Therefore All Died

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

- 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

We have been working through this passage together over the past few posts, motivated by the principle that if we are able to come to the same conclusions that Paul had come to, we will be controlled by the love of Christ like he was. We are doing this slowly, one concept at a time, because it takes time to process these things in such a way that they actually affect they way we think.

Therefore all died. Assuming you are a believer in Christ, this means that you died. You may not feel like any such thing has happened to you, but it has. Scripture is, in fact, full of references to the death of believers who, by all external accounts, are very much alive. Colossians 3:3 describes this by saying that “you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Romans 6:1-11 describes this reality in detail, and concludes with this charge: “consider yourselves to be dead to sin.” We are told to believe a reality that we cannot see, and that we often don’t seem to experience, but is a reality nonetheless.

In Paul’s description of this principle in Romans 6, he makes it clear that the reason for our death is the fact that we have been joined to Christ. And having been joined to Christ, everything that belongs to Him now belongs to us, including His death for our sin. The fact that you have been joined to the death of Christ means that His death serves both to forgive you for your sin and to free you from it.

And this wasn’t just a judicial or symbolic transaction. You are not just dead to sin positionally. Your participation in the death of Christ has brought about such a change in your essential nature that it forms the basis for Paul’s emphatic question, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:2) The question is whether we are going to view ourselves according to the flesh, or according to the word of God (2 Cor. 5:16-17).

If we are dead to sin because of the death that Christ died for sin on our behalf, how should this affect our view of sin? How should it affect our approach to dealing with sin? Does it leave any room for complacency, or for toying with temptation? If we understand it properly, it leaves room for nothing but the love of Christ to control us.

The even greater news is that because of our union with Christ, we participate not only in His death but in His resurrection. We are joined to His life. That is the reality we will plan to explore next month.