April 30, 2016

Romans 5:10 NKJV - "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."

Commentary:

One of the great truths of the Christian Gospel is that it shows that God "demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  He didn't wait until we were "worthy" of His salvation!  The point is, we were never worthy of His salvation and we still aren't!  We were saved by His grace and we're still in need of His grace.  And this truth comes out in our Daily Verse today.  "...when we were enemies we were reconciled to God..."  The point being that God didn't change our status from enemies to friends and then did the work for us to be reconciled to God.  He did that work while we were still in our fallen state.

The Gospel of Grace teaches that we were saved without our meriting anything from God.  And the same can be said about the Love of God:  We were loved in our sinful condition!  When God loves His enemies He does so knowing that many may never turn to Him.  He is aware of the broad road that leads to destruction and He realizes there are many on that road!  But He still shows His love for them anyway.  (And YES, I believe in the universal love of God for ALL mankind!  And NO, I don't believe that ALL mankind will automatically be saved.  There will be many in hell because they rejected the love of God shown through the death of His Son).

But the main point here is that God loved and provided reconciliation for His enemies.  That was HIs way of adding action to His words.  And that is what God wants to do through us.  He wants us to love our enemies while they are still our enemies.  And God is ready to give you the desire and power to do what pleases Him.  In a previous Daily Verse I asked would you be willing to "love an enemy into the saving arms of God?"  Just the way God loved you into His arms?