die for you on a Roman cross, but it also led Him to rise from the grave on your behalf. And this compelling, historical reality has huge implications for your life right now, as we’ll discover starting in verse 15…

Stay tuned for Part Three!