Sunday Sermon: God Shows His Love for Us (Romans 5:6-11)

You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series. Here is Pastor Gabe.

The Hope and Love of God in Romans 5:6-11

I came across this quote this week from John Owen. He said the following. We all profess that we are bound for heaven, immortality, and glory, but is it any evidence that we really design it if all our thoughts are consumed about the trifles of this world which we must leave behind us and have only occasional thoughts of things that are above?

So, instead, let us draw our hearts and our minds to God as we think today about the love that he has for us. May it draw us to himself that we have those desires for the heavenly things. I can tell you in the pain that I'm in right now, I don't have a desire for the earthly.

Things.

So, may his word be the thing that draws us to himself today, that we desire for the eternity that is promised us in Christ Jesus. Where all the struggles of this life that we are going through will be no more.

Let us stand together as we read. This is Romans chapter 5, and I'm reading this morning verses 6 through 11. Hear the word of the Lord. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, as we look at this passage today, we reflect upon the love that God has for us, that you have shown to us through your son Jesus Christ. He who left his throne in heaven, who died on a cross for our sins, who rose again from the dead so that all who believe in him, we will not perish, but we will have everlasting.

Life.

And God, I pray that as we come to the scriptures this morning, we're not just looking for some kind of earthly fix. I've had a tough week, and so what can the word say to me that will get me my fix for this coming week?

But we're looking even beyond these limited moments. We're looking to the eternity that awaits us, and knowing that promise of eternal things that you have given us in Christ Jesus makes these moments that we live in more bearable.

We know that we're living for something greater than this moment, that life is not all about these difficult things that we go through in the day to day, but we're spending a little bit of time here, and then forever with God in glory.

And so may that hope be reflected even in the way that we live in the time that we have here on this earth. May we be an encouragement to one another, reminding each other of the great hope that awaits us in Christ Jesus.

It's in his name that we pray, and all God's people said, amen.

Amen.

Justified by Faith, Peace with God, and Rejoicing in Hope

As we start off here, I kind of want to briefly recap what we were looking at last week in the first five verses. There's this kind of progression that Paul is making, where he's showing to us the things that we have in Christ Jesus, which we've received by faith, even produces all of these other things.

And I see it necessary to recap that, because even as we come into this section in verses 6 through 11, we're seeing more of that. It's like he's still unpacking, here are the great things that we have by faith that we have in Jesus Christ.

So we started chapter 5 by reading, therefore we have been justified by faith. That's been the argument that Paul had made for the previous chapter and a half before. We've been justified by faith. We've been declared innocent before God, and our sins are counted against us no more.

Not only, though, have we been justified, but we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And keep that in mind, because you'll notice that we have this statement that comes up later, that while we were enemies, we were reconciled by the death of his son.

While we were at enmity with God, yet God demonstrated his love for us in this way. So we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are not enemies of his any longer. We are not at enmity with God.

He does not count our sins against us. We are in fellowship with him. Through him also, we have obtained by faith access into this grace in which we stand. We are standing, we are secured, we are kept in the grace of God, in his favor, which we do not earn, but he gives to us because he is a loving God.

And we rejoice not only in the grace that we have, but we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. God will be glorified, and we are given the privilege of sharing in that day when we will likewise be around the throne, glorifying in God.

Not only that, verse 3, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance. Suffering is where the rubber meets the road. Suffering is where you are put to the test. You are tested to see, do you truly love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength?

And as you go through those sufferings, as it makes you cling to Christ all the more, it produces endurance. You are able to push through any circumstance, holding to Christ, knowing the eternal reward that we have in him.

Endurance produces character. It even shapes who we are as a person, specifically shaping us to be more like Christ as we share in the sufferings that he went through. And character produces hope. We come back to hope again, that we may continue to hold fast to those promises that have been given to us in God.

Hope does not put us to shame. As those out there who may ridicule us, whether it's for the Christ whom we worship or the holiness that we desire, even just desiring to be like Christ, and they ridicule us for that.

We're not put to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. No matter what the world may say or think of us, we do not despair. We have hope in God through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us, knowing that God is abiding with us.

He's with us even now. When we feel abandoned, we don't go looking for company. We have the company of God with us at the present. So Paul continues to unpack all the wonderful benefits that we've received by faith in Jesus Christ, even as we move here into verses 6 through 11.

Now, you'll notice different thoughts are kind of separated by the word for. In verse 6, for while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Verse 7, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person.

Verse 10, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. And so that's kind of how we see this particular section portioned out. So we look first at while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

And then Paul gives an example of the righteous and good person one might dare to die for, but God shows his love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. And then finally, for while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.

Much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. And we see that mention of reconciliation, reconciled, coming up three times in those verses, those last verses 10 and 11. So let's come to verse 6 again.

And in all of this, we come to understand the love that God has for us. That's what Paul is ultimately driving home here. We saw love in the first section that we looked at last week, in verse 5, God's love for us.

In this section that we're looking at today, we see, again, an emphasis on the love that God has for us. Even while we were sinners, he sent his son to die for us. So we're reminded consistently of God's love and his affection for his creatures.

Verse 6, for while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Now, this is a statement that Paul says here, but then when we get to verse 8 and he says, God shows his love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, it's like he explains the phrase a little bit further.

While we were weak, we were incapable. We were unable to save ourselves. We could not do anything to merit the favor of God. We could not do anything to restore or repair that relationship that had been broken between God and man.

We were incapable. We were unable. The way that Paul puts this in Ephesians chapter 2 is we were dead. Even worse than weak, we were dead. Ephesians 2, 1, we were dead in our transgressions and sins in which we once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

All of that packed in that word weak right here. While we were weak, incapable, unable, dead in our transgressions and sins, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Now, there's a couple of applications to this.

At the right time in the sense that by God's sovereign hand, he had appointed exactly that day and time that his son would come into the world and that Jesus in his earthly ministry would fulfill in his life the requirement of righteousness, that in his death, he would fulfill the requirement for a sacrificial death to atone for sins, and in his resurrection, would fulfill life from the dead so that by our hope in him, we would not only have the forgiveness of sins, but we have the promise of life after death as well.

God had appointed at a specific time in history in which these things would take place. They were prophesied about in the Old Testament, exactly the time and place that the Savior would appear, so that when he appeared, we would know this could be by nothing but the hand of God.

This was not just by chance or by some opportunity. The right guy came upon the scenes that could do this thing for us. This was only by God's hand that he could bring about the birth of the Savior in exactly the way that the prophet said it would happen, and so it did, and that Jesus would be the one who would live and die for our sins.

So by God's sovereignty, these things have taken place. As said in Acts chapter 4, the apostles saying, Lord, you had put Pontius Pilate and you had put Herod along with the Romans and the Jews here in this particular time and place to fulfill what your hand and your plan had destined to take place.

All of these happening because God willed it, and he made it happen. So that's one application with at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly, but there's also a more practical application that we can give to that in the sense that at the right time, God brought you to himself.

At the right time, you came to know your sin and the Savior who had been given for you, who died for your ungodly, wretched self. And at the right time, you came to know that great sacrifice that had been given by God's loving provision.

I was saved at a very, very young age. I remember kneeling on my bedroom floor and praying in the direction of my light because I didn't know where else to look. But just simply saying, God, I believe I am a sinner and I need a Savior.

And I asked Jesus into my heart, because that was the language that was being used in my church at the time, but it was a genuine prayer. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and I want to live my life for you.

One of the earliest memories that I have of asking Jesus to come into my heart. Now, I didn't get baptized until I was a teenager. My parents really weren't all that thrilled. Even when I came running out of my room and said, Mommy and Daddy, I just asked Jesus into my heart.

That's great, son. I know you heard it from your Sunday school teacher, but they didn't really take it seriously. Later on, my dad actually said to me, I'm sorry. I apologize that we didn't take it seriously when you told us that.

I remember when you told us that. But we just didn't think it was that big a deal yet. You couldn't possibly have known or understood what it was you were praying. Now, I certainly didn't understand the depths of my sin.

I would become better acquainted of that later in life. But I'm thankful that God saved me at an early age and that God taught me, through my parents, what he requires in his word. There's a verse in Psalm 119, 109 that says, Though I take my life in my hands continually, I will not forget your word.

And my parents had set around me boundaries, a sense of right and wrong, so that when I was living out by myself, no longer under the care and direction of my parents, that I would know the right way to go.

And though I made some stupid decisions, and even to this day, I still do dumb things, yet the word of God did not get too far away from me, and it protected me from doing worse or stupider stuff than I was doing.

At the right time, God died for me. Something that I pray for my children is that they wouldn't have to go through even some of the dumb stuff that I had to go through before I learned of just how gracious God has been to me.

I have friends that went through much more difficult trials and circumstances, and had really made a mess of their lives, sleeping around, doing drugs, cheating, lying, stealing just to try to get by, all manner of wretched filthiness, before finally God gets a hold of them, and they felt rung in their necks, and he hit them upside with a two-by-four.

That was a friend of mine's testimony. God hit me upside the head with a two-by-four, and got me to see just how dumb I was, and how much I needed a Savior. And I didn't have to go through those kinds of trials in order to recognize my own folly, and see my need for a Savior.

It came much earlier for me. And I pray that for my children, they don't have to go through something really, really difficult that God would take them through that trial before they have their eyes open, and see, and recognize their sin and need for a Savior.

Now, if God wants to take them, or you, or anybody through a difficult trial, that is entirely up to God. But I would still pray that the right time would be sooner, rather than later. The entire book of Job is Job complaining about his circumstance, wanting to make his case before God.

And you know, the things that his three friends say are really just demoralizing. I mean, they don't have good advice for him. They say things to him that are putting the blame upon him. Well, the reason why, Job, this is happening to you is because you've sinned.

God wouldn't allow these kinds of things to happen to a righteous person, but it's because you're wretched, you're a sinner, and that's why God is doing this. Now, when we read the book of Job, we tend to have this approach to it that, like, because his friends were so heartless in that sense, we shouldn't take anything that they say as truth.

They say a lot of truthful things about God. It's the application that they have the problem with. They're just not very charitable or loving in the way that they're applying those things to Job. And Job himself, thinking that if he plead his case before God, then God would have mercy on him.

Why would God be allowing this kind of thing to happen to him when I've been a righteous man? And then God shows up and puts Job in his place, and the message to Job is essentially, I can sanctify you any way that I choose to sanctify you.

You are my creature.

I made you.

Did you put the sun in the sky?

Did you hang the earth in its place? Do you feed the wild animals or when the deer is giving birth, you make sure that it's a healthy and good birth? Do you tell the ocean you can only come this far? Do you put a leash on Leviathan and train him and lead him, let your girls play with him like a pet?

That's actually a line in there in Job 41.

Do you do these things?

And Job finally humbles himself and puts his hand over his mouth and says, I've spoken and I will speak no longer. For God had humbled Job in those circumstances and it showed him I can choose to sanctify you and lead you in any way that I want.

As said in Psalm 115, our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. And I don't care in what manner God chooses to save me as long as he saves me. I will be happy and rejoice even in my most difficult of circumstances.

As the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, I'll rejoice in hardships and weaknesses in persecutions and calamities for where I am weak, there he is strong. And it's in our weakness that the strength of God is demonstrated and we may give glory to him knowing that we are completely undeserving of the favor that he shows us.

We're totally undeserving of heaven. None of us deserve that. And yet God by his mercy and grace has given it to us so that we come to see and know that while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

See, that's really the takeaway for us there. Christ didn't die for righteous people. He died for the ungodly. He gave himself for the ungodly and keep that in mind for when we come to verse 8 and hear the statement about how he shows his love for us.

Christ Died for Us While We Were Still Sinners

Let's go on to the next four in verse 7. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. Now this language is kind of curious and I've read from a couple of different theologians who see this in a couple of different ways.

John Calvin, for example, sees that righteous person and good person are synonymous. So when it says that one will scarcely die for a righteous person, that's a good man. And though perhaps for a good person, that's a righteous man.

One would dare even to die. So Calvin looked at this as being synonymous, but I read from Martin Luther something that was quite different. Luther saw it as two different people. So a righteous person is one example that Paul gives and then a good person being another.

One will scarcely die for a righteous person. Now a righteous person in this sense, in this context, would simply be a person who does no wrong. You don't know that man to deal unjustly. As a matter of fact, he deals justly in all of his ways.

This is a person who is always doing the right thing. You would call that man righteous. He's a righteous person. But then the good person that's described, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die.

A good person is therefore, by contrast with the righteous person, a good person is someone who deals charitably. A good person actually looks for ways that he may give or present charity to other people.

He deals kindly with others.

He's giving.

He doesn't hold on to things that belong to him. He's willing to sacrifice for the benefit of other people. That's a good man. So that would be the difference then between the righteous person and the good person.

A righteous person is just, he always sets his ways in the right way that he should go. But a good person even goes beyond that, to give charitably to others. And people look at that guy and go, that's a good man right there.

He's done good for me. He gave out of what he had for me. That's a good person. And Paul says of that man, perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. Yeah, he gave to me. I would be willing to give back to him, is essentially the exchange that's being talked about there.

So, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. So what Paul is pointing out here is,.

It's rare. It's rare,.

But you'll probably come across it every once in a while, that someone would dare to give his life for someone who was righteous. And it's rare, but perhaps for a good person. You might hear a story of somebody that would be willing to give their life for somebody else.

It's rare, but it happens. But then by contrast, what is it that God has done for us? That's verse 8. But God shows his love for us in that while we were a righteous person, were we good people? God shows, yes, no, correct.

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, we had rebelled against God.

We hated God.

We wanted to go our way instead of God's way. And when God told us even the right way to go, we scoffed at that and said, I know better than you what is best for me. And we pursued our own way instead of God's way.

And though we had spat in the face of God, or as R .C. Sproul puts it, we had committed high treason against the king of the universe. Even though that's what we had done, and you certainly know what we deserve for that.

Yet even while we were sinners, Christ died for us. And every bit of harshness in the language there we need to understand so that we would see the love exactly that God has for us. When I was living in Kansas at the church that I was a pastor of, it was just caddy corner from the high school.

So we had a ministry that we did on Tuesday that was called Bible Lunch Tuesday. And we invited all of the students from over at the high school to come over during their lunch period to the church. It was just within walking distance.

We gave them a free lunch, free in the sense that they didn't have to pay for it. But we had many churches and ministries in town that provided for this ministry. It was actually a good sort of ecumenical sort of ministry.

Within reason though, some churches weren't allowed to participate, but there were those that were included in this opportunity to feed these students. And while they were eating, share the gospel with them.

We did that every time. The group had at one point gotten as big as 210 students that we would feed on a single Tuesday. Sometimes it would be a small, sometimes the ministry whittled down to like 30 or 40, but there were always a significant number of students that came over to be fed with good food and be fed with the word of God as well.

Well, there was a new youth pastor that had come into town and he wasn't part of one of the churches, but he was part of one of the ministries that was helping to fund Bible Lunch Tuesday. And he wanted the opportunity to be able to share one of these devotional thoughts with the students on a Tuesday.

I said, sure, that's great. I talked with the guy for a little bit, got an understanding of his statement of faith. And because I knew the ministry that had appointed him to that spot, I trusted him to be able to deliver a good message.

Well, as he stood in front of the students, he was trying to give them examples of God loving them. But then he said when he was quoting to them a verse that they would understand that God loved them, he said, Romans 5, 8, God shows his love for us in that while we were messed up, Christ died for us.

After that was over, I talked to him afterward and I said, why did you phrase Romans 5, 8 that way? Why did you say, in while we were messed up, Christ died for us? And he said, well, you know, I figure for most of these students, a lot of them aren't even churched, that they probably don't know what sin means.

Like sin is not just a casual word that we use in everyday conversation. So I didn't want to use a word that they wouldn't understand. So I exchanged it for messed up. And I said, but what? So you're worried about what they're going to hear when you use that word.

What do you think they're going to hear when you say messed up? Do you think that they're going to hear that they're sinners? Is that the right application that we give to that word sin? Are they going to know that they've rebelled against God by the way that you quoted that verse?

Because messed up can mean anything. Yeah, I messed up at the football game on Friday and God still loves me. I messed up and I didn't get straight A's this time around this semester, but yet God still loves me.

That's going to end up being the way that they apply messed up. I made mistakes and yet God still loves me in the midst of my mistakes. There isn't an understanding there of, no, I had done wrong for which I deserve the judgment of God and yet he didn't pour his wrath out on me.

He gave his son to die for me. And I said to this teacher, I said, you quote the verse the way it reads. Quote it for what it says. And then knowing that they may not understand what sin is, then explain it.

But don't change the words to mean something, to soften it from the blow that we're meant to receive when we read this. Like oftentimes when we read this verse, we're seeing that God shows his love for us.

Ah, God loves me. No, in context, we're meant to understand that we were sinners that didn't deserve God's love. He shows his love for us. He shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, we didn't fix our lives.

We didn't straighten ourselves out. We didn't finally get to a place where I can go, now I'm worthy. We were still sinners and Christ died for us. Christ, the son of God died for us. God who left his throne in heaven and took on flesh and dwelt among us.

He didn't have to do that. He did that because he loves us. And we see in what God had provided through his son, just the immeasurable sense of love that God demonstrates. Just as we read in John 3, 16, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Verse 9, since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

So remember what I said in the beginning, that Paul continues to unpack things here. And this is what he continues to unpack. While we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Let's unpack that.

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Let's unpack that. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, we're declared innocent by the blood of Christ that has been given to us, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

We're not just declared innocent. We are saved from his wrath. Which, that's what we all deserve as sinners against God. John 3, 36. Everybody's a big fan of John 3, 16, which I just quoted. For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

We love that verse. People are not as big of fans of the verse that comes 20 verses later. John 3, 36. He who has the son has life. He who does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

Meaning that we started under that wrath. Abides mean it was there, it was existing upon. Every one of us who have sinned against God, and when we go on from this passage into verse 12, which we'll be looking at next week, we understand sin came into the world through one man, death through sin, and death spread to all men because all sinned.

Reminding us again of Romans 3, 23. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So we all sin, we all deserve God's wrath. That's our default position. As fallen in Adam, that we deserve the judgment of God.

But we've been justified by his blood so that our sins are atoned for, and we have been declared innocent before him, and so much more shall we be saved from his wrath. When we read at the beginning of chapter 5, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peace with God means we've been saved from his wrath. We are no longer under the wrath of God because he loved us and gave his son for us. Verse 10, and here's the next four. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?

Paul continues to unpack, unpacks more. We have not only been reconciled to God by the death of his son, we are reconciled and saved by his life. And there's a couple of applications to this. The life that Jesus lived, he lived for us.

We are so fond of saying that Jesus died for us. Yes, he certainly did. We're reading that here. But he also lived for us in his life, in the righteousness that he fulfilled by living a sinless life. That righteousness is imputed to us when we come to faith in Jesus Christ.

And so by his life, even, that we've been saved. That's one application. And so that way, in taking that application, we may live lives of holiness. We should live lives in such a way that somebody looks at our life and sees that we reflect the righteousness of Christ that we've been given.

We live in his righteousness, the righteousness that we've been clothed in. We demonstrate that by our actions, our pursuit of godliness and holiness. The second way that this applies, though, we shall be saved by his life is with regards to his resurrection from the dead.

By his coming back from the dead, God showing that he received that sacrifice, so he brought his son back from the dead. So we also will receive that promise of resurrection. Remember what we read at the end of chapter 4.

This is Romans 4, verses 23 and 24. The words it was counted to him, talking about Abraham, were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him, who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

He was sacrificed for our sins. He's raised for us that we may be justified, all who believe in him. And not only justified, but we also have the promise of life after death, because we receive all that had been given to Christ.

Much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Verse 11, more than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Paul unpacks something else.

We rejoice in God. We go back to we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which we read back up in verse 2, and Paul is bringing that back into view again. We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

We're reconciled to God. And I've shared this with you before, since we see this word three times here in verses 10 and 11. But I love that word reconciled because even in the definition of that word, you hear hints of the gospel.

To be reconciled means to accept that which was not previously desired. That's what reconciled means. So when we were sinners, we didn't desire God. And he didn't desire us, not in that state. Yes, he shows his love for us in that he gave his son to die for us, but so that he would make us into righteous creatures that are therefore worthy to come into the presence of God.

Remember back in Romans chapter 3, it is said of us that together we had become worthless. We were not worthy to stand in God's presence. He made us worthy. And because he acted and because he did this, he has made us into saints that are worthy of his presence, that he reconciles to himself and desires us because we have been clothed in the righteousness of his son.