But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconcilation. Romans 5:8-11
God’s love for His own is unwavering because it is not based on how lovable we are, but on the consistency of His own character; God’s supreme act of love came to us we were at our most undesirable, when His Son was condemned to die the death of a criminal at the hands of sinful men. And even if we were all righteous, or at least a good man (v.7), Paul’s point is that we were neither of these persons, and yet, Christ sacrificed Himself for us all. When we were God’s enemies, Christ was able by His death to reconcile us to God. Certainly now that we are God’s children, the Savior can keep us by His living resurrection power. We are at peace with God and need not be afraid. For if He did so much for us when we were enemies, we should think upon what He will do for us now that we are His children. Much more equals grace— We belonged to the old creation under Adam, that of sinful fallen man where death and sin reigned, now that we are in Christ and a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), grace is reigning much more. Now that we have this power to live for Christ, we don’t need to fear what man fears. This world has its own set of values and considers Christianity to be too narrow minded to be of any value. Their attitude is to rather trust in fellow man than to place their trust in the Lord. God will be the final judge and renders His judgment for their works before Him whose actions are weighed. In our society, in the business world for example, we have “diversity training” and “multicultural training” classes. The belief is “if we can only teach people the right feelings, they’ll act correctly.” In the Bible, God says the opposite: “We’re to first act correctly, and then the right feelings will follow through His power.” Clearly, loving the unlovely is the foundation of God’s character, since Christ died for the church—the unlovely, we can do nothing less for others. The Christian loves God and fellow believers, and yet must have an absence of love for the world and its system to characterize the love life of those considered genuinely born again. “Love” here in our text is ordained of God, its measure is to the ends of the earth to all mankind and was offered to whosoever would believe in Him to give us all power to overcome this world, and to love one another, even the unlovely. God, and not the world must have first place in the Christians life.
Beloved friend, the Bible says, Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. (1John 4:17) This is not suggesting sinless perfection, but rather mature love marked by confidence in the face of judgement. Confidence being a sign that love is mature as He is, and being objects of His grace, and much more of His love, let us go on to good works that glorify Him especially in how we love others, including the unlovely like who we were once in this world.
May the Lord bless your walk!
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No fear of judgement, what an amazing biproduct of a relationship with Jesus! What a blessing it would be to be judged by the world a “Christian”. Imagine being selfless and loving as Jesus was and is. Thank you Ron see you on Friday!
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