III. FURTHERMORE, PAUL CONCLUDED THAT BELIEVERS SHOULD LIVE UNTO THEMSELVES BUT UNTO CHRIST

His death is the means of escape from the power of sin and His resurrection is the means of a new life. 

1. Note the character of this new life. It is two-fold.­

A} Negatively. That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, verse 15. We cannot live for God until we are delivered from self-love. This is a life of SELF-denial. Our own ease, profit, advancement etc must be denied. Rom 14:7-8; Matt 16:24; Luke 14:26; 1 Cor 6:20; Col 1:10. We cannot live unto ourselves and God also, There must be a cutting down before there can be a building up, Jeremiah 1:10.

Have we not lived too long to ourselves already, 1 Peter 4:3?

B} Positively. But unto him which died for them, and rose again. It is not that occasionally we do something for the Lord but we must LIVE unto Him. Many would dispute this claim over them. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 1 Cor 6:19.

2. It was Paul’s knowledge of the love of Christ that brought him to this place of death to self. 

May God give us a life-altering view of Christ in His death and resurrection today.