FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture References: 2 Corinthians 5:14-20

The Christian is no longer a slave of the patterns of the world and society around him but has a fresh and independent and personal moral insight: he or she wants to be more “Christlike.” Paul wrote to the Galatians that he had labored painfully for them “until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). This gospel claim is not an option for us, as if that calling counts only for apostles or other ministries. To all believers in Philippi he addresses the sacred calling: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13; Emphasis mine).

Paul Lived What He Preached

Paul spoke with a conviction born from a personal experience with the risen Lord Jesus. On three different occasions Paul testified that he had encountered the living Christ in a dramatic way on the road near Damascus (see Acts 9:3, 22:6, 26:12-13). That event had been the turning point for the zealous persecutor, Saul of Tarsus. Paul’s conversion then was not the result of a logical or theological conclusion, but a transforming life encounter with the risen Lord Jesus. Only through that event did Paul’s heart change and did his mind accept a new concept of God and of His plan of salvation.

The heavenly calling that Paul experienced was of such a heart-changing nature that it resulted in his permanent devotion to the Lord Jesus. His commitment would stand the test of time and conquer every opposition and threat he experienced. Standing at last before Emperor Nero himself in Rome, he did not waver or shrink back for fear of his life, but remained faithful to Christ till the last moment of his life. Paul’s commitment to Christ was so complete that he testified: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21; Emphasis mine). He explained this by saying: “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11). That is total devotion and perfect gratitude!

In his testimony to Timothy, Paul wrote from prison: “Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed” (2 Timothy 1:12). Here is the decisive issue of the gospel: do we have a personal trust and commitment to the risen Lord Jesus? Not just what we believe is important, but Whom we know and trust is of ultimate importance. Paul reminded Timothy of Who he believed in. This is the same redemptive knowledge that each believer must seek for themselves. This is more than theological clarity, it is the transforming power of knowing Christ from the heart.

Paul was a true ambassador for Christ and he calls all Christians to be the same. He wrote from his prison cell to all the Ephesians: “I . . . the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called” (Ephesians 4:1). We are all called to be representatives of God and of Jesus Christ, and to pass on the freedom we have in Christ our Lord and the blessing we have received in His fellowship. May we all demonstrate in daily life what we are in Christ!

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture References: 2 Corinthians 5:14-20

From last lesson: Because of the redeeming mercy of God in Jesus Christ, we are now free to “present [offer] our bodies a living sacrifice” to God. What did Paul mean by this claim of the gospel?

He wants to show how we should implement the righteousness of God in Christian living. He does not define right conduct here as conformity with a moral code or as a virtue that we must cultivate through a discipline of self-improvement. It is the harvest of the gospel and of the Spirit of God in the believer. Paul therefore sums it all up in the fundamental calling: “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice . . . to God—this is your true and proper worship” (NIV).

Real worship of God is personal self-dedication to God to seek His will in our lives to serve God and to bless others. He mentions first our “bodies” to indicate that we are our “bodies,” that we express our inner self in our bodily conduct. God is not primarily interested on our external gifts or sacrifices but in ourselves! The Jewish religion required to sacrifice animals on the altar of the temple. This kind of worship has been fulfilled and superseded by the infinite self-sacrifice of the Son of God. The Christian has therefore now a “spiritual worship,” a “true and proper worship,” “which is your reasonable service,” that consists in a total devotion to God and in the constant seeking of His will, so that he can live a life that is “holy” or set apart for God, and that is “pleasing and acceptable to God.”

This goes more into the demand for personal responsibility for our choices in life than just following externally the Ten Commandments. Paul explains this, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2).

Now he mentions the human “mind” and says that our mind must be “transformed by the renewing!” The renewal begins in our minds. That means in our thinking, in our philosophy of life which needs to be changed by Christ, as part of our spiritual “transformation.” From a self-centered way of thinking we begin to think Christ-centered! That is a radical change of thinking that gives us the norm to “prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Compare to 1 Thessalonians 5:19–21).

In the light of verse 2 Paul in essence presents our responsibility: “do not allow yourselves to think and to act as the world does.” This world is still in the grip of evil, but the Christian must rise above the pattern of this evil age, because he no longer belongs to it. We are heirs of the coming age, the age of renewal and resurrection. It is by the power of the age to come, that is, by the power of the Spirit of Christ, that we can resist the tendency to live on the level of this age. Paul emphasizes: “Be transformed.” What exactly does that mean?

The only other place where Paul speaks of this Christian “metamorphosis” is 2 Corinthians 3:18, which is a helpful commentary on Romans 12:2:

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (Emphasis mine).

This is the way of the sanctified life that pleases God. It reflects something of the glorious character of God’s love and mercy to others. In Romans 8:29 Paul explains that we are “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.”

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Where noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture References: 2 Corinthians 5:14-20

Being reconciled to God implies the responsibility to demonstrate the righteousness or justice of God to others by way of a new life of love and respect for others.

Paul is particularly concerned about our high calling to pass on the saving mercy of God, that is, the gospel truth that he had unfolded so eloquently as justification by faith alone in writing Romans chapters 1 through 11. This matter of demonstrating our salvation from guilt and the dominion of sin is of crucial importance to Paul. This newness of life is not just an appendix or an after-thought to the gospel. The sanctified life must be a new reality in the Christian’s life or he may doubt whether he participates in the redeeming power of Christ through the Spirit at all. You cannot be justified by faith and continue to live a self-centered life!

Paul focused on this gospel truth sharply in Romans, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Romans 6:1-2). That counts for every baptized believer, he goes on to explain, because by baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection, the believer has become “in Christ” and under Christ’s Lordship. He has received the freedom from sin’s overmastering power and has been placed under the power of the new Master: the risen Lord Jesus. This is the new reality for the baptized believer in Christ. He has entered the kingdom of God’s grace. Now he must live it and demonstrate it! Paul makes this compelling conclusion in Romans 6:12-14.

Paul indicates the transition from experienced salvation to demonstrated salvation by the challenging word “therefore” (Romans 6:12). Theologians have called this flow from theology to ethics, or from the redemptive indicative to the redemptive imperative. This means that Christian morality is not grounded in ourselves, in an abstract moral imperative, but in our experience of the saving mercy of God. Paul’s ethics is a theological ethics that is always a social ethics. Our moral life must be demonstrated among family, in church and society as a whole. Paul devotes the four chapters from Romans 12 through 15 to the moral and social claims of the gospel: to how to live the gospel among the people of the church and of the world.

Notice how he begins this important section of his letter to the Romans, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). I like how this same verse is rendered in the New International Version; “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1 NIV). Notice that Paul again roots the Christian moral life in the saving mercy of God. The power for the new life comes from the risen Lord, not from our own moral will or resolutions. We need to be in touch with God through Jesus to receive a changed heart and mind by the working of the Holy Spirit. This is the hidden part of our religion. But then comes the necessary visible part of our religion: that we have now a new Master in our life, one who is stronger than Satan, stronger than sin and temptation, one who makes us free to know and to obey the will of God!

Because of the redeeming mercy of God in Jesus Christ, we are now free to “present [offer] our bodies a living sacrifice” to God. What did Paul mean by this claim of the gospel? Is this personal offering of ourselves not a daily reconsecration to our divine Redeemer?

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Where noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.