Compelling Love

I pray that we would know and experience the love of God in Christ more fully than ever, and that by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us we will fulfill all that God has ordained for our lives even before we were born. God calls us to be ambassadors for Christ, as Paul explains in 2 Corinthians 5.

2 Corinthians 5 (NKJV)
¹⁴ For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

²⁰ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The song, “In Christ Alone” beautifully depicts the Gospel we are to share:

In Christ Alone
1. In Christ alone my hope is found.
He is my light, my strength, my song,
This Cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease.
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.
2. In Christ alone, who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe,
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied,
For every sin on Him was laid,
Here in the death of Christ I live.
3. There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain.
Then bursting forth in glorious Day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me.
For I am His and He is mine,
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.
4. No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me.
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand.
‘Til He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.
(Keith Getty & Stuart Townend, © 2002 Thankyou Music)

God is calling His people to stand in the power of Christ’s love.
Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19 expresses this desire of God’s heart: 

Ephesians 3 (ESV)
¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— ¹⁹ to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Paul gives here a striking picture of the eternal relationship between the Son of God and the Father “from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named”.  The love that is shared between the Father and the Son of God in the presence of the Holy Spirit is eternal, and this love is the essence of what relationships should reflect across “the whole family in heaven and earth”.  He prays that believers will be “strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man” so that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith”.  Being “rooted and grounded in love”, we will “be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— ¹⁹ to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge” that we “may be filled with all the fullness of God”. God is calling His entire family to overflow with the fullness of His love by the power of the Holy Spirit as Paul declares in Romans 5:5, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”