ROMANS UNWRAPPED 77

       

                                             AN INCONCEIVABLE LOVE

"For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."  Romans 5v10.

Once again Paul uses the same pattern, and adds different dimensions.   The dire condition of humanity - enemies of God, the deep sacrifice of God on our behalf - this time the giving of His Son (first time mention of Son in connection with the death), the added blessing of reconciliation to God, and the resultant conclusion that if one greater thing is true, the lesser will also be true.   In this case "we shall be saved by His life"  whereas in verse 9 we were saved by His death.   We have to go a little  deeper and unravel these glorious things if we are to understand the full blessing of what God has done.  

• We were enemies:   prior to this we were described as sinners, always coming short of God's demands, always trying to be better, but failing, and in the process we grew so used to failure that we began to excuse it with the attitude "nobody's perfect"; this led to a slow but sure acceptance of our sinfulness and for the sake of easy life we settled down to happily live in sin with the result that sin took over.   This description of "enemies" goes one step further.   Not only did we acquiesce in a life of sin but we actively engaged in opposition to God and His ways, became antagonistic to God and thus became His enemies.   There are no punches pulled in the Bible as to the truth of  this, that mankind is not only a helpless sinner, he is actively in rebellion against God and therefore constituted God's enemy.   There are many ways in which this is manifested; firstly, in what we do in active rebellion against God, scripture speaks of  "enemies in our minds by wicked works"  in Romans chapter 8 Paul says  "the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, because it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God."    Romans 8 v 7-8   Not only are we enemies by our way of life, we are enemies in our thinking.   We reject God's word, we create our own religions, our own ways.   We oppose the teachings of the Holy Spirit, and create doctrines with which we can live.   The most popular song at funerals is "I did it my way," this as opposed to God's way.   We are enemies in our attitude to God, we no longer give Him thanks, we take for granted His benefits, and in general we ignore Him or insult Him, thus actually replacing Him in our lives and in our societies.
• We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son:  It was for such people described above God sacrificed His Son.   Previously he has mentioned that it was Christ who died for sins, now he brings before us the deep feeling of the sacrifice because what God did at Calvary was to give His own Son, who is His most precious possession.   He did not do that when we were showing signs of revival, showing intentions of repenting of our ways, He did that when we were enemies and nowhere was this more evident than in the cross of Christ.   The cry of the mob, most of whom were members of the most religious people on the face of the earth, was one of pure hatred and enmity when they said "away with this (classing the Son of God as an object rather than a human being far less the Son of the Majesty on high) we will not have this to reign over us,"   This is still the cry of the world but "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself" and today He offers still to His enemies reconciliation.
• We were reconciled:   We consider now the tremendous meaning of reconciliation, which is one of the great blessings of salvation.   We have been thinking of how God has dealt with our past taking away all our guilt and all our sin; we have been thinking of how He has secured our future by removing the threat of wrath that was against us, that will surely come on an ungodly world, but has been removed from us by an act of Divine mercy.   We have even been thinking of a future hope of glory when God will take all His people to heaven and bless them forever, and also of how He helps us on the way through in all our difficulties.   All these things are marvellous, but there remains possibly in our minds the thought of  "how does God really feel about us?   Does He harbour any ill feelings toward us?   Does He hold an attitude towards us along the lines of  "look at where you were before I saved you, look at all the trouble I had to go through to save you, and I just feel a little bit of a grudge towards you, and it will always be there."   This is how we human beings would look at it, but not God.   Reconciliation means just that, the removal of every barrier to friendship and fellowship.   The believer through wondrous grace is on speaking terms with God.   We have been given "the freedom of the city"  as we say, this city being the new Jerusalem.   We were once at a distance from God, we are now brought near, we have been declared His sons, we have been given Divine privilege, we can speak directly to Him, He speaks to us through His Holy Spirit and in the future He will speak to us directly.   This is reconciliation, no more strangers, no more distance, on speaking terms with God, accepted by all in heaven because we are accepted in the beloved.   In the words of the hymn by John Nelson Derby  "There no stranger God shall greet thee, stranger thou in courts above.    He who to His rest doth greet thee, Greets thee with a well known love."

Such love, such inconceivable love, from One so great  to ones so undeserving.   Tomorrow d.v. we will consider the tremendous meaning of the phrase  " saved by His life."

"YOUR SINS AND YOUR INIQUITIES I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE"