Romans 5:12-21

 Romans 5:12-21

What could be worse than having a life-ending, misery-causing, nasty disease? To have such a disease and not know it. To have all the symptoms of a grave illness and not know you are sick, and therefore not work for a cure is the condition of all mankind regarding sin. From Adam to Moses, there was a certainty that something was wrong, but what it was and how bad it was remained a terrible mystery. Then the law of Moses brought the diagnosis. The diagnosis revealed that the problem, the illness, was sin. The diagnosis revealed it was a more pervasive, more advanced, and more ruinous disease than we expected. At this point the good news was we knew what was wrong. The bad news is the diagnosis is not the same thing as a cure. We should never discount the value of an accurate diagnosis, nor can we discount the value of the law that condemns us for our sin. But to this point we are still a dying patient.

The cure is linked to the diagnosis, but it’s something altogether different. Law is the means of diagnosis. Grace is the means of the cure. That is why we can never be made right by keeping a set of rules or laws. A patient is never cured by consistently repeating the diagnostic test. By trying to keep a set of rules, we are reminded that we have, at some point, failed. The repeated diagnosis may cause us to do something differently so that the disease may be spreading more slowly at one time or another. But it is still there, and we remain uncured. Until Grace is applied, the law or rule-keeping can only tell us how fast we are dying.

The cure is greater than the illness in more than one way. First, the cure is greater than the illness, in that it completely removes the disease. The illness is removed from the body, and there are not any infections or diseased cells left. But there is more. Many times with a biological illness, the cure is devastating. The patient, while disease-free, is so damaged by the cure that they are scared and remain broken. This brings us to the second aspect of the cure of grace.  Not only does the cure remove the illness, it restores the damage done by the disease. Imagine an illness that causes the body to rot and parts of the body to fall off. In this mangled, rotting body, the cure removes the disease and perfectly restores those parts that had rotted away. That is what sin, law, and grace do in us. They are the disease, the diagnosis, and the cure. All we have lost to sin is healed and restored to us in the grace of Christ.

“Lord, thank You for the cure that you so graciously give.  AMEN”

Romans 5:1-11

Romans 5:1-11

In this beautiful passage, Paul begins to talk about what it means that we are set right by faith, rather than trying to be right by our own works. Paul uses a word translated “introduction” in verse two, which has a special nuanced meaning. The word was used to describe a face-to-face or intimate introduction. But it was also used to describe a ship coming to a safe harbor. The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was sailing toward the safety of Whitefish Bay when she sank about 15 miles from the “introduction” of the place of safety. Paul says by faith we are “introduced” to the safety of God’s grace.

However, we mustn’t think that this will mean smooth sailing. The life of faith doesn’t mean an absence of trouble, but rather safety and victory because of those troubles. We “exult,” Paul says, in the pressures of the life of faith. The word he uses here is from the root word for “neck,” and it means to hold your head up high. No one likes the hardship and struggles that we live through, but they produce wonderful things in us. Things such as perseverance, character, and hope. The most certain way to keep our children from maturing well is to protect them from struggles and hardship. It is true for us as well. God allows the hammer blows of life to come to us that will shape us. The most certain way to always be immature in our faith is to avoid hardships. Take on the giant challenge and embrace the difficulty, and if we are seeking God‘s will in it, we will be better for it.

Finally, verses 6-12 are one of the greatest passages of grace in the Bible. When everything was just right, Christ died for us. We have a hard time imagining a person dying a torturous death to rescue someone who was just a “nice guy.” It might happen for someone with admiration, respect, and love. But Jesus died a horrible death for the lives of the most egregious and disgusting persons. Imagine for a moment the vilest person you can. Perhaps it is a corrupt public servant, a pimp who sells little boys and girls; maybe it’s a serial seducer who ruins homes; perhaps it is the parent that molests their own flesh and blood; or even the occultist that cannibalizes their victims, or maybe it is you. Whoever that most loathsome creature is, Christ died for them. That means two things: first, God loves sinners; no one is beyond His love. Second, it means that reconciliation is a potential for all men. No one is lost because the sacrifice was insufficient; rather, they are lost because the sacrifice was rejected.

“Lord, thank You for your great sacrifice for me. AMEN”