Romans 5:6-11: Love Beyond Logic

How do you respond to people who continue to treat you poorly?  Our society has grabbed the term “toxic” to describe those people who are that constant problem in our lives. More often than not, the recommendation is to remove that person from your life if you can. Sometimes that is wisdom. Some people have shown their stripes and it would be foolish to believe they would behave in any other way. 

I do wonder, though, if we miss out on some of life’s wonders by bailing out prematurely. That’s a topic for another day and maybe another podcast but I was thinking about our relationship with God.  I’m so glad that He didn’t bail on us… that He didn’t cut me out of His life. 

Romans 5:6-11 describes love that goes beyond logic and the reality of what that means for us in our lives.

Transcript

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How do you respond to somebody who continues to treat you poorly? I've noticed that our society has grabbed a hold of the term toxic to describe those people that are a constant problem in our lives. More often than not, the recommendation is to remove that person, to cut them out from your life if possible. You know, sometimes that is wisdom. People have shown their stripes, and it would be foolishness to believe that they would behave otherwise. But I do wonder sometimes if we miss out on some of life's wonder and mystery by bailing out too quickly. You know, that's a topic probably for another day and maybe a totally different podcast, I don't know. But I was thinking about our relationship with God. You know, I'm so glad that he didn't bail out early on us. I'm glad that he didn't cut me out of his life. On that happy note, welcome to Meet Me in the Word. I am genuinely glad that you're here with us. We're in Romans chapter five, verses six through eleven today. So go ahead and open up your copy of God's Word to that passage. Uh you can follow along if you do that, or if you prefer to just listen, that is a thousand percent okay with me. Before we jump in, let's pray. Jesus, thank you. Thank you that you've stuck it out with us. God, that you you haven't given up and you don't. Thank you that uh when you set your mind to whatever it is that you set your mind to, or that you follow it through and your promises are kept. God, we want to meet with you and to be changed by you. Would you please meet with us now? Amen. All right, we're gonna go ahead and read uh these verses together, and I'll just invite you as we go through this process, just be prayerfully paying attention, and as the Lord reveals things to you, pay attention to that. Starting at verse six of Romans chapter five, you see, at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? For if while we were God's enemies we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life? Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Let's just take a quick moment to pause, let that one soak in, and to listen to the Lord. You can pause this if you'd like. All right, let's take a moment and focus in on what this text says. You know, when I get ready for recording this for you, I actually am pretty intentional about not trying to be too teachy, too nerdy, or too preachy. I don't really want those two factors to be in there too much, but sometimes it's helpful to kind of bring certain things to light. But today I wanted to talk about three words. There are a lot of pretty significant theological words in this short text, and it'll help us, I think, to appreciate what's being communicated. So three words that I want us to understand. The first one is that word justified. Uh he uh he talks about that there in verse 9, since we have been justified by his blood. Now, some of you have grown up in church world, you're like, yeah, I know what that means. Okay, fine, hang out with me for just a moment here. But it really is this idea that we have been rendered, right, just or innocent. In a certain sense, we've been declared to be so. Uh, one of the uh parts of the definition says this to declare, pronounce one to be just, righteous, or or such as he ought to be, right? There's this sense that that whatever we were beforehand, however we came into the presence of God, that because of what Jesus has done, that's the context in which this word has been used, right? We've been justified by his blood. Uh so through uh Christ's actions, through his sacrifice, this is how this took place. And because of that, we have been declared to be to be innocent, I guess, in that certain sense, to be without guilt and to be righteous. So that's a that's an important term for us to kind of wrestle with a little bit. And then the second one I wanted to hang out with for just a moment is that word reconciled. And we see it uh pop up quite a few different times here, especially in the second part of our passage. And uh I this one actually was like, oh yeah, I had forgotten about this, but this really jives. It means to to change uh or to exchange, as it says, as coins for others of equivalent value. If that's confusing, think about accounting or bookkeeping. And if it if you talk to somebody who has done those things, they'll talk about reconciling uh their books. And what they're talking about is making sure that basically all of the transactions, all of the numbers, all of that stuff matches up. That your internal books match up with your bank account, all of that. It's about matching up. It's about moving out of misalignment into being aligned. Everything agrees with everything else, nothing is out of balance. And I don't know why that that was particularly striking to me, because I don't think that's the primary way in which Paul is using this here, because it also just means like to return to favor with, to be reconciled to, to receive one into favor, right? To what we were estranged in in some way or another, uh, but we went through a process of reconciliation relationally, right? And then we're invited back into this. And I think that's the main way that we should think about it. But the accounting way actually adds a layer of richness there, doesn't it? It's this sense that that we've been functioning a sense that's out of balance. That our, I guess our spiritual bookkeeping was was kind of out of whack. There was something that wasn't quite adding up, so to speak, right? And and yet Jesus comes along, and part of that reconciliation is that we move from being, you know, caddywampus, there's a wonderful word, into being centered and good and and steadied again. Uh we've moved back into agreement. I just appreciated that. I hope that that, I don't know, encourages you in some way. And then finally the word for saved. Uh and and again, that probably is familiar to a lot of us. I think we use it in our own everyday language uh in a variety of different ways. But in this case, it's really from the consequences of sin into God's favor. But more than that, it's not just about that justification piece, right? That declaration of being okay or acceptable or holy. It's it's about this restoration peace, wellness, wholeness. When God saves us, it's not just about from penalty, right? It is also about being saved from our own selves and from our own actions that would derail us and from the things that would impede our connection and relationship with Him. And in doing that, we become back into alignment. One of the pictures of our salvation that I've appreciated a lot lately is this idea that that we come back into a right uh, I guess, understanding or a right existence in connection with our Creator. Like Jesus has not only saved us, but He He part of creation and He's made us. And so when we think about that idea, like, yeah, life just it doesn't get easier, but it does get better when we uh when we put ourselves in in the in the right way of living according to the way that we have been created. I think that's a pr a pretty big deal. All right, so we've nerded out plenty long enough. Um if you've managed to hang out with me that long, just congratulations. Uh well well done. Uh but I wanted to hit two uh other just kind of main ideas from this short text uh as we as we think about it. The first one is just love beyond logic, verses six through eight really encapsulate this idea. I would encourage you actually to take in the podcast from the previous week, which is Romans 5, verses 1 through 5, because it does talk about and highlights this idea of God's love being poured into us through his spirit. And then I think Paul is continuing that that thought as he moves into verses six through eight, and we see the the practical outpouring of that, they're the practical expression of that love that has been poured out. How did what did that look like when when God poured his love into us through the Holy Spirit? Well, Jesus came and and he took a look at us, right? And and it says, While we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly, right? While we were still sinners, there in verse 8, Christ died for us. And then even in verse 10, for while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son. Those ideas are profound, and and I hope that that this sinks in for you. I I my prayer is that as we think about that idea, while we were still powerless, while we were while we were still sinners, while we were still enemies, in those dark, dark moments, those moments when we're certainly not deserving, Jesus said, Yeah, I I I actually do still love you. In fact, I love you enough that I'm gonna pull you out of that. And and his response to, I'm gonna use that word again, our toxicity, wasn't to cut us out. It was to move in and to change the chemistry of who we are, to move us from being something toxic into being something good. And that's just an outstanding thought to me. I I love the idea that that is there, and I've been just kind of hanging out with that idea uh throughout this morning. So love that is just beyond logic. It's primarily focused there in sixth through eight, but it comes through the rest of this passage as well. And then lastly, the gospel message isn't just about sacrifice and death. And Paul talks about those two things quite a bit, like no doubt about it. The cross is central and it should be, right? It absolutely should be, but it is equally about life and restoration. When we remember that we are people of the resurrection, right? We live in the age of grace, in the age of hope, with this understanding that we are alive because Jesus is alive, that really can shift the way that we think about things. And Paul, I think, captures those ideas, especially there through verse 10 and 11, where he says, While we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, and then he continues, right? How much more? Having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life, right? Not only this is so, or is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received reconciliation. So there's this bubbling of joy that after thinking about just the the incredible circumstances in which Jesus entered into our situation, uh, we get to live in the light of that, in the hope of that. That encourages me. I was thinking about the reflective piece, and I'll be honest, I actually took some time to like, okay, what what is our take home, you know, with with this passage? And I think the reason that I had to take a minute to get there is that there isn't necessarily a like a to-do thing for us. This is really just describing what Jesus has done for us. And so here's the reflection point let the truth of God's love change you. Just let it sink in. Don't stress about it, don't feel like you have to memorize it, right? It's not one of those deals, but just let that soak in and change how you feel, how you see the world, how you think about yourself, how you interact with God. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for today. God thank you that when you're present in our lives, our lives change. Thanks for not abandoning us. We love you. Amen.