A Verse that Could Change the World

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

2 Corinthians 5:15

Your life doesn't belong to you. 

This is true of any creature. God created you, therefore you belong to God. But this is especially true of believers for we were redeemed at a price. Christ purchased you back for Himself by His precious blood. So, you belong to Him. 

But it goes beyond that. At the moment you received your redemption, you placed your faith in Jesus which requires a kind of dying to yourself. Paul says that "one died for all, and therefore all died" (2 Cor 5:14). Becoming a Christian involves a spiritual participation in the death of Christ. You were crucified with Him. You died to your old way of life and experienced a type of spiritual resurrection (not to be confused with the literal resurrection you await) that enables you to live a new life here on earth now. That's why Paul says, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Cor 5:17). Your old, selfish ways of living are gone. A new way of living, living for God, has come. 

Paul puts it succinctly in verse fifteen above. "[Jesus] died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." If every Christian would live by this one verse, our world would be a very different place. Which brings me back to where I started. 

Your life doesn't belong to you. You can't live for yourself any more. Christians don't live for the American Dream, or for more money, or for our own happiness, or for our country, or even for our families. Though a few of these are lofty and honorable none of them measure up to what God has called you to. They are all less than what we strive for. They are less than the Christian goal of living for Jesus. 

You live for Jesus. Your life belongs to Him. Your every breath and every day should be aimed at obeying and living for Him. Your life isn't yours to do with as you please. You are God's servant! Find out what He wants you to do, what He created you for, and give yourself to it wholly.