2 Corinthians 5:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Consider, then, how much we owe when we unite both together. But a third reason is also hidden in his words: for your sake the Lord raised and lifted up into heaven the firstfruits of our nature. Therefore it is added: "for Him who died for them and rose."

And at holy Baptism, when we entered Christianity, we renounced this enemy, all his pride, and all his evil works. We promised to serve our Redeemer Jesus. "You are not your own. For you were bought with a price" (1 Cor 6:19-20).

What price was given for us? Silver or gold? No. What then? Precious Blood was shed. Whose Blood is it? That of a simple man? No. Who, then, is He who dealt so mercifully with us that He did not spare His Blood for us, who were enslaved by the enemy and tormentor? Our Lord and God.

"He purchased us with His own Blood" (Acts 20:28). O truly great price, priceless price, given for us! Truly we are not our own, but purchased servants of Christ.

We must serve Christ as our Lord who bought us, do His will, and fulfill His commandments. "And Christ died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose" (2 Cor 5:15).

A master commands his servant, and the servant obeys him. He says to him, "Do this," and he does it. "Go there," and he goes. "Set the table," and he sets it.

Christ our Lord commands us: Christian, love your neighbor as yourself. Be merciful, humble, meek, and yielding. Beware of every sin, and so forth. As His purchased servants, we must do what He commands us.

This is all the more so because by our own will we promised to serve Him. This service is beneficial to us, not to Him. He honored us so dearly that He did not spare even Himself for our sake.

"Lord, what is man, that You remember him? Or the son of man, that You visit him?" (Ps 8:5). Let us also honor Him who has so honored us. Let us serve Him with all humility of mind, as our Lord.

Then He also will know us and acknowledge us as His servants on the day of His Second Coming. He will say to each of us: "Good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your lord" (Mt 25:21).

That is, His former visible state with the weaknesses of human nature completely disappears from our eyes. We behold in Him the one majesty of the incarnate God, the Restorer of fallen man, who in His own Person raised man to deification (Bishop Theophan, based on Chrysostom and Theodoret).

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ," that is, if he not only believes in Him, but is as it were immersed in Him by his feelings and his life, "he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, all things are new."

That is, a new way of seeing all that exists and comes to pass is given. New orders of life are introduced in all its manifestations. At the foundation of everything lies an essential renewal of life in its innermost sources, in the spirit and heart.

Here the whole history of man's salvation is briefly touched upon. In other words, the whole greatness of the grace manifested by God the Father in Christ Jesus and proclaimed to the world through the holy Apostles is touched upon.

Bishop Theophan says, among other things, the following in depicting the whole history of salvation, which the Apostle vividly presents here: "God died according to human nature, and in this one death He truly included the death of all men. One died; all died.

But if all died, has death been destroyed? This is precisely so. God, having died according to human nature, destroyed death (2 Tim 1:10). For on the third day He rose in glorified humanity, and from that moment abides in this Resurrection.

If, when One died, all died, then when He rose, all rose. The power of Christ's Resurrection is truly such that in it lies the foundation of the resurrection of all.

Therefore the whole work of this life is enlivening by the spirit according to the order of the promised deliverance. Those who live must now live not for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose. This is the norm of human life.

No external considerations of worth are now valuable in our eyes: neither origin, nor wealth, nor learning, nor power. One thing is important: the reception of new life in Christ Jesus by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

When Christ the Lord moved among us, we understood Him according to the flesh and judged Him by this visible appearance. Now we behold in Him the one majesty of the incarnate God, the Restorer of fallen man. In His own Person He has raised man to deification, and we contemplate Him seated at the right hand of the Father.

A new way of seeing everything is given. New orders are introduced. A man is born who is nourished from the heart.

This is not an earthly planting and is not nourished by earthly elements. Therefore it minds the things above, not the things on earth, and its life is hidden with Christ in God.

All this is from God. In the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity it was established before all ages that the second Person of the Holy Trinity would become incarnate. Having died on the Cross, He would thereby satisfy the righteousness of God and reconcile us with God.

But so that reconciliation might take place, the apostolate was established, a member essentially necessary in the ordering of men's salvation. The servants of God go throughout the world and call all, both foolish and wise" (Prov 9:1-5).

In this lies quickening by the spirit, which from the beginning became the goal of life. The Apostle means not believers only, but all men living at every time. All must live for the one Lord.

If they do not live this way, it is their fault. To what extent ignorance excuses anyone, God will judge. Yet the law is unalterable: after the Lord died for all and rose, all must live for Him.

This is the norm of human life. We possess this temporal life, with the means of quickening the spirit, because the Lord died for all.

After death, while we remain separated from the body, we shall live in hope of the resurrection in an incorrupt body because He rose in our nature.

If, then, everything essential in our life is from Him, the law of righteousness commands us no longer to live for ourselves, but for Him alone.

Chrysostom says: "The Apostle said that we must not live for ourselves, and he presents the evident reason why we must act so. If we live by Him Who died for us, then we must also live for Him by Whom we live.

"Although what he said seems to contain one reason, if we examine it carefully, we shall find two. The first is that we live only by the Lord. The second is that He died for us.

"Each of these, taken separately, is sufficient to make us obedient to Him. How much more indebted to Him we must be when we join both together.

"Yet a third reason is hidden in his words. For your sake the Lord raised and carried up to heaven the firstfruits of our nature. Therefore he added: 'Who died for us and rose again.'"

What is required by the obligation to live not for oneself the Lord defined thus: "If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me."

What is required by the obligation to live for the Lord, the Lord said in these words: "He who loves Me keeps My commandments." Blessed Theodoret writes: "We acknowledge it just to live for Him and to conduct life according to His commandments, because our debt to Him obliges us to this."

Yet such requirements are plainly fulfilled only by those who have come to know the Lord, believed in Him, and cleaved to Him with their whole soul. Therefore, although the Apostle said that all who live are obligated to live not for themselves but for the Lord, he spoke according to the idea.

His intention was especially to fix the attention of believers on this point, first those to whom he wrote, and then all believers. For if all men are obligated to this, believers are obligated all the more.

They have accepted the obligations and have also received the strength to fulfill them in the grace of the Holy Spirit. Believers in the Lord, when they come to Him, renounce impiety and worldly desires.

At first they do this in intention, desire, and resolve of will. Yet when they are reborn to new life in the font of baptism, they receive grace-filled power.

This power actually frees them from impiety and desires, and directs them toward a chaste, righteous, and pious life. Thus, not living for oneself, that is, not according to the selfish impulses of the flesh, belongs inseparably to true believing Christians.

Living for the Lord, that is, according to His holy, pleasing, and righteous will, also belongs to them inseparably. In relation to them the Apostle's word means this.

This is how it must be, and it cannot be otherwise, if you are what you ought to be.