For the love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this that one died for all, then all have died;
Paul has just spoken of the judgment seat and of persuading men. Now he names the power behind it all. Three questions follow. Whose love is meant? What does that love make a person conclude? And what does that conclusion say about the human race?
The phrase could mean our love for Christ. Commentators read it the other way. The ESV says the love of Christ "controls" us; the older translation these writers used says it "constrains" us. One writer draws out that word by setting it against the chain Paul wore as a prisoner.
With Paul the love of Christ was not a constraint from chains outside, as when he was chained to a soldier. It was a constant hold of Christ on the heart, saying, "I am led captive by Christ; that love of His binds me like a chain and makes me go as a captive wherever He wants." It was not Paul's love but Christ's.
The verse does not say that love made Paul feel something. It says love brought him to a verdict: "we have concluded this". Love and thinking belong together here, because Christ showed that love in a death, and Paul had to read that death rightly.
Christ expressed that love in His death, and it pressed on Paul in two ways. It moved his affections toward God and His saints, and it also guided his judgment. Because that love held him, he could judge rightly what that death meant.
The reasoning runs backwards from the cross to the condition it met. If Christ had to go into death for people, that tells you where those people already were.
He had judged this: if one died for all, then the all died, or were dead. Christ's death for all is the proof that it was all over with mankind. If He went down in grace to the grave, it was just because men were already there, and there was no other way to deliver them. This is how Christ is known here: not as a living Messiah reigning over the living, but as One who died for all, because all were under death. So this is a question about all mankind, not about Israel only.
It is easy to read the verse as though the cross created the death it speaks of.
Christ's death for all does not put all there, it proves that all are there, and if that is true, then that is our condition — DEAD.
Commentators differ over the second half of the verse. Some read it as believers having died with Christ. Others say it describes the state of all mankind. One writer gives his reasons for the second reading.
If all had died through Adam, then Christ's descending into death for them all is how we know love. The apostle judged that if one died for all, it was because death was the condition of all. What makes this the undeniable sense to me is that he speaks of "those who live" as a portion taken out of them. If it were the saints dying with Christ, they would be the same people.
If all are dead, who then are "those who live"? The same writer answers.
There is life in Him risen, and this not in Him only, but for those who believe. He is our life. And this is the meaning of "those who live": not just those alive on earth (though that is implied, of course) but living by His life, in contrast with "all dead".
This kind of constraint does not work like pressure. It gives the heart an Object outside itself to live for.
If His deathless love has constrained us to apply the truth of the cross to ourselves, we shall also be drawn to find in Him an Object outside ourselves. He so commands us and so absorbs us that we cannot help living to Him... We shall not love because we ought; we shall not serve because we should. There is no legal, servile bondage here. We shall love, we shall serve, we shall live to Him because we cannot help it.
The verse also puts a question to the reader.
In the light of this Scripture we may well challenge our hearts as to the motive that drives us in all our service. Is it the love of Christ that constrains us, or is it the love of self? Are we living to ourselves, or are we living "to Him"?
- Love, not duty — the power at work is Christ's love for us. It is His hold on the heart, not a chain from outside.
- Love that thinks — that love does more than stir feeling. It guides the judgment, so that a person reads Christ's death correctly.
- The verdict — His death for all does not put men under death. It proves they were already there. This is a question about all mankind, not about one nation.
- The exception — "those who live" are not just people who are alive. They live by His risen life, a company taken out of the "all dead".
- The result — those held by that love serve because they cannot help it. The question left is simple: self, or Christ?
and he died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and has been raised.
Paul has just said that One died for all. Now he shows the aim of that death. It reaches everyone, and it gives those who live a new direction for their lives.
The verse holds two truths at once, and there is a way to lose each one. One writer sets the two mistakes side by side:
Some narrow the "all" for whom He died down to the elect, and they lose the first truth. Others see the special blessing, and also the responsibility, of the saints — those who live — and they lose the second. He died for all. He was raised again so that those who believe would be justified, and they had life in Him as a result. The purpose was that they should live no longer to themselves, as they once did in their sinful folly, but to their Saviour who died and rose.
The phrase does not simply mean people who are still breathing:
So there is life in Him as risen, and not for Him alone, but for those who believe. He is our life. That is what "those who live" means. It is not just those alive on earth, though of course that is included. It means those living by His life, in contrast with "all dead."
The small word "to" carries the weight of the verse. One writer unpacks it by describing the way an unconverted person weighs everything:
What is the significance of this little preposition "to"? We have been brought to God. In our unconverted days we did live to ourselves, and in the nature of things we could not do anything else. Dominated by sin as we were, we had "self" as the great end and object of our existence. Think of it. Of course it was so! How did we judge everything in our unconverted days? Like this: Does it please me? Does it suit my taste? Do I like that? Will it advance my interests a little? Will it make a big man of me?
Paul mentions only the death when he speaks of all. For those who live, he adds the resurrection — "rose again" in older translations:
The whole subject is the power of life in Christ as triumphant over death. So when he applies it, he does not say merely "who died for them," as when he speaks of all, but "rose again" also. It is the power and fulness of a new thing for those taken out of death through Christ's going down into it.
Living to Christ is not a duty forced on the believer. It is a response that His love draws out:
When a person knows the constraining love of Christ, it frees him from being taken up with self. That love "surpasses knowledge," and its pull makes the Christian Christ-centred. Every one of us, from the youngest to the oldest, is tested here. Is it self or Christ? … We shall not love because we ought; we shall not serve because we should. There is no legal, servile bondage here. We shall love, we shall serve, we shall live to Him because we cannot help it.
Christ's claim on us reaches ordinary things — a plan, a thing we buy, an hour of work:
We are His, for He has redeemed us with His own precious blood, and so He claims us for His own. What a searching, practical test this supplies! Do I plan this or that? Is it then for Christ? Do I desire anything? Is it for Christ? Am I busy in service? Is it for Christ? Can I look round my home and say of everything I see, It is for Christ? So "for Christ" gives us a principle for the whole of our daily lives. It should rule everything, guiding us in all our works and ways. It makes nothing of self and nothing of man, but everything of Christ.
- Death — for all. The reach of the death is as wide as the human race; narrowing it to believers loses one half of the verse.
- Life — for those who live. "Those who live" are not simply everyone alive. They live by Christ's own life, in contrast with a world that is dead.
- Self — dethroned. To live "to yourself" is to make self the point of your existence. You judge everything by whether it pleases you and advances you.
- Christ — risen, and now the object. Paul adds the resurrection only where believers are in view. Their life is a new life that came up out of death.
- Love — the constraint. Duty does not turn a life around; Christ's love does. It frees us from self, and it shows in one question: is this for Christ?