- The believer is indwelt by God: (5:5): The hope of a believer does not disappoint him because it is placed on God and is centred in God. and His promises does not disappoint us. The Holy Spirit is the divine agent who expresses to a believer the love of God, that is nothing but God’s love for us. The God’s love in a believer’s heart gives the assurance, and the guarantee, that His promise of glory is not misplaced and will not fail. In other words, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is related to His presence in believers as the seal of God (Eph.4:30) and as the earnest or down payment of their inheritance in glory (2 Cor.1:21-22). Every believer has the Spirit of God ( the Holy Spirit) indwelt in the spirit (8:9). Lack of awareness of God’s love can often be credited to a failure.
Ex. The love of God is like light to a blind eye until the Holy Spirit opens that eye.
- The believer is enveloped in God’s love: (5:6-8): When we were still powerless, ungodly, sinners, hopeless, undeserved, God’s love was poured on us and He rescued us. He came at the right time, in due time and good time. His timing was perfect for the mankind. “God (Father) so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son” The Trinity was in action to rescue the mankind. The demonstration of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary brought immediately the 3-qualities of fruit of Spirit viz. Love, Joy and Peace to all believers. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Gal.3:13).
-
- He died for even the worst of sinners: (1 Tim.1:15).
- He died for the hopeless. He is the hope of hopeless. He is the Saviour not of those partly lost, but of the wholly lost. (Spurgeon).
- Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man. God’s love is a love beyond the best love among humans. Jesus died for those who were neither righteous nor good.
- The work of Jesus on the cross is God’s ultimate proof of His love for us.
-
“It would be easy to see the cross as demonstrating the indifference of God, a God who let the innocent Jesus be taken by wicked men, tortured, and crucified while he did nothing. Unless there is a sense in which the Father and Christ are one, it is not the love of God that the cross shows.” (Morris).
The work of Jesus on the cross for us is God’s ultimate proof of His love for us. He may give additional proof, but He can give no greater proof. If the cross is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love, it is also the ultimate demonstration of man’s hatred. It also proves that the height of man’s hatred can’t defeat the height of God’s love.
- The Believer receives reconciliation: (5:9-11):
Having been justified by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the reconciliation with God and thus are saved from the wrath of God. Because of sinner’s faith and God’s sacrifice on the cross of Calvary, we are declared righteous and justified. The Lord Jesus took the wrath of God against ungodliness and unrighteousness upon Himself. God gave proof of His love by having Christ die in the place of humans while we were still sinners. The declared righteous person will not be forsaken. Since the divine justification has been solved on the basis of Jesus’ shed blood, certainly Jesus Christ will see that justified sinners will be saved from God’s wrath. Believers will never be condemned to hell (Jn.5:24; Rom.8:1) nor will they be the objects of God’s coming Tribulation wrath (1 Thes.1:10; 5:9).
-
-
- Reconciliation is the removal of enmity that stands between people and God.
- God showed His greatest love to us when we were still enemies.
- Christ died for all the people including his enemies too and made a way for their salvation.
- When we are reconciled to God, His love for us is much more.
- Reconciliation transforms our live even the earthly life.
- Redemption pertains to sin, propitiation pertains to God and reconciliation is for people.
- Reconciliation is totally the work of God accomplished through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and man has no role in it.
- Reconciliation is the basis of restored fellowship between people and God.
- Since reconciliation was accomplished by Jesus’ death, certainly His life is able to insure the complete and final salvation of believers.
- The reconciled man not only has the confidence that he shall escape God’s wrath, but also has confidence in joyful hope in God (Wuest).
-