The world judges men to be living in charity when they walk morally, attend to their relative duties, avoid debt, frequent their church, read the scriptures a little, and say their prayers night and morning. It is counted uncharitable to doubt that they are Christians, still more to be concerned for them as guilty and lost in the sight of God.
How different is the evaluation of Christian love as asserted in these verses! “The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 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” (2 Cor. 5:14-1514For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15And 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. (2 Corinthians 5:14‑15)).
Christian Love
Christian love is not the mere expression of human feeling and superficial circumstances. It is based on the truth of God and, in order to arrive at this truth, brings in and applies to the case Christ and His death. There man was proved God’s enemy, for He sent His only-begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. But man would not allow the thought that he was morally dead — dead in offences and sins, the Jew as truly as the Gentile. The Jew had been warned of it more distinctly and directly than the Gentiles in the Old Testament scriptures. But for most it was in vain. “Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life,” said the blessed Savior, grieved at their unbelief. And the Gentile joined the Jew in the worst they could do to One who could and would have given life eternal to all that looked to Him for it. Rarely did Jew and Gentile unite, but they did unite to slay the Lord of glory — the One who emptied Himself of the honor proper to His deity and humbled Himself as man to death, even the death of the cross.
Good and Evil Met at the Cross
Thus He proved His love, as they their hatred, to the uttermost, for only thus could sin be divinely judged, God vindicated, and the sinner cleared. Good and evil met in the cross. Infinite goodness provided the Lamb for the sacrifice. Hatred without cause rejected and denied Him who went about doing good and healing all that were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him. Satan instigated all, but to his own destruction in the final issue. God made the righteous One sin for us — those who had nothing else but sin — and forsook Him that He might never forsake us who believe on Christ and have in Him life that can never die. Wherefore God highly exalted Him and granted Christ a name which is above every name, that in the power of that name every knee should bow, of heavenly and earthly and infernal [ones], and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9-119Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9‑11)).
This glorious purpose of God will be fulfilled in His day. But what is the present result for those who now believe? It is the contrast with all those who are dead, though Christ died for all. God’s present aim is that they which live should no longer live to themselves but to Him who died for them and was raised, for the God who sent Him in love takes His part in raising Him up and giving Him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God. And His joy is not only in glorifying Him who endured that death, but also in justifying those who otherwise were lost forever. Now we are not only slaves pardoned and with a divine salvation, but we live to Him who died for us and was raised.
We Were Dead — Now We Live
The true evaluation of love is that all were dead. But One died for all. This alone does not meet the desperate case, unless we believe on Him. Then we live in Him, instead of being only dead in Adam and in ourselves too. As we realize that some now live in Him as believers, constrained by His love and having His life, we understand our new privilege and duty to live not to ourselves but to Him whose death and resurrection have brought us into such a new relationship of blessedness.
It is a paltry idea of Christianity to regard it as mere pardon, and perhaps only a partial measure, with the need of some more pardon from day to day. Here in 2 Corinthians 5 it is the constraining love of Christ and the positive blessing of risen life in Him. Thus we do not judge in some vague hope, miscalled “charity,” but in the faith of His death to deliver us from evil, that we might live to Him and not to ourselves.
Bible Treasury (adapted)