Christ’s death and resurrection is for everyone who will receive Him as Lord of their lives. It’s that inclusive and that simple.

¹⁶ For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. John 3:16 AMP

From yesterday: As we look forward to Easter, let us consider the ramifications of the cross. Today, we will look at our main motivation for living as Christ would have us live. Paul says it plainly in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15,

¹⁴ For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵ 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.

We looked at the love of Christ that compels us to live for Him. The Spirit motivates us to serve Christ because of His great love for us that was displayed on the cross.

Another nugget to dig out of this passage is the totality of salvation. Christ is our Representative even as Adam was our representative. The beauty and genius is that just as Adam represented everyone in the fall, Jesus Christ represents everyone in His death on the cross. According to Hebrews 2:14-15, we no longer need to fear death!

¹⁴ Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Notice that I said, “we no longer need to fear death.” Hebrews 7:25 tells us, “he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” The only stipulation to salvation is that we come to God through Jesus Christ. We don’t just receive salvation and say, “Thank You very much,” and then walk off and live the way we were living. When we receive salvation, we entrust our lives to God because the way we were living led to death, both physical and spiritual. When we receive Christ, we commit to follow His leadership, to walk away from our old lives, and to adopt a new way of living. This new life leads to eternal life because, “we have crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24).

Tomorrow, we will look at what it means to live for Him. For today, let’s be grateful for all that He has done for us.

Abba, I am grateful. Thank You for calling me out of my darkness and into Your marvelous light. Thank You for including me in Your death so that I would be able to be included in Your life. You are wonderful and amazing! Amen.