For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. ESVUK

An understanding of the meaning of the ‘wondrous Cross’ is central to a life ‘controlled’ by Christ’s love. Paul had come to see that, in some mysterious sense, all the redeemed were included in Christ’s death (even before they experienced redemption). But once people do come to the foot of the Cross personally, and believe on Jesus, this alters the entire trajectory of their lives. They come ‘under new management’. They ”no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised”. They make it their ”aim to please him” (9). Jesus becomes their Lord. They acknowledge that ‘love so amazing, so divine, demands’ their ‘soul’, their ‘life’, their ‘all’.

Tasker puts it like this, ‘…for all who accept it in faith as an atonement made for them it puts an end to the unregenerate life, in which the old sinful self was regarded as the proper centre of reference, and begets a new life centred upon Another; not just upon any other but upon One other, the Lord Jesus Christ who died for them, and rose again. The resurrection cannot be divorced from the crucifixion in the atoning work of Christ…’

If we claim to be Christians, today is a good day to search our hearts and ask, ‘Who am I living for?’

”Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” 1 Cor.6:19,20 ESVUK