Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Monday, December 29, 2 Corinthians 5 14

"For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;"

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whosoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed on the name of the only Son of God." (3:18)

Christ died so that we could live. Upon Him all the sins we committed were placed, and He represented all of us before His Father, suffering the wrath we deserved for our sin so that we could be reconciled to God.

This was always the plan, written centuries before by the Prophet Isaiah: "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:4-6)

All of us were like scattered sheep, each turning our own way. This was the great consequence of Adam's sin, the desire of "knowing good and evil". All he knew was the goodness of God, and followed God, until the great sin. Then, in his desire to know evil, he became his own judge, and his judgements led to sin and death.

And Christ took that sin, as a sinless lamb. The Passover reminded His people over and over again of what was to come, and only a remnant, called by Paul in Galatians 6, the "Israel of God", joined the forgiven Gentiles in the saving grace of their Messiah.

Of course, we know that this will change as well, for, according to Romans 11, the blinders will come off, and all Israel will be saved. An awesome national repentance. This is also brought to light in Zechariah: "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, when the look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn." (12:10)

And He was given the title of "Firstborn". He who is eternal inserted Himself willingly into this world, taking on human nature, physically born through the Holy Spirit into this world to Isaiah 7's "virgin". And now, without the original sin of Adam, He, unlike Adam, lived sinless, and tasted death for every man:

"But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone." (Hebrews 2:9)

Why? "for it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering." (Hebrews 2:10)

And as we will see tomorrow, this is why Paul says "the love of Christ controls us", concluding "that one has died for all, therefore all have died."

But this is only the half of it. We'll continue this thought tomorrow with the next verses. And what great verses they are!

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps:

"For THE love of CHRIST con TROLS us,
Be CAUSE we have CON cluded THIS:
that O-NE has DIE-D for A-LL,
there FO- -re A-LL have DIED;"

From one of the simplest verses yesterday to a more difficult one. I put it to the tune of "My BON nie lies O ver the O cean", the classic song that is used by us musicians in ear training to remember the Major 6th interval.

I found that it also works for this verse.

Notice all the hard "C" sounds that "controls" the first two lines: "Christ/Controls/be Cause/Concluded" Keep this in mind when you first start working on this.

Once you have those two lines memorized (I suggest you do that first), then notice the two phrases that end both of the other lines: "Died for all/All have died" Immediately the old phrase of the Three Musketeers shot through my brain: "All for one, and one for All". At least it helped me.

Now, for those who are linking the numbers, my "memory character" who is standing between 2 Corinthian pillars with rather large, 5 fingered hands (to remind me of 2 Corinthians 5) is my friend TeRry, because the T sound = 1 and the R sound = 4 in the phonetic alphabet. For my memory's sake, I've put him in a "ToReaDoR's outfit because I see the "14" in "ToR" and "DoR". For me, it will help me reinforce the number 14.

So, Terry the Toreador, which of course is the title for "Bullfighter", has a heart with "love of Christ" which he is wielding with his large hands instead of the sword, and this is how he is "controlling" the bull. Weird picture, but it is enough for me to see him singing this verse to the tune of "My Bonnie" to soothe the angry bull.

And enough for me to remember 2 Corinthians 2:14.