The Restoration of Justification
5: 6-11
The restoration of justification DIG: What words, in verses 6, 8, and 10, describe what we once were in God’s eyes. Why was the Passover the “right time” for Messiah to die? How does Messiah’s death change all of this? How does Paul use rabbinic logic, proving the easier by the harder? If He has done the harder, how could He fail to do the easier?
REFLECT: Yeshua was not sent only for the religious, but also for the rebellious. What three words best describe your life before you were a believer? How about now? Why the change? How do you know God loves you? Why is it important to realize that we have eternal life? Can you count the reasons you have to rejoice in God right now? Do you have a joyful heart?
God shows His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Messiah died on our behalf.
Knowing that his readers would want to know more about the quality and character of the divine love that filled them (to see link click Bi – The Perfecting of Justification), Paul reminds them of the greatest expression of God’s love in all history. The most overwhelming truth of the Good News is that God loved sinful, fallen, rebellious mankind so much that He gave His one-and-only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). And as the apostle proclaims in verse 9 below, if God loved us with great love before we were saved, when we were still His enemies, how much more does He love us now.117
Dear Loving Heavenly Father God, How great is Your love and how extremely deceitful sin is! People are smart enough that something looks or smells bad, then they stay away from it; but if the bad thing looks attractive, then discernment is turned off and enticement to come close is turned on. When You are driving down a narrow, mountain road with a steep drop-off to the side, you know to go slow and to stay far away from the edge; but if there is heavy rain, or low hanging clouds obscuring your view, you will not be able to see where the drop-off begins. Your discernment will not work, for you will be blinded by the situation, even though your eyes can see. Sin works that way. May You open our eyes to see sin in our lives that we may turn from sin towards Your love. May we read Your Word often and meditate on it so that we will have a discerning heart.
How wonderful is Your gift of justification that restores us to fellowship with God! The relationship with You is so special. You can always be depended on, God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). You are all wise, knowing all (Psalms 139) and have all power to move mountains to help Your children. How thankful I am to have the relationship with You restored!
May You open the eyes of the hearts of our family and friends to see the wonderful hope of heaven and joy of an eternal relationship with You, when they turn from sin and wisely follow Your love as our Lord and Savior. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what is the richness of His glorious inheritance in the kedoshim, and what is His exceedingly great power toward us who keep trusting Him—in keeping with the working of His mighty strength (Ephesians 1:18-19). In the Holy name of Your Son and His power of resurrection. Amen
For while we were still helpless, spiritually dead, as if drowned at the bottom of a lake (see Ae – My Position on TULIP or Calvinism: Irresistible Grace), at the right time, during the Passover (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ix – The Examination of the Lamb), Messiah died on behalf of ungodly people (5:6). While we were utterly helpless to bring ourselves to God, He sent His one-and-only Son, Yeshua Messiah, to die for us, even though we were completely unworthy of His love. While we were powerless to escape from our sin, powerless to escape death, powerless to resist the Adversary, and powerless to please Him in any way, amazingly, YHVH sent His Son to die on our behalf.
Natural human love is almost always based on the attractiveness of the object of love, and we are inclined to love people who love us. As a result, we tend to attribute that same kind of love to ADONAI. We think that His love for us is dependent on how good we are, or how much we love Him. But as Yeshua pointed out: Even the tax-collectors do that (Matthew 5:46)! But if God loved us because we loved Him, He would love us only as long as we love Him, and then our salvation would depend on the constancy of our treacherous hearts. However, when God loves us sinners, as Messiah did for the ungodly, once we come to Him in faith, our salvation doesn’t depend on us, but on the constancy of the love of ADONAI.
Using the illustration from human experience, Paul says: Now it is a rare event when someone gives up His life even for the sake of somebody righteous, although possibly for a truly good person one might have the courage to die (5:7). Paul is not contrasting somebody righteous with a truly good person, but simply using those terms synonymously. His point is that it is uncommon for a person to sacrifice his own life in order to save someone of high character. Still fewer people would give their lives to save a person they know to be wicked. But that’s exactly what ADONAI did, and that’s our eternal security and assurance. Saved, we can never be as sinful as we were before salvation – and He loved us totally then!118
How do you know God loves you? He gives you many evidences: God says He loves you (Psalm 145:9); You’re never out of His sight (Psalm 139:2-3); He cares about every detail of your life (Matthew 10:30); He gave you the capacity to enjoy all kinds of pleasure (First Timothy 6:17b); He has good plans for your life (Jeremiah 29:11); He forgives you (Psalm 86:5); and He is lovingly patient with you (Psalm 145:8). ADONAI loves you infinitely more than you can imagine.
But the greatest expression of His love is the sacrifice of His Son for you. God shows His own love for us in that the Messiah died on our behalf while we were still sinners (5:8). If you want to know how much you matter to God, look at Messiah with His arms outstretched on the cross, saying, “I love you this much! I’d rather die than live without you.”119 This sort of selfless, undeserved love is completely beyond human comprehension. The God who hates every sinful thought and every sinful deed, nevertheless, loves the sinners who think and do those things, even while they are hopelessly enmeshed in their sin. Even when people openly hate YHVH and do not have the least desire to give up their sin, they are still the objects of His redeeming love as long as they live. Only at death does an unbeliever cease to be loved by Ha’Shem. After that, he is eternally beyond the reach of God’s love and destined to eternal wrath. In Messiah, however, we are eternally linked to ADONAI by His love.120
YHVH is not a cruel slave driver, or a bully who uses brute force to coerce us into submission. He doesn’t try to break our will, but woos us to Himself so that we might offer ourselves freely to Him. God is a lover and a liberator, and surrendering to Him brings freedom, not bondage. When we completely surrender ourselves to Yeshua, we discover that He is not a tyrant, but a Savior; not a boss, but a brother; not a dictator, but a friend.121
Then Paul uses rabbinic logic, proving the easier by the harder; if Messiah has done the harder, how could He fail to do the easier?122 Therefore, since we have now come to be considered righteous by means of his bloody sacrificial death (the harder thing to do), how much more will we be delivered through Him from the anger of God’s judgment (5:9)! Since reconciliation was accomplished by Yeshua’s death, He is certainly able to save completely those who come to God through Him (see the commentary on Hebrews Bk – The New Priesthood Lasts Forever). Since we are now identified with Messiah, and are adopted as children of ADONAI through Him, we are no longer headed for God’s wrath, just like everyone else (Ephesians 2:3c).
Paul’s next thought is closely related to the previous one above, and is the central message of this passage. For if we were reconciled with God through His Son’s death when we were enemies (the harder thing to do), how much more will we be delivered by His life, now that we are reconciled (Romans 5:10; Second Corinthians 5:18-19)! Since God had the power and the will to redeem us in the first place, how much more, does He have the power and the will to keep us redeemed. In other words, if God brought us to Himself through the death of His Son when we were His enemies, how much more, now that we are His reconciled children, will He keep us saved by the life of His Son? If the dying Savior reconciled us to God, surely the living Savior can, and will, keep us reconciled.123
There are five promises in the previous two files, and here. The fifth promise is that we will be delivered through Messiah. And not only will we be delivered in the future, but we are rejoicing about God right now, because He has acted through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, through whom we have already received that reconciliation (5:11). This may not be the most important or the most profound evidence of our security in Messiah (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ms – The Eternal Security of the Believer), but it is perhaps the most beautiful. And although this divine promise is subjective, it is none-the-less real.
We can rejoice in God right now! I think this is one of the most wonderful statements we have in Scripture. It means that right now, wherever you are, whatever your problems are, my friend, you can have joy, and rejoice in God. Just think of it! You can rejoice that He lives and that He is who He is. You can rejoice because He has provided a salvation for us, and is willing to keep us saved. To the One who is able to keep you from stumbling and set you without defect and full of joy in the presence of His Sh’khinah glory (Jude 24). He has worked out a plan to save us because of His love for us. Isn’t that enough to make you rejoice? We don’t have to go around smiling all the time, but we should have a joyful heart.124
These five promises are true of us because we have been once-and-for-all justified; therefore, we can rejoice. John declared: What we have seen and heard, we are proclaiming to you; so that you too may have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Yeshua the Messiah. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete (First John 1:3-4). Far too many believers are trying to appease an angry God to avoid punishment, when they should be pursuing a loving God whose justice has been satisfied by the sacrifice of His holy Son. We have been justified, therefore we have, right now, the joy of peace with God.
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