God put his love on the line…this is a mind blowing experience that is rare to find all over the world.
This is one of the most loved verses in the Bible, and the high point of a lengthier discussion. In Paul’s writings, he clearly showed that salvation is on the basis of faith, not works(Romans 3:21-26) That justification—a declaration of righteousness—brings us peace with God, instead of wrath. This is available only to those who have expressed saving faith. Let’s look at what Jesus Christ did for you and i more than two thousand years ago.
ROMANS 5:8NLT– But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
Jesus died in our place, before we knew we would want Him to do that. He died for us before we’d ever done anything to deserve that love. This is a point Paul made in the prior verse: it takes love to die willingly for someone else, even if they’re a “good” person.
Telling of his experience as a POW, Ernest Gordon related how after work one evening a guard noticed a shovel missing. Insisting one of the prisoners had stolen it, he screamed for the guilty party to come forward. Then he prepared to kill them one by one till someone confessed. Suddenly a Scottish soldier broke rank, stood to attention and said, “I did it.” The guard beat him to death on the spot. When he’d exhausted his fury the other POW’s picked up their friend’s body along with their tools and returned to camp. At that point the shovels were re- counted. The guard was wrong. None was missing!
What kind of person would take the blame for something he didn’t do? Christ! “We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for…how someone…noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son…while we were of no use whatever to him” (vv. 7-8 TM). Think about it: “God…piled…everything we’ve done wrong, on him” (Isa 53:6 TM), hence, the only “Mediator who can reconcile God and [man]…Jesus” (1T1 2:5 NLT).
A mediator reconciles differences and negotiates agreement. At Calvary, Jesus stood between God’s anger and the punishment for our sins. Having lived the life we couldn’t live and taken the punishment we couldn’t escape, He offers us redemption we couldn’t afford. Now the question we must answer is: If He so loved us, can we not love each other? Having been forgiven, can we not forgive?
Lord we thank you for forgiven our sins and offering yourself on the cross for us, we hold no grudges against anyone, because you have forgiven us all our sins.
