Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE MOTIVE IS LOVE”
Second Corinthians 5.14-15
The main thrust of my ministry, and any Scriptural ministry for that matter, revolves totally around the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian, you ought to be an active and serving member of a Church. That is God’s plan for the Christian’s life this side of heaven. And if that is so, you, too, will be a Great Commission-oriented child of God.
Let me cite the Great Commission from Matthew 28.18-20:
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
The reason God created the universe was to the end that He might be glorified. The purpose of all things is found in Revelation 4.11:
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
That said, the Great Commission is how we who know Christ, we who are redeemed, we who are obedient to the will and way of Christ in the congregation do Revelation 4.11. God receives the greatest glory when an all-volunteer army sets out to conquer an entire town for the cause of Christ, John 15.5 and 8.
Notice that I said, “Volunteer army.” When you received eternal life in Christ, you enlisted, for life, as a soldier of the cross. During your enlistment, you are directed to “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,” Second Timothy 2.3, with the same expected of all spiritual leaders:
“Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory,”
Second Timothy 2.10.
How many of you folks who are Christians were forced to receive Christ? How many of you were drafted into the Lord’s spiritual army against your will? Please raise your hand. Anyone? None. No one becomes a believer in Christ who does not want to be saved, and no one can be stopped from becoming a Christian who does want to be saved.
What, then, could motivate a lot like Peter and Matthew, and Paul to give their lives in carrying out the Great Commission? Could it be they were persuaded when they saw a resurrected Savior? Could it be they realized life is a vapor that appears for a brief instant and then vanishes away? Could it be they concluded life in this world is but preparation for eternity in the next? Could it be an awareness the victory has been won, and faith is the victory that overcomes the world?[1]
This morning I direct your attention to the Apostle Paul, the greatest and most acute theological thinker that has ever lived, yet he needed to be saved from his sins just like anyone else. When the glorified Savior appeared to him on the road to Damascus, he could no longer doubt and deny the lordship of Christ, the deity of Christ, the glory of Christ, and the power of Christ over even death itself.[2] In short, Saul of Tarsus had been wrong, wrong about everything.
However, he was not unredeemably wrong. By the miracle of the new birth he was born again, transformed from death to life, translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God’s dear Son, forgiven all his sins, adopted into the family of God to become a citizen in the household of faith, and privileged to live for, serve, and preach Christ until his home going by martyrdom.
In Second Corinthians 5.14-15 we find the reasoning Paul gives for carrying out his ministry:
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.
The reasons that motivated Paul to undertake his ministry that I have already stated apply to you and me. Yet there are other motives for ministry that Paul stressed to the Corinthian congregation he wrote to in his second inspired letter. Let’s examine them:
First, THE MOTIVE OF LOVE IS STRONG
“For the love of Christ constraineth us...”
This phrase is a complete thought. Let us deal with it as such.
The subject before us is love, the Greek word you likely have some familiarity with, ἀgάph. I will make three observations about the notion of love as Paul refers to it here:
First, with respect to the nature of love. This is not just any kind of love. This is the love of John 3.16-17:
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
This is the love of Romans 5.8:
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
This word love is not a feeling wonderful kind of thing. This word refers to something far superior to anything like sentiment or mere emotions. This word is related to giving, and giving whether you feel like giving or not. This is love that expects nothing in return because it is given to those who have nothing to offer ... folks like us. I refer not to money, here but to the giving of what is needed by the person who is the object of love, the one who is loved. If you are not motivated by this love because of the nature and source of this love, then you are unfamiliar with this love, and you have been convinced that something else is this love when it is not. How can we be sure? We can be sure because this kind of love is not a sentiment. God has little sentiment toward creatures whose righteousnesses are as filthy rags. God has little sentiment toward rebels who defy Him and plot the death of His Son. Does God love His enemies? Yes. But He doesn’t always like them very much. That said, what is most assuring about the love referred to here is that it moves the one who loves to act. The Father loved and gave His Son. The Son loved and died on the cross. Do not claim to love with this love if you sit on your blessed assurance and do nothing but perform brief religious deeds from time to time. That is not love!
Second, with respect to its Source. This is the love of Christ. Many people are motivated by their love for Christ. Oh, how I love Jesus. And it is wonderful to love Jesus. About that, there should be no doubt. It was important for the risen Savior to confirm in front of witnesses and after the resurrection that Peter, who had betrayed Him, loved Him; we learn from John 21.15, 16, and 17:
15 So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
16 He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Therefore, if you deeply and truly love Jesus, that’s great if such is the case with you. But that was not the Apostle Paul’s motivation for service in our text. Listen carefully for the distinction that is lost on so many, but is a distinction that is crucial to your understanding. Paul’s motivation is shown, the motivation to which he here refers is shown when it is Christ Who is doing the loving. Note that Paul refers to “the love of Christ,” not “love for Christ,” as that which constrains us. That is significant.
Third, also with respect to the Source of this love, Paul came to realize (knew by revelation would be more accurate) that the source of moving love was Christ and not himself. For this reality, several things have to also be true. Simply, but importantly ... First, true love does not originate in the believer. Love does not originate in you, and it does not originate in me. The Apostle John put it this way in First John 4.19:
“We love Him because He first loved us.”
Next, since good comes from this love, this type of love cannot originate in any human being. Why not? Because there is none that doeth good, Romans 3.12:
“They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
The verb that describes the action of the subject, what this love actually does, constraineth. This word constraineth translates sunέcw and means to bind up or to hold. A bale of hay is constrained by the baling wire. It would fall apart without it.
A. T. Robertson points out that this is an
“Old and common verb, to hold together, to press the ears together (Ac 7:57), to press on every side (Lu 8:45), to hold fast (Lu 22:63), to hold oneself to (Ac 18:5), to be pressed (passive, Lu 12:50; Php 1:23). So here Paul’s conception of Christ’s love for him holds him together to his task whatever men think or say.”[3]
Paul informs the congregation in Corinth it is Christ’s love working through them that made them what they were. In this fifth chapter of the letter, he explains what motivated him to actually move the ministry he and his ministry team were engaged in. All they did and were came about from Jesus Christ’s great love. So, where does that leave us?
Notice that the object of the thought is us. Go back to the first chapter of this letter, and you will see that, though the human authors of the letter were Paul and Timothy, from verse 4 onward, the wording makes repeated use of the words we and us and ourselves as opposed to the congregation the letter is addressed to.
“We be afflicted,” verse 6, is contrasted with “your consolation and salvation.” Read on, and you will conclude that throughout the letter, Paul is contrasting we versus his readers, with we and us and ourselves referring not only Paul and Timothy but to the entire ministry team, Paul led, comprised of who knows how many faithful individuals? Though Paul is speaking about his own ministry and team, he points out timeless truth that is applicable to all Christians engaged in genuine ministry. Thus, it is truth that could come to the Corinthians, just as it could come to apply to you and me. The only thing about our lives that can be any good at all, or that might have any merit before God, is what has been brought about as a result of our Lord’s great love for others expressed through us that is seen in the way we behave.
To put it very simply, the motive that moves one to serve God comes about as a consequence of Christ loving all mankind through us, 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.”
This verse was true of Paul’s life. This verse can be true of any Christian’s life, if
“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.”
THE SECOND REASON PAUL SERVED CHRIST WAS BECAUSE HE REALIZED THAT HUMANITY’S MALIGNANCY IS UNIVERSAL
Or, to put it another way, the massacre of sin upon humanity was/is total.
Paul arrived at his conclusion by judging the evidence. First, he knew by revelation from God that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world. He knew from the Old Testament Scriptures he had been taught from childhood, where Isaiah 53 says, “And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” And he knew from his interactions with the most prominent of the apostles at the time of his conversion to Christ, with First Peter 3.18 reading,
“For Christ also hath once suffered ... the just for the unjust.”
What Jesus Christ did can be summed up in one word, substitution. Instead of me, Him. Instead of you, Him. That is substitution.
Second, Paul understood that what Christ did, He did for all. Substitution is one thing. Substitution for all is another thing. The question, of course, is what does the word all refer to? The context in which the word is used determines what is meant by all. Perhaps you recall me mentioning that 140 verses in the New Testament use the Greek word kosmoV, with no less than seven different meanings meant by the single word based upon context and how the word is used. Let me review:
kosmos = universe as a whole, Acts 17.24
kosmos = earth, John 13.1; Ephesians 1.4
kosmos = evil world system, Matthew 4.8; John 12.31; First John 5.19
kosmos = human race, Romans 3.19
kosmos = humanity minus believers, John 15.18; Romans 3.6
kosmos = Gentiles in contrast to Jews, Romans 11.12
kosmos = believers only, John 1.29; 6.33; 12.47; First Corinthians 4.9; Second Corinthians 5.19
To some extent, the same principle is as work with the word all. Where Paul wrote, “If one died for all,” was he referring to every human being who ever lived? Or was he referring to individuals from every linguistic, cultural, and ethnic group without meaning every last human being.
Whatever option Paul meant by what he wrote, it is still quite a profound statement for a Jewish man. It means, whichever meaning is attached to the word all, Christ’s sacrifice on the cross can no longer be imagined as a substitutionary sacrifice for Jews alone. The Lord Jesus Christ died for a world of men, women and children. Anything beyond that is outside the scope of this message. As the Savior stunned Nicodemus with the declaration that God loved more than Jewish people, John 3.16, Paul is reaffirming here that Jesus Christ died a substitutionary death for more than Jewish people.
Look at Paul’s conclusion again:
“Then were all dead.”
There is little doubt that the word all in this instance refers to every human being. After all, God said Adam would die the very day he ate of the fruit. Adam ate the fruit Eve offered him. Scripture records Adam’s physical death some 900 years after the fall.[4] But spiritually, death occurred instantaneously. And since Adam and Eve were the entirety of humanity, all can only mean everyone, as it is used in this phrase. Thus, death is separation from God, not the end of existence. Existence is eternal. But humanity in its entirety is so spiritually dead that we do not really understand what spiritual death is and do not comprehend that everyone is, in fact, dead spiritually. Because everyone is dead, Paul served his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, so they (those who turn from their sins and trust Christ) could be made spiritually alive by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
PAUL’S FINAL REASON FOR SERVING CHRIST WAS HIS REALIZATION THAT THE METHOD WAS EFFECTIVE
Christ’s method was to die for all. The result was life. But are “they which live” the same ones who comprise the “one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all” group of individuals? The word's first use identifies who Christ died for on the cross. The second use of the word identifies everyone affected by sin, which produces spiritual death. The third use of the word all would seem to be the same group of individuals included the first time the word all was used. The question for another time is whether the three times the word all is used by Paul, he refers to identical groups of sinners. Some think yes, while others think not. Luther and the Wesleys and their successors think yes, while Calvin, Knox, Whitefield, Edwards, Carey, and Spurgeon thought not. Your understanding of who is meant by the word all does not impact our Gospel outreach. We preach the Gospel to every creature. The challenge for sinners to turn to Christ is legitimate and appropriate. It is not appropriate to get sidetracked by theological disputes over the meaning of this word in the places it is found.
Notice the phrase, “They which live.” The phrase points out that not everyone lives as a result of Christ’s death on the cross. The reason not all live is because all began dead, according to John 3.18 and 3.36:
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
How some pass from death unto life is because they, those some, believe in Jesus, according to John 5.24 and Romans 10.9 and 10:
24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Next, we have a description of the life:
“They should not live unto themselves.”
Life in Christ, real life in Christ, is not life lived for self. It is not inward. Rather, it is outward. Notice that Paul said “should not” instead of “do not.” He realized that as strong as the reasons to serve Christ may be, there will still be folks who will not serve Him. That is sad. It possibly reflects those who have love for Christ, or imagine that they do, but through whom Christ is not loving others. Still, we should live for Him, should we not? Why? Because He died for us, and rose again. But even more than loving Him, we should so live our lives that Christ is loving others through us.
What amazingly powerful reasons Paul has given to us for serving Christ. First, Christ loves a lost world through you if you are saved. Second, He died for hopelessly lost folks who don’t even know it. Third, His death makes it possible for you to live for Him, Who gave His life for you.
These were the Apostle Paul’s reasons for serving Christ.
These realities transformed a fanatical young Jew who was responsible for the murder of at least one man. Saul of Tarsus was determined to stamp out Christianity. But God used the Gospel to transform that man into one of the greatest of all champions for the cause of Christ.
From a slayer of men to one slain for Christ.
From a ministry of retribution to a ministry of reconciliation.
From an intellectual student of the Old Testament to one who determined to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified.
We know what such truth as this did to one named Paul. What does such truth do to you? Would others admit if asked that you are an instrument used to express to them Christ’s love for them?
__________
[1] Psalm 98.1; 1 Corinthians 15.57; 1 John 5.4
[2] Acts 9.3-6; 22.6-8; 26.13-23
[3] Robertson
[4] Genesis 5.5
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