Romans 5:6-10

INTRODUCTION

Heart of Christ Series

“If we want to know Jesus better, we must understand His heart”

“The heart reveals the deepest reality of who someone is”

Matthew 11:28–30 (ESV)

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Gently and Lowly means

accessible, Jesus is not hard to find

open arms,

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

I project our own capacity to love onto God.

Using human brains, human hearts, to try and make sense of God Almighty’s love. I do a poor job of it.

I pray that this series has pointed out

true heart of Christ

things about Jesus you did not know or understand

ways you’ve gotten it wrong in your view of God

True Christian maturity is when we come to him and learn from him:

our heart aligns with the heart of Christ

our will aligns with God’s will

Replacing Orphan Mindset with truth that we are Adopted into the family of God through Christ

Part of that growth is knowing the true, Biblical heart of Jesus Christ

“We love up to a limit. Jesus loves to the end.”

Heart of Christ

joy of Christ. Joy set before him he endured the cross

compassionate heart, love in action

emotional heart, weeps with us

His ways are not our ways, He forgives and pardons abundantly.

CJ

I thought I knew the gospel, then I had a son....this is CJ

more tangible

new level of love

fight for him, good luck hurting him

i hate when he’s in pain

when he cries because his stomach hurts, or he’s hungry, my heart springs me into action

i want what’s best for him

I delight in CJ every-time I look at him and hold him. God delights in me so much more and he delights in CJ more than I ever can

I would be heart broken if CJ grew up and questioned my love for him…if he ever doubted…if he ever hesitated to run to me....and scripture says me along with all you other people are evil…and if I feel that way, imagine how God feels about his children. So that you know his truest heart for you

CHRIST’S INVITATION IS : COME TO ME

Today, as we culminate this series, I want to address a gospel truth…

HE LOVED US THEN, HE’LL LOVE US NOW

Here is why...

On paper, I read all of Gently and Lowly twice, over 20 chapters riddled with scripture and truth that Jesus loves me, he died for me, he saves to the uttermost, he will never cast me out, his mercy is new every morning, and I am secure to the end…yet part of me , Actual Theology if i’m being honest…struggles with believing that every day....not on paper but in my actual theology

surely this grace and love and mercy has a limit…

Theology on Paper vs. Actual Theology

“But if we were to more closely examine how we actually related to the Father moment by moment---which reveals our actual theology, whatever we say we believe on paper---many of us tend to believe it is a love infected with disappointment.”

John 3:16 (ESV)

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Paper

He loved me, Jesus died for me, my belief in this gospel secures me for eternity.

Actual Theology, how I relate to God moment by moment, how I interact with him in prayer....

SIN

I sinned again, surely this will one day run out

Disappointment? Cory did it again…that prideful, self righteous selfish kid let me down again....

OBEDIENCE

Fail to measure up.

Didn’t do enough

When I do sin, sometimes I’m quick to repent, sometimes i put myself in time out

APATHY

Anger towards God

I hesitate to Come to Him

When life is going good and I’m reading my Bible and going to church and feeding the poor, when family is doing great....I hesitate to come to him...

Praise God for the true gospel, that his mercy is new every day and he does love me and I can’t do anything about that as his adopted child. He will never cast me out scripture says. He delights in me. I can’t do anything to make him love me less and I can’t do a thousand good works to make him love me more.

This is important, because if Jesus is saying come to me, if our command is to abide in Christ, because he’s the vine, he is life, he is our hope for eternity, he is our savior…any thoughts or human projections or lies or misconceptions that cause you to hesitate to go to him are destructive, against the word of God, and

Nothing makes Satan happier then when Christians are temporarily sidelined

I want to make sure when you leave here today you know a little more the heart of Christ towards you, and that you stop hesitating to Come to Jesus

READ ROMANS 5:6-11

Let’s Pray

Status before Christ: Weak, Ungodly, Sinner, Enemy

Romans 5:6–11 (ESV)

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

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

10 For if while we were enemies

V9 much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Paul has just said that believers have been saved from ‘God’s wrath’ through Christ, and this indicates that there was also hostility on God’s side towards sinners. Wright’s comment is very helpful: ‘We should not, I think, cut the knot and suggest that the enmity was on our side only. God’s settled and sorrowful opposition to all that is evil included enmity against sinners. The fact that God’s rescuing love has found a way of deliverance and reconciliation is part of the wonder of the gospel’.35

Paul, the guy who wrote this letter. Used to be Saul

pharisee, believed jesus was not the messiah and that everyone who did believe in him should be imprisoned, beaten, and even put to death

hated the way and actively tried to destroy it

Stephen is stoned and killed and Paul is there, approving of whats happening

Pure evil, he got fired up at stephen’s execution. Let’s go get more, gets warrants and heads out

Biggest enemy and threat of Christ on planet earth, and what happened in Acts 9? Christ takes initiative

GOD Acted first, God took initiative

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

the atonement was no afterthought.

This was the way God always intended to deal with sin;

he did it when he chose

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

He loves because of what he is, not because of what we are. There is nothing in sinners to call forth the love of God. But he does love us, as the cross so plainly shows.

“shows” to put beyond questioning

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 say the same truth backward: Jesus didn’t die for us once we became strong (5:6); he didn’t die for us once we started to overcome our sinfulness (5:8); God did not reconcile us to himself once we became friendly toward him (5:10).”

God didn’t meet us halfway. He and his Son took the initiative.

He LOVED us THEN, He’ll LOVE us NOW

Justification and Peace and Reconciliation

Romans 5:1–2 (ESV)

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

5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,

Justified means declared righteous by God

We’re good, forgiven

Judge hits the gavel, not guilty

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

For Paul God is not the detached judge dispensing judgment, but the lover of sinners desiring reconciliation with them.

2 enemies are now peaceful...

‘we have peace with God’. So saying, he employs the present tense of the verb ‘to have’, thus depicting this peace as the ongoing experience of believers.

Because of Jesus

2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand,

Access=introduction to the Kings throne-room.

I can’t just walk into the Oval office, I need someone with all the right badges and credentials who is also powerful enough to get me all those credentials, to introduce me.

I can’t work hard or trick people into letting me in...

Access is in perfect tense, Christ has brought us to God and will always do it

STAND= perfect tense, means it is in the present, and it is ongoing.

RECONCILIATION

justification + peace = reconciliation

Mephibosheth

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

Denney points out that the Greek term for reconciliation differs from its English and German equivalents, for they both imply that peace with God has actually been achieved, whereas “The work of reconciliation, in the sense of the New Testament, is a work which is finished, and which we must conceive to be finished, before the gospel is preached.”39 The noun incidentally is confined to Paul in the New Testament (twice each in Romans and 2 Corinthians).

It is Finished and that is exactly what our savior declared on the cross.

How did this reconciliation take place?

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.

How much more31 introduces an argument from the greater to the less: if Christ has done the great work of justifying sinners, dying for God’s enemies, he will certainly perform the comparatively simple task of keeping those who are now God’s friends. “We shall be saved” looks to the future, and, indeed, this verb is in the future tense in seven of its eight occurrences in Romans; in this letter Paul is very interested in the future aspect of salvation. Here he speaks of salvation from “the wrath” (see on 1:18; cf. 12:19; 1 Thess. 1:10

Our full salvation is achieved “in” Christ’s life, which presumably means that we are in him, and that his life is in us. Certainly our life is bound up with his life (cf. 6:8; John 14:19; Eph. 1:22–23; Heb. 7:25; Rev. 1:18, etc.).

Romans 5:9–10 (ESV)

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.

These verses describe our salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, but also our salvation on judgement day. Saved from the wrath of God that is coming against all sin, eternally secure, looking forward to our hope of glory.

“If God did that back then, when you were so messed up and had zero interest in him, then what are you worried about now?”

What about when I sin?

Disobey: Sin of Ommision

Apathy

WHAT ABOUT RIGHT NOW, MY LIFE IS A MESS, COVID HAS TAKEN JOBS, PEOPLE ARE DEALING WITH DISEASE, BROKENESS

Is God angry with me?

CONTEMPT vs DISAPPROVAL

Moment by moment theology I struggle with this.

What is God’s thoughts towards me when I fail...

God hates sin. Perfect anger towards wrong doing.

God is Holy and perfect, his justice must correct every wrong and deal with every sin.

When I sin God disapproves of my actions, he is displease with my sin. It breaks his heart. But Christian, he never looks upon you with contempt, he is not angy with you when you sin. He is not suprised nor is he flustered

God as a perfect father knows that sin hurts me, sin leaves me disappointed, sin grieves my heart, sin is not what’s best for me, sin a false.

Stop CJ from things that hurt him, for no other reason than my love for him.

Psalm 18:19 He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me.

Romans 6:1–2 (ESV)

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Romans 12:9 (ESV)

Marks of the True Christian

9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

But, I have great news. He loved you then, He loves you now.

1 John 2:1 (ESV)

Christ Our Advocate

2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Romans 8:1 (ESV)

Life in the Spirit

8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

God not only loved you enought to save you, He delighted in you then, he delights in you now.

He delights in you and his invitation is always the same. Come to me. He

When you sin, do a thorough job of repenting. Re-hate sin all over again.

Romans 5:11, now we can rejoice in the Gospel! This is too good to be true. Praise God!

INVITATION

Need Jesus as savior? Come to me

Need to Repent of sin? Come to me

Need to admit you’re ignoring God? Come to me

Need to address the fact that you’re upset at God? Come to me

Need strength? come to me

He did not save us then leave us alone to our own devices…come to me

The invitation is available to everyone, come to jesus.

“In Christ’s death, God is confronting our dark thoughts of him and our chronic insistence that divine love must have and endpoint, a limit, a point at which it finally runs dry.”

“He is not flustered by your sinfulness. His deepest disappointment is with your tepid thoughts of his heart.

“We love up to a limit. Jesus loves to the end.”