Was Crucified

06- Was Crucified

Romans 5:1-11 Page 1119

December 31, 2023

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth,

I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, And born of the Virgin Mary, He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and buried; the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

Amen

Prayer

I saw and thought would be good for us to agree with and pray for ourselves.

Lord, as we arrive at the cusp of another year’s end,

We feel reluctant to cross the finish line.

For we ought to have run a better race.

Both Your record book of memory and ours of conscience,

Find us painfully lacking in Scripture’s balances.

We wish we had justified ourselves less and repented more.

We wish we had talked less and communed with You more.

We wish we had sinned less and loved Christ more.

We wish we had backslidden less and worshiped You more.

We wish we had judged others less and served them more.

We can’t understand why You have given us so many blessings.

Why have You been so much better to us than we to you?

Why You borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,

And interceded continually, and loved us fully, even when chastening us?

Forgive, O Lord, our rewarding of evil for all Your good.

We pray for grace to run the race of grace better in the year to come,

In and by Your strength, making mention only of Your righteousness,

Expecting nothing of ourselves but everything of You.

Jesus Christ, hold us in Your shepherding arms,

imprint your image on us,

And prepare us for eternal communion with You

To Your Triune name and glory.

Amen

So we are continuing our series about the Apostles Creed

where we want to be a faithful church

where we want the word of God to shape both our believe and behavior.

What we say we believe must be shown in our behavior.

So with each phrase of this creed, we will look at the doctrine and then we will see how it makes a practical difference in our life.

This week we will be looking at “Was Crucified”

Believe

Read Romans 5:1-11

Our Position before God

We Are At War With God

Romans 5:1 (ESV)

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

To be at peace with God as a result of justification implies that prior to justification we were at war with Him.

One of the more difficult tasks we face is convincing unbelievers,

whose lives are outwardly peaceful and prosperous,

that they are in fact at war with God, that they are God’s enemies (v. 10; cf. John 3:36; Eph. 2:3).

As someone has said, “The problem isn’t so much getting people saved as it is getting people lost!”

To be at peace with God implies a cessation of the hostilities. Cf. Col. 1:19–22. (3)

Being at peace with God is more than a cessation of war.

It is more than simply agreeing not to fight anymore.

(Israel and Hamas before October 7, 2023)

It is the inauguration of intimacy, friendship and love.

We Are Unable to Change Our Nature 6

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly

That’s the basic meaning of “powerless.”

Some translations use the word “helpless.”

The King James Version says “without strength.”

The Living Bible renders the phrase this way: “When we were utterly helpless with no way of escape.”

The word itself actually means “weak” and usually refers to a physical weakness of the body.

Here the meaning is not physical, but spiritual.

Paul is saying that as we stand before God, we are completely powerless to change our basic nature.

It was Poor Richard’s Almanac that gave us the phrase “God helps those who help themselves.”

Perhaps no greater heresy has been foisted upon the American public. The Bible nowhere teaches any such thing.

The biblical view is radically different:

“God helps those who can’t help themselves.” Or if you prefer,

“God helps those who are willing to admit they cannot help themselves.”

A second phrase

We Live As If God Does Not Exist (6)

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly

The word is “ungodly.”

One commentator explains this word as being “mighty in evil.”

Precisely because we cannot change our basic nature,

we live our lives as if God did not exist.

We invent our own morality;

we live to please ourselves;

we go our own way;

we do that which is right in our own eyes.

In short, we set ourselves up as God and then worship ourselves.

Tto be “godless” doesn’t mean wallowing in sin like a pig rolling in mud.

It applies as much to the moral man as to the mass murderer.

The one is just as godless as the other.

It’s just manifested in more socially acceptable ways.

But fundamentally the Wall Street tycoon and a serrei is just as godless as Jeffrey Dahmer. It’s really not that far from the country club to the state pen.

Only the outer things are changed. Inside every man (and every woman) lurks a desire to be his own God.

The third phrase describes the futility of life without Jesus. Apart from him, we …

We Always Miss the Mark (8)

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us

“While we were yet sinners.”

The word means to “miss the mark.”

It’s the picture of the archer who takes aim,

looks straight at the bull’s eye, pulls the bowstring taut, shoots the arrow … and misses the entire target.

He thought he was aiming in the right place, but something happens and the arrow never hits the target.

No matter how many arrows he shoots, the result is always the same.

He always misses the mark.

That’s what it means to be a sinner.

You try and you fail.

You try and you fail. Y

You try and you fail.

You do your best but your best isn’t good enough.

You set high standards for your life, but somehow you always fall short.

One final phrase describes your life without Jesus. You are therefore …

We Are Hostile Towards God (10)

10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son

Think about it. Before you came to Christ, you were one of God’s enemies.

Apart from Jesus Christ, it is impossible to truly love God.

How can you love him without also loving his Son?

How can you love the Father while rejecting the Son?

No amount of sentimental sugar-coating can reduce the stark truth.

we were an enemy of God!

we fear standing before a righteous God someday and giving account for their actions.

This is our position before God.

helpless to prepare themselves,

helpless to prove themselves worthy,

helpless to do or think or say anything that might attract God’s love.

We may therefore draw one major conclusion from all this:

God’s love is not dependent on anything in you because there is nothing in you worth loving.

That is, there is nothing in you that forces God to love you.

It’s not that you are such a naturally lovable person.

You aren’t. And neither am I.

Sin has infected your life so that it has distorted and destroyed even the parts of you that you believe to be beautiful.

Sin “uglyfies” everything it touches.

Sin has made us so ugly that God finds nothing in us that forces him to love us.

There is, then, no reason for God to love us. No reason except this:

That’s the kind of God he is.

His love is both greater than our sin and in spite of our sin.

God shouldn’t love us … but he does.

This is the wonder of the ages.

That God would love his sworn enemies.

Someone might find this point very discouraging

because we all like to think of ourselves as naturally lovable.

I would reply that God is actually very comforting.

If God loves you only when you are lovable,

then when you stop being lovable,

God would have to stop loving you!

Where would you be then?)

No, it’s better to admit the truth.

God loves us in spite of our unloveliness.

What did His death accomplish?

Romans 5:11 “11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Christ’s Death Delivered Us From The Penalty Of Sin.

Colossians 2:14 “14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (ESV)

Colossians 2:14 He destroyed the record of the debt we owed, with its requirements that worked against us. He canceled it by nailing it to the cross. NLT

(1)  He became a man.

(2) He completely satisfied the holiness of God by keeping the Law perfectly.

(3) He completely satisfied the justice of God by dying for the sins of his people.

Justified by His blood (9)

Romans 5:9 “9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”

The word justified means to be declared “not guilty.”

By virtue of Jesus’ death, we have been justified before God,

we have been declared “not guilty.”

What is the result of our justification?

We are now saved from God’s wrath.

Put simply, no child of God can ever go to hell.

We are not only saved right now,

we are saved forever.

Why can we be so sure that we will never go to hell?

Because God’s wrath is his punishment for sinners who have never accepted what Jesus did on the cross for them.

But that doesn’t apply to us because we have placed our full trust in Jesus Christ.

That’s why we can say that once you are saved, you are saved forever.

If you have trusted Jesus Christ, you will never face God’s wrath.

It is impossible for a born again child of God ever to go to hell.

That’s what it means to be justified.

You are declared “not guilty” in the sight of God.

God will never send his blood-bought children to hell.

Reconciled by His death (10)

Romans 5:10 “10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

To be reconciled means that once you were enemies but now you are friends.

It means peace has broken out where once war reigned.

It means that the guns have been put away, the army has been sent home, and the killing has finally stopped.

Through Jesus Christ we who once were enemies of God are now called his friends.

Through Jesus Christ we who once were far away have been brought near to God.

We who once were aliens and strangers are now part of God’s family.

We who once had nothing to our credit are now declared to be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus.

Because of God’s love we have been saved from the penalty of our sin, which was placed on Christ at the cross.

His crucifixion, his death made us a friend of God, instead of His enemy.

We when put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior,

we are baptized into His sacrificial death.

All of our sins are completely judged and God is able to considered us to be completely righteous.

We are saved form the penalty of our sin, and we become inheritors of all the promise of God.

BEHAIVOR

What do we Profit from the Cross?

Because of the Cross we have a new identity

Galatians 2:20 “20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Paul is saying here that he has no independent existence and no separate identity apart from the crucified and risen Jesus.

The entire scope of his bodily existence is singularly determined

by the fact that the body of the Son of God was crucified for him,

and the Son of God now lives in him.

Think about that. If we take Paul’s self-description as our own,

it means that the only identity in me is Christ living through me.

It means that I am who I am only as I am in Christ Jesus.

The significance of Paul’s self-description in Galatians 2:20 is that

when I know who I am in Christ,

then I know my place in this world and the purpose of my life.

Even more so today, we are constantly being defined by peers, employers, agencies, and social conventions.

People will try to define us

by our occupation,

our gender,

our race,

our nationality,

our language,

our politics,

our marital status,

even our sexuality.

While any of that might be true of us,

and much of it can legitimately remain meaningful for us,

yet none of it ultimately defines who we are.

Being part of the Messiah means the negation of anything that either elevates us over others or belittles us before others.

If the cross counts, then labels don’t matter.

You are defined by your faith in the crucified and risen Son of God.

You are saved by the cross.

Your identity is in Christ.

You are no longer defined by your past, but your place in Christ.

You are no longer defined by your sin, but your salvation through the cross

You are no longer defined by your worst action, but by the work of Christ.

Bird, Michael F.. What Christians Ought to Believe (pp. 136-137). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.

Because of the Cross we have assurance

Romans 5:9–11“9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Paul assures us that Christ’s work for our salvation not only gives us hope for our ultimate future, but for our immediate future.

We are assured that we will be preserved as “saved” throughout our life and through to the very day of judgment.

Paul’s argument is very strong.

He intertwines two arguments in these two verses.

First, if Jesus stayed on the cross and saved us

10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.“when we were God’s enemies” (v 10),

If he was able to save us when we were hostile to him,

would he fail us now that we are friends?

If he didn’t give up on you when you were at war with him,

what could you do to make him give up on you now that you are at peace with him?

NOTHING

10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Further, if Jesus achieved our salvation when he was dead,

“how much more” will he keep us saved when he is alive (v 10b)?

This is talking about Christ’s present ministry.

We’re saved right now because Jesus is in heaven interceding on our behalf.

When you think of this verse, you might jot down

Hebrews 7:25 “25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

We have a Man in heaven—Jesus Christ.

When we sin, our Man in heaven speaks up for us.

He pleads his blood on our behalf.

He pleads and says that sin is paid for, that sin is paid for, and that sin is pasid for

I paid for that sin on the cross

He speaks in our defense.

And because his Father is the Judge, when the Son speaks to the Father, his plea is always heard. (we will talk more about that in a few weeks)

He says it is inconceivable that Christ should fail to save us to the end.

The God who brought us into faith will keep us going in our faith.

The God who opened heaven to us will ensure that we arrive there.

Do you have that assurance today, or do you still doubt your salvation?

Lord Supper

The Bread

Hebrews 10:5–6 “5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.”

Your new reconciliation to God was secured by the sacrifice of His own son on the cross.

As we demonstrate the gospel through this meal

prayerfully think about how we have allowed our past sins to distract us from our new identity in Christ.

What actions, thoughts, and attitudes have you allowed to affect your fellowship with God?

Take some time to search your heart and confess those sins at the feat of the throne so we may be cleansed form sin.

Silence and Pray

Matthew 26:26 “26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.””

The Cup.

It is by His blood that we have been justified.

We are to rejoice and be thankful, because of the blood we no longer have to fear the wrath of God, we have been saved form it.

Let us take some time to be thankful for rescue and reconciliation

Silent Prayer

Prayer of thanks

Matthew 26:27 “27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you,”