We were enemies

Last week we were in Genesis three and saw how sin entered into humanity. Sin puts a barrier between us and God. It breaks the relationship. Separates us. We don’t usually think about it like this, but when we sin we are rebelling against Him, making ourselves his enemies.

There are some people you just don’t want to be enemies with! …

But there’s nothing that we can do to fix our broken relationship with God! But we aren’t without hope, and that’s what we’re going to talk about tonight!

We were God's enemies, but God sent Jesus to the cross for us because He loves us!

Our “but God” tonight is in Romans 5:8, and I like this verse so much I got a tattoo of it!

Read and pray

Faith leads to hope, and hope doesn’t let us down!

verses 1-5

College football season is about to kickoff. Whose team is going to win the national championship? Ah! You all have hope in your team! You believe! But here’s what will happen. You’re going to have a game against your friends team. Who’s your team? And who’s your team? Ok so y’all play each other. Let’s say you both believe your team is winning it all this year. You’re going to go into that game and only one of you will win. After that game and your team wins, your hope has gone through a trial and been tested. And your team has increased your hope!

Justification through Jesus brings peace to our broken relationship with the God.

When I was in like fourth grade my friend Marcus who lived down the street told me he had a friend coming over and he wasn’t going to hang out with me while his friend was over because someone else had told his friend I wasn’t cool. Relationship broken. Then his friend got there and wanted to play Sega Genesis and I had a Sega so he yelled down the street to ask if they could come over and play. “Nope, I’m not cool.” Our mom’s had to step in and clean things up, restore peace in the relationship.

Jesus makes peace with God possible.

Justification – declared righteous

Faith – belief

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

We stand in God’s grace, forgiven of our sins.

Ephesians 4:30 ESV

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

So if you have put your faith in Jesus then you have peace with God and the sure hope of seeing Him and being in his glory and even sharing in his glory forever! Even going through suffering in this life is good because God will prove himself true if you will keep your eyes on Him and your faith and hope will grow! Paul tells the Romans this to encourage them, so they will rejoice in the truth that they are justified before God the Father through Jesus. So Christian, rejoice! Your relationship with your Creator is repaired and you have peace! Live in it! You are moving closer to your home with Him every day and nothing can take it away from you!

This is what has happened in the books because of God’s love for us. How do we know that He loves us though? What’s the proof?

Hope doesn’t let us down because God loved us enough to send his Son!

verses 6-11

You know a phrase that can be really dangerous? “Prove it”. You aren’t scared? Prove it! You love me? Prove it! You think you’re stronger than him? Prove it! Who here hasn’t done something dumb when someone told you to prove it? You’re not afraid to wrestle a bear? Prove it!

In this section, Paul talks about how God proved his love for us! This is good news, the best news!

Ephesians 2:4 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

Reconcile – fix a broken relationship

There are two parts to our relationship with God being made right, our salvation.

Being forgiven of our sins.

Gaining righteousness.

So we have peace in our relationship with God. What does that mean for us as we live our lives? We also have peace in our hearts because we can rest in his love and approval of us in Christ! You don’t have to feel the pressure of being good enough for God to love you and you can rest in his love!

Romans 6:11 ESV

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Do we get sin out of our lives? Yes! Do we live differently as Christians? Yes! But we do these things because we are saved and love God, not because we’re afraid of God’s wrath and want to earn salvation. Christian live in that peace, rest in the love He has shown you, rejoice in your hope. When suffering comes, keep your eyes focussed on the cross, the proof of God’s love for you! If He gave you Jesus, He won’t leave you!

If you have not put your faith in Jesus, then you are not reconciled, you are still his enemy, you are not saved…