2020-04-26 Romans 5.6-11
Notes
Transcript
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die.
8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 How much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath.
10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
I. You were helpless.
I. You were helpless.
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die.
A. You cannot fix the debilitating disease in your soul.
A. You cannot fix the debilitating disease in your soul.
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die.
Illus: Helpless is an interesting way of communicating your condition. Helpless is an important way of describing your conodition.
There is absulutely NOTHING you can do to fix yourself.
Often when you ask a child what it takes to get to heaven they say something like, live a good life.
You might hear a an adult asking the question why it is fair for God to save some and send others to hell.
The great problem with the way we approach God is that we don’t think that we are bad people.
When one thinks… it is wrong that God sends some to hell, they believe deep down people are good and deserve heaven.
God truly doing what is fair is God giving everyone hell.
No matter how good you are, you are just not good enough. Today we need to begin in understanding who we really are...
18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.
B. You are not good. Truthfully, you not even just. You are ungodly.
B. You are not good. Truthfully, you not even just. You are ungodly.
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die.
Illus: Back in 2015 I did an Ironman triathlon.
An Ironman is an event where you swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles
In this pursuit you are given 17 hours to complete the event.
For this event I had trained for a year and a half working out multiple times every day for hours on end.
On race day I was doing well. I swam faster than my usual pace finishing the 2.4 miles with a personal record.
My bike was good as well. I remember asking the volunteer who took my bike where on the course the pros were.
The volunteer’s response shocked me. He said, “Oh, they completely finished along time ago.”
I was having an incredible day for me, but my best didn’t even come close to the professional racers.
When we talk about being good, we think, well for me, or compared to them, I’m good.
Our standard is wrong. That is like me finishing an ironman and thinking I’m a world class athlete when I compare myself to a couch potato.
When you compare yourself to your fellow man, you might be good… but the right comparison is to God, and compared to God you fail.
21 So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me.
22 For in my inner self I delight in God’s law,
23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
II. You were a sinner.
II. You were a sinner.
8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 How much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath.
A. When you see who you really are, you can see how great God’s love is.
A. When you see who you really are, you can see how great God’s love is.
8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 How much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath.
Illus: This is a step on the scale kind of moment. It is a rightly meause yourself and find yourself lacking.
You are not good. Paul uses Helpless, sinner and enemy in this passage to help you see who you are.
If there was ever a moment you thought you were entitled to something from God, Romans 5 completely destroys it.
You are not entitled, deserve, or can earn God’s love.
But understanding your complete ineptitude will open your eyes to see how truly magnificent God is. How truly undeserved God’s love is.
When you understand the fullness of your sinfulness, you can begin to understand the wonder of God’s love.
Jesus did not save us because of who we are, he saved us despite who we are.
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
2 in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,
5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
B. God has made you righteous through his loving death on the cross.
B. God has made you righteous through his loving death on the cross.
8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 How much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath.
Illus: I have built the case that you are not good.
I have built the case that the only reason you think that you are good is because you are comparing yourself to people that are worse than you.
I have built the case that when you compare yourself to God, you will see yourself for who you are.
Now… with complete understanding of the misreable condition of who we are, I want to show you what God did on the cross.
He declares us righteous. On the cross, all failings and sins that we bring are paid for. Forgiven.
On the cross, God made us good. He declared us good.
When you step into heaven, Jesus will be there declaring you righteous.
But wait for a moment, you are not walking into glroy with any of your own righteousness.
It is a declared righteousness.... God will declare wicked people good because he provided the good for them.
Our standing in heaven is because Jesus provided the righteousness we lacked.
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
III. You were an enemy of God.
III. You were an enemy of God.
10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
A. You were an enemy, you have been reconciled.
A. You were an enemy, you have been reconciled.
Illus: To be reconciled it to be brought back.
We could not be in the presence of God knowing God while helpless, sinful and as an enemy.
If we were to approach God in that condition, God would poor his full and unrelenting wrath on us.
Here where the bible say God has reconciled us, it is saying that because we are declared righteous, God is able to bring us back as sons and daughters to know him again.
Simply, God has taken helpless sinful enemies who deserve death, given them life, and made them family with him eternally.
1 See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him.