Romans 5. Jesus Came to Give Us Grace and Life.

Posted on by richlyspeaking

Earlier this year, we took a journey together through the Old Testament book of  Isaiah. Paul, as a learned rabbi and the author of the letter to the church at Rome, quoted regularly from the Prophet. So, let’s take the next few weeks together to look at the New Testament book of Romans.

Romans 5.

We make a second stop along the Romans Road today. The first signpost in Romans 3 identified the realization that we are all sinners.  Chapter 5 illuminates the hope we sinners have in Jesus as our Messiah. He is the resolution for the human condition. He makes it right for us to have a relationship with God.

Paul begins this portion by encouraging patience in our lives. We can all be impatient, right? Especially when we are facing troubles… struggles like unemployment, or a medical crisis, or a marriage that is balancing precariously close to collapse. Have you ever prayed a prayer like this: “Please give me patience, God. Right now!” I have.

Look at what patience brings:

We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! (Romans 5:3-5, MSG).

Patience is a virtue and when it is fully developed in us, through trust in God, we can have an attitude of expectancy and hope instead of worry or dread.

What joy, what blessing, what freedom we can carry when we are fully experiencing a life of grace.

Here’s the solution to our impatience and every other sin: Jesus.

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6,8, CEV).

God requires a sacrifice, a price to be paid, for our disobedience. Jesus paid that price through His death, and resulting resurrection. Here’s how Paul explains it clearly:

“But there is more! Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life’s blood, we will also be kept safe from God’s anger. Even when we were God’s enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son’s life.” (Romans 5:9-10, CEV).

We have life and relationship and even peace with God because Jesus died for us.

And what about the Law, the Ten Commandments and other ordinances God placed before Moses and the children of Israel in the Old Testament? Jesus offers something much better: forgiveness and grace.

All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end. (Romans 5:20-21, MSG).

Grace invites us into a beautiful life, like a flowering cherry tree in the springtime. What joy, what blessing, what freedom we can carry when we are fully experiencing a life of grace. I learned so much about grace as a staff pastor under Max Lucado for over ten years. Here’s how he puts it:

“Grace is God as heart surgeon, cracking open your chest, removing your heart—poisoned as it is with pride and pain—and replacing it with his own. Rather than tell you to change, he creates the change. Do you clean up so he can accept you? No, he accepts you and begins cleaning you up. His dream isn’t just to get you into heaven but to get heaven into you.”
― Max Lucado, Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine

God wants to put more of Him inside of you. He does that by giving us His heart through His Son.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.” (Ezekiel 36:26, NIV).

Will you let God give you His grace? He loves you and wants you to have all that He has for you. He’s ready to pour into your life so that you can patiently endure the hardships of the journey and enjoy the blessings of beauty and joy and love He so desires for you.

 

(c) 2020. Rich Ronald.

 

God is Pursuing You

Posted on by richlyspeaking

Do you know how much God loves you?

Do you know, at this very minute, that God is pursuing you?  Even if you’ve been a Believer all of your life, He is pursuing you.  He continues to pursue you and wants to deeply connect with you and your heart.

You know when you had that check in your spirit recently?  That was God.  When you said those words you wanted to take back as soon as they left your lips?  That was God.  When you acted one way, or didn’t act in another.  That was God.

He loves you with His whole heart and His Holy Spirit walks with you, follows you,  and even goes after you when you turn away.  In 1893 Francis Thompson coined the phrase “the Hound of Heaven” when describing how God unceasingly pursues us, encouraging us to follow Him.

Continue reading God is Pursuing You

Messing up… and receiving God’s grace.

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“What were you thinking?”  How many times did your parents ask you that question after you messed up?  How many times have you asked that of your children?  How many times have you asked that of yourself?

Messing up is a part of life.  After all, we’re only human.   When we’re faced with the decision to take the narrow path or the broad, easier path — when we are faced with temptations — how do we react?

I understand that big time messes are more than just an “Oops!”  They can be life changing, rock-your-world messes.  To you.  To others.  To those who you never thought your actions would mess up their lives too.

May I share an encouraging scripture with you?

Paul writes:  No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face.  All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it. (1 Corinthians 10:13, The Message)

Now, does that mean that God will make the choice for us whether to sin or not to sin?  No. But this word says He will give us the strength to make the right choice, prompted by His Holy Spirit, who will guide us into all truth (see John 16:13).

But there are times when we do mess up.  Have you been there lately?   Sometimes the most difficult grace to extend is to ourselves, isn’t it?

Continue reading Messing up… and receiving God’s grace.