Middle School Retreat #3 (Seeing the Cross Clearly)

Romans 5:6-8

(FIRST)

We must first understand that all the “pretending and performing,” cannot fill the gap. We cannot fill the gap with being a good moral person, or being “religious” and self-righteous. We must understand that we have no strength of our own to fill the gap, in order to know God and grow in God

(READ ROMANS 5:6-8)

My testimony—How I came to realize the reality of this verse

Whatever is keeping you from a relationship with Jesus, or whatever is hindering your relationship with Jesus, cannot be managed/fixed/overcome with pretending and performing:

One of the most repeated and well known verses in the Bible is John 3:16—“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

This verse—along with Bible itself—is what is called the “gospel of Jesus Christ,” or “the good news,” of Jesus Christ. This “good news” is centered on God’s love towards you and me

Sadly, when it comes to God’s love, many people

Misuse and misapply it’s meaning in order to feel righteous about sinful living;

Watered it down the significance of God’s love so not to offend or be offended

Others, doubt God’s love b/c of the brokenness, hurt, or loss they’ve experienced:

“If God really loves me, why do I feel so broken?”

“If God really loves Me, why do I hurt so much, why did this hurt happen to me?”

“If God really loves me, how could I lose someone so close to me?”

Others come to question God’s love:

“How could God love me, if I have done so much wrong in my life?”

“Why would God love me, if I have done so much wrong in my life?”

“Everyone else in my life has rejected me, why would God be any different?”

When people misapply, misuse, or misunderstand what God’s love really is, then they risk not experiencing the good new of the gospel:

God love is what is referred to as, “agape” love. Agape love is God’s

Demonstrative love of the mind, reason, and will—showered upon us through His Son

Sacrificial love, which cares, gives, and works towards another’s good

Covenant-keeping love, and when a person comes to experience this love, the realization that “nothing can separate them,” from God’s love also comes

Unrivaled love, b/c He loves those who are utterly unworthy of being loved

This is a hard statement until you come to grips with the bad news

Love, which doesn’t hold anything back—proven as He sent His Son to the cross, to bear our sin and pay the wage due to our sin all

This love of God is understood as a person comes to grips with the bad news—for it stands to reason—for there to be good news, there must be bad news.

The bad news is that apart from a relationship with Christ, we are not a peace with God with God. The cause of the bad news is our sin:

(Firstly) Sin is, as John Piper states, “any feeling or thought or speech or action that comes from a heart that does not treasure God over all other things.” It is

A heart that prefers anything above God

A heart that does not treasure God above all people and all things

What is held against man

What holds a person back from God—and that’s the wage--“Being held back,” or “separated” (death)

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Sin is

Not an alien power—it is our preference for anything over God

Our disapproval of God and our hostility towards God

Exchanging His glory for substitutes

The suppression of God’s truth

The bent of a person’s heart…UNTIL CHRIST

Someone that no one is immune from—it has/does infect everyone

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Sin creates a chasm b/t God and man and whether a person believes it or not, instinctively they know this exists, that something isn’t right; and here’s what tends to happen:

People turn to worldly things:

Addictions

Lust and immoral relationships

Greed, materialism, and making a name for themselves

Religion to earn they way to God

Seeking identities outside of the one they were created in (popularity, sports, etc.)

Themselves, thinking their own goodness/self-righteousness/self-dependency is enough;

The hard truth is, no matter what a person does, or how much a person, they cannot fix what their sin has broken.

Romans 3:10 “As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;”

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

It all comes down to God’s demonstrated love towards us, in sending His Son to die for our sins

I. (v.6-7) God’s love is experienced when we see that amidst our utter weakness and total depravity, Christ died for us

Romans 5:6-7 “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.”

First, we must realize we were “without strength,” and “ungodly”

To be, “without strength,” means that a person is (apart from Christ)

Weak and worthless, powerless and useless to overcome their sin

Helpless, hopeless, and destitute in their sin

Spiritually worthless/useless, and unable to help ourselves out of their sin

To be “ungodly” means that a person is (apart from Christ)

Not like God; different from God (God is perfect—man is not)

Profane, having a different lifestyle than God

Imperfect, unholy, unrighteous

Second, we must realize how sinfulness had left (has left us)

Separated from God, separated from being part of His family, and having no hope:

Ephesians 2:12 “remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

Thirdly, we must realize Christ’s death was according to God’s timing—for our behalf

“In due time”—tells us Christ died at a time appointed by God, a time He destined and set. Why?

Before you can clearly of the cross through the right lens, , you must see your sin through the right lens.

Christ died for us—the Bible teaches us Christ died for our benefit, for our sake, in our behalf, in our stead, and as our substitute

Christ died as our sacrifice

1 Peter 2:24 “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.”

Christ died as our ransom

Romans 3:24 “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”

Colossians 1:14 “in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

Titus 2:14 “who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

Christ died as our substitute

Romans 3:25 “whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,”

1 John 2:2 “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”

1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Lastly, we must see God’s love (in Christ’s death) as uncommon and unbelievable

A scarce number of people

Would sacrifice their own lives for the life of another/or for a great cause/leader they believed in

Would die for a just/upright man (righteous)

Would dare die for a “good” man

This is not what Christ did—He did not die for the righteous and godly person, for the good & pure man—Christ went beyone what men “might” do. Christ

Died for the ungodly—for those who were/are the very opposite of righteous and good

Died for those “without strength;” again the useless/destitute/worthless, those without value/worth to society and men

Died for those whom no one else would die for---the sinner, those diametrically opposed to God

II. (v.8-9) God’s love is experienced when we realize the depth God went to prove His love for us—seen in the “when” Christ died

Romans 5:8–9 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”

The word “demonstrated” means, “to show, to exhibit, or to prove

The tense of the word is in the present tense, meaning God is always showing and proving His loves towards us

God demonstrated “His own,” love

It’s a divine love

It’s the love that exists between all members of the Trinity

It’s the love that kept Christ on the cross and rose Him from the grave

God demonstrated His own love towards “sinners” (you and me)

A sinner is the person who sins against God thru:

Disobedience/distrust/and doubting God’s Word

Living selfishly

Ignoring God’s commandments

Doing his own thing

Who is enticed and drawn away by his/her own desires, which gives birth to sin

God demonstrated His own love towards “sinners” (you and me) in two way:

(First) By giving up His only Son; not sparing His Son

God had to send His Son out of the spiritual and incorruptible world into the physical and corruptible world

God had to watch His Son walk through life being rejected, denied, cursed, abused, arrested, tortured, and murdered by then hands of sinful men…He had to sit back and watch it happen when He knew in a minute He could have rescued Him.

God had to destine His Son to die for the sins of men (me and you)

God had to lay EVERY and ALL sin upon man—letting Him bear it all

God had to treat Jesus as the sinner in order to bring reconciliation to you and me

God had to turn His back on His only begotten Son

This enormous weight seems to get even weightier given that God did all this—send His Son to die for the

Unworthy & useless

Ungodly & sin-ridden heart

Wicked & depraved

Worst sinners & outcasts imaginable

The enormous weight of realizing that in these things, God

Never blinked, never hesitated

Never had a second thought, nor was there a plan B

Never questioned, nor doubted

Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

(Second) By giving up His only Son while we were still sinners. What does this mean?

It means that Christ came to save man from his sins, while man

Was still in sin

Was unable to clean ourselves up,

Was unable to get ourselves out of our sin debt…

Was living amidst our own self-infliction

Two Biblical examples

Peter’s denials

The thief on the cross

God demonstrated His loves towards us, b/c in Christ’s death

We are now justified through the shed blood of Jesus Christ

We are now saved from God’s wrath

God’s wrath, or anger towards sin demands justice & payment—a payment Christ paid on our behalf

The act by which the gap is filled is seen in God’s demonstrative love towards us by sending Jesus Christ to die in our place

The means by which God filled the gap is grace

(SECOND)

We must understand that it is character and nature of God’s grace which fills the gap—it is the Gospel of grace which fills the gap

(READ EPHESIANS 2:8 AND 2 CORINTHIANS 12:9)

I. (Eph 2:4) A quick backdrop:

God saved us according to the richness of His mercy and His great love

With God’s mercy comes God’s feelings of pity, compassion, affection, and kindness, along with the understanding His mercy

Withholds what we rightly deserve (death & judgment)

With God’s love comes the understanding of what we just learned in Romans 5:8

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

II. (Eph 2:5) Here, Paul hints at salvation by grace, before expanding on it verse 8

We are saved ONLY by and through the grace of God. Salvation is an act of God ALONE

III. (Eph 2:8) Grace is the means by which salvation is made

Salvation is first, a gift from God alone.

We can do nothing whatsoever to save ourselves (we cannot earn, win, or merit a relationship with God)

Salvation is received by faith

A person must believe just what God has said—and accept His free offer

A person’s acceptance in what God has said—acceptance in what God’s grace has accomplished is what saves Him

Salvation is “by grace alone, through faith alone, to God alone be the glory.”

Grace

Is the favor and kindness of God

Is the favor and kindness of God, given to us, despite the fact that it is undeserved and unmerited (cannot earn it)

(Like this) is unheard of grace, b/c gives His grace despite all we have done and do against Him (think about some of the things you have done and are doing—do you deserve God’s grace?)

Faith—

Is the belief in what God’s Word says about what Jesus Christ has done

Jesus died for our sin(s)

Jesus bore our sins and punishment on the cross

The punishment of death/separation

The punishment of wrath and judgment

Brings about a wonderful thing

Salvation—God counts us as having died with Christ, being risen with Christ, and having our life in Christ

Salvation is something we cannot boast in

Ephesians 2:5 “even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—”

(Can something or someone dead “do” anything?)

Ephesians 2:8 teaches us then

The work of God’s salvation is totally an act of Himself, b/c if we had any part it in, we would become prideful and arrogant

———

If Ephesians 2:8 teaches us about God’s grace in salvation, Romans 5:2 and 2 Corinthians 12:9 teach us how God’s grace can sustain us

I. (Romans 5:2) We are positioned in grace—meaning we have been firmly planted in God’s grace

Romans 5:2 “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

What does “stand(ing) in God’s grace mean? The grace Paul is talking about is a grace in which we stand in, are positioned, and find our roots in; it means

We stand in God’s presence

We stand before God saved

We stand in the privileges of God, and

We stand in the promises of God

What does this mean?

We don’t have to live anymore with “labels” we can live in a position of being a child of God

Hows does this help us live the Christian life?

God knows how difficult it will be to live obediently, listen to what He says to Joshua as he prepares Him to cross the Jordan and battle enemies

Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.””

Jesus Himself told His disciples Who would be with them as they went out into the world

Matthew 28:20 “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

Paul reminds us, that even amongst our weaknesses, God’s grace is sufficient

2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Is being a Christian fulfilling and is there joy in being a child of God? Yes!

Will your life as a Christian be easy? No—if anyone has ever told you that—they are lying to you.

(CLOSING/WORSHIP)

Complete the Gospel-Grid and explain that when we allow deceit and distractions to distort how we see God, we will distort how we see ourselves and we will inevitably begin to pretend and perform in order to fill the gap

Pretending and performing also shrinks the cross and says that cross isn’t sufficient and God’s grace isn’t enough to validate me and make me feel accepted and approved by God

If you are an unbeliever here today—someone who hasn’t given their life to Jesus, might I encourage you (whether you are on the fence, or just plain not interested), there is God who loves you and sees you; there is a God sees the hurt and sees what you are turning to instead of Him, to find your worth, value, and identity. Yet this same God has not turned His back on you, He has compassion for you and He knows the hurt. Through the Gospel—through the Bible and His Holy Spirit, He is telling you there is a love like you’ve never known, a peace you’ll never find in this world, and there’s grace that is so unheard of, that if you would just believe in it, you would be saved and become a child of God

If you here today and you are a Christian—yet you are finding yourself bogged down pretending and performing, might I encourage you to remember the position you are in through Jesus Christ. A position of grace.