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2nd Corinthians 5.13-15
November 18th 2018
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Okay so we left off talking about how Paul said to the people at Corinth
2nd Corinthians 5:13 For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.
We pointed out that in this verse Paul is speaking of apostles in the we (and those who serve with them) and that his point was to say, if we are seen as mad our efforts are for God and if we are seen as sane our efforts are for you.
Let’s read on and consider some hefty passages now as Paul says . . .
14 For . . . For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
So, Paul adds at verse 14
“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:”
When Paul says, For the Love of Christ, I think He is not talking about His love for Christ nor is he talking about a love that sort of floats around the universe called the Love of Christ – that is sort of available for the taking.
I think that the Love of Christ that he is talking about is the Love Christ showed for the world in offering up His life in total devotion to His father, and the truth, even to the death of the cross – that is the Love that constrains the Apostles.
They realize what He did and it controls them, constrains them, oversees them and their labors.
It was this love that Christ exhibited that actuated Paul and others, moved them to suffer and to endure what they endure.
I finally get this. In my Christian past I often turned the other cheek or tried to do what I would do because I was told or read that that is what a Christian was supposed to do.
I then slipped into some erroneous years where I believed that I could do what Christ did because I would actually feel like it from the heart; that I would be good supernaturally; that Christ would take over and act – which, on some occasions He seemed to, but not always.
But here Paul brings in the way our zeal and efforts and strength to serve Him come about – and I finally think I understand how it works on that two-way street of God calling and Man reacting.
He says For the Love of Christ constrains or motivates Him.
That is a decision to “do/be/act love” as a result of knowing the Love that Christ actually exhibited in His life.
In this we find the fulfillment of John’s words
“We love Him (and I would add, and therefore others) because He first loved us.”
Mary pointed out to me that in the Majority text the him is absent, and so this passage reads:
We love, because He first loved us!
Even better.
And herein lies the import of reading the Word, knowing the content, and seeing the things He said in did relative to His life’s trials and circumstances.
So, we receive the Spirit and are given eyes to see. And then we read the Word and see in black and white who He was, what He did, how He lived and reacted and acted:
That He had all power, but walked humbly. That He loved the sinner, the weak, and those who sought earnestly the things of God
That He forgave when others were putting the only Son of God to shame.
That He taught truth even if it meant losing popularity.
That He submitted to the will of His Father without fail.
And that in love dedicated His entire existence to love, truth, good, light – and it all amounted to personal loss here in His flesh, culminating in the personal loss of flesh, blood, and life.
So now, when I am confronted with evil, or difficulty, and the feelings aren’t there to respond well, I look and think of Him – and how He first LOVED us, and in the way and manner He first loved us – and I submit to what He would want me, as His disciple to do.
That is what I think Paul is saying here. And it is why he uses the word (in the King James) constrain (as in) “For the Love of Christ contraineth us” derived from the Greek term “soon-eko” which also means, “holds-us together, arrests us, keeps us in line.”
Our question – the question we must ask ourselves is:
“Are we allowing the Love that Christ exhibited in the world” to arrest us?
(long beat)
This is the essence of the faith – that we would willing allow God – His living example of love – to serve to arrest our flesh, and to live according to what He said and did, and not what WE would say and do.
The war between the flesh and spirit moving us to surrender is quite real, causing even Paul to admit that he does what he doesn’t want to do, and he doesn’t do what he would like.
And while he comes to the conclusion that this friction will always exist, and he concludes there in Romans that with his flesh he will serve the Law of Sin but with his mind the Law of God, here he takes us a step further.
Ready? Let’s re-read our passage:
14 For . . . For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
Oh, the breadth and the wisdom both of, the wisdom and logic of God. How unsearchable are His judgements and His ways past finding out.
So as the Love the Christ exhibited directs us and our actions, Paul says, “we thus judge.”
In other words, we have determined in our own minds, as apostles, “we have decided, we have come to this conclusion.”
What conclusion?
“that if one died for all, then we’re all dead:”
Let’s hit on the simplicity of the passage first – the idea, the promise, the premise, that IF ONE DIED FOR ALL THEN WE’RE ALL DEAD.
It is a principle Paul has presented several times in scripture but admittedly, most of those references to dying and death in Christ are pointed to the Apostles and not the general populace of believers.
This does not mean it is not applicable to believers in concept, but generally speaking Paul is referring in context to apostles themselves.
For example, where Christians speak of dying daily, the context is Paul who says in
1st Corinthians 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
Nevertheless the principle of being dead in our flesh by and through the death of Christ is present in scripture.
Romans 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
2nd Corinthians 4:11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
Then there are the passages that speak to the symbolism of water baptism, where Paul writes in
Romans 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Colossians 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
So, back to Paul’s words here we have some thinking to do. And I mean I hope and pray we will individually think on this:
In the Reformed system of theology, the greatest minds that embrace the view, from its originator, Calvin, to the thousands of PH.d’s that perpetuate the system today, admit that
there MUST have been a limited atonement because the implication of a universal atonement would be that all have had their sins wiped away.
Either that, or we must follow-after the illogical and strange idea that God had His only Son suffer needlessly for souls who were never going to receive the benefits of his suffering.
Using this wisdom, mingled with scripture, the Reformed mind says that Jesus atonement was limited and was only for the elect souls that God had elected before the foundation of the world.
Here Paul writes:
14 For . . . For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
This passage, combined with my eschatology which contributes greatly to the fulfillement of all things and the continuance of the New Heavens and the New Earth and how it is described in Revelation 21 and 22, tells me (at least)
That
In HIS DEATH, which was both personal and substitutionary for ALL – and I believe that ALL means all here – then in and through Christ and His death, the entire world died with Him – all souls – died with Him.
So when we read, For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive, which to me is speaking of both physical and spiritual death; meaning:
For as in Adam all human beings have experienced both physical and spiritual death, even so in Christ all will be made alive (again) both physically (through the resurrection) and spiritually by and through His having victory over all death.
Returning to what Paul says here then, in the latter part of verse 14
We judge that if one died for all, then were all dead:
And because I believe that His death and resurrection was universal, then this passage is telling us that all died with Christ.
All. Now, Christ’s death, described here by Paul, was substitutionary. And I would add it was substitutionary for all.
Not for some.
And so we can say that all human beings have died with Christ – then – when He, the creator of all things, died for all things created – as a substitution.
See, all – excepting Christ – deserve death, by virtue of our mind and will inherited from Adam and his actions that created the Fall.
Christ suffered for the death sentence we inherited at birth – again, through resurrection physically and then through the Spiritual death He suffered on the cross (which occurred between the time He was calling His Father Father, darkness fell, He cried, My God, My God why has thou forsaken me, and then the light returned and He returned to calling God, Father).
So, Christ, suffering death of flesh and Spirit for all, overcame fleshly death and spiritual death for all.
I am convinced of that. Unfortunately the implications of this are that all have been reconciled to the Father by and through the substitutionary death of His Son.
No exceptions.
To me, since we have all died with Christ, being that one died for all then all are dead, what this means is we all enter life tablarasa – a blank slate relative to our present and future state.
In other words, the future is ours and ours to freely choose. Yes, God is calling to all to receive Him, and to change their minds about the purpose and meaning of life, but the sentences of death – physical and spiritual death – have been both meted out and paid for in Him – and through Him, the path to God has been completely paved for all to walk – similar to the paved path God gave Adam and Eve before they chose to take a short-cut and eat of the forbidden tree.
So that is the first line to consider:
“that if one died for all, then were all dead.”
The kickback to this is the fact that Paul was writing to believers at Corinth here and so he was NOT talking about all in terms of the whole world but the ALL of believers who would read his epistle then and now.
I could agree with this if it weren’t for other passages that speak to a universal atonement through Jesus, like
Isaiah 25:6-8
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
1 Timothy 4:10
For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
Romans 11:32
For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
Titus 2:11
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
Romans 5:18
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
1 Corinthians 15:22
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
John 12:32
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
John 12:47
If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
Luke 3:6
And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
Philippians 2:10
So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
Romans 14:11
For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
John 3:16-17
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Ephesians 1:10
As a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
1 Timothy 2:4
Who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Revelation 20:14
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
1 Peter 4:6
For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.
How about a Two-Fer?
Philippians 2:9-11
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
And then . . .
1 Corinthians 12:3
Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.
And then number three?
Revelation 5:13 ESV / 1 helpful vote
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
John 1:29
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (Kosmos)
1 John 2:2
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 Corinthians 15:28
When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.
1 John 4:14
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
Colossians 1:20
And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Lamentations 3:31-33
For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.
Isaiah 55:8-11
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
So . . . we have plenty of scriptural evidence that the atonement of Christ, His work, His life, His blood was not only sufficient but was determined to be for the whole kosmos.
And so when Paul makes the claim that since one died for all that all are dead we must take that seriously.
Which I for one do.
However . . . however . . . after having plainly established the all here in verse 14 and even in the first line of 15, listen to what he says:
14 For . . . For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
In verse 14 he makes it plain that Christ died for all and therefore all are dead, then he adds
And that he died for all (or since he died for all) READY . . .
“that they which live . . . should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”
Note that Paul does NOT say, “and since all are alive or all live” now, but instead says:
“That they which live . . .”!!
IOW, all have been the receipients of Christ substitutionary death – fine – which apparently leaves all a clean blank slate and therefore in the state of Adam and Eve and able to choose how to live their life, but now Paul differentiates between that “ALL” and “THEY WHICH LIVE…!”
The implication is just because all have died with Christ – all – not all live!
With Christ being, accomplishing all things vicariously on behalf of the human race, there seems to the potential for “segments?” (if you will?) “portions” of His life that are and can be applied to the individual person.
In other words, it appears that as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all overcome death – physical by the resurrection.
But it also seems like Paul distinguishes between the all who are dead with Christ, and the they that are alive in Him, to refer to the alive in Him applying to those who are spiritually animated – which correlates to His rising from the grave.
All have died through His death, and all experience a resurrection, but NOT all are made alive (as Paul puts it) while on earth.
Some choose to remain spiritually dead, lying in the grave and refusing to seek or receive Him, remain in that state UNTIL they are made spiritually alive by the Spirit of God which raised Him.
Listen to the passages again:
14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
15 And since He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
Verse 14 speaks of all dying in Him but verse 15 speaks of those which LIVE not living to themselves but unto Him which died for them AND . . . AND . . . AND . . . rose again!!
In other words, it seems like Paul is portioning the death of Christ to all, removing all sin and referring to all as dead – a zero net sum – and then he portions the actual resurrection to those who are made alive – and in this it is only a they or those, not an all!
And they/those who are made alive as Christ was made alive by God in and through His resurrection FROM death, Paul says:
“that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
In other words, Jesus’ dead body, after three days in the grave inanimate and dead as a doornail, void of sin, void of Goodness, came back to life, rose from the grave, and at that point was truly living – holy, perfect, eternal – never to die again.
To me, as Christ has had the victory OVER all the effects of Adam and His sin, by and through His own substitutionary death for all, it seems that all are dead in Christ, and NONE are any longer dead in Adam.
This is a remarkable step in the face of Orthodoxy as it continues to tell the same story told in that day to those people while seeming to ignore the finished work of Christ that Paul appears to describe herein.
I see no other way around it. And what I am proposing it radically unorthodox, and therefore to the eyes and ears of the orthodox, it is highly heredical.
But in the end, since Christ overcame all things relative to Adam and the fall – as scripture says He has, then for us to repeatedly speak as if all are dead in sin, (due to Adam), and subject to death (due to Adam), we are in fact ignoring – ignoring the finished work of the Second Adam, who in the LEAST, has taken all who were dead in sin, into His grave to at least be dead with HIM.
ALL ARE NOT . . .
NOT DEAD IN SIN,
ALL ARE . . .
DEAD WITH HIM.
NOT DEAD IN SIN
DEAD WITH HIM.
This presents us with a VERY VERY different picture than the prototypical stance Man has taken – but that stance IS radically supported by these passages and others.
What is the difference between the whole world (of that day and age) being
DEAD IN SIN?
And the whole world since the end of that day and age being
DEAD WITH HIM?
The major, end difference is . . . at death all before went to hell, waiting for Christ to overcome the effects of the human race being Dead with Him.
But today, all go to the heavenly realm, with those who are alive in Him entering His kingdom, and all who remain dead in Him, remaining outside the gates.
This is the condition of that kingdom that is described in Revelation 21-22 – that inside the New Jerusalem are those who are His, who, as Paul describes are alive, and those who remain dead in Him, are outside the walls, with the constant invitation for them to be made alive, to come to life (as Christ rose to new perfect life from the grave) and entered His Fathers presence.
Here in 2nd Corinthians, Paul’s advice and insights are not so lofty. His is telling those who were alive in Christ, and not just dead, that
“that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”
In other words, we all certainly die with Him, and are dead, but those/they WHICH LIVE . . . Paul says . . .
Should NOT henceforth live unto themselves, but UNTO HIM who . . . rose again.
We will continue our discussion of what this looks like at this place in 2nd Corinthians 5, next week.
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