“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. 5:14-15).
The thought uppermost in my mind in reading these verses is just as simple as it is of all importance, and that is, beloved brethren, What are we living for? A weighty question, I need not say, and it is important to our souls that we should not shrink from answering it, and that we should answer it in the fear of God. Verse 15 was particularly before me: “He died for all, that they which live,” that is, the believers. All were dead, believers and unbelievers alike; all were ruined men before God. And the death of Christ is the proof of the condition of every soul naturally, that is, all are lost, all lifeless toward God. That even the Son of God, who is everlasting life, should need to suffer, should find no portion but death in this world, is the proof that there is no life in it. Everything lay so irretrievably in death that for Him to die is the only door of deliverance out of it. And, “He died for all.”
It is not said that all should live, though undoubtedly there was life in Him adequate for every soul — life everlasting in Christ. But then, in fact, no soul did, none would, receive Him — not one. Grace therefore has wrought and given some to receive Him. And therefore it is added, “He died for all, that they which live” — that is, they who do believe in Him, and therefore have life — “that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.”
Living for Ourselves or for Him?
Every question that arises brings out one of these two things — whether we are living to ourselves or to Him who died for us and rose again. Do we not have to own the sad truth of how constantly we have to rebuke our souls? How often the first impulse of the heart is to take that view of everything which would minister to our pleasure or gratification or importance? What is this but living to ourselves? When any question comes before us, when anything, either in the way of an evil to be avoided, a loss to be shunned, or something to be gained, some object that comes before us, is it not our tendency to look upon how it will bear upon us and to give it that turn which will be for our profit or advantage in some way or another? I do not say this is always personal; it may be for our family, for our children, looking onward to the future or at the present. Now, we are always wrong when we do it. God would not have us to neglect the real good of those dear to us and dependent on us, but the question is whether we trust ourselves or Christ.
Christian Truth, 15:315