God’s Love Displayed

Scripture Reading

Please turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Romans. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans. If you're using the New King James, provided a few Bibles for you, you'll find that on page 1002. Just for a little context, we're going to read verse 23 in chapter 4. And then chapter five, verses one through 11. Sermon will come specifically from verses five through 11, or six through 11. You're now God's word.

Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance, character and character, hope. 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.

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, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved. 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 reconciliation. lessens the portion of God's perfect and holy word.

Please pray with me. Father, we thank you for giving us your word. It's true. So Father, we pray that you would please help us. Give us your spirit to understand it. Father, I pray that you would please help me to be able to preach it with accuracy, to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ with clarity. Father, please, we need your spirit to instruct us. We need your spirit to teach us, but not just teach us so we might have large intellects. Lord, we pray that you would teach us that we might live, indeed live forever. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

You ever get the sense that there are some people that are worthy of God's love? You know, like the good people. The really pious people. The type of people that accomplish their whole Bible reading every year. Those are the type of people that God loves. Those are the type of people who are worth dying for. It's really interesting.

Because I think we often fall into that type of performance view of Christianity. Thinking that, well, you know, God, and I'm gonna say this because some of us continue to think that maybe we'll earn God's love and we have to keep ourselves in God's love, but that's not what Romans tells us. But maybe we might be a little bit ashamed. Because if we flip that on its head, I think sometimes we even walk about in our communities, even live in our families, and we think, that's to our shame.

I don't think God could love them. I don't see why God would ever be kind to them. I don't know if there's a point in sharing the gospel with that person. They're too far gone. Maybe those words have never come out of your mouth, but I'm guessing you may have had thoughts like that in your heart. And it cuts against the good news of Jesus Christ. Because the good news of Jesus Christ is that God loved us when we were still sinners.

So when you walk out of the doors, when you get in your cars, when you're driving home, I hope that you'll remember that God has done everything necessary to reconcile you to himself. God has reconciled us to himself. So as we go through this passage, verses 6 through 11 in Romans, first I want you to notice the we, us, and our. Notice the we, us, and our. Secondly, I want you to stand in awe of God's love that has been proven. Thirdly, I hope you'll know that God has justified you. Fourth, that God will save you. Fifth, that you have been reconciled to God. And lastly, that you get to boast in Jesus.

The ‘We, Us, and Our’ of Grace

So look with me first at the we, us, and our. Verse six, for when we were still sinners without strength, we were without strength. And then what does that look like? That spiritual weakness? Well, just continue on this sentence. Christ died for the ungodly. We. We were weak and ungodly. Irreverence. unwilling to bow the knee.

And then in verse 8, but God demonstrates his own love toward us. God's love is demonstrated toward us. And then keep going on in verse 8, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And then in verse 9, much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved. And then verse 10, we were enemies. We were reconciled. We shall be saved. We rejoice in God. We, verse 11 at the very end, we have now received the reconciliation. We, we, we, us, our, O-U-R. Paul puts himself right there. He just puts himself right in the middle of all of this. He says, I'm just like you. We are together, church. The U church in Rome, all of us are this way. What are we? Weak. Weak spiritually, weak in the flesh, we can't save ourselves, we can't do enough righteousness, we're always falling short of the glory of God.

And notice Paul says, he's also ungodly. Now that word ungodly there is the same word that was used in Romans chapter one, verse 18. when God was talking about his wrath being revealed on the Gentiles for their ungodliness. Paul, a Jew, puts himself in the we category. We were ungodly. Even though he's a Jew. Even though he's the son of Abraham. He can't rest in that. He can't rest in thinking he's strong enough in himself. He doesn't. He's weak and ungodly.

I've stressed it to you multiple weeks now, that everything that is good in these sermons, all the hope that can be enjoyed, is predicated, is hinging, is... You gotta have the first domino for the second one to fall. You must be in Christ. And you must recognize yourself for who the Bible says you are.

You know, there's actually a famous church. A famous church, I'm not going to throw out names or whatever, but it's a really famous church. And they start off their worship services with everybody takes their Bible and they hold it up in the air and they have like this little creed they say and they say like this is their Bible and they believe what it says about them. And that pastor will not use the word sin or sinners in any of his sermons.

But that's what the passage says about the we. to us. Because if we don't find ourselves weak, if we don't find ourselves sinners, we have no need for a Christ who is strong. But it is Jesus who is the champion of this story. It is Jesus who is our hope. It is in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Do you see yourself in the we, do you see yourself in the us statements? And do you say of Jesus he is our Lord Jesus Christ? Because all the good stuff that I'm going to be saying to you, you must by faith see yourself in that, because Christ is your only hope. How will we be saved from God's wrath? We must find ourselves in Christ. He must be our Lord. How will you be justified? You must be a sinner saved by Jesus. You might even say, well, what even is sin? Well, you go look at chapters 1 and 2, and look at all the sins he listed there.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism talks about it as any want unto or lack of conformity unto the law of God or transgression of the law of God. We have a perfect law, we look at the Ten Commandments, and we fall short. Or we don't just fall short, we're not just found wanting, but we willingly transgress. We cross over the lines in the sand that God has made.

Do you see yourself as a sinner in need of a Savior? If you don't, none of the good news is for you. Because you don't need Jesus. But the issue is, John will tell you, the Holy Spirit inspired John, that you're saying you're without sin. And you deceive yourself and you make God a liar. because He's the one who said this.

So first, please, notice the we, us, and our, and find yourself in it. Put yourself in this story. Secondly, I want you to stand in awe. After we've said that, if you are in Christ, I want you to stand in awe of God's love that has been proven for you.

Stand in Awe of God’s Proven Love

God's love isn't just saying, oh, I love you, and then there's no actions with it. We'll watch these romance videos and stuff, and these movies where people say, oh, I love you. And you'll see it in all sorts of manipulative relationships, too, where somebody will say, oh, I love you, and then there's nothing to back it up. There's no proof of love. It just means you make me feel fuzzy in my tummy. I just get blushed when I'm with you. That's not God's love.

God's love is proven, it's backed up. Notice in verse 6, for when we were still sinners, or when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. God knew, the Heavenly Father knew in His perfect omniscience, the exact time that He would send forth His Son. At the right time, when we were still weak, Christ died for the ungodly. God poured out the blood of his own son as a demonstration of his love, as the proof of his love for weak and sinful people like us.

And it's counterintuitive. Verse 7 really had me scratching my head for a couple years. Until I just realized Paul was just talking about common sense. Notice verse 7, this counterintuitiveness of God's love. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. What's Paul saying there? He's saying that, you know, some people, humanly speaking, we like them more. They're easier to be around. They live good lives. They're productive citizens.

And when somebody like that needs a kidney, people line up for it. When somebody needs blood or somebody's house burns down, we're willing to sacrifice for that type of person. But you start talking about the bum, the drug addict, the thief, Not so much. They're not really worthy of our time, our sacrifice, our love, our compassion. That's how we treat people. Whether we like to say it or not, we all make these types of judgments all the time. It's baked into our human nature.

It's one of the things that's been really hard for me. Really hard for me as I've been a Christian now for a number of years and It's become really easy to write people off, to even get mad at people for living in sin. Just the other day, I remember walking into a store, and there was somebody cross-dressing there, and I remember being like, why don't you know any better? I thought, you hypocrite, Brian. You Romans chapter two hypocritical fool.

That person needs Jesus. So instead, in line, I prayed for them. I think we fall into these traps, but this is the point, is that God's love is counterintuitive here. God's love didn't work that way. Look with me at verse 8. How did God demonstrate His love? How did He prove it? But God demonstrates His own love toward us.

And that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for some of you. when you were still being rebellious to your parents, when you were still a glutton, or lazy, or drunkard, or sexually immoral, covetous, greedy, murderous in your heart, lying through your teeth, stealing.

Some of you know. Some of you know who you were. When God reached down from heaven and took hold of your heart and breathed new life into your soul. He didn't wait for you to be perfect before he loved you. But God proves, he demonstrates, he puts on display for everyone to see it standing up there. Anyone can see it. You don't earn God's love. That's why Paul would write elsewhere.

This is a trustworthy saying. Christ Jesus came to save sinners of whom I am the worst. Let us never forget that God demonstrated his love for us when we were still sinners. I'd like to propose to you, this is a great verse for you to have in your pocket ready for when you're going to go ahead and just share the gospel with someone. Some people will even say, oh, I don't wanna come to church, I don't wanna hear the Bible, there's just a bunch of lists of rules. I just have to do all these things so God will be happy with me. This is a wonderful verse to bring people. No, no, no, hold on.

God sees the mess and is calling it for what it is and has shown you the proof of his love. God does the counterintuitive things of loving sinners. But then look with me at verse 9. Not only has he just loved us as we were sinners and said, oh, okay, I loved you, you're sinners, you're good to go, just keep on living and we'll see how it goes later on. Maybe you'll say, am I loved? Maybe you won't, I don't know. No, that's not what God does at all. Look at verse 9. Much more than. He's really upping the ante here, verse 9. Much more than having now been justified by His blood. Much more than.

God Has Justified You

God hasn't just loved you and poured out His life, or the life of His Son for you, but He declared you righteous. At that moment of faith, when you believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, you were declared righteous in heaven. No longer with the title over your head, sinner. over your head is now written, declared righteous, but it had to come at the price of Jesus' blood. Our being declared righteous costs us nothing, but costs God His only begotten Son.

You see, this is why one of the evangelicals' favorite Bible passages John chapter 3 verse 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever should believe upon Him shall be saved. God loved the world and gave His Son. God loved the world. The world is full of sinners.

God Will Save You

And demonstrated, lavished His love by pouring out the blood of His own Son. Having now been justified by his blood. Now we come back to the we in second half of verse nine. This is our fourth point. We shall be saved from the wrath through him. Again, this is Romans chapter one and two and three language. God is angry at sin. So angry at sin, that he told, he warned humankind all the way back in Genesis chapter 2, and we saw the consequences in chapter 3. Right, you can eat from the entire buffet of the garden. Go walk amongst the peas, pick out the apples, enjoy the pears, have as much watermelon as you want. Obviously didn't overeat because there wasn't sin, but they had a great time in the garden. Have anything that you want, but don't eat of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil, for the day you eat of it, as the Hebrew says, dying you will die.

And what did Adam and Eve choose to do? They chose death. They chose to disbelieve God's goodness. They chose the wrath that would come for walking against God's ways. So how are you saved? If there is a judgment day, and it is appointed for every man to die once, and after this the judgment, there is going to be a judgment day. You will stand before the Lord God Almighty, and we each will have to answer for our own sins. What will save you? Will your pleading? Will your long list of good deeds? Will your tax return prove how charitable you were to all sorts of people, and so he should be good to you because you were good to others? What will save you? What will you bring to the throne of judgment on the judgment day? We come with Jesus. That's the beauty of us. We don't come in our own works. We come like the tax collector who wouldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven in the temple.

God be merciful to me, a sinner. You see, Jesus told that parable for a reason because in the temple you had the Pharisee and he's standing there and, oh God, I'm so thankful. I fast and I pray and I'm righteous and I know you love me. I'm not like that sinner over there. I hope we have the heart of that sinner over there.

The one who knows that our only hope is that God will be merciful to us sinners and He has shown us His mercy in Jesus. God will save you. God will save you. If Jesus is your only hope. God can and He will and He's proven it. The question is, do you believe it? Will you cling to it? But there's something even more cool here. I love that Paul doesn't just end it here. Notice what he says about the we in verse 10, and then how it continues on in verse 11. This is more in 10.

Reconciled from Enemies to Friends

But if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, Have you ever been in a relationship before where it's just an uneasy truce? Where you're at each other's throats. Maybe this was in your marriage, right? Maybe you got into an argument the night before and you were just mad. And you went to bed grumpy and upset. And you woke up in the morning and you did your angry chores. And you served that spouse of yours because you're going to love them. but in your heart you know you don't even want to be in the same room with them. You keep saying, I can forgive them, I can forgive them, I can forgive them, but they come in the room and you're like arguing bitterness in your heart.

That's not how God thinks of us. God didn't just show us cheap forgiveness. In Jesus we go from enemies to friends. That's what this idea of reconciliation is. 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.

How do you know when you get to heaven, when the judgment day comes and you're standing before him, how will you know that he's not going to say, oh no, you're my enemy? How do you know? Because Jesus will be there. Did you notice that very last part? Look at the very last few words of verse 10.

We shall be saved by his life. You will be saved. by his life. This is why Romans chapter 4 verse 25 ended with this weird thing that he was put to death for our sins but raised for our justification. See, you have a living Savior. You have a Lord who was put to death and he was truly buried and was in the grave those three days but rose again from the dead. was witnessed by hundreds of people. And what happened after the resurrection? Did he just keep eating fish every day with the disciples? No. He ascended up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, making intercession for us.

And there's a we were visiting a church when we were on vacation, they sang a hymn about what a friend we have in Jesus. We do have a friend in Jesus. And because our Savior, because our King lives in heaven, we know that when we go there, we're not going to be treated as enemies. Because the father sees his children through his son. We shall be saved by Jesus's life.

Boast in Jesus

But if that wasn't enough, Paul says in verse 11, there's more. And not only that, but we also rejoice. The literal translation of that, I would prefer to be boast. It's the same thing that was said in verse, 2 of chapter 5. By the grace in which we stand and boast in the hope of the glory of God, the same word is used here. And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. It's clear in Romans chapter 3. Therefore, where is boasting?

It is excluded. It didn't get an invitation to the party. You're boasting of your own righteousness? That's not allowed. That's not going to stand. It's never going to make you feel like you're reconciled with God. Actually, I would submit to you that if you want to think that you are reconciled with God because you want to boast about your own good works, one of two things is going to happen. Either A, You are going to be constantly in turmoil about have you done enough good works to stay in God's good graces? Or B, you're going to minimize a whole lot of your sin. Because you're going to have to somehow feel better that maybe I'm not that bad. But we don't have to do either of those. Because our boast isn't in our own righteousness. Neither was Abraham's boast in his own righteousness.

Our boast is in Jesus. Our rejoicing, our bragging, is that we have our Lord Jesus Christ. That phrase comes straight from here, Romans chapter five, our Lord Jesus Christ. In Greek, it's actually Lord our Jesus Christ. And it's split, I think, on purpose, right? Because Jesus is our Lord. Our Lord means the one we follow, our master. The one we're willing to bow our knee to, submit to, out of love and reverence and joy. Even his name, Yeshua, is that God saves. Christ is his messianic title. He's the king that God sent to rule the earth. So I'm gonna in the sermon in the same place I started it. But I'm going to flip the tables on you.

When did God reconcile you to Himself? Did God wait for you to be good enough for Him to feel like He was justified in loving you? Do you profess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord? Do you believe that God raised Him up from the dead? Is Jesus your only hope? He is the way, the truth, and the life. And none of us will ever see the Father except through Him.

Closing Prayer

Put your hope in Jesus. rest in God's love that's demonstrated towards you in the blood of Jesus. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you sent us our Redeemer. You gave us the sacrificial lamb without spot or blemish. You gave us Jesus as a propitiation. And in the life of Jesus, you have reconciled us to yourself. Thank you, Lord, that you do not call us enemies, but friends. Thank you that you dealt with our sins. Thank you that you saved us. and you will save us. Give us hope, God, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.