Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
Have you ever tried to ‘persuade’ someone to believe something or to take some specific action? Or have YOU ever felt pressured by a salesperson trying very hard to persuade you to make a BIG purchase? Lately we’ve been with the apostle Paul as he’s writing a very important letter to the Christians in Corinth, in the mid first century.
Here’s an interesting statement Paul wrote: “Since then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to PERSUADE others…for Christ’s love compels us because we are convinced that One died for all… And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for HIM who died for them and was raised to life again.” (2 Cor. 5:11,14,15)
Oh, my friends, that is a profound, staggering, very significant statement and I wonder if you see multiple life changing truths?
First…Do you recognize that little phrase: “we know what it is to fear the Lord”?
Do you remember that phrase is a foundational cornerstone statement found throughout the Old Testament of the Bible? King Solomon, the wisest man of all time, wrote: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom…” (Prov. 9:10)
This ‘fear’ is a staggering awe and reverence for the majesty, holiness and power of God! It is also a cautious respect for the holy justice and the wrath of God. That ‘fear of the Lord’ calls us to embrace God’s truth and not waiver from it. This ‘fear of the Lord’ challenges us to be very careful about marginalizing or ignoring or worse yet rejecting God. As we saw yesterday, accountability before God awaits all of us!
Second… The phrase ‘Christ’s love compels us’ is very significant because God’s unconditional, holy love is the platform on which the story of the human race is being lived out in every generation, every place in the world.
The ultimate proof of God’s Unconditional love for the human race is the CROSS upon which Jesus obediently gave up His life and the Father poured out His wrath on His Son Jesus, for all the sin of humanity. There is no greater example of God’s love! (1 John 4:9,10; Romans 5:8)
Paul personally experienced this outrageous love of God as Jesus and Paul had their Damascus Road encounter (Acts 9) which transformed a ‘Jesus hater’ into an apostle of Jesus, taking the Gospel to the world! That’s why Paul wrote ‘Christ’s love compels us’. By the way, what is Paul saying that people redeemed by Jesus are compelled to do? Two things: LIVE God honoring lives and TELL the Gospel story of Jesus to anyone who will listen!
Third… Did you notice Paul’s little phrase: ‘we try to PERSUADE others’?
Paul uses that word ‘persuade’ because as we saw in 2 Cor. 3 & 4, Paul declares that all people, everywhere, NATURALLY do not believe or understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Why? Because our sinful nature does not WANT to hear about Jesus and our minds are blinded by the dark kingdom, which seeks to prevent us from understanding and responding to the Gospel. Thus, it requires someone first HEARING about Jesus and then the Holy Spirit opening their hearts and minds to understand the truth of Jesus, and that often requires a spiritual persuasion.
Have you noticed the most powerful persuasion about the reality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is simply a Christian telling their story about how Jesus saved them from their sin bondage and transformed their life!? Pause… look at your life. What is your Jesus story, my friend?
Fourth... Paul’s final remarkable comment in 2 Cor. 5:15 is this: “He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for HIM who died for them and was raised to life again!”
Do you hear the key components of Jesus’ lifesaving Gospel, here? Jesus died an atonement death so we could be forgiven by God of our sin. Jesus was raised to life again, by God, so Jesus could be a living, victorious Savior.
And those of us whom Jesus has saved from our sin now are His best walking advertisements and each day for us is a new day to express our THANKS to God for this new life He gives us, by living our lives not for ourselves but for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ our Savior and our Lord!!
This is why Paul next wrote that those people saved by Jesus look at everyone else very differently. We see the POTENTIAL of people, no matter their condition, if only they would yield their lives to Jesus! Paul wrote it this way: “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view…therefore if anyone is IN Christ, they are a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come. All this is from God who reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ…” (2 Cor. 5:16-18)
Authentic Christians, who have experienced the life transforming work of Jesus in their lives, can look at other people, ANY other people, and we can see the great potential in them IF, and I say IF, they would surrender their lives to Jesus!
We know they would become an entirely NEW person; DELIVERED from their sin bondage, by the power of Jesus Christ; FORGIVEN of their horrible sinfulness by God the Father; and GIVEN an entirely new spiritual life by the Holy Spirit; and RECONCILED back into sin-forgiven union relationship with their Creator God, by the Resurrected Jesus Christ!
Now Pause… did you get all that? Have you experienced EACH of those New Creation transforming works of God in your life?
For today, I’d like to just let us simmer in these great truths and tomorrow we’ll dig more deeply in understanding them through the next powerful verses Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5.
The “lessons learned” will be very helpful for your further understanding. The worship song will lift your soul to Jesus in worship and lead you to prayer, and I’m already preparing to meet with you here tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:11-18.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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