Monthly Archive for July, 2011

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.

The eighth result of justification is God’s provision for our future salvation in eternity. There are three achievements the death of Christ for sins accomplished for those who believe:

1. Redemption (payment for sins), 3:24
2. Propitiation (God satisfied by that payment), 3:25
3. Reconciliation (removal of enmity between us and God), here

Reconciliation is the basis for restoring a relationship with God.

¹⁰ For if [since] while we were enemies

The Greek assumes that it is a fact (first class condition) that God reconciled us to Himself by the death of his Son.

“Enemies” suggests that sin put us in complete alienation to God making us hostile to God. The term “enemies” is the fourth word in this chapter for sinners: weak,” “ungodly,” “sinners,” and “enemies.”  

we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,

God accomplished reconciliation with Himself by the death of His Son. He removed all grounds of hostility between God and man.

“Reconciled” is a term of restored relationship. It took the death of the Son to reconcile us. God did not reconcile us to Himself when we believed but when Christ died on the cross. God applied reconciliation to us when we came to trust the cross for our salvation.

much more,

This is the second “much more” statement in this ongoing argument of the greater to the lesser. If God transitioned us from the penalty of hostility toward God to friendship with God, He will definitely justify us in the end, the final day when we meet Him. If God gives the greater, He will not withhold the lesser. If God justified us He will certainty put us in definite possession of eternal life.

now that we are reconciled,

The believer’s hostility with God ceased at the point of his justification.

shall we be saved by [in] his life.

Jesus’ eternal life insures our eternal life. This is a salvation that never ends; it is a final or ultimate salvation.

PRINCIPLE: Jesus’ life is a pledge of our eternal life.

APPLICATION: If Christ died for His enemies, He will surely save His friends. Justification is more than pardon for it places us in the same status as God has; God declares us as right as Jesus is right forever.

Since God accepted us by justification through Christ, then it is a simple thing to keep us saved. If Christ did the most for His enemies on the cross, He will more for those who trust His work on the cross. He will keep us saved.

He 7: ²⁵ Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

Jesus continually intercedes for the believer’s ongoing sanctification and He will carry us through until the end, our ultimate sanctification—glorification. This is a consequences of justification.

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

⁸ but [contrast] God shows [demonstrates clearly] his [emphatic] love for us

God’s love goes beyond willingness to die for a good person. He is supremely willing to demonstrate His love that He gave His Son for sinners so that all can see it. This is the proof of His love for us. There is nothing in sinners to call forth this love but there is something in the unconditional love of God that does.

The word “shows” means to put together by combining. Thus, the idea is to prove, establish, or exhibit. God’s love surpasses the most extreme sacrifice of man for others.  God made good on His love by sacrificing His most beloved Son.

The present tense of the word “shows” indicates that God continuously establishes His love because even today the death of Christ for our sins remains His most striking manifestation of His love. Christ died for His enemies (v. 10).

in that while we were still sinners,

Christ died for us while we were in a state of disbelief, “weak,” “sinners,” “ungodly,” or even “enemies” (v.10). A sinner is someone who cannot conform to the absolute standards of God. In every way he fails to measure up to what God expects. It is an extremely rare thing that a person would die for a good man much less for a foul sinner.

Christ died for us.

The cross as substitution for our sin is the way God shows His love toward sinners.

PRINCIPLE: Christ’s death is a demonstration of God’s love.

APPLICATION: God’s love operates irrespective of human merit. Christ’s death benefits sinners by sacrifice provided by God. God demonstrates his love to the “weak,” “ungodly,” “sinners,” and “enemies.” It is patently clear that there is no qualification in God’s love; He leaves no one out of His love. There is no previous love on our part. God loves us before we make any move toward Him.

God’s love for us is not based on our attractiveness to God. We love people because they love us. That is how we love but that is not how God loves. He does not love us on the basis of what we do or how we do it. He does not love us only so long as we love Him. He loves sinners unconditionally. Our Lord proves it by sacrificing His Son for us. His love does not depend on who and what we are.

Jn 15: ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

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

From the statement that God pours His love into our hearts in verse five Paul now demonstrates the character of His love. This will show why the pouring out of His love guarantees the believer’s hope—Jesus’ death for our sins resolves the sin issue.

⁶ For

The word “for” connects verses 6-8 to verses 3-5, which refers to the relationship between God’s love and our future hope.

while we were still weak[frailty of the condition of man in contrast to God],

“Weak” means powerless. This is not physical weakness but powerlessness to spiritually save ourselves. The non-Christian has no wherewithal to earn credit with God. He cannot offer any assets to God to acquire his salvation. There is no way for him to gain God’s approbation.

The word “still” indicates the status quo of the non-believer. His perpetual orientation to God is his incapableness to do anything about his salvation.

at the right time [appointed season by God]

In the non-Christian’s spiritually weakened condition, God sent His Son at exactly the right time to save their souls. The “right time” is the propitious moment, the proper time. God does not delay His program for reaching the lost. He is right on time with His program. The death of Christ was right on schedule. His death was no afterthought. It was a strategic time.

Prophecy precisely foretold the time of Jesus’ death. This was according to Daniel’s 70 time periods (years)—“Seventy weeks (time units—490 years) are determined upon your people.” This schedule brings us to the birth of Christ. Christ died when 483 years were accomplished. The seventieth period of seven years still remain to be fulfilled in the future. Christ’s birth was no accident; circumstances did not bring about His coming.

Ga 4: ⁴ But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

Jesus came at the precise time that religion had become bankrupt and that events of prophecy had accurately fallen in place.

Ac 2: ²³ Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;

Christ died

Just at the right time Christ came to die. Both “Christ” and “died” are emphatic in the Greek. God planned the death of Christ from eternity past as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world (1 Pe 1:18-20). Jesus’ coming to die was on a fixed schedule.

for [on behalf of] the ungodly [those not oriented toward God].

Jesus came to die for the “ungodly” nonetheless. The ungodly are those without God and are hostile to God. “Ungodly” types are actively opposed to God. These are the same as the “weak” of verse six. They were unable on their own to respond to Him.

The word “for” is a term of substitution. Jesus became our substitute to die for our sins on the cross. He died in our place. He took my hell that I might have His heaven. The idea of the Greek word is in place of. We can see this idea is especially in the next verse. The death of Christ was a payment by the love of God to the justice of God. This payment satisfied (propitiated) God permanently.

PRINCIPLE: Christ died for the ungodly, not the godly.

APPLICATION: Jesus died for all people because all people are sinners (Ro 3:23). Man is powerless to provide salvation on his own. God’s love triumphs over man’s failure. The Lord took the penalty for our sin instead of us. His death was in our personal interest.

Is 53: ¹⁰ Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.

2 Co 5: ²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

The fifth benefit of justification is that character results in confidence (“hope.”)

⁴ and character produces hope,

Proven character produces “hope” or confidence. A character tested by God reveals a person’s confidence in God. This is confidence or the expectation that God will be true to His promise in all circumstances. He will sustain the believer through it all.

PRINCIPLE: Steadfastness deepens character by placing more confidence in God’s promises.

APPLICATION: Difficulties produce character that we would not have otherwise. This character in turn generates confidence in God’s promises. A steady confidence is the result. Pagans bow to the inevitable but Christians accept suffering knowing that eternity is ahead. This produces a steadfast hope for the believer.

1 Th 1: ³ remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father,¹³ so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.

Hope is expectation of direction and keeping by God.

³ More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance

A third benefit or privilege of knowing God through justification is strong orientation to suffering with joy.

³ More than that,

There is something more than rejoicing in confidence about our future with the glory of God. Paul extends our rejoicing to another level in this verse.

we rejoice in our sufferings,

“Rejoice” here is the same word as in verse two. There is an emphasis by the repetition of this word. It is not enough to endure trails, we need to “rejoice” in them.

“Sufferings” carries the ideas of distresses, pressures, afflictions. The Greek word bears the ideas of pressing together, pressure. Christians sometimes go through crushing experiences. It is distress or trouble brought about by adverse circumstances. These distresses are no mere inconveniences but major hardships. Trial is the common lot of us all.

2 Co 1: ⁴ who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.⁸ For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.

1 Th 1: ⁶ And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,

1 Th 3: ³ that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.

knowing that

The Greek word for “knowing” is to know by intuition or perception. We know by perception that the end of the chain-reaction beginning in this verse ends in “hope” (vv. 4-5). The appeal is to the Roman’s common experience about suffering. We cannot relate sufferings to God’s plan without “knowing” something.

People wait until they get into deep water before they try to understand God’s plan for suffering. It is too late then.

suffering produces [develops] endurance [fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance]

Christian suffering produces “endurance,” which is steadfastness. Steadfastness is remaining under difficult circumstance without giving up. This word comes from two Greek words: under and to remain. The idea is to remain under the situation. A quality of biblical suffering is continuance. There is unswerving dimension to our attitude toward suffering. We may proceed in what appears to us as imperceptible progress but at some people we reach a vista that shows how far we came. 

Ro 15: ⁵ Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, ⁶ that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ja 1: ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. ⁴ But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

PRINCIPLE: Christian orientation to God’s economy develops steadfastness in distress.

APPLICATION: Christian orientation to sufferings is not stoic acceptance or tolerance of troubles but something that pivots around hope (vv. 4-5). Christians must be ready to endure suffering rather than escape it. We are to endure it through anything that may come our way. Endurance spawns hope; troubles toughen believers because of that hope.

Rejoicing in affliction is counter intuitive. We have a tendency to bemoan our problems. There will be no affliction in heaven but affliction in time has purpose in God’s economy.  We do not exult in troubles themselves but in something that transcends distress.