the power to change – part 2

The apostle Paul was a guy who experienced radical change in His life. He went from a legalistic persecutor of Christians to a loving, dedicated follower of Christ who reached out to much of the known world for the glory of God. He explained that it was the love of Christ that compelled him to reach out to others (2 Cor. 5:14) What does that mean?

To be compelled means that something is driving you – there’s a force that moves you to do things you wouldn’t ordinarily do.

-Paul is saying that force is The love of Christ as demonstrated for us on the cross. This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 1:16 when he’s talking about the power of God. He says the gospel is the power of God. And that gospel is the good news about the love of Christ as demonstrated for us on the cross.

Let’s think about this compelling force for just a minute: It’s the good news about the love that forgave all your sin. The love that took all my sin on Himself. The love that absorbed every bit of the wrath of God that should have been poured out on me. It’s the love that guarantees that when I stand in judgment before God, there is not going to be any of God’s wrath left to be directed at me. NONE. And that’s huge. We don’t have to wonder, “Well, we think Christ absorbed all the wrath of God, we’ll know for sure after we die.” No, the Bible teaches that because of the love of Christ, we are given the Holy Spirit as a down payment, a guarantee of forgiveness and eternal life.

What Christ has done for us is so profound, so unimaginable, so stunning, such a powerful act of pardon that it changes our lives. When a president pardons a criminal who is supposed to be in prison for the rest of their life – is that life-changing for them? Radically life-changing. And the love of Christ which compelled Him to go to the cross for us, so we could be pardoned, is infinitely more powerful and life-changing.

If we have experienced that love of Christ – if we understand just a fraction of the height and depth and length and width of His love, it will become a compelling force that changes us from the inside out.

~ by davehastings on February 18, 2010.