Calvary Road Baptist Church

“MISSIONS AND OUR SECOND MOTIVE”

Second Corinthians 5.14-17

In this message from God’s Word, we are going to examine two verses that are very familiar to most who have known Christ for any length of time and have read the Bible. You will remember from this morning’s message in Second Corinthians; we began to examine the things that motivated the Apostle Paul and Timothy, those things which truly moved them and every other Christian to serve God. In that message, dealing with Second Corinthians 5.11-13, we came to see that Paul and Timothy were powerfully moved to serve the Savior by their healthy and spiritual fear of the Lord. Paul related that motive to the Corinthians so it would serve as a pattern for them to follow. It has served as a pattern for all believers to follow from that day to this.

Paul and Timothy had no trouble with the concept of worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ on the one hand and having a horror of disappointing Him or disobeying Him, and thus being subject to His chastening, on the other hand. Any challenges to contemporary Christians understanding how someone can love and fear an individual simultaneously makes for not only a poor Christian but also someone ill-suited to be a mother or a father.[1]

It is sad, indeed, when a Christian hasn’t the wisdom or understanding of the Christian faith, or the knowledge of the One he claims to be his Lord, to both love Him and fear Him. Perhaps this problem in Christendom has become more prevalent because so much wisdom has been lost to feminism, to the breakup of the traditional family unit, and because so many moms and dads are profoundly ignorant of parenting skills that they do not recognize and therefore do not properly train their children so they will grow up both loving mommy and daddy and fearing mommy and daddy’s displeasure.[2]

Paul and Timothy had no problem with such a nuanced attitude toward their Lord because their motivation was balanced. It is so likely that they learned to honor, and to fear, and to love their parents in the homes they were raised in.[3] As believers, they were then (without conflict or contradiction) able to grasp the notion of both fearing God and loving God. Were they motivated by the terror of the Lord? Oh my, yes. We saw words to that effect this morning.

But that wasn’t their only motivation. They were also motivated by the love of Christ. They wanted their readers to come to the same understanding of spiritually balanced motives that they possessed. Therefore, while it is certainly possible for any Christian to discover the balanced terror of the Lord and the love of Christ from their studies of God’s Word, how much easier are those balanced motives understood, appreciated, and embraced when a person is raised by parents who instill both love and fear in their children as they raise them?

Sadly, the era in which we live sees so many parents who have no grasp of this nuanced relationship they should both appreciate and cultivate with their children to raise solid and well-adjusted adults, but with those same parents typically also resistant to wise counsel, Scriptural instruction, and the wonderful example set for them by successful Christian parents in the Churches they would do well to attend. Why should parents faithfully attend Church services? There are four reasons: First, they have been directed to do so in Hebrews 10.25. Second, they place themselves and their children under the means of grace by doing so. Third, they learn to be better moms and dads by exposure to other parents and also to grandparents in the Church. Finally, they situate their children where their youngsters will learn how to behave by emulating other children in the nursery, in the Sunday School class and the auditorium. There is also the benefit not generally appreciated by families having more than one child.

Back to motivation to serve God, especially the motivation of love for God and Christ. Ask yourself if you are motivated by the love of Christ to serve the true and living God. You may think you are so motivated, but there is an important consideration before you can properly conclude you are so motivated. You are not motivated by the love of Christ to serve the true and living God unless you do serve the true and living God, apart from your feelings about the matter. Through the course of this message, my prayer is that you will discover for yourself whether you are or whether you are not motivated to serve Christ by the love of Christ.

Remembering that the terror of the Lord produced a certain kind of behavior in the life of a Christian, let us also note what the love of Christ produces in that same believer’s life. Turn to Second Corinthians 5.14-17. Once there, I invite you to stand and read along with me: 

14  For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

15  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.

16  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 

I’m sure that you recognize both the fourteenth and the seventeenth verses as being quite familiar to many Christians. What I trust God will enable us to accomplish at this time is a right understanding of how both of these verses, as well as the verses they bracket in our text, should affect and influence the Christian’s life, your life, as they affected Paul and Timothy’s lives. The theme of the passage is the love of Christ. But what does the love of Christ do? What does the love of Christ accomplish? What is the practical result of the love of Christ?

There are two things the love of Christ accomplished in the lives of Paul, Timothy, and the other Christians in Paul’s ministry team: 

First, THE LOVE OF CHRIST AFFECTS THE CHRISTIAN’S BEHAVIOR  

Paul begins verse 14,

“For the love of Christ constraineth us....” 

“Us,” of course, referring to Paul’s ministry team, and, hopefully, the readers of this letter, recognize that the word “constraineth” means to “hold together,” to “bind together.” Let us ponder this notion of being held together in ministry by the incredible love of Christ referred to here.[4] It’s quite obvious that Paul does not specifically detail in what ways they were “constrained” by the love of Christ, or kept from unraveling by the love of Christ, but we can agree on what Paul is referring to:

First, let us agree about what Paul is not referring to. Remembering what Paul and Timothy endured for the cause of Christ, it should not be all that difficult to appreciate what the lost person would do, what the person who did not experience the effects of the love of Christ would do, if he went through what those two servants of God went through. Would it be stretching things to maintain that Paul and his colleagues were probably preserved from nervous breakdowns by the love of Christ? Preserved from discouragements that led to them giving up and dropping out? Preserved from frustrations that would lead a lost person, or an unspiritual saved person, to wild spending sprees, periods of childish irresponsibility, episodes of testimony destroying behavior? I think we can all agree that the love of Christ, on the negative side of the ledger, while never sparing Paul and his men any of the pains, heartaches, and disappointments we have all experienced (and more besides), did keep Paul and company from completely unraveling, like so many do who are not constrained by the love of Christ.

Positively, let us agree what Paul is referring to. The love of Christ not only kept Paul and Timothy and the others from doing things that were bad or wrong or harmful, but they were also constrained to continue doing and being those things that were positive and beneficial and productive. But for the love of Christ, Paul and the others would not have continued serving God and bringing souls to Christ when he “despaired even of life,” Second Corinthians 1.8. But for the love of Christ, he and Silas would have sat in their jail cell and moaned in Philippi instead of faithfully representing Christ and bringing the Philippian jailer to Christ, Acts 16.30-34. In short, in many ways so obvious to his readers that he feels no need to illustrate or cite examples, Paul and company were constrained, were literally held together and kept from unraveling, by the love of Christ. The love of Christ had a powerful impact on their behavior. Does the love of Christ have a powerful impact on your behavior? I trust that the love of Christ is shown to influence your conduct dynamically. Does the love of Christ affect your conduct concerning evangelism, witnessing, giving to missions, praying? It is a question you should consider. As you reflect on these matters, keep in mind that Paul does not refer to himself in isolation in this regard. He is not a loner here but reveals this dynamic of the love of Christ to be at work in his life along with others’ lives. This is a group thing, beloved. The love of Christ works so much more with groups than isolated individuals, than most Western Christians, realize because of our cultural commitment to individuality. 

Then, WE SEE THAT THE LOVE OF CHRIST AFFECTS THE CHRISTIAN’S BELIEFS  

I urge you to pay very careful attention to the fact that Paul refers to his and Timothy’s beliefs, and not their observations. The reason for this is because what we are about to see came not to Paul by observation, but by revelation. He was able to “judge” the things he writes, not as a result of normal thought processes, but as God communicated truth to him by revelation. Notice how God’s truth determined what Paul and Timothy believed about Christians.

In the last half of verse 14, we see Paul’s belief concerning the believer’s past: 

“... because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead.” 

Have you ever given thought to what Paul writes here? He told the Corinthians that when Jesus Christ died on the cross (because that is exactly where One died for all), everyone died with Him. I say this because although the final word is the word “dead,” which is a noun in English, the Greek word is the aorist verb for having died. Thus, literally, it is “that if one died for all, then all died.” That is Paul’s declaration, his conclusion. How is this to be understood? Paul informs each Christian reader that your personal history as a sinful person in the sight of God ended the moment Jesus Christ offered Himself a ransom for your sin. So far as God is concerned, then, the person you were when you were conceived a sinner in your mother’s womb died when Jesus Christ died for you on Calvary’s cross. Does that seem hard to believe? Read some other passages penned by Paul with me to see if they agree what we understand is meant here: 

Galatians 2.20:

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” 

Romans 6.6-11:    

6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

7  For he that is dead is freed from sin.

8  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

9  Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Romans 7.1-4:

1  Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

2  For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

3  So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

4  Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. 

Here is what Paul believed about his past and the personal history of every Christian, something that more than one of you here needs to realize. You don’t have a past as far as God is concerned. From the moment you trusted Christ, you started from scratch. That is your past. Thus, the baggage from your past that you lug around and use as justification to feel sorry for yourself is completely unnecessary. Therefore, let it go.

But it’s not just the believer’s past that Paul had from God’s revelation of truth to him. It’s the believer’s present, as well: 

15 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.

16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 

The plan is outlined in verse 15: 

“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.” 

Here is the plan: When Jesus Christ died, Christian, you also died to sin. Of course, this only applies to those who’ve trusted Christ as their Savior. But, for believers, the retroactive benefit is that when Jesus Christ died, you died to sin. But it doesn’t end there. You were given the gift of eternal life when you were saved. And the reason you were given life in Christ at the time of your death to sin was so that you could live your new life, not for yourself as you did in the past, but for Christ. It reads, “that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” That’s the plan for your present life, Christian. And it’s a plan that was actually lived out by the grace of God in the life of Paul.

The practice is shown in verse 16: 

“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” 

The term “flesh” is used by Paul to refer to all that is natural in a man. It’s your natural desires and longings, as well as your personality and emotional make-up. It includes the total of everything you are as a result of the information you have gathered through your five senses. It is you, unaffected and uninfluenced by God or the things of God. Notice what Paul declares, about the “flesh.” He no longer looks at others through the eyes of the flesh. He makes no evaluation of others based upon their social standing, their income, their education, their race, or their culture. The only thing about other people that Paul thought had any importance at all was a person’s spiritual condition. Is he saved or is he lost? Does he act saved or does she act lost? And what about Christ? Same thing. He no longer evaluated Christ concerning the things of the flesh. Was Christ a great author? No. Was He highly educated? No. Was He a successful entrepreneur? No. Was He highly thought of by His people and in His Own country? No. Evaluating Christ through the eyes of flesh will result in every lost person staying lost. However, when you look at Christ through the eyes of faith, when you examine Him in light of things that are truly important, eternal values, you will see that He is the altogether lovely Son of God, the Savior of Mankind. In the present, then, God’s plan is for you to live for Christ, not for yourself. And if you put that plan into practice, you will stop evaluating people according to different standards and you will begin to ask this one question: Is he saved or is he lost? Does she act saved or does she act lost?

The principle underlying both the plan and the practice mentioned in verses 15 and 16 is found in verse 17: 

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 

This verse is a classic first-class conditional sentence. Paul is strongly affirming some profound truths that are true if the first phrase, or the condition, is true. Are you in Christ? By the way, that is all that matters. You are in Christ if you’ve trusted Christ as your personal Savior to the saving of your sinful soul. Does the phrase “any man” apply to you? Yes, it does, if you have trusted Christ. You can be dead to sin because of your past, according to verse 14. And you can live for Christ instead of for yourself, according to the plan of verse 15. And you can relate to everything and everyone differently, according to the practice of verse 16. Why? Because of three interconnected truths:

First, because you are in Christ, you are a new creature. God did not renovate you when He saved you. He regenerated you. Neither did He reform you. He started from scratch and made a new you. You have the same old body and the same behavior and personality patterns because of the things that are stored in that part of your body called a brain. But in God’s Own time, you are going to heaven and you’ll get a new one of those, as well. That said, understand this: When you trusted Christ, your wife got a new husband. When you were saved, your husband got a new wife.

Second, because you are in Christ, the old things are passed away. Think you need a smoke? Think you need a drink? Think you need a line? Think you need to do or think any of the things you did or thought when you were unsaved? Don’t believe your five senses. Don’t listen to your body when it screams, “I need to sin like in the old days.” That is a lie. If you have to choose between believing what your body screams at you and what God tells you about your so-called “need” to sin, believe God.

Third, because you are in Christ, all things are become new. Not, all things can become new. All things are become new. Not all things will become new. It reads “all things are become new.” All things have become new for the Christian. 

How many of you folks remember me telling you that what you believe determines how you behave? Verses 14-17 teach that very thing. In the first part of verse 14, Paul told us how he and Timothy behaved. They were held together by the love of Christ. Then, in the second part of verse 14 through verse 17, Paul told us what they believed.

He and Timothy believed that when you are saved, you become dead to sin. When you are saved, God’s plan is for you to live for Christ, not live for yourself. When you are saved your whole way of looking at your fellow man and Christ changes. They believed that all of this is because when you are saved you do become a brand new creation of God.

Assuming you know Christ, if you believe the things found in verses 14 through 17, if you really believe these things, then you also know how much Christ uses us (more collectively than some want to admit) as a channel through which He expresses His love to others to offer them such a wonderful salvation as we enjoy, complete with its fresh start at living.

Because Paul and Timothy realized how much Christ loves through us those as yet unsaved to minister to them such a salvation, they returned Christ’s love. They lived out what the Apostle John wrote in First John 4.19 and First John 5.3: 

“We love him, because he first loved us.” 

“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” 

Because Christ first loved them and showed it by so marvelously saving them, Paul and Timothy showed their love for Christ in return by living the life described in our text for today. In essence, Paul and Timothy so believed that Jesus Christ loved them that they loved Jesus Christ in return and showed it by the life they lived for Christ.

What a powerful motivational force love, real love, can be in a believer’s life. As it was in Paul and Timothy’s lives, so should it be in our lives as well. However, love all by itself is not sufficient to motivate Christians to live a consistent life. Witness the proponents of love and only love in Christian circles, and you’ll see that this bears out. To live a consistent Christian life your motives need to be balanced.

Are your motives to serve the Savior balanced? We saw this morning that the terror of the Lord produced obedience in the lives of Paul and Timothy. And the terror of the Lord produces obedience in everyone’s life ... for a while. But the terror of the Lord as a motive, all by itself, can only motivate for so long. In the end, it produces Christians who talk about the fear of God but who don’t serve God.

How about love as a motivating factor in believers’ lives? Have you taken stock of the various shades of Christianity found in Southern California, which espouse a love and only love relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? How effective is love all by itself as a motive to serve God? Doesn’t appear to be very powerful for very long, does it?

The crowd that preaches love and only love for God and Christ is the same crowd that refuses to separate from sin and ungodliness. It’s the same crowd that shows no concern for doctrinal purity. It’s the same crowd that thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to run with liberals and modernists so long as they say “Praise God” and “Hallelujah.”

If you take the truth of my previous message on the terror of the Lord by itself, you have unbalanced motives to serve God. But if you take this evening’s message all by itself, you still have unbalanced motives to serve God. To serve Christ as He deserves to be served, to worship Him in spirit and truth, to properly honor and glorify Him with a consistent Christian life, there must be a proper and balanced understanding that appreciates both the terror of the Lord and the love of Christ. Without that balance, you’ll tend either to be a legalist who always raves about fearing God but who is not spiritual and whose life does not glorify God, or you’ll be a libertine who always raves about the love of God but who is not spiritual and whose life does not glorify God.

Let us appreciate not only those attributes of God’s character that we like and feel comfortable with but those aspects of His nature which our flesh balks at. If we take that balanced and Scriptural approach, we’ll be a great deal more like Paul and Timothy, and in so doing, we’ll be a great deal more like Christ.

And what were Paul and Timothy like, precisely? Were they not fervent witnesses for Christ? Were they not Church planting missionaries? Did they not live life to fulfill the Great Commission of his Lord Jesus Christ, establishing and urging others to help them establish Churches? That’s called missions, my friends. Whether it is witnessing, inviting, participating in evangelism here at home, or praying for and giving to missions, the motives are two; the fear of the Lord and the love of Christ. Are you a non-participant in outreach? Are you an evangelism no show? Do you not give to and pray for our missionaries? Then you are not properly motivated.

Notice that I am not telling you a tearful story to produce an emotional response. Neither am I exerting manipulative coercion in an attempt to persuade you to do what you do not want to do. I am setting before you the truth of God’s Word regarding the fear of the Lord and the love of Christ as Scriptural components of proper and balanced motives to serve God as a spiritual Christian. If you live right and do God’s blessed will, you show your fear of the Lord and the love of Christ that constrains you. However, if you are a non-giving no show, you display to men and angels that you do not fear the Lord, on one and hand, neither do you love Christ, on the other hand.

Case closed.

__________

[1] Leviticus 19.3

[2] Proverbs 1.8; 6.20; 30.11; Ephesians 6.2

[3] 2 Timothy 1.5

[4] Fritz Rienecker & Cleon Rogers, Linguistic Key To The Greek New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Regency Reference Library, 1980), page 469.

Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Please contact him by clicking on the link below. Please do not change the subject within your email message. Thank you.

Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church

 

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