For the love of the Messiah shows us that one died for all, therefore all died, and he died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, for he died and rose again on their behalf. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).
There is a deep meaning to this passage that takes some time to realize; a whole lifetime! Paul expressed it in several places.
Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in the Messiah Jesus. (Romans 6:11)
Praise God! While we have been included in the Messiah’s ascended life, made alive in a whole new way, we should continue to plumb the depths of how we have died. They must be considered together. As Jesus said, ‘unless the seed falls to the ground and dies…’ (John 12:24)
Sin had a hold over us, as we all lived in a state of deception. We knew that we could not do anything to be free from the consequences of sin's penalty which is death! (Romans 6:23)
Paul must have spent years praying, thinking, and carefully writing to help us understand that sin’s hold; firm as it was; is no longer. We are freed from being a prisoner to sin and death through the lord Jesus, and now we live as new creations, in the manner that Galatians 2:20 powerfully proclaims:
I have been crucified with the Messiah, and it is no longer I who live, but the Messiah lives in me. (Galatians 2:20)
Any time we fall into old ways of sin, it is because we have lost sight of who we are in the Messiah. We have offered ourselves again to the law of sin and death; not that it has a hold over us any longer, but we have chosen, through carelessness or rebelliousness, to live out of the old man, not as a new [creation] man in the Messiah.
Reflect on ancient Israel and how they experienced some amazing and profound miracles as they were freed from Egypt and set on the path to the Promised Land. One can hardly imagine the moments of sheer joy and excitement as the journey began. The Red Sea parting would be perhaps the most significant; an experience to last 100 lifetimes through the stories that were passed on.
Yet it was not long before they lost their focus on where they are going and where they have been. They were slaves for 4 centuries, but Israel (disappointed by the circumstances in the desert they now were experiencing) wanted to go back to the ‘leeks and garlic of Egypt’ rather than forging ahead to the promised land; a land God had chosen for them (Numbers 11).
As we look ahead to the joy of our new lives in the Messiah; the new life accompanied by God’s indwelling spirit, and the new life that will be ours when we are raised to be like the Messiah Jesus; we come to understand more deeply, as Paul did, the new in juxtaposed with the old.
Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in the Messiah Jesus. (Romans 6:11)
We must indeed consider how we have died to ourselves in the Messiah in order to now live out our lives in the Messiah.
For the love of the Messiah shows 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.
Jesus’s death, the most significant event in all creation, is surpassed only by his ascension to a new immortal life… as the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15)! Such is the magnitude of Jesus’ death, that all mankind may be reconciled to God! All are included in the death of the son of God. We realize however that it is only those who believe in the one whom Yehovah Elohim - God has sent who will be reconciled to Him.
Those reconciled, have had an unpayable debt paid in full, because of the sin-offering sacrifice on the lord Jesus on the stake!
Now, if we can appreciate what the Messiah’s death has accomplished for us, we can grow in living out the lord Jesus in our lives through the power of his indwelling spirit. Realizing that Jesus never promised us a rose garden, the way will be difficult and we will be severely tested and tried along the way. The goal before us is so wonderful that we will be encouraged to keep on keeping on, until we arrive at our destination, a place in the coming Kingdom of God!
We might picture it this way:
We were chained to this world and the law of sin and death.
Jesus has broken the chain!
Jesus has totally freed us; ending our slavery to sin, the world, and its ruler!
We can run as far as we like from Egypt [a type of this world] with the baggage of who we were as slaves to sin, an ever-present reminder that it is not we who live now, but the Messiah who lives in us. Our life is not ours to live… it is to be lived in and through the lord Messiah Jesus.
As we joyously ponder the new life, let us prayerfully consider that it is only lived to the extent that we reckon our old self as dead! We eagerly look forward to our change; to finally be like He is, a glorified immortal man.
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