The God Who Reconciles

Turn with me in your Bibles, please, to Romans chapter five. Now, as you're turning there, I'd like to ask you a question, what is it that you are hoping to get out of the sermon? You know, as we open up God's word together, what are you expecting? Are you just expecting and hoping to learn new moral principles or to learn new facts about God and his word? Or do you have the anticipation and the expectation to hear from God himself? And in a moment, I'm going to read verses six through 11. But first, I would just like to draw your attention to verse five. Paul says now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. And friends, this this could be a reality this morning, I just want to remind us that that God himself can speak to us. And he can pour out his love for us in our hearts. And so I just would invite you that after I read our text, that you would pray with me that that this would be real this morning. Romans, chapter five, verses six to 11. For when we were still without strength. In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. for scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, We shall be saved from wrath through him. For 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 reconciliation. Let's go to Lord in prayer. My God and my father, But I want to share with your people the love that you have for them. And Lord, I cannot do it. And so I just ask you this morning that you would be here, that you would pour out the love that you have for us into our hearts through your Holy Spirit. In Jesus name. Amen. Now, as we begin, the first thing I would like to do is is frame this passage in the larger context of the Book of Romans. And if we were to go through the first four chapters of this book, what we would find is that Paul has been spelling out the gospel. In chapter one, he talks about our sinfulness. In chapter two, he talks about our inability to do anything to save ourselves. That because of our sin, God's wrath is upon us and that there is nothing we can do to change that. We can try to fix ourselves by obeying God's law, but God's standard is perfection and none of us can do it. In chapter three, he talks about how God in his grace has chosen to send us a savior. That he would reach down and save us because we could not save ourselves. And in chapter four, he talks about how we are to receive that salvation, that is by faith alone, not by works, is by looking to Jesus Christ and trusting that he can save you. And now here in chapter five, Paul turns to speaking about the effect. That believing the gospel has on our lives and the effect is joy. He says three times in the first 11 verses of chapter five, he talks about rejoicing starting, if you look in verse one, he says, therefore, having been justified by faith. Having believed this gospel, We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, God's wrath toward us is appeased. We are no longer enemies. We're at peace. Then in verse two, he says, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So not only do we have peace with God through Jesus Christ, but we now stand in a place of grace. We have access and acceptance to God, and therefore we have this great promise of eternal life. When we will be able to behold God's glory and even be partakers with him of that glory. And the result of that is joy, we rejoice in that hope, then verse three, Paul says, and not only that, but we also glory or rejoice in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance, character and character, hope. And so not only do we rejoice in hope of the glory that is to come, but we can even rejoice now in the midst of great tribulation, because we see that God uses tribulation to actually work in us even greater hope. And in the midst of tribulation, we can focus on that hope, which is to come. And then third and finally, if you jump down to verse 11. Paul sort of comes back to this, this thought he's begun, and he says, and not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, we rejoice in God for who he is. We rejoice through our Lord Jesus Christ because God has revealed himself to us in Christ, that he is the God of all grace, that he is the God who reconciles and therefore we rejoice because of who he is. But in verses five through 10, I think those are really a bit of an aside and beginning in verse five, Paul says, now hope does not disappoint. And I think the reason he he draws our attention to that is because. Hope only leads to joy when we know it is not a vain hope. You know, if we have this hope for eternal life, but there in the back of your mind, there's this dread. What if I get there and the gates of heaven are slammed in my face? That kind of hope does not lead to joy. It certainly does not lead to joy that can rejoice in the midst of tribulation. And so Paul says now hope does not disappoint. And this is how you can know, he says, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. In other words, the way that you as a Christian can know that your hope will not disappoint you is because, you know, the love that God has for you. And, you know, the love that God has for you because he has poured it out in your heart through the Holy Spirit. Now, how does God do that? Verse six begins with the word for it connects, says the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us for when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And verses six through 10 are that message that surely if you have come to this church for an amount of time, you have heard from men repeatedly But if you are a Christian, that is the message that the Holy Spirit has borne internal witness of in your heart so that you know God loves you because he has told you through this word. And so the main point of our passage is this, our hope. We can know that our hope will not disappoint us because we know the love that God has for us. In other words, our salvation is sure because of the love that God has for us. And I just I just want to stop there for for a brief moment and just ask you that as a Christian. When is the last time that you just pause and dwelt on the reality of God's love for you? That God really is the God who created all things, and yet he really actually loves you. I think that especially among those of us who are reformed, we emphasize greatly, as we ought, that God has reached down and saved us for his own glory. That's why he saved us, and yet I think there is this danger When we think about that, that we try to figure everything out and we start to think, well, God, you know, did this or this would happen and that would happen. And that way he'll maximize his glory. And it's almost like we think of it in this mechanical, mechanical kind of way. And we just lose sight of the fact he saved us because he loves us, because he really actually loves us. And so this morning, what I like to do as we go through verses six through 11 together is just draw out, point out to you five qualities or five dimensions of God's love for us. And the first is this, God loves us greatly. I speak concerning the magnitude of his love for us. Verse six, for when we were still without strength. In due time, Christ died. Christ died. Now, the first time I'd like you to do is just just think about the reality of that. Yeah, I think it is amazing enough to think that God is who he is, and yet he actually really does love us at all. But to think that he actually really loves us enough to die for us, that the son of God died for us in love. That he saw that we were without strength. That we could not save ourselves, that there was nothing we could do. To pay for our sins, there was nothing we could do to free ourselves from the devil. There was nothing we could do to overcome our own bent towards sinning. And he loved us so greatly that he died for us. Secondly, just contemplate for a moment the the greatness of that love. Jesus himself said, greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. The greatest act of love is to give your life for someone. And the reason for that is the magnitude of love is not measured by feelings and it's not measured by words, it's measured by deeds. And it's not even measured by the greatness of the deed. Because for a rich man to give much may demonstrate far less love than for a widow to give two mites. But it's measured by the cost of the deed to the giver. And so to give your life, that is to give everything you have. And that is what the son of God gave for us. Consider for a moment what he gave up. That it was not just any life, but it was life with his father in heaven, in eternal and heavenly glory, in perfect glory. That's what he gave up. That's what he surrendered to come down for us. And consider, secondly, what he endured. That he died not just any death, but he died a death on a cross, that he died a torturous death, a death of great physical pain, of great emotional pain, being stripped bare, naked, mocked by men who he had created. And more than any of that, he endured the wrath of God, that he died Not just at the hands of men, but that he was crushed by the wrath of his own father. That he bore the wrath that a world of sinners would have borne for eternity upon eternity in hell. That he bore all of that. He drank the entire cup for us. Just contemplate the greatness of the love that he has for us. Secondly, God loves us unconditionally. He loves us greatly and he loves us unconditionally. There's the end of verse six, Paul says, for when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. It does not say that when we were without strength, Christ died for the godly. He did not die for the innocent or for the deserving. or for the lovable. He died for the ungodly, the undeserving, the guilty, sinners, his enemies. And why would he do that? And the only explanation is this, that God's love for us is not conditional. He does not love us. He did not die for us because of something in us that drew him to us. He does not love us because of us, but in spite of us. It's unconditional. And I think that this form of love, this unconditional love, it is a holy love. It is a love that is completely and totally alien to anything that you have ever experienced anywhere else. It's not the way that men love. It's holy, it's different, it's not anything you've ever seen. Look at verse seven, Paul says, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet, perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. In other words, Paul says, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die. That is scarcely, very rarely will you find a man willing to die for another man because that man is righteous, because he is, you know, principled, just, law abiding, you know, perhaps meaning admirable. Paul says it's very rare that you'll find a man willing to die for someone like that. He says, but yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. I think by good, he means someone who's particularly benevolent, someone who is generous, caring, perhaps a very lovable person. Perhaps for that kind of person, someone would even dare to die. You know, in other words, you might be able to find someone able to emulate the greatness of God's love and that he would be willing to die for another. Not that any man has ever given up the life that Christ gave or died the death that he died. But you could possibly find a man willing to die for another. But Paul's point here is that God's love for us is not only great in magnitude, but of a whole other category altogether. It's a different form of love in a different category. It says, but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And now to really understand what this is saying, the first thing we need to see is we need to understand what God thinks of sinners. Because it would be one thing to think God died for sinners because he's fairly neutral or indifferent towards sin. And, you know, if we were to go to our culture, the culture talks about unconditional love and by it, they mean, you know, taking delight in another person for who they are, no matter who they are. It's talking about delighting in someone. And when the Bible talks about God's love for sinners, that is not what it means. And I think it may be helpful just to realize that there are two primary senses in which we use the word love. We use the word love first in that sense of we delight in someone. Maybe it's your friend, maybe it's a romantic interest, you know, whatever, it's someone that you enjoy, someone you delight in, someone you like. But there's a second sense in which we use the word love. And we mean to desire good for someone. You know, when when when mom or dad has their son and about to give him a spanking and they say, son, I love you. That's what they mean. You know, or when you're going, you know, you're driving down the street, you see a homeless man, you know, asking for money and your heart goes out to them. It's that kind of love that desiring good for someone, not delighting in desiring their good. And that's the kind of love that God has unconditionally for sinners. But you see, you also need to recognize that the way that God looks at your sin, that your sin is revolting to God. That God hates sin. Hates it. And the reason God's wrath burns towards sin is not because he is a God of wrath, but because he loves righteousness. And sin is an attack, an aberration of righteousness, and it is God's love for righteousness that motivates his hatred for sin. And just think about for a moment the fact that your sin incenses God to such an extent that without Christ, God would have cast you into hell forever and ever and his wrath after an eternity upon eternity still would not run cold. That is the measure of God's hatred for sin. And yet. He loves you more. Yet his love for you, his determination to do you good is so great that in spite of that, In spite of that, he has even chosen to send his own son to die for you, to save you. That is unconditional love, and that is holy love. It is alien to anything that we have ever experienced. Thirdly, God loves us specifically. He loves us greatly. He loves us unconditionally and he loves us specifically. Now, many times in scripture, the emphasis is placed on how broad, how wide, how far reaching God's love is. For God so loved the world, Jesus gave his life as a ransom for many. Jesus came to redeem a people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But notice here, Paul says, but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Just just think about that fact, God loves us. No, he doesn't just love people out there, he loves us in here, he loves you. He you know, don't don't make the mistake of thinking that that God is like you, that that just because you do not have the capacity to love, but a very few people in an intimate way that God can't. God knows you. He knows you personally and intimately. He knows every day which he has fashioned for you to live. He knows every struggle you're going through, every fear and weakness that you have, and he knows every sin and failure. And yet he loves you. It even says in Scripture that he thinks about us. That God thinks of us in Psalm 139, David writes, How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God, how great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. And of all the thoughts he has thought towards you, one of them, perhaps many, was to save you. that he thought of you and he knew you and he thought to send his son to die for you. And Jesus, he went to the cross for you. We're going to take communion and as Jesus said, this is my body, which is broken for you. And on the final day. When Jesus comes in his kingdom, He will call you by name. And it says that he says, and I will give you a white stone and on the stone a new name written, the name he has chosen for you, which no one knows except him who receives it. Just think about that, God loved us, Christ died for us. And now, secondly, just I want to point this out because there's something deeper you need to see here. Because in order to really comprehend the love that God has for you. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you need to comprehend that he doesn't love the person. Sitting next to you, perhaps, or that you pass on the street who rejects Christ and goes to hell, he doesn't love that person the same. God doesn't love everyone the same. And that's something that I think he wants us to know. And if you remember the beginning of the book of Malachi, you know, God is speaking to the Israelites and he wants them to know how much he loves them. He says, I have loved you, says the Lord. Yet you say, in what way have you loved us? God says, was not Esau Jacob's brother? Yet, Jacob, I have loved. But Esau, I have hated and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness. Jacob and Esau, they're brothers. There was nothing better about Jacob or worse about Esau. But God loved Jacob more. And so Jacob, though he was younger, he received the blessing. And Esau did not. And so when Paul says Christ died for us, part of what he is saying, Christ did not die for every single person in the world in the same way that he died for us. Jesus died for all people in general in the sense that he died so that the gospel could be offered to every person on the face of the earth. He died a death sufficient to save everyone. He could save a thousand universes of people. John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life is whoever. God loves the world, and whoever believes will be saved. God has loved every person enough to offer the gospel to all, that the gospel would be preached to every creature under heaven. But Scripture also says that the real purpose of Christ's death was not to make salvation possible for everyone, but to actually save his sheep. Jesus says in John 10, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. And similarly, in John, chapter six, he said, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of the father who sent me, that of all he has given me, I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day. And so Jesus came to die for those whom his father gave him and by that death to actually definitely save them. And the reason that matters for you to know is because if you are a Christian, the reason your salvation is sure. While the person next to you may wind up in hell, the difference is not just a decision you made in your life. The difference is that God loves you. And he sent his son to die for you, to save you. As Paul says here, God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Fourthly, God loves us with an everlasting love. He loves us greatly. He loves us unconditionally. He loves us specifically and he loves us with an everlasting love. Are you ever tempted to believe that God's love for you has run cold? Do you ever just contemplate who God is and all that he has done for you and just feel overwhelmed by how little you love him in return. You know, or or there's some sin in your life that you just continue in and you do repeatedly. And just feel this conviction of how could God still love me? Do you ever feel that? Or maybe maybe it's you. You feel most convicted by the fact that you aren't convicted enough over your sin. Whatever it may be, does that ever tempt you to think, how could God still love me? I want you to notice something. I glossed over this before, but in verse six, it says, for when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And if you just think about that, you know, we speak of a baby's due date, you know, and part of what this is getting at is Christ's promise. There was a plan. God has been working toward our salvation from before the foundation of the world. You know, if you remember back in Genesis chapter three, God made a promise right then, right after the fall, that he would send a seed that would crush the serpent's head. And then he continued to lay these promises over thousands of years. And then in due time, the son of God steps down. into time, into our world. And he lives a perfect life for us. And he dies on the cross for us. And he rose again for us. And now 2000 years later, you were born. And in your life, God has worked circumstances together so that you would be in a place where you could hear the gospel. And he sent you his Holy Spirit into your heart to open your heart so that you could receive it. And after literally thousands of years of working toward your salvation, do you honestly believe that God is going to give up on you now? He loves us with an everlasting love. He's loved us from before he ever created the world, because he foreknew us. Now, you may say, It was one thing for God to forgive me for my sins before coming to Christ, but it is quite another for him to forgive me after I have come to Christ. And that's quite true. Because sin is far worse, the greater the grace against which it is sinned. The more we see God, the worse it is that we would sin. But have you considered that Christ knew that when he died for you? That your sin, even now, is not a surprise. That God knows you and he knows Every day that you have lived in every day that you will live, every sin that you have committed, every sin that you will commit. And even still, Jesus Christ chose to die for you. Now. Verse eight. Much more than. Having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. After all this work that now we are justified. Will God let you go? Just think about that. Secondly, not only did Christ die for you, not only has he been working toward your salvation until now, but even now he lives for you. Verse nine, 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. In other words, if he was able through his death to deliver you when you were God's enemy, will he not through his life be able to keep you now that you are God's friend? In Hebrews chapter seven, it says that therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him since he ever lives to make intercession for them. He lives for you. He is our great high priest in heaven. And he prays for us that our faith may not fail, just like he did for Peter. And when we go astray, he is the one who will reach down and bring us back. As he said, no one is able to snatch you out of my hand. He loves us with an everlasting love, a love that will not let us go. Fifthly, and finally, God loves us complacently. He loves us greatly, he loves us unconditionally, he loves us specifically, he loves us with an everlasting love, and he loves us complacently. Now, what do I mean by that? Nowadays, we use the word complacent to mean smug, contented to a fault. But this is also a word that theologians have long used to describe the love of God. And by it, they mean that kind of love which delights him and finds pleasure or satisfaction in something. They mean that kind of love the father has for his son, when God said, you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And dear Christian, Did you know that God loves you that way? You know, I've up to this point, I've stressed the fact that as a sinner, God loves you and that he desires good for you. But you also must see that as a believer in Jesus Christ, God also loves you and that he delights in you. Notice first in verse nine, Paul says much more than having now been justified. And do you ever just think about the reality of that? That you in Christ are just in God's sight. That your sins really are forgiven. That God really doesn't hold your sins against you anymore. That the wrath is gone because Christ has bore it in your place. Because as a result of our justification, says in verse 10, for when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. In other words, the same, the justification leads to reconciliation, that relationship is restored. And so if you're a Christian, you're not God's enemy anymore. You are a friend. And God takes pleasure and delight in you. And when you serve him, he is pleased. What a motivation to live for the Lord. Finally, by way of application, I have to two points. The first is this. Believe God. Believe God here, hear God's word and believe it, believe that God actually loves you like he says he does. And the reason I call your attention to this is because I think that sometimes sometimes we think God is most glorified in our great acts of service for him. We think if only I were more bold in evangelism, if only I had the faith to sell everything and move to Africa as a missionary, if only I had faith like the apostles to cast out demons, to heal the sick, the lame, the blind and the deaf. And and I am persuaded. That more God glorifying than any of that is just to sit where you are in the pew. And to look into the mirror of God's word at who he is and who you are and to actually believe that he loves you as much as he says he does. You know, remember in Matthew 17, Jesus's disciples, they they failed to cast out a demon from a man's son. And the man says, Lord, have mercy on my son. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, oh, faithless and perverse generation. How long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? He's just discouraged by the lack of faith of the disciples. Then the disciples said, why could we not cast it out? So Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief, for surely I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed. You will say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you. So Jesus says it takes faith like a mustard seed to do great acts of service for God. But remember the Canaanite woman who had a demon possessed daughter, a Gentile woman, that she came to Jesus, imploring him, heal my daughter. And at first, Jesus didn't answer her. And and then he says to her, eventually, I came not except for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But she, but she continued to ask. And then Jesus said, it is not good to take the children's bread and give it to the little dogs. And in the midst of all of that, of being told, I didn't come for you. She knew it. She said, yes, Lord. I know that I do not deserve it. I know who I am. But she said, but even little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. In other words, yes, I know I don't deserve it, but I believe that your grace is so great, so abundant that surely it will abound even to me. And Jesus looked at her and said, Oh, woman, great is your faith. And her daughter was healed from that very hour. Just just dwell on that. Great faith is not doing great things for God, it is believing that he really is great enough to love us in spite of us as we are. Secondly, rejoice, believe God and rejoice. Verse 11, Paul says, and not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. In other words, Paul says we rejoice in God for who he is, Because God has shown himself through his book, through the Lord Jesus Christ, the visible image of the invisible God, he has revealed who God is to us. That God is love. And his grace has abounded to us and in Christ, we who have sinned against him and deserve nothing but condemnation can have everlasting life. How could we respond in any way other than rejoicing? How could we not rejoice? And is your life marked by joy? Are you a joyful person? Do you have a joy that surpasses and goes beyond whatever your present circumstances are? Or do you have or do you allow petty circumstances to take away your joy? Do you get frustrated with people over little things? Do you become depressed just because you can't have what you want or your life is uncomfortable or you didn't perform well enough for your job? Do you allow just everyday life to take your joy? Or do you remind yourself of the gospel that God who created everything, that He loves you, that He sent His Son to die for you, and that one day you will be with Him for eternal glory. Do you remind yourself of that and take heart and just rejoice? God is glorified in our rejoicing. And I just want to clarify You know, I don't mean by that that we should have some kind of flippant happiness, you know, that it is never right to grieve or sorrow. You know, Paul talks about right there before this passage, and not only that, but we also rejoice in tribulations. And. When your child dies, your spouse passes away, when you fall into a great sin, there are times in life that it is right to have grief and is right to have sorrow. But in the midst of it, in the midst of it, remember the gospel. As Paul said in First Thessalonians, Chapter four, you know, we are to grieve, but not as those who have no hope. Rejoice in the midst of tribulation because you remember the gospel that God loves you. The tribulation is not a sign that he has forsaken you, but it is an opportunity to draw closer to him and to glorify him through your faith in that which is to come. So just in conclusion. Take heart. Our hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts to the Holy Spirit who is given to us. Because God has sent his son for us to save us. Let's go Lord in prayer. Father, we we love you. And we praise you for your great love for us. And though we recognize this morning that the width and length and depth and height of that love is something that we have not even begun to trace down or track out and. Though we just thank you for your word, we thank you for the great encouragement it is. Lord, I pray that you would help us, Lord, to believe you. That you would strengthen us in the inner man to believe that you love us like you say you do. And Lord, as a result of that, that we would be people marked by joy, that you would be honored and glorified in us, that the joy with which we live our lives. I ask it in Jesus name and for his glory. Amen.