"The Love Of Christ Compels Me"

In 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, Paul tells us, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” Why are you here today? Why have you made the effort to be in this place, at this time, to assemble with the saints of God who gather in this location? Why have you chosen to spend these moments in this way, instead of in a hundred other things you could have elected to do? It’s a question well worth asking.

My answer isn’t always exactly the same. In different moments, in different mindsets and moods, any number of spiritual truths strike me as central to my purpose in worship, study, and service. Every once in a great while, I find myself stuck with a reply that, though perhaps honest, is something other than what I know it should be. Which is, again, the reason I need to keep asking myself the question — Why are you here? — and listening carefully to my response.

Perhaps more than any other single Bible passage, these verses summarize my motivation as a Christian and as a preacher of the gospel. That’s it, really. "The love of Christ compels me." How great is that love? So great that, while I was still a sinner — rebellious, unrighteous, unrepentant — Christ died for me (Romans 5:8). What powerful words those are — Christ died for me! The world wouldn’t cross the street to give me the time of day. Christ died for me! The world wouldn’t give me ten dollars if I needed food or gas. Christ died for me! The world would bend me to its purpose, chew me up, and spit me out into everlasting condemnation. Christ died for me! And not only for me: He died for all. Jesus died for every person with whom I interact every day. He died for the teller who banks my deposit, for the cashier who rings up my groceries, for the postman who delivers my mail. He died for every person who hears any sermon I preach or who participates in any class I teach. He died for every person who reads this article each week, both on paper and online.

If Christ loved them all enough to die for them, how must I then live among them? I must live, the Scripture says, no longer for myself, but for Him who died for me and rose again. That means, as the apostle would write in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” I dare not, therefore, choose to do with my life as I please. It isn’t my life — it’s His. My time is His, my talents are His, my every resource and ability and strength are His. Why? Because He loved me so much that He gave Himself for me (Romans 5:8; cf. John 15:13; Ephesians 5:2; 1 John 3:16).

Note that word “gave.” Jesus did not die for me because He had no choice in the matter. No one "forced" from Him what He was unwilling to offer. He gave Himself. And that for me, that I might not spend eternity reaping the just wages of my sin — the unending separation from the light and beauty and glory and grace of my God that is spiritual death (Romans 6:23).

So I, like Paul, am compelled by the love of Christ to do what He wills — to serve Him, to worship Him, to labor for His cause, to walk justly and mercifully and humbly with my Lord (Micah 6:8; Deuteronomy 10:12). Sad to admit, I sometimes resist that compulsion. As I said before, my answer to Why am I here? isn’t always what it should be. But when I am reminded by God’s word of my Savior’s matchless love for me, and when I meditate on the awful price that love commanded....suddenly, my reason for being here is all too clear. Is yours? —Michael D. Rankins

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets