“… God demonstrates His own
love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by
His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” Romans 5:8-9
This is tremendous news that Paul is imparting to the Roman
believers. Love is an active and not a
passive word, so it is much better to show
someone you love them than simply tell them.
That is exactly what Almighty God did.
He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to be a curse for scripture tells us “cursed is any man who hangs on a tree”
(Deuteronomy 21:23). Crucifixion was a punishment invented by the
Persians, taken up by Alexander the Great and passed on to the Romans. The Jews did not crucify criminals, but
instead stoned them or killed them by some other means. A man who hung on a wooden cross or pole was
accursed by the people and by God due to their crimes against both
parties. Jesus bore our crimes for us. “He who
knew no sin, became sin for us.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
How humbling it is to know that someone was willing to stand
up in our place before God to bear our punishment for the misdeeds we had
committed throughout our life up to that point.
It is by His blood that we are saved and not by anything we could ever
have said or done. We have become justified in God’s sight and saved from His
wrath against convicted sinners.
There are those who laugh at Christians saying we are all
crazy to believe in a God we don’t even know for a fact exists. Look at all the fun we are missing out
on. Their ignorance doesn’t allow them
to see the storm clouds of God’s wrath that are building on the horizon. God never tolerates sin. There are no exceptions. When the trumpet sounds and the people of
faith are removed from the earth via the rapture of the true church (1
Thessalonians 4:13-18), the wrath of God shall be unleashed. All who have mocked the Lord and thought it a
fairy tale or myth shall find out first hand as the hand of God wipes the earth
clean of all sinful people. All those who
said they believed in God yet never allowed that belief to alter their life one
iota shall suffer the same fate. It is not God’s will that any perish, but that
all would come to repentance (1 Peter 3:9).
It is man’s obstinacy* that leads to their demise and not any fault of
God’s. Those who have been saved from
God’s coming wrath by faith and trust in the living Lord shall go to live with
Him forever. Until next time, walk with
the King and be a blessing!
* stubborn self-will
Reference used:
www.thetheologynetwork.org
