Living for Christ means living like Christ

Nov. 14, 2008

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul wrote that Jesus, “died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

The most important — no, make that the only — thing we can ever do with our lives is to live for Christ. We have been purchased with Christ's blood.

“For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” — Romans 14:7-9

It's no easy task. Living for Christ means living like Christ. While we cannot live the perfect life, through the Spirit of Christ working in us, we are being transformed.

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” — 2 Corinthians 3:18

What are we then? We are spiritual beings. This body is just a temporary dwelling place for our eternal souls. It's temporary, but it's very important because it's what we do in this body, the choices we make to follow Christ, or the way of the world, which is death that determines the destiny of our eternal soul.

When we begin to look at ourselves, and those around us, as eternal spiritual beings, then we have a deeper understanding the importance of the gospel and in sharing it with others.

We must put off the Epicurean creed of “eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die,” and look to the eternal God in Christ Jesus as our sole source of life.

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.” — 2 Corinthians 5:16-19

Notice, God was reconciling us to himself, not the other way around. God did not change; God never changes. The Levitical Laws have not changed. Sin requires a penalty to be paid; Christ paid that penalty, but he was sinless. He became sin.

Now, we are still under the penalty of sin, which is death, but if we choose Christ, then we are rescued from that penalty and have life in Him as our reward.

Since we have this great reward we have a duty to quit living for ourselves and begin living for Jesus, just as Paul said in verse 15. When we live that life, the life of one being transformed, then we can be a beacon of hope to a lost and dying world.

“We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” — 2 Corinthians 5:20-21

It is not popular these days to talk about sin. We want to avoid the subject as much as possible. When we look at our sins we see our own faults, and that's not pleasant. When we look at our sins, we see where we have failed God and it is a heavy burden, but Christ freed us from that burden of sin, but unless we repent and turn away from the life of sin, we have not enjoyed the full measure of salvation.

Apparently things haven't really changed that much over the past 150 years, Charles Spurgeon had to deal with it in 1860, yet as the great preacher said, Christ was there for a purpose, and unless we recognize the sin and Christ's role of ridding us of that sin, then we cannot be about God's business here in these final days.

“God looked on Christ as if Christ had been sin; not as if he had taken up the sins of his people, or as if they were laid on him, though that were true, but as if he himself had positively been that noxious - that God-hating - that soul-damning thing, called sin. When the Judge of all the earth said, 'Where is Sin? Christ presented himself. He stood before his Father as if he had been the accumulation of all human guilt; as if he himself were that thing which God cannot endure, but which he must drive from his presence forever… God hates it. No tongue can tell, no soul can divine the terrible hatred of God to that which is evil, and he treats Christ as if he were sin. He prays, but heaven shuts out his prayer, he cries for water, but heaven and earth refuse to wet his lips except with vinegar. He turns his eye to heaven, he sees nothing there.”

Imagine the torture Christ went through to wipe our slate clean. Think about the infiniteness of God. Nothing happens without God's knowledge, I have to believe Christ felt every sin ever committed in the world bear down upon him and that pain was more intense then anything we could ever imagine. Just think, Christ felt every lie; he felt every theft; he felt every murder; just imagine, since Roe v. Wade, there have been over 50 million abortions in this country, 50 million innocent lives destroyed and Christ felt every single one of those.

Now, knowing this, why do we live a life dedicated to the world instead of Christ? If we have any love for anybody in this world, then we will tell them what Christ has done for all people, that he can lift that heavy weight of sin off their shoulders and cast it aside.

I started looking at 2 Corinthians 5 to help us look at our purpose. Our purpose is to please Christ; live our life for him and to let others know what Christ has done for us, it's just a small thing we can do for one who has done so much for us.