Romans 5:6-11 "Be Reconciled to God!"

[0:00] Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.

[0:15] ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?

[0:32] The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

[1:13] I invite you to bow your heads in prayer. Father, I ask that the Holy Spirit would fall with gentle power upon us at this time. Father, we give you thanks and praise that your Word written is both on one hand a mirror for us to see and understand ourselves better, and it's also, Father, a window that opens us up to see who you are and what you have promised and what you have said and what you will do and have done. And so we ask, Father, that you would bring your Word deep into our hearts, you would bring the Gospel deep into our hearts that it might form us, so that we will perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated.

[1:59] So one of the features of relationships is, of course, we want to have good relationships. That's one of the things we really desire. But it's often the case that in a relationship, one of the people has almost a supernatural ability to say something to the other person that deeply wounds them. Now, if it's a supernatural ability, in this case, it would be probably demonic. But you know what I mean. It's as if... And how the wound works is this. So I'm going along, or you're going along, and there's a whole pile of things that somebody could say about me that I just go, yeah, whatever.

[2:44] Yeah, you know, whatever. Yeah, yeah, whatever. And you're thinking that in your own mind. But then in the midst of a couple of those things of criticism, you know, the yeah, whatever, the whatever, that then there's the boom, boom. The one that actually really you're worried about, you're afraid of. And this isn't just in like marriages, and it can be husbands and wives, it can be mothers and fathers and their kids, it can be churches, it often is in churches, where, you know, there's all sorts of things people might say to criticize me that I might be, you know, whatever. But then there's that, they say that one thing, and whoa, that really goes deep inside the heart and really wounds. And it's not just that other people have that ability. If we're honest, we've done that as well. There's been times that we've said something that really just hurts the other person. Sometimes you can recognize almost instantly on their face that you really hurt them. And other times you can't, but you find out later that you've that one word really, really, really, really damaged the relationship. And made even the relationship, in some cases, the relationship can't recover. And even if it does recover, it's very, very, very difficult to reconcile. The Bible text that we're going to look at today, which Josiah read just a few moments ago, and we're going to go back and look at, believe it or not, it's not like a magic bullet that will automatically help you with that. But it's actually provides the building blocks in the ground for us to have a type of resiliency with those things. But not just a resiliency, because sometimes we have done those wrong things, right? It's not just a character attack, but a way to have a type of balance and equilibrium and a secure emotional and intellectual place to deal with those things and be resilient. And believe it or not, the scripture text today has some very profound truths to say about this. So it would be very helpful to me and to you if you take out your own Bibles and turn in them to Romans chapter 5, verses 6 to 11, which is what we're looking at today.

[4:53] We're going through the book of Romans slowly. Towards the end of June, we'll get to chapter 7. And I'm not sure if we're going to take the summer off and the fall and then come back in January to finish the book or if we'll finish the book in September. But we're going through the book slowly.

[5:07] And it begins in a way which is profoundly unpromising for many people in our culture. It begins by saying this, for while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. And you know, sometimes I'll say, if you actually know the original language, it's not quite as like it says something a little bit different. And in this case, it can also be translated as powerless, powerless. Like not just weak, but powerless. It's actually far more blunt in one of the senses. So weak's a good translation.

[5:45] For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Now I know for some people it's a bit of an insult, but for those of us who've come to learn our weakness, it's actually a profoundly helpful thing. When I was studying this text this week, I was thinking of a fellow that I know that I see all the time at one of the coffee shops I frequent, not all the time, but fairly regularly.

[6:09] And he's a self-made man. He's probably about 70, very, very strong, very, very healthy, and a successful businessman. Not in the success in the sense that he'd count his wealth in tens of millions of dollars, but he would count his wealth in the millions, at least. So a successful guy, a strong guy, a self-made man, in quotation marks, but truly not a guy. You know, sometimes, you know what's that saying about some people? They think, you know, you know, I got up to base and hit a triple and not realize they were born on third base. They didn't do anything. They're just nepotism. This was a guy who really has.

[6:43] And I think if he was to be honest, he would listen to this and says, for a while we were still weak. And he would think, okay, well, why is the Bible insulting me? Because I'm not weak. And, in fact, actually, he also said, why are you calling me ungodly? Now, interestingly enough, this fellow, he'd probably be offended if he heard the text that said he was ungodly.

[7:05] But at the same time, if you asked him about his life, he'd say, well, I give no attention to God whatsoever. I don't pay any, I don't give him any thought. I just go ahead and do it myself, which is actually how you define ungodly. Somebody who has no time whatsoever for the triune and God wants to live their own life, you know, couldn't give a hoot about God. They hear about what God, you know, says about certain things. They just go, yeah, whatever, yeah, whatever, whatever, whatever. And not only whatever, whatever, whatever, there's no way God could actually say something that might pierce me and hurt me, like just whatever, right? And that's how he would understand himself. But on the other hand, there might be some here hearing this text for the first time. And you go, wow, this text is speaking about me. I really feel right now in my situation that I'm really weak and powerless. Like I'm really struggling with a disability that I have. I'm really struggling maybe with alcohol. I'm really struggling in relationships. You know, my credit card debt is just really breaking me and bending and, and, and, you know, my relate, like there, you might hear that and say, yeah, you know what that I am weak. And even the ungodly part, they might say, you know what, that's not really that far off. I really, up until very recently, haven't actually given two seconds thought about God whatsoever, what he would say. So there's two different ways to hear this text, you know. But I'll just say one thing. I wouldn't say it to my friend unless the conversation moved in a very particular direction. But I said my friend is probably about 70 and very strong and a self-made man, but he's actually living in a delusion. Isn't he?

[8:40] Like I just finished reading 1st and 2nd Chronicles and 1st and 2nd Kings. And I, you know, I think maybe there's just a one or two kings out of all of those that are listed that hit 70. I was just looking up a philosopher that was important in a novel that I read, a very famous philosopher, if you're into philosophy, he died at 44. C.S. Lewis died at 62 or something like that, right? Like you think about it, a lot of people don't make it to 70. And the one thing for sure is that he's close to death.

[9:09] So, my mechanic just died at 71, dropped dead of a heart attack. So, it's in a sense an illusory world to think that you're self-made and you're strong. Because the fact is, even if you have been very strong your entire life, you began weak, you were weak for many, many years, and your latter days will be weak and you will die. Now, I'm not saying that if you're here thinking those things as an insult. But what I am saying is that the hard part about the Bible for many people is that they think, the average Canadian would think that they're, or the typical Canadian would think that they're realistic and the Bible is unrealistic. And the problems they have with the Bible is often because the Bible is more realistic than they are.

[9:57] That, I mean, weakness is really a thing about human beings. We are completely and utterly dependent on them. Electricity working, all of these other things working that we can't control, we're completely dependent upon them. But this isn't, but my friend I think would say, and probably validly, but George, even if I come to accept this, I mean, why do I need to hear that? That doesn't help me. It doesn't help me to be reminded that I'm weak or that I should have some thoughts about God. And it just still does seem like a little bit of a put down. And it seems like it's just one of those things that religions do. But they put it down. And often when religions put people down, they exclude themselves.

[10:44] But just before we go any further as to why it's not just an insult, look again at verse 6 again, because it says, while we were still weak. In other words, I can never read this text as if it's referring to my friend and not to me. And Paul, who wrote this, didn't write it as if it applied to everybody in the world except him, or all the people outside of Christ except Christians. He says, we were still weak. It includes us. And it actually has something very hopeful, which you're going to see more in a second when we read verses 6 to 8. And it's in that very simple little word. Look again at verse 6.

[11:28] For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. And the right time there, in the original language, there's two different types of words for time. One is just chronos, which is just chronological. This, then this, then this, then this. This 10 minute block, then this 10 minute block, then this 10 minute block, then this 10 minute block. Chronos time would be the hour and a half you spent doom scrolling on Instagram or Twitter or some other type of thing. That's just chronos time. Kairos time is something completely different. Kairos time implies that we live in a world that God exists in and that our lives have meaning. And it's like there's a significant time, a meaningful time, a time that touches on eternity, a time that is touching transcendence and imminence, a very, very, very significant time. And not just significant in terms of it's significant for me that this happened on a certain day, but significant in not only the whole big meaning and shape of your life, but in some type of almost cosmological and transcendent sense. And that's what the text is saying. For while we were still weak at the Kairos moment, Christ actually died for the weak and the ungodly. And then it continues, verse 7. 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, demonstrates his love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's a very, very packed thing. And what it's saying is that, you know, all sorts of people will die doing things. But, you know, like, so, you know, for instance, when Hamas dies, they die because they want to kill as many of us as possible.

[13:24] Right? That's why they die. They're actively engaged in trying to kill as many of people like us as possible. And if they could kill us, they probably would, until they get their way. And then in wars, you're in wars and people die, and there's obviously acts of heroism. And I'm not saying that all wars are wrong. There are just wars. There really are. And praise God for those in our armed forces who at different times have volunteered to stand and defend our country and defend freedom and to deliver people from totalitarian bondage and power and death cults. Praise God for them. And some will die as a result of that. But there's a cause which is going on there, and they get, and most people don't go in thinking, I'm going there to die. They go there to live, and they die as a consequence. And obviously, we can see that, and this is getting closer to what Paul is saying here, is that it might very well be that a mother would willingly die for their child, or a father for their child, or a father, a husband for his wife, or vice versa. But this is not talking about that. This is just talking about how, if you were just to take the people who are going outside there, how many of the people walking by this, the building this way or that, or driving by, how many of them would you die for? Well, the answer is none.

[14:50] Zero. Nada. Not going to do it. Like, don't even think about it. And then maybe if you found out that one of those people was really, really, really, really, really, really, really good, or they'd been really, really, really, really, really a kind benefactor and done lots of charity work and are continuing to do it, would you die for them?

[15:07] Would you die for them? Well, maybe one of us would. One in a thousand, one in a hundred thousand, one in a million, but still, no, somebody else could do that type of thing. There must be some other work around. That's just not going to happen. And what this Bible text is saying is that, if you look at it again, verse seven and eight, for no, 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.

[15:35] And the word shows means demonstrates, proves, makes public. His love for us, that in that while we were still sinners, and sinner is a relationship type of word, it's saying, in a sense, we say to God, we're not interested. It's a little bit like the rebellious 15 or 16 year old whose parents say, yes, you can go out tonight and you can borrow, there's 16 or 17, and you can borrow the car, but you got to be back by 10. And the 16 or 17 year old says, just to show my parents they can't tell me what I should do, I'm going to come back at one in the morning, or two in the morning, just to show them they can't tell me what to do. That's capturing the idea of sin. It's a more relational type of defiance against God and what he said. And it's, but notice in all of this, that God shows his love for us, demonstrate, proves that he actually loves us, in that while we were weak, while we were ungodly, while we were sinners, he died for us. He died for us. And the word there, for us, it, there's some nuances in it, but primarily it's saying that he died in my place. He died in my stead. It's not as if he died, you know, tragically trying to defend me or accomplish something for me. No, no, the whole reason he came is he looked down the corridors of history and he saw George, and he saw that George is weak, and he saw that George fundamentally doesn't really care about God and God's ways, and that in fact George has often been like that 17 year old and just said, I'm going to show you,

[17:16] Kent Bosmira, I'm going to do whatever I want. And God saw all of those things for me, and out of love, not out of weakness, not out of guilt, not out of shame, not out of some sense that he needs to prove himself, because he had nothing to prove, he doesn't need anything, and completely and utterly out of love, he decided to take my place.

[17:44] He decided to take my place and die. And, and you know, the thing, one of the things which is so, there's many things which are wonderful about, about, about Christianity, but one of the things which is just so wonderful about this is that Christianity is completely and utterly unique amongst all of the religions in the world.

[18:03] If the Quran, I don't know if the Quran actually says that God loves you, but if it did, you could say to those who believe the Quran, well, prove it.

[18:16] Why should I believe that? In fact, there's good reasons for me not to believe it. Some of the things it says, and some of the things I know about Muhammad, there's good reasons not to believe it. Like, why should I believe that?

[18:27] It would be the same with anything. It would be the same with, you know, Buddhism, it would be the same with Hinduism. If they say that God is love, you say, well, why should I believe that? But Christianity is all, you can't, you know, you could have Buddhism without Buddha.

[18:39] In fact, Buddhas would say that because there can be other gurus. There could have been somebody else who had an enlightenment other than the Ketama. And, and in a sense, Muhammad was just God's final prophet. There were other prophets and there could have been some other one other than Muhammad to deliver the, the, the Quran to the human race.

[18:55] And the same with Hinduism. There's been many sages, but you can't have Christianity without Jesus. And the very heart of the Christian faith is his death upon a cross and his resurrection. And the resurrection changes everything.

[19:08] The resurrection after his crucifixion changes everything. So when I say these things about this demonstrates God's love, it's not just like me talking about Santa Claus or the Easter bunny or the great pumpkin, if you're like the peanuts.

[19:21] This actually something that happened like in history. I was just listening to an interview with Molly Werther a little while ago. She teaches at an elite university in the States and she writes for elite publications like the Atlantic and the New York or the New York Times.

[19:38] And she's, I think she's in her mid to late forties. She became a Christian just a couple of years ago as an adult. And, and she's a history professor. And one of the things is that she got challenged about this.

[19:50] She's actually, believe it or not, her specialization was the history of Christianity. And she got confronted by a guy who said, you know, you're a professor, an expert in the history of Christianity, but you've never actually studied the origin of Christianity in this central Christian belief that Jesus died on a cross and rose from the dead.

[20:06] She ended up being convicted by it. And so she looked into it and as, as she was sharing the interview, one of the things is that it shocked her. It shocked her for how much evidence there was that he actually rose from the dead.

[20:19] Like it shocked her. It's not compelling evidence that you can't, you can look at it, not come up with any other explanation, but it was just very, very shockingly strong.

[20:29] And she began, as she says, from an atheistic perspective, just looking at the historical documents, giving them no credence as to having any type of special value or holy significance whatsoever.

[20:41] And that was part, of course, of her whole becoming a Christian. But the point is that when they say here that Christ died for us, that we're talking about this way that what Christians understand is that when Jesus died on the cross, he died in our place, in our stead.

[21:00] And he died knowing that people did not care about God. He knew there are weaknesses. He knew our rebellion. And in a moment, we're going to see another image of being reconciled.

[21:11] We didn't want to reconcile with God. And God, knowing all of this, God, the Son of God, took into himself our human nature, and Jesus actually died on the cross. You see, here's the thing.

[21:25] You can never do anything to make God love you more. I'll say that again. You can never do anything to make God love you more.

[21:40] Because God is love. He is love. I'll say it again. You can never do anything to make God love you more. Because God is love.

[21:52] He is love. He doesn't have love. He's not loving. I mean, he is loving, but he's loving because he is love. And you don't have to, you can't say love itself. It's love himself.

[22:03] That's who he is. Now, some might hear this and say, well, George, I'm not.

[22:15] So you're saying that you put your faith in Christ and somehow you're made right with God. And George, okay, George, I'm not entirely like you. You know, George, I'm actually way weaker than you are, maybe.

[22:31] That's why maybe I'm not a Christian and you can be. And you know what? I'm actually way more uninterested in religious and spiritual things than you are. And I actually, I can really screw up relationships.

[22:44] And I'm sure that given how good I am at screwing up relationships, that if I was to actually see God, I'd screw up that relationship as well. And I'm definitely, you said something about reconciliation, and I definitely am not good at reconciling.

[22:57] So I don't know if things like this are for me. And the next part is just so unbelievably beautiful and precious. Look what it says next. It's as if God, and not as if he does, in fact, anticipate those problems that we have.

[23:11] And he says in verse 9, the Bible says in verse 9, since therefore, look at the double therefores, since, since, therefore, therefore. Sorry, I chuckle over things like that.

[23:21] And therefore, therefore, since, since, we have now been justified by his blood, that is, by his death, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

[23:32] And I'm not going to go over the wrath of God at great length. But what this text is saying is this. It's mainly what we were talking about last week, and just sort of, you know, the Bible isn't, the Bible, Romans says that the gospel is, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes.

[23:54] The gospel is a proclamation. It's news. And in this news is this idea that God has done something in this, in the mystery of what his son has done upon, by his death upon the cross.

[24:06] There's been something profound that God has done for human beings that we cannot do for ourselves because we are weak, because our connection with God is at best intermittent, and our concern about what God thinks is at best intermittent.

[24:21] And we actually, completely and utterly incompetent, incompetent at actually even being reconciled to God. And in that whole situation, God does something for us that we can't do for ourselves.

[24:32] And he does it with his son's life upon earth, and then his death upon the cross, and his resurrection. And when I trust, take God at his word, when I trust what God has said that he's done in his son, and what Jesus said he was accomplishing, I take him at his word, and I believe it and trust into that, I enter into union with him.

[24:54] And in union with him, then these profound benefits come to me, which I'll talk about two of them in a moment. But then it's as if, you know, it's like receiving Christ is a little bit, like I shared about last week, like receiving a coin of infinite value.

[25:10] And in that coin, one side of it said, made right with God, and the other side says justified. And what do those two things mean? The first thing means that you're literally made right with God. It's right, you're right. You're in Christ, it's right with me.

[25:22] And justified is this other aspect of a, it's almost like a formal public declaration and guarantee from all eternity. I declare that George, who has put his faith and trust into the Lord Jesus Christ, is right with me, and right with the created order, and right with eternity from this time on, from his entire life into all eternity.

[25:47] I proclaim it. It's guaranteed by me. I have done it. Christ has done it. It is guaranteed. And it would be as if the day that I put my faith in Christ, there was a billboard put in heaven that God says on that billboard, today, George put his faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[26:08] He is right with me. I guarantee it for all eternity. I guarantee it. And when I get to the new heaven and the new earth, maybe I will see that billboard, and we can all go around, and I can go with Daniels.

[26:20] Hey, Daniel, there's yours. And there, Daniel, sorry, lots of Daniels. There's yours, you know? Marshall, Beth, there's yours. That's what justified means.

[26:32] That's what Christ accomplished for you and me when he died on the cross. And so, you see, it's not a matter of then, he did that, and look what it says again, right?

[26:44] It's saying that, you know, listen to verses 6 through 9 again. For while we were still weak, God knew we, Christ knew we were weak, and he died for us. He died for the ungodly. He knew I was ungodly when he died for me.

[26:55] And then, you know, it says, somebody will scarcely die for a righteous person through perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. You know, why is it that a parent would be very different with their own child than it would be for just that same parent with the random stranger going by?

[27:09] They love their child. They love their child. No way would they not die for their child if it was a matter of their child gets to live if I die. Yes, absolutely.

[27:21] It's pointing to this profound love that God has for us. But God shows his love for us, demonstrates it, that while we were still sinners, ungodly and weak, Christ died for us.

[27:33] Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more will be saved from the wrath of God from him. And I'll explain what that means in a moment when you look at verse 10. Like, why death?

[27:44] Why death? Why was death required? Well, let's look at verse 10. Notice it begins with the word for. For if while we were enemies, here's another thing, I'm weak, I'm godly, a sinner, an enemy.

[28:01] Sorry, just a joke, right? God, why don't you tell us what you really think? You know, he does, right? Enemies, read again, 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.

[28:21] More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Go back to verse 10. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.

[28:35] You know, one of the things which is unique, another thing which is unique amongst, of Christianity, amongst all of the world's religions, is none of the other world's religions care about you being reconciled to God. Quran does not teach that God is, that Allah is concerned with being reconciled to you.

[28:55] You being reconciled to him. Because he's not, doesn't desire a relationship with you. You were created in a sense to be a slave. All the pagan religions, you're fundamentally created to be a slave to the ancestors or the gods.

[29:08] And then of course, at the end as well, in the Eastern religions, in their governing myths, the fact that human beings exist at all is a tragedy. And you end up just being merged with the all.

[29:19] There's no reconciliation. Reconciliation requires others and assumes relationships and love. It's a completely, massively unusual idea. And I think that explains why we human beings not only long at our deepest levels for reconciliation with God, but long to be reconciled with others.

[29:39] So why this image? Well here, consider this example. I decide to be a good guy one day. I have an extra car and so I lend it to one of you. And because you're really stuck, you really need to get to Toronto, let's say, and get back.

[29:52] And you're really stuck for some money and I say, here, you can borrow my car and here, I'll lend you my credit card so you can get some gas and get some meal. And you know, the implication is you'll give me the car back and you'll give me the, you'll pay me back later on, right?

[30:05] Maybe I'll cut it off a little bit because I, you know, I want to be a good guy and all that. But you know, I'm generous. Here's the credit card. Here's the car. And you take it and you keep it and you keep it and you keep it and you wreck it and you make it all completely and utterly filthy inside and bang it up and you get a whole pile of traffic tickets which are all going to be in my name, not yours.

[30:30] And you rack up a whole pile of credit card debt almost immediately before I can find out what's going on and you refuse to give the car back. You refuse to give me the credit card back. You bad mouth me publicly for even suggesting it and you lie about me and you slander me and then you claim that in fact, it's all your, all my fault, not their fault and that in fact, the debt really is theirs and well, that would be a terrible situation.

[31:01] You could change it. You, you let a, you know, you, you let a person borrow your cottage or your house. Same type of idea and they just wreck it and tell everybody it's theirs and bad mouth you and obviously you want some type of, you want them out and let's say you eventually get them out but you're still stuck with all those debts and the wrecked cars and everything else and then they come and they say they want to be reconciled to you.

[31:34] Now let's just be honest, most of us probably don't love them enough or love enough that we want to ever see them again for the rest of our lives unless it's to hear that they're behind bars in jail and we just go to the jail just to take one picture of them behind the bars and we keep it as our front page on our phone.

[31:59] Now I'm probably vastly more wicked than all of you but let's say actually you decided out of love you did want to have reconciliation happen with them. Well how on earth is that going to work?

[32:10] So what has to happen in reconciliation? Well in reconciliation first of all the person who's done all those wrong things to you has to actually want to reconcile. The second thing is they have to acknowledge and confess that they've done all of these terribly wrong things and you're not going to just let them go and say yeah yeah a little bit uncareful with money.

[32:29] No no no no no you weren't just a little bit uncareful with money. You need to confess the things that you actually did and as well as that in some cases you say and you have to take the punishment.

[32:40] You have to go and say I'm not going to have my drivers I'm not going to have my you know things suspended or my insurance thing it has yours done you have to take those things on yourself you have to be something and you have to make some type of restitution you have to pay back some of the some of the things or all of the things and you have to desire to live differently and it's not just a matter of desiring to live differently you actually have to accomplish living differently.

[33:05] everything that exists comes from God we are the ones who have trashed his car ridden up debt bad mouthed him ignored him and now we come to God and say we want to be reconciled to him as Jordan Peterson would say good luck with that how could you do that so the first thing you'll see that in this particular illustration with being reconciled to God it doesn't mean that God has done wrong things to us and he needs to be reconciled to us there has never been a time in your life that you have been unloved by God God is love and there is nothing you can do to make God love you more there is nothing that God has to repent of or confess or amend he cannot change himself he's only good goodness itself beauty itself truth and justice there is nothing that he has to do it all has to come from me and to be honest

[34:11] I'm too weak to do any of those things and my heart is way too intermittent to ever actually really believe I could accomplish a new way of living and there is no way I could ever pay that debt back you see in forgiveness let's say I was to forgive the person just off the bat in that particular with the car example somebody still has to pay for the debt if I actually forgive them I can only forgive them and they don't have any money if I pay the debt that's what forgiveness is and in a sense what the Bible is saying the debt of your the things that you've done wrong and failed to do right is so great that if it was to be made public every single little detail it would mean it would crush you you would die but Jesus was the one who died in my place he paid my debt the punishment that I deserved was laid on him the debt

[35:24] I could not pay he paid by his debt and this is some of this I get from a very brilliant essay by C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity called The Perfect Penitent written I think in 1942 you see when I put my faith and trust into Christ it's not just that he in a sense pays the sin and the price that I have to do that I can't do for myself he is the perfect penitent that I need to be reconciled to God he desires that he had that desire to be with his father and he was always with the father he never did anything wrong he pays the debt he is the one who lived the life that I needed to live and could not live he is the perfect penitent I need to go from being God's enemy to his friend for all eternity and there is no other and my faith and trust into him is my faith and trust into him as that penitent that I need to be reconciled to God and there is no other and there is no greater love than what

[36:45] Christ has done for us by dying on the cross notice at verse 11 it's why it says that more than that we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation just three things very briefly in closing the first thing there is we rejoice there's a verb there for rejoice and the question always is what is God actually asking us to do and what he's not asking us to do is to feel joyful what he's actually asking us to do is something very different you see it's going to involve joy but if it's just actually trying to make ourselves feel joyful that's not going to work what it actually is always asking us to do is to boast and exult in God to remember to say before God in those times when we are very very broken and also in the times when we're very very successful when I'm very very successful I need to say all things come of you God and of your own have I given back and when

[37:45] I am very very broken I have to say God I am so weak I am so glad that when I am weak Jesus died for me on the cross I am so glad that even though I have had a week of being really really really a terrible Christian I am so glad that you knew that and Jesus died on the cross for me and Father when I have done things even in defiance of you things that are morally wrong not just indifferent but morally wrong I am so glad that Jesus knew that and died on the cross for me and I'm so glad Father that when I've talked to people not as if I'm a Christian but really as if I'm your enemy because of the cruel things that I have said I am Father thank you that Jesus died for me on the cross and rejoicing is all about exalting and glorying in who God is and what he did for me in the cross and when you do that sometimes joy is a byproduct of it and that's why it's called rejoicing not that you try to psychologically manipulate yourself do you feel joy but you think of

[38:49] Christ and what he has done this is part of what it means to preach the gospel to yourself because it's this rejoicing is something that you can say in your own! self talk in your prayers and one of the things we get to do is to come together on a Sunday morning and remember it at the Lord's table we remember that Christ knowing that his disciples were going to flee knowing that Judas was betraying him knowing that he would have to drink the cup of God's wrath and our sins and knowing that he would die on the cross he institutes a new as these truths of the gospel become more real to our heart that that person says about

[39:54] George yeah you know whatever yeah whatever yeah whatever whoa that really stung as truths like this become more real to our heart and we preach the gospel to ourselves remembering what Christ has done for us on the cross I can hear that criticism and say that's true and boy they don't even the half of it I'm actually way worse than that I'm actually way worse than that I am just so grateful that Christ died for me knowing all of that and you see it starts to create an emotionally and effectively and intellectually secure place for you to hear such criticisms and to acknowledge them and to repent and to deal with them because once again there has never been a time in your life that you have been unloved by God and God shows his love and demonstrates and proves it by

[40:54] Jesus death upon the cross and he did it when you were sick when you were weak when you were sinful and finally as this truth of God doing all that's required to reconcile me to him as that becomes more real to and a place upon which you stand and you can look at your own life it starts to form you to desire reconciliation and that means maybe to be willing to extend it to the person who's profoundly wronged you and being willing to extend it because it's important and it also is the place by which when you realize that you're the one who's mainly done the wrong that there's a and you need to deal with it the story isn't just a story it's true it's true in eternity it's transcendent it's true in history it is deeply deeply deeply deeply true and as it becomes more deeply true to your heart it forms you it forms you in a way that you want to be formed don't you don't you want to be one who's!

[42:11] able to deal with the crap in your life don't you want to be one who's willing to extend the olive branch the other direction don't you want to be emotionally and spiritually secure enough to have that be what characterizes you that you can be humble and grounded in times of huge success and that you can stand and grow and deal with things when you're very weak!

[42:34] The gospel begins by subverting you by saying these things about you but it's all so you can stand and grow and be free and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ I invite you to stand let's bow our heads in prayer Father we give you thanks and praise that you know our weakness you know our lack of care about you you know our defiance of you you know even those times that we really acted like enemies of you and you knew all of that you knew every single act from beginning to end and still Jesus came to die for us God the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ came to die for us and this really does show that you are the only God of love that you are love that you really do love us you really not just love us in the abstract but that you love me in my concrete particular historical story and that you love each one who is here and hears these words and we ask

[43:41] Father that for those of us who have not yet given their lives to Christ that you will Father Holy Spirit will move in their lives that they might call out even today even now Jesus please be my Savior and my Lord thank you for taking my place and dying on the cross thank you that you want me to be!

[43:57] you! thank you! you are my may the gospel become more and more real to our heart and in times of great triumph and in times of great need and weakness and failure Father may our hearts remember may our mind and our lips recount what you have done for us in the person of your son and that that is now declared in the heavens forever and guaranteed so Father please do this work in!

[44:37] and help us to