OCTOBER 26, 2023
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” (Romans 5:8-9)
This is one of the most loved passages in the Bible (Vs. 8 being my favorite Bible verse), and it is also the high point of a lengthier discussion. In previous verses in the book, Paul clearly showed that salvation is based on faith, not works (Rom. 3:21-26). That justification, a declaration of His righteousness, brings us peace with God instead of wrath. This is available only to those who have expressed saving faith, exemplified by men like Abraham.
Given that hope, suffering in the life of a Christian believer can be meaningful. We are safe to hope in God because He loves us. Paul’s point is that we don’t have to take God’s word alone that He loves us. We can look at the evidence: Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
What does it mean that Christ died for us? It means that He died in our place. Because of our sins, we deserve to suffer God’s angry judgment. We deserved death. Christ took that judgment for our sin on Himself on the cross. He suffered and died in our place. Paul insists that we should take that act as evidence of God’s great love for us, especially since God went first. Jesus died in our place before we knew we would want Him to do that. He died for us before we did anything to deserve such love, as it takes love to die willingly for someone else, even if they’re a “good” person. But we, those who have been saved, were still sinners and thus enemies with God, who would not improve on our own. In truth, we had no hope of avoiding God’s judgment before Jesus took it for us.
Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is an essential Christian doctrine to understand; it is vital to know and never forget what was accomplished by the shed blood of our Savior. Ephesians 1:7 says, “…redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” Paul refers to Christ’s death on the cross as the sufficient payment for the sins of all who believe in Him. This redemption paid to release us from the eternal penalty and the earthly power of our sins. This freedom, of course, did not come “at no cost” since Christ’s death pays for it; it cost Him everything.
This is grace in the truest sense: the ability to become a child of God because God provided a free way to know Him by faith even though we were enemies. God’s grace is of tremendous value. It is what is required to make people sons and daughters of God. All have sinned and fallen short of His glory. It is only through Jesus that we have a way to have salvation.
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