Life Compelled by the Love of Christ

Study Notes

Life Compelled by the Love of Christ

2 Corinthians 5:14-17

    As we begin 2019, we’re going to learn from 2 Corinthians, a letter the Apostle Paul wrote as he was being heavily criticized for the way he was living his life as a follower of Jesus.  And the criticisms – often filled with serious accusations – came from people in a church that he loved, a church he had founded at great cost to him personally. 

     So, why did Paul live as he did after meeting Jesus?  To get the answer, we’re going to start in the middle of Paul’s letter instead of at the beginning because, in 2 Cor 5:14-15, we find Paul explaining what it was that directed every aspect of his life.  It’s all summarized in this phrase: “Christ’s love compels us – i.e., urges us forward – because we are convinced that one died for all…!” 

     My approach will be a bit like the way a photographer goes about his or her work.  When a photographer takes a picture, it is very important to get the right thing into focus.  It might be that you want the entire picture to be in focus as much as possible.  But, at other times, there is one thing that the photographer was to put in hyper-focus – into the center of the viewer’s attention.  That one thing is the important thing.

     That one thing that compels and directs everything else is the love of Christ.  For the next 9 weeks, we are going to consider how an experience of the love of Christ should compels us -- guide and direct every part of our lives.  This will be a very practical and down-to-earth series of messages.    But today, we are going to focus in on just one thing, i.e., the one thing that changes everything else.

     So, as we begin 2019, I will be asking you to look at many aspects of your life – including your attitudes, relationships, your hopes, your stewardship etc.  But, once you have become a Christian, there should be one thing that directs all those other things in your life.  Today, we will put our focus on that one thing by asking this question: What does it mean to live a life compelled by Christ’s love?  Let’s see what 2 Cor 5:14-15 says.

1. The Discovery of Every Genuine Christian: Jesus loves you. Christ’s love compels us… (5:14a).

     This declaration that Jesus loves all people is where our Christian faith starts. I have no good news to give you today if this is not true.  God knows everything about you – even those things that you do not love about yourself and you try to hide from others.  God knows.  But, knowing everything about you, God loves you with an everlasting, unrelenting love.  Whatever you are facing today, know this:  God has not given up on you.  He loves you.  Hear the Word of God, “I pray that you… may grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and that you will experience that love that goes beyond human knowing (Eph 3:17-18).” So, whatever else I ever preach here at LAC, I pray that you will grasp the message and then experience it: God knows you and loves with a depth of love that goes beyond anything you could ever ask for or even imagine.

2. The Outworking of Jesus’s Love: Jesus died for you. We are convinced that one died for all… (5:14b).

      There is a hard and cold truth about us all that we all simply have to own up to, i.e., Jesus had to die for us or we would have no eternal hope.  This is a message that I dare not ignore or even soften when I speak to you, i.e., that there are things in your life that you know are not pleasing to God, that separate you from the holy God who loves you.  That’s true of me too – and it was true of the Apostle Paul too.  In the eyes of everyone in his society, Paul would have looked very righteous – very religious.  He wrote about that in Philippians 3.  Paul had worked hard to keep God’s law and to do what he thought was right.  But, in his heart, he knew he had not done so, not perfectly.  In fact, when Paul met Jesus he had his eyes opened to that fact. 

     But, once he saw himself as a perfect God saw him, Paul owned up to those flaws he had hidden or ignored.  When he did, he heard God say to him, “Paul, Jesus died for you.  When your faith is in him, your sins will be atoned for.  Your sins I will remember no more.”  Do you see it?  Paul’s sin was met by and exceeded by God’s love and grace. For the rest of his life, Paul considered himself the worst of all sinners – but a sinner saved by the grace of a God who loved him and never gave up on him.  And, that was what compelled his daily living.

     As I’ve spoken with a number of people this week about this message, I have been asked this question: “I see that experiencing the love of Jesus transformed Paul but how can I experience the Christ’s love the way that he did?”  It’s not an easy question to answer.  The deep experience of his love may come in different ways.  However, for the Apostle Paul, the depth of his experience of Christ’s love flowed his conviction that because of the seriousness of his sins he had no hope of earning his own way to God.  His only hope was for someone to take his place and atone for his sins.  He was in awe that Jesus loved him enough to do that.

     Jesus himself spoke profoundly about this in Luke 7.  He was in Simon the Pharisee’s house when a woman, whom everyone knew had been living a life of prostitution, broke into the house, weeping at the life she was trapped in. She wet Jesus’s feet with her tears, dried them with her hair and poured perfume on them.  What a scene that must have been in the Pharisee’s home!  When Simon the Pharisee saw this, he criticized Jesus saying, “This man couldn’t be from God or he would know that this woman is a prostitute, a sinner!”

    Jesus said to him, “Simon, I came into your house and you did not welcome me.  You didn’t even give water to clean my feet.  But this woman has wet my feet with her tears and has not stopped honoring me.  Therefore, her many sins have been forgiven as her great love shows.  But, whoever has been forgiven little, loves little.” 

     Now, let me tell you, that woman did not need forgiveness more than Simon did.  But, she recognized her need to be made clean.  She longed for a new life and saw Jesus as the only hope to receive it.  She was overwhelmed by Jesus’s readiness to see her with love, to value her as no one else had, and then to forgive her.  She experienced the love of Christ as Paul did.  She was a woman overwhelmed by the love of Christ. Our experience of God’s love is directly proportionate to our awareness of our need of forgiveness, a forgiveness made possible only by the death of Jesus for us.

     So, if you feel you are not deeply experiencing the love of Jesus, it may be that you have not yet acknowledged how desperately you needed Jesus to die for you.  As Tim Keller says, “We are more wicked than we ever dare to think.  And, we are more loved than we ever dare to hope.”

     Hear again the Word of God: This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 Jn 4:9-10).

3. The Response to Jesus’s Love: You die too. One died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him… (5:14c-15a).

     I know you may find this teaching that all genuine Christians somehow die in order to live to be confusing – or even off-putting.  And, I will tell you, what the Bible means by “all die” is something that doesn’t come naturally to us.  So, let me explain: The death that the Bible speaks about in this case is a death to self, i.e., to a self-directed life.  Do you see how Paul defines it in v.15?  “We no longer live for ourselves.”  No, we die to that hopeless way of life that most think is real living, i.e., fulfilling my personal bucket list, building my dream house, succeeding in the eyes of the world in all I do. 

     Let me be clear here:  Many Christians actually do succeed in the things we do.  But, success as the world views success – though it often comes to Christians – does not define us.  That is not what we live for.  Not what compels us.  Paul wrote that, when we have experienced Christ’s love, we now live for the only one who died for us and rose again.  When that happens to you, you will find that your fear of failure is taken away.  You won’t fear the things you once feared, i.e., losing a competition or undergoing hardship.  Why?  Because those things are not what you live for!  You live to please the one who died for you. When you die to self all the fears of perfectionists are taken away.  The only fear you will have is displeasing God and he is the one who has already said, “There is nothing that can ever separate you from the love of God that comes in Christ Jesus (cf., Rom 8:35-39).”  That kind of fear of God takes away all other fears.

     We will come back to this point again and again in this series.  But, right now let me simply say this: This point of dying to self and living for Christ is what baptism is all about.  When you are baptized, as Romans 6 says, you tell everyone that you are buried with Christ in his death.  In other words, that old life that was always urged forward by what you want or by your desire to please others is put to death.  The sins that were a part of that life are all washed away.  Then, you come out of the water as one risen to live a new life – one compelled by, urged forward by, the love of the one who died for you and rose again for you.

     I must now ask you this:  Have you been baptized?  Perhaps today is the day that you declare, my life belongs to the one who loved me and gave his life for me.  My former self-directed life is cleansed and gone.  I want to live a life compelled by Christ’s love.  And that point brings me to my last point today:

4. The Difference Jesus’s Love Makes: You begin to live a new life. In Christ…, the old has gone; behold, the new has come (5:17)!”

     Jesus did not die merely to forgive your sins.  He did that for sure.  But, not only for that.  Jesus died to rescue you from a life of sin.  He died and rose again for your remaking.  Tomorrow does not have to be the same as yesterday was – because Jesus can and will change things.  That’s what we will be thinking about in very practical ways over the next 8 weeks.

      Before we go to communion today, I simply want to tell you that this changed life does not happen instantly.  It is a process, a process of growing that often feels like it is going too slowly.  As I was speaking about this with some of my ministry colleagues last Tuesday, Chris Ramsey began drawing a diagram to illustrate this.  I’ve modified Chris’s sketch just a bit:

     What this diagram shows is that, in our life’s journey, God’s goal for us in sending Jesus was that all of us would become more and more like Jesus was.  It’s what the Bible speaks of as becoming complete in Christ or conformed to the image of God’s Son.  But, before we place our faith in Jesus, we live our lives as well as we can.  We have been made in God’s image so there are many hopes, and longings and actions that are consistent with the life of Jesus.  You see that at the bottom left in the diagram. But, self-directed lives cannot grow for they are not yet alive to God. In fact, usually they move farther and farther from God. 

     But, when we place our faith in Jesus, we experience the love of the one who died in our place and who makes us alive to God.  In that new life, we are to grow.  What the Bible says is that every aspect of that growth in your new life is compelled by the love of the one who gave his life for you. 

     So, let me ask you this directly:  Have you ever experienced the love of Jesus and responded to it by saying, “Lord Jesus.  Here is my life.  I ask you to forgive whatever sins need to be forgiven.  I now turn from that life I have been living and give my entire future in faith to you.  Jesus, I entrust my whole life to you.”

     And, for the many who are here who long ago began this journey compelled by the love of Christ but have gotten stuck along the way – or even feel you have gone downhill, let me tell you what you need to move forward again:  You need a fresh experience of the love of Christ.  You must remember that without Jesus being willing to die for you, you would have no hope.  Don’t be like Simon the Pharisee who thought the woman needed God’s love and forgiveness more than he did.  You too need to be forgiven much.  And Jesus loves you so much that he is ready to forgive you much – and to start again with you.

     So, let’s pull out our kneelers for a few moments of confession and prayer.  To guide you, here is 1 Cor 5:14 again:  Christ’s love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all…! – Meditate on that and then we will receive communion together…

Chinese Study Notes

為基督的愛所激勵的生命

林後 5：14-17

         耶誕節過去了，你還記得狄更斯《聖誕頌歌》的開頭麼？
         “馬雷死了，這就是開始，對此毫無疑問。他的死亡證書是由神職人員和公證人員簽署的，是最謹慎的人簽的，所以馬雷的死是毫無疑問的，這必須要搞清，只有對此確信無疑才能瞭解我接下來的故事…”

          當我開始考慮2019年開始我們要學習的哥林多後書時，我想到了這個。使徒保羅之所以要寫這封信是因為他作為耶穌跟從者，他的生命被大大指責；特別是這責備伴隨著嚴重的控告，來自他所愛教會的信徒，那是他付上極大代價所建立的教會啊。

          那麼，為什麼保羅要有那樣生命？

• 不被患難壓倒和困住；
• 不怕死亡；
• 與外邦人，貧窮人建立關係；
• 甘願被鞭打、石砸、監禁，也要告訴人他所遇到的耶穌--

          除此以外，他還說：“我活著就是基督”，換句話說“我已知道生命的真正意義和如何讓為我而死的耶穌喜悅。我在基督裡的生命就是我完全的人生！”

         今天，我們不從書信起頭開始，而是從中間開始，因為保羅在林後5：14-15解釋了究竟是什麼引導他生命的方方面面，可以這樣總結：“基督的愛激勵我們，鼓勵我們前行—因為我們知道他一個人為我們眾人死！” 我也可以用狄更斯上述的話來描述保羅的意思：

         耶穌死了，這就是開始，對此毫無疑問。羅馬士兵確認了，無數的人見證了，歷史記錄證明了，所以耶穌的死是毫無疑問的，這必須要搞清，只有對此確信無疑才能瞭解那些跟從他的人的生命。

         在接下來的9周，我們要思考，經歷基督的愛將會怎樣指引和激勵我們生活的各方面。這將是應用性很強和接地氣的系列講道。但今天，我們只聚焦一件事，就是改變萬事的那件事。

          我像一個攝影師要照一張相片，首先要聚焦在正確的事上。也許你想要整個相片有盡可能多的焦點，但總有一個是最重要的，必須擺在注意力的中心，那就是最重要的事。

          2019年伊始，我要你審視自己生命的許多方面，我們會每週講解哥林多後書，讓神的話查驗與你生活相關的各樣事--包括你的態度、關係、管理職責等等。你成為基督徒後，有一件事要改變你生命的方方面面。今天，我們聚焦在這個問題上：即活出被基督的愛所激勵的生命是什麼意思？那答案就在今天的經文裡。

1. 一切真基督徒所發現的: 耶穌愛你！基督的愛激勵我們… (5:14a).

          這就是一切的起始點。若這話不對，我今天就不能帶給你什麼好消息。神瞭解你的一切，但你更要知道神以永遠的愛來愛你，不管你今天處境如何，神都不會放棄你，因為他愛你。聽聽聖經的話：“我祈求…你們明白基督的愛，是何等長闊高深；並知道這愛是過於人所能測度的（弗3：17-18）” 所以不管我在教會做什麼禱告，我都願你聽到這話，抓住這話，並經歷它：神愛你，他以長闊高深的愛來愛你，過於你所求和所能測度的。

2. 耶穌的愛所成就的：耶穌為你死了! 一人既替眾人死，眾人就都死了… (5:14b).

      有一個冰冷、堅硬的事實就是人人都犯了罪，耶穌必須為我們死，否則我們就沒有永生的盼望。這是我講道時既不能忽視也不能妥協的事實。你知道你生命中有不討神喜悅的地方，我也有，甚至保羅也有：他曾經在周圍的人眼中，看起來是多麼正直和敬虔，就如他在腓利比書中說的，他為神的律法大發熱心，做一切他認為對的事。但在他的心中，他知道自己不完美，行不出律法的要求，直到他遇到耶穌，打開了眼睛，看見了這事實。

         一旦保羅看自己如同神看他那樣，他就承認他隱藏或忽略了自己的罪，他聽見神對他說：“保羅，耶穌為你死了，你當相信他，我就不再紀念你的罪。” 你們看到了麼？保羅的罪被神的愛與恩典所對付、所征服了，因此在他的餘生，他看自己是罪人中的罪魁，但卻是一個蒙恩的罪人，被愛他、不放棄他的神所拯救；而這激勵了他每天的生活。

         當我這周和一些人討論這篇講道時，有人問：“我如何能經歷這樣偉大的愛，讓我的生命各方面都改變呢？” 這種經歷可能是不同的形式，不過，對保羅而言，他對神的愛的深度經驗流溢在他深深的確信中，即離開了如此愛他並為他死的主，他的生命沒有盼望。

          耶穌在路加福音7章對此做了深刻的談論。當時，他在一個叫西門的法利賽人家中，一個被公認為妓女的女人貿然進來，為自己破碎的生命哭泣，眼淚濕了耶穌的腳，女人用自己的頭髮擦乾，並用香膏抹他。西門和法利賽人看見了，就議論耶穌說：“這人若從神而來，就會知道這女人是一個妓女，一個罪人！”
         耶穌對他說：“西門，我 進 了 你 的 家 ， 你 沒 有 給 我 水 洗 腳 ； 但 這 女 人 用 眼 淚 ? 了 我 的 腳 ， 用 頭 發 擦 乾 。你 沒 有 與 我 親 嘴 ； 但 這 女 人 從 我 進 來 的 時 候 就 不 住 的 用 嘴 親 我 的 腳 。你 沒 有 用 油 抹 我 的 頭 ； 但 這 女 人 用 香 膏 抹 我 的 腳 。所 以 我 告 訴 你 ， 他 許 多 的 罪 都 赦 免 了 ， 因 為 他 的 愛 多 ； 但 那 赦 免 少 的 ， 他 的 愛 就 少 。”

          現在我告訴你們，西門並不比這女人所需要的赦免少；但這女人卻認識到自己需要一個新生命，她被耶穌的愛、接納和赦免所感動，經歷了保羅所經歷的愛，被神的愛所圍繞。我們經歷神的愛也是與我們對神憐憫的需要成正比。

         如果你認為自己沒有深度經歷耶穌的愛，也許是你還沒有意識到自己是多麼需要耶穌為你的罪而死。正如提姆凱勒所說：“我們比自己能想像的還惡，但卻比我們能盼望的更蒙愛！“

         聽神的話：神 差 他 獨 生 子 到 世 間 來 ， 使 我 們 藉 著 他 得 生 ， 神 愛 我 們 的 心 在 此 就 顯 明 了 。不 是 我 們 愛 神 ， 乃 是 神 愛 我 們 ， 差 他 的 兒 子 為 我 們 的 罪 作 了 挽 回 祭 ， 這 就 是 愛 了（約壹 4：9-10）。

3. 回應耶穌的愛: 你也死了！因我們想一人既替眾人死，眾人就都死了。 並且他替眾人死，是叫那些活著的人，不再為自己活，乃為替他們死而復活的主活 … (5:14c-15a).

         你們可能對真基督徒必須先死後活的教導困惑，我要告訴你們，聖經上說的“眾人都死了” 並非臨到我們的自然死亡；聖經說的死是向自己的死，即向自我中心的生命而死。你看到保羅在15節的定義了嗎？我們不再為自己而活，我們向著沒有盼望的“真正生活”而死---就是那些為了成就個人私欲、建立自己夢想和在世人眼中成功的生活。

          讓我更清楚地說：雖然許多信徒實際已經在我們所做的事上成功了，但不過是世界上的成功。這些成功對真基督徒而言不叫成功，因為我們不是為這些而活的，不是被此驅動的。保羅寫到，當我們經歷了基督的愛，我們就只因那為我們死而復活的主而活。你如此做了，就會發現你的恐懼被拿去了，不再害怕以前所害怕的，比如競爭失敗或經歷困苦。為什麼呢？因為這些不是你生活的目的，你活著是要討主的喜悅，他為你而死。因此你向自己死，就讓自己那些完美主義者的恐懼一掃而空。你只有一種擔心，就是不能討神喜悅。事實上，神在羅馬書8：35-39節應許我們：“沒有什麼能  叫 我 們 與 神 的 愛 隔 絕 ； 這 愛 是 在 我 們 的 主 基 督 耶 穌 裡 的”，對神的敬畏除去了其它一切恐懼。

          在這個系列裡，我們要一遍遍回到這一點，但現在我要告訴你們：向自己死和向基督活就是洗禮的意義。就像羅馬書6章所說，當你受洗時，你向眾人宣告你與耶穌同死同埋葬，換句話說，那被私意和欲望所驅動的、討好人的舊生命被處死了，與這樣生命相連的罪被洗淨了。當你從水中出來時是一個新生命，就是被基督的愛所激勵、驅動的新生命，因他為你死，也為你復活。

          我必須問你：你有沒有受洗？也許今天就是你要宣告的日子：你的生命屬於愛你並賜你生命的基督！你從前自我為中心的生命已經被清潔除去，你要活出被基督的愛所激勵的人生。而這，讓我們來到今天最後的要點。

4. 耶穌的愛所帶來的不同: 你開始活出一個新生命！在基督裡…舊事已過，都變成新的了 (5:17)。

          耶穌不僅只為你的罪而死，儘管確實為了你的罪，但不光為此，他還拯救你脫離罪的生命；而他死而復活是為了新造的你。明天與今天會有不同，因為耶穌能夠讓事情改變。接下來的8周，我們都要思考非常實際的應用。

         在今天領聖餐前，我想告訴你們生命的改變不是一朝一夕的，而是一個過程，成長的過程有時會讓你感到很慢。上週二，我在校園事工演講時，克裡雷曼斯畫了一個表格來描述，我在此稍作修改：

         此表格反應了我們人生旅程。神差派耶穌給我們的目的是讓我們能越來越像耶穌，這就是聖經所說的在基督裡成為完全，有神兒子的樣式。但在我們信主前，我們的生命只是隨己意而活。我們受造本有神的形象，所以我們的盼望、渴望和行為應是與耶穌的生命相稱的。你看圖示的左下角，自我為中心的生命不可能向神而活；事實上，常常是背道而馳。

          但當我們信耶穌時，就會經歷到耶穌的愛，他為我們而死並讓我們向神而活。我們就是在這新生命中成長的。聖經說我們新生命的方方面面都被賜我們生命的基督之愛所激勵。

         讓我直接問你們：你們是否經歷了耶穌的愛，是否如此回應說：“主耶穌，我把生命交給你；我求你赦免我需要赦免的一切。我要離棄過去的生活，在未來的日子裡信靠你。耶穌，我願將一生交在你手中。”

         今天我們中間也許有人很早就開啟了為基督愛所激勵的生命，但在旅途中被困住，甚至走了下坡路，我要說，你需要更新，重新經歷基督的愛；要知道，沒有耶穌甘願為你而死，你早就沒有盼望了，你也需要多多的赦免。耶穌是如此愛你，他早就準備多行赦免，與你一起重新來過！

         現在讓我們跪下禱告認罪，準備領受聖餐……

         榮耀歸給神！

            Greg Waybright 博士

      主任牧師