The blessings that accompany justification from Romans 5:
Day 12: Joy.
Day 13: Hope.
Day 14: Love.
"And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:5-8
One of my favorite words to use in describing what is beautiful is by calling it lovely. By using this word, I suppose I mean that something or someone is worthy of love. Do you ever feel like you are unlovely though? Would you cringe if I said (this goes to the women out there), "You look lovely today," because you don't feel worthy of being loved?
"God confirms his love to us in the fact that Christ died for us while we were in a state of rebellion against him" (Bruce 115). This doesn't mean that Jesus has to die in order that God would love us. The Father and Son are so at one that we can acknowledge it as a triune act of love from God that we would be reconciled to him through the blood of the Lamb. This love "has been expressed and made vital in real, concrete actions on our behalf," (Moo 305) and in this our hope never fails, for it is not dependent on any stained and insufficient works that we bring before him.
Simply put, "Christ did not die for good people. Christ died for sinners" (Morris 224). We didn't come to him being lovely, or "lovable". There is nothing we did to elicit God's love for us. He chose us and displayed his love to us when we were in the worst of places as sinners.
And we still come to him daily with hands empty, nothing to offer except what we receive from him. So we are left in awe and gratefulness for what he has done for us.
Do you feel like you are weak and powerless (verse 6)? Do you feel stuck in sin, in shame? The hope we have in the gospel brings our hearts comfort. Even as we come to him with nothing good to give, he still continually demonstrates his love for us. Even when you are unworthy of being loved for all that is going on in life right now, you are loved eternally by your Heavenly Father, the Lord of Lords, King of Kings.
"God confirms his love to us in the fact that Christ died for us while we were in a state of rebellion against him" (Bruce 115). This doesn't mean that Jesus has to die in order that God would love us. The Father and Son are so at one that we can acknowledge it as a triune act of love from God that we would be reconciled to him through the blood of the Lamb. This love "has been expressed and made vital in real, concrete actions on our behalf," (Moo 305) and in this our hope never fails, for it is not dependent on any stained and insufficient works that we bring before him.
Simply put, "Christ did not die for good people. Christ died for sinners" (Morris 224). We didn't come to him being lovely, or "lovable". There is nothing we did to elicit God's love for us. He chose us and displayed his love to us when we were in the worst of places as sinners.
And we still come to him daily with hands empty, nothing to offer except what we receive from him. So we are left in awe and gratefulness for what he has done for us.
Do you feel like you are weak and powerless (verse 6)? Do you feel stuck in sin, in shame? The hope we have in the gospel brings our hearts comfort. Even as we come to him with nothing good to give, he still continually demonstrates his love for us. Even when you are unworthy of being loved for all that is going on in life right now, you are loved eternally by your Heavenly Father, the Lord of Lords, King of Kings.
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