Good Friday - 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (Apr. 3, 2026)

Chapter 5.

There should be a Bible in the seats around you.

If you need one, it also should be on page 9 in your bulletin.

We're in just two verses tonight, verse 14 and 15 of 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

So take a second to have that passage out in front of us.

And as you're flipping there, if you grew up in America, then likely every day from when you were in kindergarten through your senior year, every morning you would stand up, put your hand on your heart, and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

And because we did it every day, the words of the Pledge of Allegiance probably became so familiar to us that we probably actually could recite them on autopilot without even thinking about them at all.

And because of that, I bet that the actual words of the Pledge of Allegiance, in any practical sense, didn't really have any meaning at all to us.

That there's a real reality that something can become so familiar to us, that we can know something so well that we actually become desensitized to it.

The Pledge of Allegiance was likely something that we knew, but in all reality was something that we had probably grown numb to.

We were familiar with it, but nothing about it changed us.

Now, why do I bring this up?

Because I wonder, as we continue on in our Christian lives, if Good Friday, the death of Jesus Christ on a cross is something that we know.

But I wonder if it's becoming more and more like how we know the Pledge of Allegiance.

That we know all the right words to say.

But they're so familiar to us that we aren't affected by them.

We aren't stirred by them.

We aren't changed by the cross like maybe we used to be.

Well, my prayer for us tonight is that we would remember just that we need to cling to the cross because we need it.

And we need to be changed by it.

Our main idea for the night is this: that because Jesus died for us, we must die to ourselves and live for him.

That because Jesus died for us, we must die to ourselves and live for him.

We got two points from our passage.

First, we're gonna look at the death of Jesus for us.

And second, we're gonna look at the death of us for Jesus.

We're gonna read our passage here in a second, but church, before we do so, we we need God's help for this time.

So let's take a moment.

Would you guys pray with me?

Father in heaven, we love you.

We're so thankful for your word.

And Lord, we pray that you would use your word in this time to impact our hearts.

Father, we pray that we wouldn't just know more about you, but Father, I pray that we would really know you and we would know the length and depth that you went for us to save us from our sin.

Father, I pray that you would change us in this time, that we would have such a high view of you and such a high view of the cross.

Father, we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

2 Corinthians 5, 14 and 15.

Let's read it together.

It says this.

Since we have reached this conclusion, that one died for all, and therefore all died.

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

Our first point this evening is the death of Jesus for us.

Well, Good Friday is about the Son of God, Jesus Christ, suffering and dying on a cross.

Church, Good Friday needs to hit us.

We need to be punched by Good Friday.

It's the day that we should be the most humble and the most repentant.

Why?

Because it shows us just how big of a deal our sin is.

We read in verse 14, take a look with me again, verse 14 says this that for the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion, that one died for all.

That one Jesus died for all.

In which that all there means anyone, anyone who would believe in him and trust in him.

And we see here that this one Jesus, it's not that he died for no reason.

It's not that he died only as an example to us.

No, this one Jesus died for all, in the place of all.

Church, every day, this ought to hit us, punch us, but especially on Good Friday, we need to be struck with this.

That it was our sin that Jesus had to die for.

That our sin is not small because the most valuable one had to die for it.

And if we think something is cheap, but really it's so costly, then we aren't gonna value it like we should.

We need to know the cost.

Well, it had been a while since I had bought any dental floss for the house house, so I'm at the store the other day looking at all the floss.

Uh the the uh the cheap kind of floss, you know, it really isn't even worth buying.

But I was under the assumption that even the the the good kind of dental floss was still pretty cheap.

Uh so at home, uh I I'd been careless with it.

I I'd been wasting it, rolling out feet at a time every time I would use it.

But at the store, I was like, well, the good kind of dental floss, that's expensive.

And I've been wasting it.

But now but now I'm rationing that stuff.

We're we're getting our ruler out.

We might even start reusing some.

When we know just how much something costs, and it costs a lot, then we don't take it lightly.

And Church, Good Friday shows us just how much our sin costs.

So we don't take the cross lightly.

Church, this is how we keep Good Friday from becoming like the mindless reciting of the pledge.

We need to be hit with how costly our sin is.

Because the most glorious one, the most valuable one, the beloved Son of God, had to die for our sin.

We need to feel the weight of that.

When we're tempted to think little of our sin, church, we need to consider the lengths that God went to to pay for our sin.

That our sin was so bad that God himself had to come down from heaven, leave heaven.

Who does that?

To take on flesh, to suffer and die, that our sin was so big that only God Himself could pay for it.

Church, that means our sin is categorically different than how we often think about our sin, that at its very core, which bleeds into our actions, yes, but but at its very core, our sin is that in our hearts and in our lives we have lived as though, we've not lived as though God is king and God is Lord, but but we have lived as though we are king and we are Lord.

Friends, do we see the seeds of that in our hearts?

That I want to be king, that I want to be on top, that I want to be praised, that I want to be God.

And because we've sinfully, selfishly taken God's place on a throne, God took our place on a cross.

Church, the cross will not change us, it will not transform us unless we're struck with two things from it.

First, just how absolutely sinful that means we are.

But second, how absolutely merciful God is.

That we read in verse 14 of our passage that one really did die for all.

That yes, Good Friday shows us just how big of a deal our sin is, but it also shows us that our sin was paid for.

Church, as we become more and more aware of our own sin, that it's actually not just external things that we do, but it's actually in our core, that we realize we're filthy with sin.

And as we feel that burden that grows from it, the guilt that grows from our sin, the ugliness that grows from our sin, we look to the cross and we see that he was pierced because of our rebellion, that he was crushed because of our iniquity, that by his wounds we are healed, that Jesus paid it all, that God loves us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

That there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Good Friday is the declaration that there is no one who is too sinful who cannot be forgiven.

There is no one who is too far gone who cannot become a child of God.

Because the gospel is not based off of our works.

It's based off of Jesus' works.

And because Jesus is the most valuable one, the most holy one, the most precious one, the one who's worth the most.

It reminds us of how humble we ought to be in light of the cross.

But church, it also encourages us and gives us confidence that he is worth enough to pay for anyone's sin.

All who would come to him.

And when he says that he came to give his life as a ransom for many, to give his life as a ransom for you, he meant it.

The cross shows us how bad we are, but it also shows us how unimaginably good and loving and merciful God is.

And because of that, we must die to ourselves and live for him.

And that's what we'll see in our second point, which is this the death of us for Jesus.

Now, church, we don't die for Jesus the same way that he died for us, but it's clear in our passage that we must die to ourselves and live for him.

Look again at verse 14.

Look with me at verse 14.

It says this, that for the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion that one died for all, and therefore all died.

Therefore, all died, that the ones who trust in Jesus die.

That's not exactly what we'd expect to read.

So, how does that work?

What does that look like?

Well, let's look at verse 15, which says this, that he died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.

That those who live, those who trust in Jesus, have new life in Jesus, they no longer live for themselves.

They die to themselves and they live for the one who died for us.

That's our main idea, that because Jesus died for us, we must die to ourselves and live for him.

But what does that mean?

Because we might hear that and actually think to ourselves that that actually sounds hard.

That that actually sounds like a burden, that I can't live for myself anymore, but I have to live for Jesus.

Well, church, what if I told you that that actually if we were to live for God, live in a way that's for God and not for us?

What if I told you that that actually wasn't the burden for us?

But what if I told you that actually relieves our burdens?

That actually living for ourselves, right?

Not only is that the essence of our sin, but but living for ourselves is actually what fuels our burdens.

That living for ourselves means our eyes are on ourselves, so we're overly anxious.

That living for ourselves means that we need others to like us, others to praise us, so we're always trying to impress people, and it's exhausting.

Living for ourselves means that we need to be exalted, we need to be number one, so everyone else around us is at least kind of a threat to us, and our relationships are strained.

Living for ourselves means I need situations to go my way, and when I don't get them, I get angry and bitter and grumpy.

Church, living for ourselves is what's killing us.

So we need to die to ourselves.

And how do we do that?

How do we die to ourselves?

Well, it comes down to our loves.

That we need to love something or someone more than we love ourselves.

And church, the the takeaway, if you will, from Good Friday, the transformation that we need when the cross hits us with just how sinful we are, but also how merciful God is that when we see Jesus and all his glory and all he's done for us hanging on a cross to pay for our sins, then we look at him and say, I love him more than I love myself.

God, you are King.

I'm not.

Fundamentally, that's the only way we'll actually die to ourselves.

That our hearts are melted by the reality that God himself would come down to this world to take on flesh, to live and to suffer and to die because he loves sinners like us.

And church, if he's willing to die for us, we need to be willing to die to ourselves and live for him.

And church, hear this.

Part of us, not all of it, but part of us dying to ourselves is that we die to our self-righteousness.

We can so easily slip into this.

We can so easily slip into thinking that God sees us as righteous because right now we're doing pretty good.

Church, if we do that, either we're gonna become so prideful because we think that we've made it on our own without Jesus, or we're gonna become so discouraged because we'll realize that we've failed.

But our hope is actually found when we die to our self-righteousness.

Look with me at the answer to the New City Catechism question one.

At some point it should be on the screen here, but but the question is this.

Listen to the question, it'll be on the answer on the screen here.

Question is this What is our only hope in life and death?

What is our only hope in life and death?

And the the answer, the the start to the answer actually shocks us a little bit.

That it says this.

That what is our hope in life and death?

That we are not our own.

That's our hope.

That we are not our own, but we belong body and soul, both in life and death to God and to our Savior, Jesus Christ.

How humbling is uh that to us?

That we are not our own.

How encouraging, though, is that to us?

That our right standing before God is grounded not in ourselves, but that we belong to Jesus.

It's like the verse that we sang before in the song Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling.

We die to our selfish desires, but we also die to our self-righteousness.

Now, church, I've talked about some big picture ideas about how we die to ourselves, but what does that look like on the ground?

Like what would it practically look like for someone to actually die to themselves?

Well, I think it's something like what Jesus says in Matthew 20.

Matthew 20, 26 through 28, Jesus says this that whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.

And whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave.

Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

To die to ourselves is to follow after Jesus and using our lives for the good of others and the glory of God.

And when we make those die to ourselves decisions to serve others, those are so good.

But church, we know this, they're so hard.

So how are we going to be able to do that?

What's going to cause us to die to ourselves?

It's the first seven words of verse 14 in 2 Corinthians 5.

For the love of Christ compels us.

That we are compelled, motivated, spurred on by the love of Christ.

In church, this phrase here in this passage is not primarily talking about our love for Christ, but primarily it's talking about Christ's love for us.

That when we're tired and we feel like we can't do it, and the only decision that we want to make is a selfish one.

How are we gonna die to ourselves?

It's the love of Christ for us that compels us.

That we really can die to ourselves because Jesus loves us.

That because Jesus loves us, we really can die to ourselves to love and serve our family sacrificially.

That because Jesus loves us, we can be okay when we don't get our way.

That because Jesus loves us, we actually don't have to be defensive when someone confronts us.

Because Jesus loves us, we can engage with people at church even when we're nervous to do so.

Because Jesus loves us, and we can be okay when we don't get recognized for the chores that we do around the house or for the accomplishments that we do at work.

Because Jesus loves us, we can live in a way that those around us see our witness to the gospel even if they think we're strange for it.

Because Jesus loves us, the off day we get from work or school doesn't have to only be about what we want to do.

That because Jesus loves us, we can we can have people over to our homes even if we don't know what we're gonna say with them.

That because Jesus loves us, we don't have to think about our church as a people that primarily serve us, but rather as a people that we get to serve.

We can die to ourselves because the love of Christ compels us.

That because Jesus loves us so much so that he died for us, we can die to ourselves and live for him.

Church, Good Friday ought to transform us.

That we see the weight of our sin and we see the depths of God's mercy as the most valuable one gave himself for us.

And church, because of that, because Jesus died for us, we must die to ourselves and live for him.

Let's pray.