Yet today we'll read and examine how Paul contrasts God's other son with the salvation-creating work of His son, Jesus Christ.
Let's jump in!
Romans 5 (Read it here)
When we are right in God's sight, we have peace with God. (v. 1) We no longer have to worry about wondering if our actions are making God smile or burn with anger. God is no longer the being whose wrath has to be satiated, He becomes our Father not only caring for our needs but also granting our desires and filling out our destinies! Jesus' sacrifice on the cross transforms our relationship with God just as much as it transforms us.
Paul says that because of our faith in Jesus, we now look forward to sharing in God's glory. (v. 2) You may ask, "What does that even mean?"
The word glory (or doxza in the original Greek) can be translated in this verse one or two ways.
- Paul could be telling Christ-followers to expect sharing a residence with God in heaven. Have you ever heard an old-time preacher say, "He/she has left this world and gone on to glory"? That is a reference to someone dying and entering heaven.
- Or Paul's reference to doxza could mean that we share in God's power, brightness and/or radiance. In this way, we have the power of God in us to shine as a beacon of hope in an otherwise hopeless world. Because of our faith in Jesus, we can literally appear to others as being different from average human beings, in which we can be a reflection of Christ and less of ourselves.
Verse 3 implies that perhaps our second definition of glory may be correct because Paul tells us that we should rejoice because we have the power to not only survive problems and trials in our lives, but those problems will only make us stronger. That's not true of everybody on earth. Without Christ, when people face trials, life often becomes a ruthless "survival of the fittest" emotional/psychological battle.
Jesus transforms the scars of our lives into our strengths. What initially makes us feel inferior and weak should make us more bold. Those scars are not to be hidden but expressed to others who currently are experiencing the pain we have already felt before. We can give them the confident hope of salvation that we have been given by God! (v. 4)
God did not want us to feel separated from Him, which is why He gave us the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit is a sign of His love. (v. 5) Yet the greatest example of God's love was shown by His son, Jesus. In verse 6, Paul is describing humanity's situation without God's favor as being helpless; like a diseased person without a cure. We couldn't save ourselves and even when humanity was beating him, spitting on him, pressing thorns into his brow, having him flogged, forcing him to carry his own cross, nailing down his hands, watching him die and ridiculing him, Christ was in the process of making salvation attainable by everyone, all sinners! (v. 6)
This isn't normal by any stretch. Most people wouldn't die for just anyone, even someone especially good. (v. 7) We cannot compare God's love with the pithy capacity of a human being's love. Jesus, being God chose to sacrifice himself for the humanity that was seemingly against him. (v. 8) He, essentially, was practicing what he had preached when he said, "love your enemies." For Jesus, died so that even his enemies could know and experience the forgiveness and glory of God! That's wild!
Even those who had Jesus condemned to suffer could be spared from God's condemnation if they would only accept Christ's sacrifice as payment for the penalty owed to God for their sins. (v. 9) The enemy of God could become a friend of God through the power of Jesus! (vs. 10-11) This is exactly what happened to Paul on the road to Damascus! The murderer became a preacher!
I want you to know a sliver of truth that is easy to miss in regards to what I've just shared with you. An enemy or opponent of God is not someone who oppresses the gospel of Jesus or persecutes his followers. Everyone sins and until we come to faith in Christ and receive God's forgiveness and favor we are simply ignoring God's invitation to do so. When we ignore God, there is a higher probability that we'll ignore the plight of others and elevate our own selfish desires. Until we come to God, we are instinctively against God. Period.
--------------------
Did you know that God had another son?
He did. Paul calls Adam, the first created human on earth, God's son. When Adam & Eve defied God's command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17 and 3:6), death (the penalty for sin) came into the world for all subsequent generations to inherit. (v. 12) Even though the law hadn't been created yet, sin was still prevalent. But there is no way of keeping an accurate record of sins without comparing it to the law. (v. 13) How would people know what sins they were committing if they didn't know God's expectations through the law?
Through Adam & Eve's defiance every person after died, even though most did not disobey a direct commandment of God. (v. 14) But what's the difference between God's two sons? Adam failed the test of Satan's temptation in the garden of Eden, which caused death for all. However, Jesus would stand up to Satan in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13) and, ultimately, would reverse the curse. Where Adam failed, Jesus succeeded. Jesus' sacrifice unleashed God's wonderful grace and His gift of forgiveness and eternal life to all! (v. 15)
Even the condemnation from multitudes of sin are nothing compared to the overwhelming power of God's gracious gift of grace through our faith in Jesus. (v. 16) It is only through Jesus that we can triumph over sin and death! No other power, especially our own "will power," can free us from being a slave to sin. (v. 17)
Because of Adam's sin, the entire human race became sinful. However, because of Jesus' obedience to God, we can all have the honor of being made righteous. (v. 19) If all of us were to examine God's law in the Old Testament, and Jesus' interpretation of them in the gospels, we would be able to tell very quickly how inadequate our behavior is towards God and others. However, no matter how much we sin, God's grace is always more abundant than that! (v. 20) No matter how evil a person is, God's love belittles the power of sin. God can, at any moment, cast away the condemnation built up from years of being "against Him!"
Sin doesn't have to be everyone's slave master and death sentence anymore. God's grace and the gift of His glory (Why can't both of the former points be true? Can't we bring heaven to earth by letting God's Spirit become our own for all others to see?) can be ours if only we would see the lengths to which He went through to save us by His son, Jesus Christ! (v. 21)
Questions
1.) Which is more appealing to you, one day experiencing heaven with God or being filled with God's Spirit while on earth? Why? Would it make you more bold if I told you that BOTH were actually true? How is God using you to bring heaven (or the Kingdom of God) into this world?
2.) Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? I don't believe in the common phrase what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I know plenty of people who couldn't survive emotionally from another family member dying, losing another job, having another miscarriage, being bullied, etc. Experiencing another tragedy could make suicide feel like the only way out. Follow up question: Do you believe that God has brought you through something terrible in order to make you stronger and able to help someone else through a similar situation? If so, what happened?
3.) Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why or why not?
If we don't make a decision to follow Christ or not, if we are "on the fence," that means we have already made our decision. Not making a decision is making a decision. Saying no and maybe is not saying yes, if that makes sense. Follow up question: Why are people "on the fence" about God and/or Jesus? What's the main reason why they don't just say yes?
No comments:
Post a Comment