Romans 5:6-14 Reconciled
Hi and welcome back to Perspective For Today. Today is Sunday and my wife Mary and I decided to visit a church other than our own.
The name of the church is Cokesbury Church. I’ve never been there, but I know the pastor. Pastor Harold used to come into the prison and share the gospel. He always told us when we got out of prison that we would always be welcome at his church. I’m here to tell you that my wife and I were truly blessed by today’s service. I never met a more welcoming congregation. You could really feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. That being said, I think it would be hard to leave my own church and the fellowship that I enjoy so much there. But it’s nice to know that there are other spirit-filled churches out there. So, today we are going to continue our study of Romans. We pick up with chapter 5 verse 6.
Romans 5:6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
Our weakness is a result of our sinful nature.
Without Christ at the center of our lives we can do nothing under our own strength.
Ecclesiastes 7:20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
At the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
Prophecy told of his coming and of his death. It was preordained and was fulfilled in God’s perfect timing.
Romans 5:7-8 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Would you be willing to lay down your life for someone?
Let’s say you would. Your act of love served only one purpose. That purpose is to prolong that person’s earthly life. Beyond that, it has accomplished nothing. Your act of kindness has no eternal value. That person may feel a sense of indebtedness to you, but their debt can only be paid in full by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
So, did you die in vain?
Perhaps not, in so doing you may have given this person the time and the opportunity to give his or her life to the Savior.
Romans 5:9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
To be justified in God’s eyes means to be declared righteous or made right with God. Through the blood of Christ we can be saved from God’s wrath.
Without Jesus the full impact of God’s fierce anger would be unleashed upon us. Thank God for His mercy.
Romans 5:10 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.
Enemies of God. We once were battling against the all-powerful God.
We deserved nothing less than total annihilation. But through Christ’s death on the cross we can have reconciliation and find peace and a lasting truce. No longer enemies but children of God. But more than just reconciliation we are saved because Christ lives.
The substitutionary death of Christ removes the cause of our hostility toward God, more specifically our sins.
Through our faith in Christ we have been reconciled to God. Through His death we are saved and through his resurrection we are kept from now till eternity.
2 Corinthians 4:10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
Romans 5:11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
We no longer experience joy in the things of this world.
True Joy is experienced in our relationship with Jesus Christ. We rejoice not only in His gifts that he freely gives to all who come to the cross. But we rejoice in the One who gave us His one and only Son.
When we speak of reconciliation we are speaking of the restored harmony between God and man through the sacrificial work of the Savior.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
How would you like to be in Adam’s shoes?
Can you imagine being responsible for bringing sin and death into the world? For going against the will of almighty God. What a weight he must have had on his shoulders. Not only is he the first man, he’s the first fallen man. Because of his fall from grace death spread to all men, because we all sin. We have a sin nature. Thanks Adam, thanks a lot.
Romans 5:13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
Sin came into being before Moses received the law at Mount Sinai.
During the time before Moses there was no clearly revealed law of God. Adam had received an oral commandment from the Lord, yet it would be many centuries before the ten commandments came into effect. Despite sin not being counted, death was still sure as a result of sin.
Romans 5:14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
In this verse Adam is being compared or contrasted to Jesus.
See what Paul says in 1st Corinthians chapter 15.
1 Corinthians 15:45-49 Thus it is written, The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.
47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
And again in 1st Corinthians,
1 Corinthians 15:21-22 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. The first Adam had an expiration date, the last Adam has eternal value.
We’re going to stop for now. Please leave any comments or suggestions at perspectivefortoday.com/contact
Thank you for listening and as always may you have a week full of opportunities to share this good news with those that need to hear it.