One Died For All

We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

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, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 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 people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 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 5:12-21

Leave hate behind you. Do not direct your anger towards various ethnic groups.

The love of Christ causes deep rooted forms of transformation. The apostle Paul knew something about this form of transformation. He had initially rooted out Christians, but a personal encounter totally turned him around. His walk to Emmaus caused him to re-evaluate his entire life.

This union with Jesus will cause us to re-evaluate our entire lives. The old order of sin, death, and selfishness is gone and a new beginning has taken place. There is a new covenant, a new perspective, and a new way of living.

Following Jesus is not turning over a new leaf; it is beginning a new life under a new Master.

Being in Christ is not rehabilitation, it’s re-creation.

Our Daily Bread – October 24, 2013