Second Corinthians 5:14-17 reveals Christ as the sphere and element of the new creation. According to the context of chapter 4, the new creation in 5:17 is composed of those who have Christ as the treasure within and bear Christ as the image of God without. The realm of resurrection is the sphere of the new creation, and Christ as the life-giving Spirit is the germinating element of the new creation.
Second Corinthians 5:14 and 15 say, “The love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all that those who live may no longer live to themselves but to Him who died for them and has been raised.” The phrase have judged this in verse 14 means “have concluded,” probably at the time of conversion. Paul concluded that because One died on behalf of all, “therefore all died.” Christ’s loving death was the motivating factor of the apostles’ being constrained to live a loving life for Him. Since Christ died as our Substitute, suffering the sentence of death on behalf of us all, in the eyes of God we all died. Hence, we do not need to die in the way as has been reserved for men to die and face judgment (Heb. 9:27). Moreover, Christ died on behalf of all so that we may no longer live to ourselves, but to Him. Christ’s death not only saves us from death so that we do not need to die, but it also causes us, through His resurrection, to live no longer to ourselves but to Him.
According to 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, Christ is the One who loved us, died for us, and was raised up for us. The death and resurrection of Christ show His love toward us. This love constrains us to live not to ourselves but to Him. Many of us can testify that we have Christ as the treasure within us and that we love Him. Yet at times we may be reluctant to go along with Him because certain things in the world distract us from the Lord. At such times, however, the constraining love of Christ appears to us, causing us to see that the most excellent One loves us and that He died and has been raised for us. Such love constrains us to the uttermost. It is this love—not a mere teaching, religion, or ritual—that constrains us to drop so many distracting things in the world.
The constraining love of Christ in 2 Corinthians 5:14 is the love which was manifested on the cross through His death for us. The Greek word rendered “constrains” means “to press on...from all sides, to hold...to one end, to forcibly limit, to confine to one object within certain bounds, to shut up to one line and purpose” (as in a narrow, walled road). The same Greek word is used in Luke 4:38, 12:50, Acts 18:5, and Philippians 1:23. In such a way the apostles were constrained by the love of Christ to live to Him.
Today we also are constrained by Christ’s love toward us. This love surely limits us, confines us to a narrow way, toward the unique goal—Christ Himself. We need to be impressed with the fact that to be constrained by the love of Christ means to be pressed by it from all sides and held by it to one end. When we are thus constrained, we are limited, as if walking on a narrow, walled road, and we are forced to go in a certain direction. Although we love the Lord, we are not always willing to take His way. Had we not been walled in by Him, we probably would have escaped from Him. But the love of Christ constrains us; it presses us from every side and holds us to one goal. We have no other way; there is no other way for us to take. Actually, this is not our choice. If the choice had truly been ours, we would have probably been somewhere else today. No, it is not up to us to make the choice; rather, it is the love of Christ that constrains us. We are constrained by the Lord’s love to live to Him.
We must be persons carried away by the love of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 Paul indicates that Christ’s loving death is like the rushing of great waters toward us, impelling us to live to Him beyond our own control. To be constrained is similar to being carried away by a tide of water. The love of Christ is as strong as a tide of water which overcomes us and carries us away. We need to be flooded by the love of Christ. We need to be constrained by His love so that we have no choice. We should be able to say, “I have no other way to go. I must love the Lord because His love has constrained me.” When the flood waters come, we do not have a choice as to whether we will receive them or not; they give us no choice. We must all be constrained by the love of Christ in such a way.
We need to pray day by day that the Lord would show us His love so that we would be constrained by the love of Christ. We all need to pray to the Lord: “Constrain me with Your love. O Lord, flood me with Your love.” Although we may be at some crossroads in our Christian experience and may have choices, once we are flooded by the love of Christ, we will lose all our choices.