Day 1 - Week 7 - THIRD stop on the Romans Road!

It's Tuesday - and that means we've advanced to the next stop on our travel down the Romans Road.  I know I need it, and I think you might too, so let's do a quick review of our Romans Road so far...

Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Are you seeing the progression? 

First, we have to be confronted and convicted of our sinfulness  We have to acknowledge the huge gap between our best efforts and the glory of God and our inability to bridge that gap. 

Second, we need to know what our sinfulness earns for us...that payment is death, both physical and spiritual death.  But there is a gift provided to us because of the death of Christ, and that gift is eternal life.

Now we're ready to move on down the road to our third stop...Romans 5:8, "But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us."

There's a lot in this verse that we will break down over the coming week.  But tonight I want you to think about how you prove your love for someone.  Think of all the very nicest things that you have done for someone that you did just to absolutely prove your love for them.  Now....have you ever done even one of those things for someone when they were doing something to you that you hated?  What about if someone was doing the exact opposite of what you had asked them to do for you...would those be the times that you would do an extraordinary act to prove your love for them? 

Well that's our God...He proves His love for us while we are doing things that he hates, while we are in rebellion against Him, while we ignore His commands and refuse to acknowledge His power.  While we are doing all of that, He is saying, "Let me show you just how much I really do love you." 

Is it any wonder that Paul says later in Romans 11:33, "How great are God's riches! How deep are his wisdom and knowledge! Who can explain his decisions? Who can understand his ways?"  God's ways are certainly not the way of the human mind...His love is so much more intense than we can imagine.

Now Jesus' words in Matthew 5:44-45 make more sense, don't they?  "But I tell you this: Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. In this way you show that you are children of your Father in heaven."

That's what He did for us, and He asks the same of those that are His children.

(All of this brings to mind a fantastic Christan novel that showed me the intensity of God's love...Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.  If you haven't read it, I would highly recommend it.)

 .