“For while we were still
helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly
die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare
even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:6 – 8.
“Helpless” (being without
strength), “ungodly,” “sinners,” and then in verse 10 “enemies.” Christ died
for these people; who are these people? We are these people. We all once “were,”
many still are, many are no longer – but we all once were. Christ died for us
all, for God so loves the world that He gave His only begotten Son and He does
not desire that any should perish but that we all might come to repentance –
but not all receive the justification and reconciliation that God has proffered
in and through Christ Jesus. This is a deep mystery to me and I do not purport
to understand it, I only see glimpses – it is as the Grand Canyon, each
overlook presents a particular vista and perspective. It is as Yellowstone,
microsystems within a mysterious park. It is as Grand Teton National Park,
there is no doubt as to where the mountains are – so do the love of God and
the Christ of the Cross tower above all else - their majesty is unmistakable.
We were helpless, we were
without strength; if we thought ourselves to be something, in truth we were
nothing – in one sense we were as babies, unable to care for ourselves. In
another starker sense we were enemies of God – let there be no mistake about
that, God did not reconcile friends to Himself, He reconciled enemies. In the
earlier chapters Paul has demonstrated that there is no one righteous, not even
one.
When parties are at war the
goal of each party is to destroy the other, to win the war by military action.
Yet God’s goal was not the destruction of His enemy mankind, but rather its
salvation and reconciliation. While we were rebelling against God, God was
loving us. When Jesus teaches us to love our enemies He is calling us to live
and love as God, He is calling us to live as the Trinity (as the Trinity lives
in us). He is calling us to manifest the Divine Nature in our relationships to
those who continue to be God’s enemies. God reconciles us by and through His
love manifested in Jesus Christ and His Cross.
Can we see ourselves helpless
and God loving us? Can we see ourselves as ungodly and God in Christ dying for
us? Can we visualize ourselves as sinners and enemies of God and God
reconciling us to Himself – to be in intimate relationship with Himself?
God’s love is passionate, it
is pursuing, it is longsuffering – consider that Jesus took the sins of the
world on Himself on the Cross – all of the evil deeds ever done, all of the
evil ever thought, all of the filth which hearts have ever pondered – the Holy
Lamb of God bore all of our sins, took them on Himself. Consider that Jesus,
the Lamb, not only took our sins upon Himself, but He took us – and all that “us”
means – upon Himself, into Himself – the core of our individual and collective
beings, evil enemies that we were – He enfolded us within as He died and was
buried so that we all might die in Him and be raised in Him (Romans Chapter 6).
God made Him who had no sin to
be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him – 2 Corinthians
5:21; it is on this basis that Paul in 2 Corinthians pleads for his readers to
be reconciled to God – the basis of God’s love in Christ on the Cross; “For the
love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all,
therefore all died, and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer
live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” (2
Cor. 5:14 – 15).
To lose sight of who we were
is to lose sight of the love of God which bridges the chasm of sin and death,
which defeats our rebellion and hatred, which bore the hideousness of our deeds
and ourselves on the Cross. For those
who have yet to come into a relationship with Jesus Christ – let this encourage
you to see how great God’s love for you is, how greatly He desires you to know
Him and the depths of His love – He desires that you begin a new life in Him
and that you learn to allow Him to live in you and through you – He desires
that you experience the peace and joy of knowing that your sins are forgiven
and that you have an eternal future in Jesus Christ.
Helpless we were when Jesus
died for us, when He called us; helpless we are outside of Him; “…much more,
having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:10).
Are we living in the “much
more”? In the “much more” of His love, His grace, His reconciliation, His Holy
Spirit, His empowering new life?
Let us live in more of the “much
more” today.
No comments:
Post a Comment