Chapter 21: He Loved Us Then; He Loves Us Now

We begin our study this evening by reading Romans 6:1-4. In this passage we see the incredible truth that, we God saves us (spoken here in the language of baptism), He grants us the ability to, through His Spirit and His Word, of course, walk in newness of life.

That is, we are saved and live differently as a result. John describes this transition in 1 John 3:4-7. New life through Christ comes, new life is lived, in other words.

But we all know, from seeing other believers and contemplating on our own lives, that while we make progress in Christlikeness, we often fail (and sometimes really fail). Paul describes this situation in Romans chapter 7. The things that we should and want to do, we do not do. The things we should not do and do not want to do we do. If you have not reached this point in your Christian life, you will, like Paul say, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24)

I love the way Ortlund begins chapter 21,

“It is one thing to believe that god has put away and forgiven all our old failures that occurred before new birth....It’s another thing to believe that God continues, just as freely, to put away all our present failures that occur after new birth.” (189)

It is this uncomfortable switch that takes place that trips up many believers. It is a horrendous issue that has many terrible consequences to our lives as followers of Jesus. Ortlund remarks,

“…many of us tend to believe it is a love [that is, God’s love] infected with disappointment. He loves us; but it’s a flustered love. We see him looking down on us with paternal affection but slightly raised eyebrows: ‘How are they still falling short so much after all I have done for them?’ we picture him wondering.” (190)

This kind of thinking is not only warped, it is sin. The reason, Ortlund states, is that “it is a result of projecting our own capacities to love onto God.” (190) Or, to phrase it a little differently, of making God in our own image.

One of the most blessed tools in the hands of the church is the Westminster Larger Catechism. It is a series of Questions and Answers in which believers and/or children are trained in the teachings of the Bible. Question 109, which deals with the second commandment, asks this:

“Q109. What are the sins forbidden in the second commandment? A. The sins forbidden in the second commandment are, all devising, counselling, commanding, using, and anywise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself; tolerating a false religion; the making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever; all worshipping of it, or God in it or by it; the making of any representation of feigned deities, and all worship of them, or service belonging to them, all superstitious devices, corrupting the worship of God, adding to it, or taking from it, whether invented and taken up of ourselves, or received by tradition from others, though under the title of antiquity, custom, devotion, good intent, or any other pretence whatsoever; simony; sacrilege; all neglect, contempt, hindering, and opposing the worship and ordinances which God hath appointed.”

We sinfully think of God’s love in human terms, and of this we need to repent. God is not like man, as Balaam notes in Numbers 23:19.

Which brings us to the title of the chapter and the focus of the remainder of our time together this evening: He Love Us Then; He Loves Us Now.

Our focus will be on Romans 5:6-11, but we will deal with this on the basis of a subject as distilled from this passage rather than working through this section phrase by phrase or word by word.

Our sermon will actually be a sentence that we will unpack. It is this, “Because of the work of Christ, we have a glorious relationship with God, that work was accomplished while we were sinning against that God, that work was Christ’s torture and death for our just punishment due for our ungodliness, how much more does He love now that we have been justified and reconciled to God?” This is an elaboration upon the title, “He Loved Us Then; He Loves Us Now.”

I. Because of the work of Christ, we have a glorious relationship with God- 5:1-2

Notice how wonderful our relationship is due to the work of Christ (the idea which we will consider next). We have: justification (made right-ness), we have peace with God, we have access to God, and it is in these that we stand. We stand in the face of trials and struggles of this life. We grow, as Paul would go on to say this in verses 3-5. Our focus, though, is because of the work of Christ we have a glorious relationship with God...

II. That work was accomplished while we were sinning against that God- 5:6-8

Christ’s work was accomplished “while we were still sinners,” Paul tells us. Look at all the descriptions: weak (vs. 6), “ungodly” (vs. 6), “still sinners” (vs. 8), “enemies” (vs. 10).

It is not that we were apathetic to God, we hated God. Every breath we breathed was an assault on the glory of God. Do you understand this? We were sinners, enemies of God and opposed to everything in His will. But notice that is exactly when the work was accomplished!

He Loved Us then, Ortlund says. Ortlund states, “He didn’t simply leave heaven for me; he endured hell for me.” Isaiah 53:3-6 instructs us in this sad but necessary truth. His work was to take on Himself our sins, all of them, and to make atonement for them so that we could have a glorious relationship with God.

III. That work was Christ’s torture and death for our just punishment due for our ungodliness- 5:6-10

We touched on this in the last phrase, but it deserves reiteration. Notice the connection Paul makes between our sinfulness and the purifying work of Christ:

We were weak and ungodly—Christ died for us

We were sinners—Christ died for us

We stood justly condemned and deserving of God’s divine wrath—Christ saved us from God’s wrath by His blood

We were enemies— Christ reconciled us to God by His death

IV. How much more does He love now that we have been justified and reconciled to God?- 5:9-11

This brings us to the second phrase of the title: He Loves Us Now. Paul’s reasoning is that if God showed (demonstrated) His love for us by giving His Son for us, how much more will God keep us for Himself?

Ortlund mentions this at the beginning of this chapter, and I want to raise it because we all agree with Paul up to this point, but it is at this point that we begin to diverge. “A Christian conscience is a sensitized conscience.” (190)

We are becoming more like Christ, and in becoming more like Christ we, as Ortlund says, “feel more deeply than ever the ugliness of sin.” (190)

So, as God is cultivating Christ in us, we feel sin more deeply, and that God-given and God-glorifying awareness can simultaneously, under the power of yet-remaining sin, draw our hearts away from God’s love. But, He Loved Us Then; He Loves Us Now, Paul tells us in much more glorious words.

John Flavel will be our last stop when he writes, “As God did not at first choose you because you were high, he will not now forsake you because you are low.”