Scripture Reading(s)
Romans 5:1-11
5:1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
5:2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
5:3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
5:4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5:5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
5:6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
5:7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person–though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die.
5:8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
5:9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God.
5:10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
5:11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Reflections
In our weakest and most darkest moment, that is when Christ’s Grace covers our sin. There are those who think that they have committed far too many sins for Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross to ever count towards them. This passage speaks exactly to the fact that it in fact is our sin that drove Christ to the cross. It is the lies, cheating, adultery, lustful, selfish, hate and so on that Christ came to pay the penalty for and save us from our sins.
This passage is split up in two parts. The first speaks to Paul’s suffering for the Gospel. However, he points that suffering back to glorifying God and bringing to light that one would not suffer if it were not for the sake of something good and powerful. The Gospel is what brings hope and joy through hard times. It is what builds strength and character in us when we feel as though we’ve lost everything. It is what produces a determination to fight to keep relying on God’s strength because without Him, we are weak and lost.
The second part is what ushers in the hopeful message that Christ came to die for our weaknesses. The beautiful part of this passage is that Jesus Christ, we was completely without sin, chose to die for the entire world. He took on the world’s sins, your sins and mine in order so that we might live in eternity with Him and be spared eternal punishment. His love and grace covers all that we have done. Once we were God’s enemies (vs 10) and now we are reconciled to God. This means that God took what was wrong and made it right. His death forgave us for our sins and now are made right with Him. Our sins are no longer counted against us. He made up a debt with His life that we could not have paid on our own. We are saved through the life of Jesus Christ that died in order to bring us true life.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)
Christianity is not a fair religion. If we have learned anything from the Prodigal Son parable or the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, it’s that God came to this world to save the lost, not the deserved. He came to heal the sick, not give a medal to the healthy. He came to free the captive and unbound the oppressed.
However, it is in this one category that we are all equals; we are all sinners justified by a grace we did not deserve. This is why there is no Jew, no Greek, no rich, no poor, no man, or no woman in God’s kingdom. We are all made children of God by the grace of God. We have been made equals and partners in the kingdom of heaven. For this, there is much to celebrate.
[Featured image from bible.faithlife.com]