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I. The Cost of Discipleship
INTRODUCTION:
How do converts become true disciples of Christ? What has to happen in order for a new believer; a babe in Christ to become a disciple? We know that a true disciple denies himself; he takes up his cross daily; he follows the Lamb; he loves the brethren; he puts sin to death; he walks by means of the Spirit; he is zealous for good works; he serves God.
True disciples grow into disciples as the result of systematic encouragement and teaching by mature brethren. It says in Acts 14:21-22, “Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.”
Disciple-making is the aim/goal of the Great Commission. The Body of Christ is to commit itself to the task of making disciples. But we have many shallow Christians today; folks who follow Christ in a tentative, stuttering and sputtering manner—who are not equipped to reproduce their faith.
How we need to return to the Word and uncover again the secret behind Paul’s optimism and effectiveness as a disciple-maker. When you pour over his epistles and you will find that the Apostle Paul’s heart throbbing and beating with a disciple-making passion. For Paul, pastor and missionary, disciple-making is his controlling mandate, his sacred trust and deputation—the central work that commands his full attention and energies.
Colossians 1:28-29 encapsulates the lengthy process of disciple-making in just two verses. You see the context there—it is Christ in you (a reference to the Christian’s union with Christ – 1:27). Because the believer is in Christ; and Christ is in him—discipleship and Christian maturity are real and possible.
It is union with Christ that guarantees ultimate conformity to Christ. But that conformity is to begin now; and not just wait until glory. In Christ and His promises we have everything we need in relation to life and godliness—our Savior is a fountain of life. Because to be united to Christ is to have as one’s possession—all the benefits of His Glorious Person at work in one’s walk—His life; His death; His resurrection; His heavenly advocacy; His endless Priesthood.
This was Paul’s confidence as a disciple-maker. Those eternally united with Christ experience real changes in their being—changes that produce repentance and transformation of character. For union with Christ (or Christ in you) is our hope of glory.
Christ’s substitutionary work; His vicarious death in our place makes us new creatures (2 Cor 5:17). So radical and monumental was that great exchange—Christ’s life for ours—His righteousness for our sin—that the moment of a sinner is saved; it marks the beginning of conformity to Christ. Christ in you means you are being fitted for eternity.
The transforming power of Christ in you was Paul’s hope; it drove his optimism in both evangelism and discipleship. But Paul knew that all his efforts at disciple-making did not ultimately rest upon the forcefulness of his exhortations to self-denial; to devotion; and to repentance. Paul built solely on the foundation of Christ.
Self-denial is a response to who Christ is—to discovering Him as Lord of All—and what He has done—it is life in Him—the experience of His fullness.
A true disciple of Jesus Christ is a person who does not live by his natural desires—but instead lives by the loving rule of Christ, his Head. A true disciple is conformed to the will and likeness of his Head.
When Christ set forth the cost of discipleship—He usually did so when talking about His own impending death. It says in John 12:23-26, “And Jesus answered them saying, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say unto you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall my servant also be; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”
Christ joins His own ordeal (the cross of Calvary) to the ordeal the true disciple will undergo in a life of self-renunciation. The Father gave Christ a ‘Bride’—the elect of every age—a people without number from every tribe, tongue, and nation. But Christ must die for His Bride in order to resurrect His Bride who lies in the cold tomb of her spiritual deadness and depravity.
This is such a thrilling truth. The context of true discipleship is Christ’s own death for us. It was Christ’s cross-work on our behalf that brought forth the infinite fruit of reconciliation; both spiritual reconciliation (salvation), and cosmic reconciliation (the renewal of creation—Col 1:19-20).
We have a “death” to undergo as well. Self-denial is the cost of true discipleship and it is also the cost of fruitfulness. Jesus gives an illustration from nature in John 12:23-26. A shiny wheat kernel has a tough resilient seed coat. It repels dust and scuffing and moisture.
But in order for that wheat grain to reproduce; it must go down into the darkness of the soil—be permeated with water until the seed coat bursts. If you pulled a seed from the ground in that state it would look dead—even rotten (Jn 12:24).
But this death-like state is the prerequisite to germination. The kernel swells and the beginnings of leaves sprout and push their way above the soil line into the sun. When the plant comes to maturity; what was once a single seed is now a series of wheat heads filled with ripe grain.
What a picture this is of true discipleship. The individual who follows Christ will have to die to self in order to bear fruit. Jesus warned against abiding alone—He warned against loving one’s life in this world (Jn 12:25).
The Lord Jesus made stringent demands on those who would be His disciples. In today’s culture of consumerism and easy-believism—it is all-too common to think that a person can add Christ to his life. Such is not the case according to our text.
In many Christian circles today; folks are promised that Christianity will save them from hell and guarantee them a place in heaven—certainly this is true, but the life of self-denial necessary in order to follow Christ is frequently left unsaid. The assumption is that once eternal life is secured, the individual has every right to enjoy the best that this life has to offer.
Countless souls are sadly mistaken about the requirements of discipleship; but Christ removes all middle ground. He defines what a commitment to Him actually looks like. Therefore to preach on discipleship passages tends to produce shock among many listeners. For multitudes of professing Christians have the utmost difficulty reconciling the passages on discipleship with their own ideas on what Christianity should be and what Christianity should afford them.
They reason, “How can Christianity be a free gift if following Christ requires me to die to self and lose my life for His sake and the sake of the Gospel?”
The words of Christ are very clear. There is hardly any room for misunderstanding if those words are accepted at face value. Here are the terms of discipleship laid down by the Savior of the world:
A. A supreme love for Jesus Christ. “If any one comes to Me, and does not hate his father and mother and wife, and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).
This grates on our 21st C. ears. Does Christ really command supreme love to Him without any rivals? Won’t divine grace allow something less than this from the saved?
Actually the most difficult clause in this passage is the expression, “Yes, [hate] even his own life.” Self-love is one of the most stubborn hindrances to discipleship. Not until we are willing to lay down our lives are we in the place where He wants us to be.
When preaching the necessity of a disciple’s love to Christ; it is essential to stress that our love to Him is reflexive. In other words, as the Apostle John says, “We love, because He first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19). Our love to Christ is a response to seeing Him as He really is—to seeing who God is towards us in Christ.
Christ is God’s infinite treasure given freely to sinners who believe and repent. But the key mark or evidence of believing and repenting is not only turning from sin to God; but also an apprehension of Christ as one’s greatest treasure.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matt 13:45-46). This is the fulcrum—the entire issue. If the sinner sees Christ as precious beyond measure; then no sacrifice is too great to have Him.
Paul saw this treasure principle as an “either or prospect.” We must release our hold on all the things that are in the world in order to gain Christ. “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I might gain Christ” (Phil 3:8).
B. A denial of self. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself. . .” (Matt 16:24). Denial of self is not the same as denying oneself certain activities or pleasures such as foods, drink, or possessions. Self denial means complete submission to the lordship of Christ over all of life. It is the affirmation that self has no rights at all.
In self-denial, self abdicates the throne. Paul summarizes this principle in 2 Corinthians 5:9, 14-15. “Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.” “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”
Thus denial of self is the end of a self-directed life. Self denial results in universal obedience to the lordship of Christ. It is living without ‘compartments’ in one’s life. It is living as Christ’s possession.
C. A deliberate choosing of the cross. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. . .” (Matt 16:24). No doubt you have heard some suffering saint utter, “My gout is my cross; or my wayward spouse is my cross.” But this in not what Jesus is referring to. The cross taken up by a disciple is not some physical infirmity or mental anguish. The cross we take up is a path that is deliberately chosen.
It is a path of radical identification with Christ which will involve a degree of dishonor and reproach from the world. Jesus told His followers to expect to be misunderstood and even hated for Christ’s sake (Jn 15:18-16:2).
To deliberately choose the cross is to set out on the narrow way spoken of by Christ (Matt 7:13-14). The narrow way is the way of transformation and renewal by the Word and the Spirit (Rom 12:1-2).
Those who do not choose the narrow way simply allow themselves to be conformed to this world and its ways and values. How different is the walk of the true disciple—he is always watching his own steps and making frequent ‘course corrections’ to assure that he daily choosing the narrow way; the way of the cross.
D. A life spent in following Christ. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matt 16:24). Christ is our example of obedience. His life was totally conformed to the will of His Father. Christ’s life was lived in the power of the Spirit.
It was a life of unselfish service—of zeal, of expenditure, of self-control, of meekness, of kindness, faithfulness, and devotion (Gal 5:22-23). The life of His disciple must manifest the fruit of Christ-likeness (Jn 15:8).
Those who follow Christ gather with Him (Luke 11:23)—they are fishers of men (Matt 4:19). Those who follow Christ take their “marching orders” from Christ—they have made Christ’s cause their cause. They are zealous for good works (Titus 2:14).
Their boldness for kingdom values is a result of following Christ. “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).
E. A fervent love for all who belong to Christ. “By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35). This is the love that desires the very highest for a person in light of eternity. It is a love able to esteem others as better than oneself. It is a love which covers a multitude of sins. It is a love that suffers long and is kind (1 Cor 13:4-7).
It is a love that finds great joy in sacrificing for the sake of the kingdom. In fact one pastor put it this way. The world’s definition of happiness is self acquiring what it desires. But the Christian’s definition of joy is as follows: When my life intersects with the lives of my brethren at the points of sacrificial love for the kingdom of God—it is inestimable joy.
John Piper has noted well that the experience of Christ’s love fits us to love the brethren supernaturally. “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart” (1 Pet 1:22).
The reception of God’s love produces an irresistible desire to pass the Father’s love on to others. In fact, loving the brethren is the supreme test of love to God (1 Jn 3:14-24). Says William McDonald, “Without this love, discipleship would be a cold, legalistic asceticism.” But all our instruction, including our training of disciples, is to dove-tail into the action of love. “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith (1 Tim 1:5).
F. An unswerving continuance in His Word. “If you continue in My Word then you are My disciples indeed” (Jn 8:31). Genuine discipleship demonstrates a track record of faithfulness. It is not a flash in the pan moment of blazing glory—it is as one pastor has said long obedience in the same direction.
Jesus is emphasizing continuance. Being a disciple requires endurance, stamina, holding fast, determination. Countless individuals start well only to fall away through neglect (Heb 2:1-3).
In the parable of the soils, the good soil is identified by the fact that the good seed (the Word of God) dominates exceptionally so as to bring a harvest! This is God’s Word controlling the life; revolutionizing everything in one’s life—dictating your values on pleasures, cares, possessions, and life direction.
Disciples persevere by looking unto Jesus as a habit of life (Heb 12:1-2). They stir themselves to action by feeding their faith on the promises of God’s Word. “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb 6:12-13).
True disciples manifest a devotion to the Word that fits them and furnishes them for every good work (2 Tim 3:16-17).
G. A forsaking of all to follow Him. “So therefore, no one of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his own possessions” (Luke 14:33). This is perhaps the most unpopular of all of Christ’s terms of discipleship.
Christ is laying out a specific requirement in regards to the world’s goods. In effect, He is issuing a command not to stock pile this world’s goods. Maintain material possessions that are absolutely essential and that could be used for the spread of the Gospel.
A true disciple is controlled by a passion to advance the cause of Christ. The genuine disciple invests everything above his current needs in the work of the Lord—and then leaves the future with God.
In seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, he believes that he will never lack food and clothing. Therefore he cannot hold onto surplus funds and resources when he knows that souls are perishing for want of the Gospel.
In giving up all his own possessions, he offers what he cannot keep anyway, and what he has ceased to love. He plows the cream of his time, talent, affections, and resources into the cause of Christ.
Theses seven terms of discipleship are clear and unequivocal. When we examine our lives in light of these seven requirements—is it not easy to say, “Lord I am an unprofitable servant?” Confessing our past failure, let us courageously face up to the claims of Christ upon us and seek from now on to be true disciples of our Glorious Lord.
How we need to recline upon the mercy and grace of Christ. For our Savior’s grace has brought us into a relationship of sonship, status, favor, and acceptance with God. The grace of Christ holds us up and sustains us—He is our life (Col 3:1-4).
Our steady progress toward maturity cannot be reduced to the mastery of a moral code. Though moral excellence is required of God’s people (2 Pet 1:5), the saint who is being made like his Savior is steadily growing in his heart-knowledge of Christ.
No small part of our conformity to Christ is a result of beholding the glory of Christ. “But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18).
Listen to the Apostle Paul as he speaks about the knowledge of Christ which is central to maturity: “. . .that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:2-3)).
Paul’s passion as a disciple was to know Christ—ours must flow from the same motive (Phil 3:10).
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The Centrality of Christ in Discipleship - Part 2
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II. The Cross of Discipleship
INTRODUCTION: When we hear about the cross of discipleship, normally the first thing that comes to mind is the life of self-denial required by the disciple. Our minds turn to command to take up our own cross and follow Christ.
But the ability to take up our own cross flows from the fact that Christ took up His cross—thus Christ’s work for us makes real changes in us that enable us to live the life of a disciple.
Therefore we must feed our faith upon the message of Christ and Him crucified.
Paul’s own activities in disciple-making always began with we proclaim Him! The admonishing and the teaching follow. It is the proclamation of Christ in His fullness that is the foundation for all ethical action and devotion (Col 1:28-29).
Paul knew that his listeners must also build upon Christ. All of their own striving and repenting must rest upon Christ and Him crucified. The centrality of Christ must always be our proclamation in discipleship—or our efforts will be met with disappointment.
A. We proclaim Him and His cross-work—for only in the Christ-centered—cross-centered life do we find the divine power and love necessary to make a disciple. Only in His glorious Person and work upon Calvary are found the divinely powerful resources necessary to make a disciple.
When Paul was among the Corinthians, his message focused upon the heart of the Gospel—the truth with which God associates His power (Rom 1:16-17). “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2).
The cross produces real transformation—radical changes that can only be adequately described as an entirely new creation. In Christ’s atoning work there is a death applied to us; a resurrection performed upon us that implants a new life principle; there is a spiritual circumcision in which the dominance of the flesh is cut, severed, and rolled away (Col 2:11-12).
Christ’s death and resurrection affects these changes in the believing sinner. Therefore, our approach to discipleship must have the centrality of Christ at its center. For it is in the hearing and believing of this sweet message of the God-man standing in your room and stead that the poor sinner receives the power and the motives for discipleship.
That means that when we proclaim Christ, we do so with the goal in view of making disciples and bringing them to maturity. For the Word of the Cross is a message filled with divine power.
When the converted sinner hears what Christ has done to slay our old man and how we have been resurrected to an entirely new form of existence—it opens his understanding to spiritual realities that are life-changing. He discovers the source of power for personal holiness (Christ in you).
This has immense consequences and crucial application for our own methodology in making disciples. We must follow the Pauline order—We Proclaim Him—then we Admonish and Teach. Because only Christ and His cross can make a true disciple—you cannot by your own efforts.
All of our instruction, exhortation, pleading, and admonishment must be anchored in Christ and His cross.
And here is why—because the devotion, the diligence, and the sacrifices made by a true disciple constitute a series of faith responses to Christ, the Lord of Glory. The life of obedience lived out by a true disciple takes place because he has ever clearer views of his Savior. Faith-based obedience is never separated from its object; the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, as pastors and disciple-makers, we proclaim Him—for in Christ there is limitless transforming power.
Now at different times in church history these precious truths of Christ’s centrality in discipleship have been forgotten. The pietistic error has dominated at times. In that error the present power of Christ’s atoning work has been obscured and hidden from view; and all the emphasis has been placed upon the individual’s pursuit of personal piety.
The pietistic, or holiness movements, have had much to commend; but they have been characterized by foggy view of the comprehensiveness of the Savior’s work in our nature. And they have been characterized by weak views of the believer’s union with Christ.
B. Naturally a struggling Christian who is for the most part blind to the glories of his Savior’s work will fall back on self in an attempt to perfect the flesh. Dear brothers, practice without (Christ-centered) doctrine tends to produce legalism—like the Galatians of old; they made an attempt to perfect the flesh apart from the cross.
Another error is quietism—“only rest and believe” we are told—God will do the rest—He will do it all. In this error, there is a disproportionate emphasis placed upon the believer’s position in Christ without the attending truths of diligence; self-denial; mortification of sin; and zeal for good works.
In the quietistic error we see that doctrine without practice leads to carnal false security andantinomianism. This constitutes an anemic, passive form Christianity which does not overcome the world; nor does it make true disciples. Both of these errors (pietism and quietism) prove to be a departure from the Pauline model of disciple-making.
Paul gives us our pattern—for he joins the power of God in the cross with the believer’s response of diligence and consecration. The power of the message of the cross believed produces consecration and devotion to Christ which we will see shortly in our text.
Our disciple-making must be characterized by both proclamation and practice; by exhibiting the supremacy of our Savior and by exhorting believers to follow Him without limits or reservations.
Today many evangelical pastors have strayed from the Pauline formula of disciple-making. As they seek to shepherd from the pulpit; they have sincerely hoped that exhortation to holy living would gain the result of spiritual victory in the lives of their listeners.
But what they have failed to consider is that consecration to greater obedience is a function of looking unto Jesus and beholding Him. They are exhorting without exhibiting.
Bare principles and moral injunction will not produce lasting change in the listener. In the final analysis our most impassioned pleas for our listeners to be good; to try harder; to stop sinning—must be joined to the display of Christ—or the flesh will conclude that in itself are the resources necessary to crucify the flesh.
This author has found that a substantial portion of believers a stuck in cycles of lukewarm-ness; defeat, uncertainty, doubt, fear, guilt. When we call them to greater devotion and consecration and holiness—we must also exhibit Christ their Sanctifier—who is the Author and Finisher of their salvation (Heb 12:2).
If we do not; our poor listeners are apt to conclude that we have shouldered them with a heavy yoke—for where are they to find the strength; the hope; the motivation; the enablement and capacity to measure up? How will they break out of their cycles of mediocrity and compromise and move squarely into victory?
Brothers, we must preach to our hearers what we preach to ourselves—namely that Christ is the Divine Architect of the new man. The cross of Christ has redeemed and purchased us making us God’s possessions for His holy and loving purposes. Christ’s mediatorial work has poured us into a life mould—totally shaping us to live for God’s glory (Col 3:10-11).
Brethren, on this side of the cross, true discipleship is living the new life Christ has wrought for us. We do not live a life of self-denial so that Christ will accept us—no; God has accepted the believer in the Beloved. Discipleship with its life-style of self-denial is living the life Christ has wrought for us.
C. The power to live the life of a disciple comes from the fact that our Savior lives through us (Gal 2:20). Paul’s overflowing joy as a disciple of Christ emanated from his understanding that he was living anexchanged life. Paul could say with complete confidence that Christ was living His life through Paul.
The old Paul had been crucified with Christ. The new Paul was nothing less than a daily cognizance of the reality that Christ lives in me. Paul was animated by this truth—it permeated his understanding—Christ is expressing His personality through the vehicle of my fleshly body (Gal 2:20). Paul was so conversant with his divine resources in Christ that he could actually say of himself, “It is no longer I who live!”
Pastors, let us mark this down in our own disciple-making—exhortation without this Word of Christ and Him crucified can produce exasperation. I remember the formula this way: exhortation without enablement equals exasperation. When we exhort—we must never fail to imbue our listeners with their infinite resources in Christ.
These spiritual realities of identification with Christ stretch our understanding to the limit. Just to think that in the mind of God, the elect were so fully identified with Christ their Head as to gain His life. So intimate was this identification that in Christ’s crucifixion, our fallen human natures were judged so that we should no longer be slaves of sin (Rom 6:6).
This is Paul’s victory cry—those who have died are freed from sin—sin is no longer master over them. Our Adamic nature with its original sin—that bottomless vile vent of rebellion and pollution was once and for all judged in the body of Christ in His death.
The Apostle does not relegate this doctrine of co-crucifixion with Christ to the realm of theory. He immediately plows it into practical use. The believer is to reckon, count, consider himself dead to sin and alive to God. He is to present the members of his body to God as instruments of righteousness (Rom 6:11-13).
How blessed this is to know that our fruitfulness as disciple-makers is tied to the Word of the Cross. For the message of Christ and Him crucified comes with assurances that the message of the Gospel is God’s power to all who believe.
The proclamation of Christ’s indestructible life and His intercession for us in His passion and His glory cannot fail to produce a life of true discipleship in the elect. As pastors; you and I need that assurance.
In the Corinthian correspondence, Paul was dealing with a local church that was not manifesting true discipleship. The problem in Corinth was that the believers there were still too attracted to the human strength and wisdom. In their spiritual immaturity and pride, they flirted with an earthly value system that was hostile to the cross of Christ.
False apostles from Jerusalem found the Corinthians all too ready to have their ears tickled by this fleshly value system.
By contrast, Paul stressed that true disciples of Christ are radically identified with Christ. They take their marching orders from the Lord; they operate by means of an eternal value system. The strong meat of the cross-centered life is their spiritual diet.
Paul spends much of the second epistle vindicating the genuineness of his apostleship. He does so by both exposing the fleshly value system of the false apostles AND by revealing his own motivations for ministry. When Paul opens his heart, we see that he abides at the base of the cross.
Paul made it known that his motivations for ministry were the polar opposite of the false apostles who preached earthly prosperity. Paul’s radical identification with Christ meant that “[He] was always carrying about in his body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be manifest in him” (2 Cor 4:10).
The Corinthians were in danger of being deceived by the false apostles. These false teachers from Jerusalem had motives tied to pride, vain-glory, boasting, human wisdom, and the approval of men. The world has always been transfixed by human strength, human honor, and human resources. Christ said, “That which is esteemed by men is detestable in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15).
How different was Paul. He only was seeking to prove to the consciences of the Corinthians that Christ was in him (2 Cor 13:3), and that all of his motives in ministry issued from the Person and work of Christ.
Paul’s point is that only Christ’s cross can produce the mindset of a true disciple of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5, the Apostle expounds his motives for serving God, and he expounds the source of those motives.
D. Paul’s motive for service and discipleship was the controlling love of Christ. This motive issues forth in an action—the believer no longer lives for himself—he lives the life of a true disciple. “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Cor 5:14-15).
Paul says that he is constrained or controlled—he is so affected by a sense of incarnate love as to be controlled. He makes the will of Christ the rule of obedience. The true Christian is controlled by a sense of divine love so as to consecrate his life to Christ. The one who lives supremely for family, science, world, mankind, or whatever else is not a Christian.
Christ died and rose on our behalf. That is, He died in our stead. The theology of this verse is more profound than merely the response of love to love. The cross has an inner consequence only understood in terms of substitution. He died for me as Substitute. He met the demands of justice for me (the basis and reality of my justification) – I died with Him (co-crucifixion is the basis for the whole possibility of my discipleship and sanctification).
The power of Christ’s cross is life-transforming. The sacrificial work of Christ is not merely an example of ultimate obedience for the disciple of Christ to emulate. The cross of Christ exerts the power tomake new creatures.
This is a profound truth in relation to discipleship because the cross of Christ produces actual changes in the sinner—changes which make the new believer willing to pay the cost of true discipleship!
Therefore we must fix in our minds that the cross provides each of the following three necessities for true discipleship. The cross provides the motivation to live as a disciple (we are controlled by the love of Christ); the cross provides the obligation to live as a disciple (we are to no longer live for ourselves); the cross provides the enablement to live as a disciple (we have died with Christ).
E. The nature of the atonement is learned from its effect – one effect is “therefore, all were dead” (lit. Grk). His death secured their death. Its design and effect limits (qualifies) the use of the word “all” in the preceding clause. Thus, “Christ died for all who died when He died” (Hodge, Mac Arthur, et al). Christ’s people are so united with Him that His death is their death (same argument as Rom 6:1-14 & Gal 2:20).
Dying with Christ involves death to sin and self and involves the obligation to die to sin and self. All who died with Christ receive the benefits of his substitutionary death. The specific character of the atonement -- it was for those who partake of that new life of which Christ’s resurrection is the pledge and pattern.
This is how Paul defends his conduct before the Corinthians. Christ’s love claims him in such a way that in relation to others, he can no longer exist for himself (in contrast, his opponents boast to the Corinthians that they are religious, spiritual, and something in themselves).
Paul wanted his readers to know that his old self-centered life was gone (now righteous, resurrection life). Paul’s disinterested motives are a result of the cross. God’s design in the atonement was to found the relationship with the sinner (design, choice, calling, relationship – Romans 8). Divine love proceeds from Christ and streams down to the elect producing conformity to their divine Head (Rom 8:28-29).
“Having concluded this” or “We thus judge.” This clause assigns the reason why Christ’s love exerts constraining power. Christ’s death not only placed the obligation for devotion, it secured that devotion!! (they died in Him). “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24).
F. Faith in His having died for us is the source and principle of the Christian life.
Paul’s motive—the constraining love of Christ—is followed by another action—as a new creature in Christ; he no longer judges according to the flesh (vv16,17).
To judge after the flesh means judging by the external, or outward side of life. Paul is saying that since his conversion, he no longer estimates any man by the world’s standard of judgment.
Paul exposes the error of his opponents with a powerful argument: his opponents used the same criterion of evaluation on Paul that the unbelieving Jews did on Christ! Christ’s weakness (as the suffering Servant and Savior) was a stumbling block.
Now that the cross was the center of Paul’s existence (through the cross Paul had obtained a new knowledge of Christ and a new set of values, and a new orientation).
Paul had known Christ “according to the flesh.” By fleshly judgment, Saul of Tarsus viewed Jesus as a crucified messianic pretender, cursed of God. When he saw Christ according to the flesh, he viewed Him as unbelieving Israel did (Is 53:3, 4).
Paul’s new values include his theology of the cross – to know the power of Christ’s resurrection, we share in His sufferings (we are like Him in His death) (Phil 3:7-14). Paul now recognizes that Christ’s suffering was vicarious—accomplished in the room and stead of Christ’s people. (On earth, Christ’s true identity as Lord of Glory was hidden behind weakened mortal flesh – But Paul now knows Christ as both suffering Messiah and exalted Lord of Heaven).
Union with Christ has transformed Paul—as a new creation, he has a different standard of judgment—old opinions, views, plans, desires, principles, affections have “passed away.” Now he has new views of truth, new apprehensions of his destiny and purpose.
The Spirit’s work in regeneration is a “first fruits” creative work that makes each believer a representative of a coming new world order! The transformation has affected a kingdom transfer (Col 1:13). Here we are, radically identified with the cross, yet citizens of the new heavens and the new earth (Phil 3:20-21). The recreated man in Christ is part of the new cosmos coming (the theme is replacement—new world, new body, new values).
With this perception comes a new standard of judging—the pretensions of the world sink into insignificance. A new creation by union with Christ is the ground of all our hope.
A true disciple, like Paul, is animated by Christ’s love and a true disciple does all his evaluating by means of kingdom values. Friends of the cross have an eternal value system. No man who sets his mind on earthly things can be said to be a friend of the cross (Phil 3:18-19).
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