Red: From Enemies to Friends
Romans 5:6-11
Romans 5:6-11 doesn't start well for us. It doesn't flatter us. It's actually deeply confronting.
It doesn't talk about us as wonderful spiritual people searching for truth. It doesn't say we're basically good people who unfortunately sometimes mess up. It doesn't start with, "You're actually a good person, don't stress too much."
What it does is start with really confronting words.
We Are Powerless
Romans 5:6 says, "At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly."
We were powerless. Not just weak. Not just struggling a little bit. Not like we just need to do some exercise, hit the gym, and we'll get strong enough. Powerless.
Another way to think about it: we were spiritually bankrupt. So spiritually bankrupt that we were down and out for the count. There was no way back.
There is no amount of effort or morality or hard work, no amount of complaining about how unfair this is, no tantrums, no amount of becoming super religious that will ever fix this problem. We can never do this on our own. We will never get back. We will never be able to right the wrong ourselves.
We are too far gone, Romans 5 says. We are powerless.
And not only that, we are ungodly.
Notice Romans 5 doesn't say Jesus died once we showed improvement. It doesn't say Jesus came and died when we worked really hard and got to a good point. Or that we climbed so close we were almost reaching up to touch God, and God said, "You know what, you've come this far, let me grab you for the last little bit."
Verse 8 says "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
While we were still enemies with God, Jesus dies for us.
More Sinful, Yet More Loved
We need to understand this before we can understand what Jesus has done for us. We need to take a good hard look at ourselves and understand that we are more sinful and flawed than we would ever dare believe. But the flip side is that we are more loved and accepted in Jesus than we ever dared hope for.
This is the beauty of the gospel.
God sends His Son Jesus to die for His enemies (verse 10). While we were enemies of God, that's what sin does, makes us enemies of God. It isn't just about breaking rules, it's about breaking relationship with God, and breaking relationship with one another.
It's saying, "God, I know you made everything and it was pretty good, but I know better. I know how things should work better. I know how my life can run better."
For any parents in the room, could you imagine one of your kids coming to you and saying, "You know what, I don't like your rules in this house. I think I have better rules. You've done a pretty good job getting me to this point, but I reckon I know better."
What's your response as parents?
In my house it'd be: out. You want to make your rules? Out. You want to be in charge? Out. You want to pay the rent? Go pay it somewhere else. My house, my rules.
This is basically what we do to God. We say, "God, I want to make the rules in your house." And then we complain that God won't let us into His kingdom.
That makes us hostile towards God. Makes us enemies.
Just at the Right Time
Jesus doesn't die for His friends. He dies for His enemies. He dies so He can make His enemies into friends.
And this was the plan all along. Romans 5:6: "At just the right time." Not a second earlier, not a second late. The right moment.
For God, this moment wasn't Him reacting. It wasn't, "Oh, what am I going to do? I need to think of something. I wasn't expecting this." This was the plan from day one.
From the day one of creation, God planned to send His Son Jesus to die on the cross, to take your sin, my sin, the sin of the world on Himself, so we'd be forgiven and made right, so we'd be able to be friends with God.
The timing was perfect.
This is not an accident. The story of the Bible, the story of history, the plan of God was not chance. Not a fluke. Not something He's reacting to, but something He planned from the beginning.
Everything pointed to Jesus' death. Everything pointed to the cross. Every promise pointed towards it. Every hope rested on it. It is where we see love, the love of God in its fullness.
Love for Enemies
Romans 5:7: "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die."
We know this to be true. We love those movies where someone throws themselves in front of a bullet or pushes someone out of the way of a car. "Such a hero! Not all heroes wear capes!"
There are people in our lives we'd deem worthy of doing something like that for—family, friends, people we respect or hold in high regard.
But notice verse 8: "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
While there was no reason for Jesus to die for us other than His love for us, Jesus dies for us. Jesus dies and shows love to people who hate Him, who deny Him, who reject Him, who are His enemies.
This is where we see that the Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God. At the cross, Jesus became like you so you could become sons and daughters of the great God of this world.
The Substitute
Here's how He does it: by shedding His blood on the cross.
When Jesus dies on the cross, He steps in our place. He is the substitute for us. He steps in and dies this costly giving of self, death on our behalf.
Jesus doesn't just show us love, He also absorbs the punishment we deserve, the judgement we deserve. He takes it on Himself so we don't have to bear it.
Our sin requires punishment because our God is a holy, perfectly holy God. He's also perfectly just, a God of perfect justice. He can't just shrug His shoulders at sin and go, "Eh, not a big deal." He can't sweep evil under the rug and forget about it.
And we want that to be true, don't we? We want our God to hold sin and evil seriously. We want Him to judge that. Because there will be lots of times in this world where some people won't get the justice they deserve in this life. But one day they will, when we all stand before God.
But we don't want that justice for ourselves, do we?
If we heard that our Supreme Court held a case against a murderer and the judge decided to be nice and let the murderer out free, no bail, no jail time, just off you go, what would we do? We'd go ballistic. Social media would blow up. "The judge is corrupt! This is a failure of our justice system!"
Justice demands payment.
Our rebellion has created a debt we can never pay. We'd love for God to sweep our sin under the rug but not compromise His good, holy, right justice for everyone else. We want Him to compromise it for us.
But if a judge compromises once, it's a slippery slope. Where do you stop? Everything becomes good. That's not a world we want to live in.
Whenever there is wrong done, a debt is created.
There's always a cost. Someone has to take it. Someone has to absorb it.
Jesus takes it on Himself. He absorbs our punishment so we don't have to.
The Essence of Sin and Salvation
The essence of our sin is that we as human beings substitute ourselves for God. We say we are God. That's sin.
The essence of salvation is God saying, "I will substitute myself for you. I will take your place."
Sin says, "I'll take God's place." Salvation says, "God will take ours."
When Jesus dies on the cross and rises again, that debt has been paid once and for all.
And because Jesus rose from the dead, not only is sin defeated, but death is defeated as well. He's the only person who has died and come back to tell us what's on the other side. And what's waiting for us? His glory with Him forever. Eternity.
What Does This Mean?
Verse 9: "We have now been justified by his blood. How much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him?"
We've been saved from the wrath of God. God's anger isn't petty or unstable, it's a settled opposition to evil. Jesus has taken our sin, our judgement, the wrath of God. There's none left for you and me. He's absorbed all of it.
That means there's now no condemnation, no fear of punishment, no wondering if we've done enough. Because Jesus has done it all.
On the cross where Jesus' blood is shed, His body given for us, justice and love meet in perfect harmony.
Reconciled
Verse 10: "While we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son."
Reconciliation is relational language. It's not just a legal verdict, not just clearing a record. There is now peace between us and God. We're no longer enemies, no longer at war.
This God we once avoided, hid from, resisted, He's no longer our enemy. He's now our Father. Our wonderful, loving, glorious Heavenly Father.
What Will You Do?
Verse 11: "Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."
We receive what has been done for us. We don't achieve something. The story of the gospel, the story of the cross, the story of Jesus is not about a to-do list to earn salvation or God's love.
It's a response to what's been done for us.
In Mark 1:15 Jesus said: "The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news."
This good news that Jesus paid it all for you. This man of sorrow died on the cross for you to pay your punishment, to redeem you, to pay your debt once and for all. We receive it. We turn, we repent, we believe.
Repentance is our response to being convicted of our sin. It's admitting: "Lord, I know I've rebelled. I've gone and done my own thing. I've tried to be my own God. I've been stumbling in the darkness of my own selfishness for too long, and it's getting me nowhere. I'm done with that way of living."
As we repent, we turn to God and believe in His Son Jesus. We trust that Jesus died for us. We're saying that death on the cross was for me. We're putting our whole life, our whole trust in Jesus. Not trusting in our record, but trusting in the record of Jesus, because He has made us friends with God.
When you repent and believe, you're forgiven and saved by the blood of Christ. Saved from sin. Redeemed. Reconciled. Forgiven.
And remember how Romans 5:6 said we were powerless? When we repent and believe and accept the forgiveness of the Saviour, we're no longer powerless. We're no longer enemies of God. We are children of the King of the universe. We are friends with God.
Because of that, we boast. We rejoice. We rejoice in God. We find our ultimate joy in Him and in Him alone.
Our story has been rewritten by His blood. We rejoice in Jesus because Jesus changes everything.
The question is: how are you going to respond?
This sermon is part of the Colours of Life series, telling the gospel story in five simple colours. Soul Revival Church gathers across the Sutherland Shire [Kirrawee, Yarrawarrah, Miranda, Cronulla] and Ryde.