WWUTT 1673 Christ Died for All Therefore All Died (2 Corinthians 5:13-17)

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Have you heard of this doctrine called limited atonement? It's a pretty controversial doctrine.

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In fact, among the doctrines of Calvinism, it's probably the most controversial, but it is most definitely taught in Scripture when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study in the word of Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

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Find all our videos and other ministry resources at www .utt .com.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 2 Corinthians 5.

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I'm going to begin today reading in verse 11 and go through verse 17 out of the

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Legacy Standard Bible. This is the word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul, who is writing to the church in Corinth.

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So then, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we have been made manifest to God, and I hope that we have been made manifest also in your consciences.

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We are not again commending ourselves to you, but are giving you an opportunity to boast of us, so that you will have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.

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For if we are out of our mind, it is for God. For if we are of right mind, it is for you.

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For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died.

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And he died for all, so that they who live would no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf.

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Therefore, from now on, we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we have known

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Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

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The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come.

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Let me keep going and read these last four verses here, 18 to 21. Now, all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

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Namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their transgressions against them.

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And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. So then, we are ambassadors for Christ.

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As God is pleading through us, we beg you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

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He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

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Now, that section regarding reconciliation, we won't get to until next week.

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But we look at a section today that is going to be quite the argument for a doctrine that is referred to as limited atonement.

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And I'll explain why here in just a moment. You didn't know there were biblical arguments for limited atonement, did you?

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I thought that was an unbiblical thing that Calvinists came up with. No, it's right here in 2 Corinthians 5.

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So, verse 11, then, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, and we've considered that verse yesterday, knowing the fear of God, that he is judge, and therefore we tremble before him, knowing that he has the power of life and death in his hands.

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Now, we who are in Christ, we don't fear the wrath of God. We are not under wrath. We are in the love of God.

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We are his children. He is not going to pour out his wrath on the objects of his affection.

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So, we don't fear the wrath of God, but there's still a reverent fear we must have of God, because he's

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God, because he is the one who sits enthroned over all that he has created, because he has the power to not only destroy a life, but condemn it forever in hell.

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That's a word that comes from Christ. He says, do not fear the one who can destroy the body, and then after that can't do anything to you.

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Instead, fear him who, after he has destroyed the body, also has the power to destroy the soul in hell.

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Yes, I say fear him, and whom Christ is referring to is the

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Father. So, knowing the fear of the Lord, knowing that God is judge, and he will condemn the wicked to eternal judgment, we persuade men, but we have been made manifest to God, and I hope that we have been made manifest also in your consciences.

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So, Paul talks about being in the fear of God, but we don't fear his wrath. We've been made manifest to God.

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He knows the intentions of our hearts. We persuade men because we don't want them to fall under the condemnation of God.

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As it says in Hebrews, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And so we go forth with the gospel, and I hope you recognize,

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Paul saying to the church in Corinth, I hope that you recognize also our genuineness, that we're not doing this for ourselves, but for the glory of his name, and we're not commending ourselves again to you, but we're giving you an opportunity to boast of us, so that you will have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.

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That's the other false teachers there in Corinth who are boasting in, you know, just, they're putting on airs.

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They look like apostles, but they're not really. So, boast of those who are genuine in heart, who have done all of this for you, that you may know this ministry of reconciliation.

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Again, Paul is not going to name it by that until we get to the end of the chapter. But we go on here in verse 13, for if we are out of our mind, it is for God, or if we are of right mind, it is for you.

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You know, this seems to be an accusation that gets thrown at Paul, that he is out of his mind.

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Now, it's clear that even his opponents recognize how brilliant he is, and how gifted he is at being able to construct an argument.

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The scriptures talk about him debating and reasoning in the public square, or reasoning in the hall of tyrannists, as it says in Acts, when

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Paul was there in Ephesus. When he was defending himself before Festus in Acts chapter 26,

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Festus said, Paul, you are out of your mind. Great learning is driving you out of your mind.

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See, Festus is recognizing there, you're a brilliant man. You know so much, but he believed that all of the knowledge that Paul had was making him crazy, because Paul's talking about the resurrection of the dead,

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Jesus being raised from the dead. And Festus is going, that's a crazy idea, somebody being raised from the dead.

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So he thought all of this advanced learning that Paul had, all this lofty knowledge was making him crazy.

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And then Paul said in Acts 26, 25, I am not out of my mind, most excellent

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Festus, but I utter words of sober truth. And indeed to those who are committed to lies, to untruth, the truth to them is going to sound crazy.

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It sounds insane. Let's take a current event for example. Surely you've heard by now of the

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Supreme Court decision that leaked early concerning Dobbs versus Jackson.

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The case that comes out of Mississippi that will potentially undo Roe versus Wade and Casey versus Planned Parenthood, the two previous

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Supreme Court decisions that make abortion on demand legal in the United States. Well, with the

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Supreme Court making the decision that they're about to make on Dobbs versus Jackson, it will undo Roe versus Wade and Casey versus Planned Parenthood.

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Now, of course, how are the pro -abortion people responding to this? To hear that abortion on demand will no longer be legal according to the

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Supreme Court decision. Well, they are rending their garments, they are weeping, and they're gnashing their teeth.

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They think that people who want to save the lives of unborn children in the womb, they think they're evil.

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They think we're evil because that's what we want. They think that we're anti -women, that we want to abuse women.

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They think that we're doing violence toward women when the reality is that those who are pro -abortion are the violent ones.

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They're dismembering babies for the sake of being able to have sex without consequences.

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But they are so convinced by these lies that they think the truth is insane.

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And when you say a child in the womb is a human being that is deserving of all the rights that you have as an

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American citizen, they just think you're a monster for suggesting such a thing. That's what devotion to lies will do to a person.

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And so when Festus responded to Paul in this way, saying, Paul, you're out of your mind.

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Your great learning has made you mad. And how does

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Paul respond to him? I'm not out of my mind. I utter sober words of truth. Think also of when the apostles were proclaiming the gospel for the first time in Jerusalem during Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, when they were speaking in tongues so that everybody in their own languages would hear the gospel and understand it.

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How did the people respond to that sight? They thought the apostles were drunk.

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And Peter responds, how can we be drunk? It's not even the third hour of the day. It hasn't been day long enough for us to drink enough wine to get drunk by this point.

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That was basically Peter's response. But even they said, we're hearing truth come out of the mouths of these apostles and it sounds insane to us.

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You sound like drunken mad men to us. To a few of them. It wasn't to everybody.

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But those who are devoted to lies, that's what the truth sounds like. The truth sounds like insanity.

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And so Paul says here, in 2 Corinthians 5 .13, if we are out of our mind, it is for God.

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Like if men who are devoted to lies are going to say of us that we're out of our minds, well, that's unto the

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Lord. Because God knows we are in our right mind. And what we are proclaiming is not insane. It is the word of God that has been given to us by Christ.

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The word of an apostle was the word of Christ himself that he gave to his apostles to take to the world.

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So the people hearing these things that Paul would proclaim, like the resurrection of the dead, they're going to think that is insane.

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Okay, if that's going to be the perception by the world, then we're out of our minds for God. I remember one songwriter years ago writing,

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I would be a fool for you because you asked me to. Talking about, hey,

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I'm going to believe in the gospel. I'm going to proclaim Christ. The world is going to think of me as foolish, but I'm going to do it because you asked me to.

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Of course, I'm going to be foolish in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of God, I am pleasing to his sight.

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So if we're out of our mind, it is for God. If we are of right mind, it's for you.

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Like if you hear words that we're saying, and you're like, that makes total sense. That is the truth.

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Praise God for it. See, that was for you. We're in our right minds for your sake.

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Those who hear what we say, and you know it is the truth. It is for your benefit that you know it to be true.

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That's what Paul's saying there in verse 13. Verse 14, for the love of Christ controls us.

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Having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. And before I get to that part, let's sit on that first part of verse 14.

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For the love of Christ controls us. Why would

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Paul be risking his life and doing everything that he is doing for the sake of these Corinthians or for the sake of anybody?

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Why do this for the gospel? Because we're being controlled by the love of Christ. And you can think to yourself, no, wait, hang on a second.

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Free will. Paul's got free will, so surely he's just using an expression here.

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No, he's really controlled by the love of Christ. So that he would not be opposed to God or an enemy of God any longer.

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He is a friend of God and a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Controlled by God's love.

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This happened for Paul because God was gracious to him. Now some translations say compelled, but the language that's used there in the

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Greek is a language of force. We are controlled by the love of God.

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He loves us that he would bring us to this and make us participants in this plan to save those whom he is going to save by the proclamation of the truth.

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So the love of Christ controls us. Having concluded this and here's the truth that Paul proclaims.

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That one who is Jesus died for all therefore all died.

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Let's be careful with that phrase there. Let's understand it rightly. We're understanding it in context. Surely you've heard this expression before.

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All means all and that's all all means. That is an incorrect expression.

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All always has a context. What is the context of the word all as it's being used here?

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We have concluded this that one died for all. Jesus died for every single person in the world.

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He died on the cross to atone for the sins of every single person in the world.

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Is that what Jesus did? No. Look at the context. One died for all therefore all died.

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Have all died to themselves and therefore live for Christ? No. So therefore the all there cannot be every single person.

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Let's go on. Verse 15 even helps us further with this context. And he died for all so that they who live would no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose again on their behalf.

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Who did Jesus die and rise again for? Well according to what we have in verse 14 all.

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He died for all therefore all died. But verse 15 says he died and rose again on behalf of those who live who have died to themselves and live for Christ.

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Look at that again carefully 14 and 15. For the love of Christ controls us having concluded this that one

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Jesus died for all all who are in Christ therefore all who are in Christ died and he died for all who are in Christ so that they who are in Christ who live in Christ would no longer live for themselves but for him

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Christ who died and rose again on their behalf. My friends that's the doctrine of limited atonement.

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Now even those who love that doctrine of limited atonement they they're not really fond of that name and I'm the same but since that's the common name for it that's the name

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I'm using here the doctrine I think is more rightly labeled particular atonement because Christ died and atoned for the sins of a particular people.

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Those who were predestined from before the foundation of the world whom

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God chose to redeem by the giving of his son to die on the cross for their sins.

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Now we don't know who the elect are. We're not we're not to be hyper

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Calvinist in the sense that you know God has already decided everybody is going to be saved so therefore

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I don't have to preach to anybody I don't even have to share the gospel with anybody because God already knows who he means to save.

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Well God means in that plan of salvation to use us to take the gospel to those whom he has predestined for salvation and we don't know who

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God is going to save as Charles Spurgeon said if it was just as easy as walking up to a guy and lifting up the back of his shirt and finding a red

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X on his back and say oh okay you're the elect well then I would only preach to those with X's on their backs but that's not the way that God has determined this that's that's not our role in the plan of salvation he knows who the elect are we do not so we need to go out and preach to absolutely everybody but we do know this those who are saved are saved because God had predestined for their salvation and just as we have here in verse 14 with Paul saying the love of Christ controls us so it is the love of God that brings us to where we are that that drives us to do what we do in Christ Jesus it's all his doing it is not ours and I'm not advocating for fatalism here we're not talking about fate we're talking about the sovereignty of God this is his decree that he has ordained these things from before the foundation of the world now we're not deists we don't believe in a

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God who just set all these things in motion and then took his hands off of it and everything's just kind of operating on its own ever since no

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God is active in this work that is being done there is the decree that has happened before the creation of the world and then there is

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God working even in his creation now to bring about those things that he decreed from the very beginning

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Christ in us Christ controls us having concluded this that one

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Christ died for all whom he means to save therefore all who are in Christ have died they have died to themselves it says in verse 15 so that they no longer live to themselves but for him who died and rose on their behalf and he has only died and risen for those who have been predestined yes there are people that Jesus did not die for but once again we don't know who they are we're to take the gospel to everybody

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God is going to save those whom he means to save and that is all the work of God it is not our doing but his he died for all who are in Christ so that they who live no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose again on their behalf therefore from now on Paul says in verse 16 we recognize no one according to the flesh even though we have known

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Christ according to the flesh like previously when we were devoted to lies but now we're devoted to the truth so we know him in this way according to the flesh no longer we don't judge one another by the flesh we don't judge one another by partiality we are to share the gospel with everyone therefore if anyone is in Christ verse 17 and those who are in Christ are the all that were talked about in verses 14 and 15 therefore if anyone is in Christ all who are in Christ are a new creation the old things have passed away behold new things have come again

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Christ working even in the midst of creation now to bring about those things those things that change that had been foreordained from before the foundation of the world and praise

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God for that you know somebody wants to say to me see you don't even believe in free will you don't believe you have any control over your actions but that God is controlling everything

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I'm going to say to that praise the Lord if it means my salvation sure praise

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God for that take my free will take it from me if it means that I get to be

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Christ forever do it I don't even want my will let it be that God's will is done in my life praise be to him as Paul had said previously to the

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Corinthians at the start of the previous letter 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30 it is by his doing you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that just as it is written let him who boasts boast in the

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Lord Heavenly Father we thank you for this good word for us today that we may know it is all of Christ and not of us we have come to obedience in the

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Lord Jesus Christ because of your grace that you have poured out on us and how grateful we should be for that every single day praising

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God that I have been rescued and delivered from my sin and the consequences of my sin which was death and the judgment that I deserve the wrath of God that was upon me because of my rebellion against God and yet you loved me in that while I was a sinner

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Christ died for me and so I pray God that everything

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I do for the rest of my life is going to be unto you may my every waking moment be praise unto

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God and where I stumble in the passions of my flesh convict my heart that I may return from my wicked ways and ask forgiveness knowing the promises that are in your word you will forgive me of my sins and cleanse me of all unrighteousness cleanse me

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Lord Jesus that I may live for you today and I pray that for every person listening as well it's in Jesus name that we pray

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Amen Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts alerting readers to false teachers and offering commentary on the church and social issues.