Reconciling Love

April 23, 2017 Background Scripture: Romans 5:1 – 11; 8:31 – 39 Lesson Passage: Romans 5:6 – 11; 8:31 – 39 God reaches out to disobedient people and extends His plan of salvation that was secured even while we were still His enemies. God does not offer a salvation that leaves us to fend for ourselves and to continue to live sinful and destructive lives. God offers a salvation that provides a future restoration of what He created in the Garden of Eden. God created man in His image and after His likeness to have communion with Him and reign over the physical world. Through Adam’s sin, man severed his relationship with God and lost his position. Even in the face of man’s open rebellion against God, God did not give up on man. His love for man is too great. God’s love for mankind is a reconciling love. God, within His character, would have done whatever was necessary to restore His relationship with man. This is what was done through the death of Jesus by crucifixion on a cross. Jesus’ death was by the most cruel and publically humiliating form of capital punishment ever devised by man. But God used crucifixion to break the power of sin over mankind. Man again has the ability to choose righteousness. Because of Jesus, man can choose to accept God’s unconditional love and submit himself to the lordship of Christ. The crafting of God’s plan of salvation did not depend on man’s input or ability. Every detail of the plan was created by God to fulfill His will for man. Man needs God’s life sustaining power and God desires man’s fellowship. The purpose of God’s love towards man is the reconciliation of the Divine-human bond. Once the bond is restored, it is an eternal relationship that cannot be severed by anything. God loved us enough for Jesus to die for us so we can be assured that with Jesus now living eternally, we are secure in salvation from all things. There is nothing in this world or the world to come that can destroy the bond of love that Jesus has secured for us. Neither physical things and creatures nor spiritual ones can destroy this divine love bond. This divine bond is continuously reconciling us. We have joy in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We are not burdened by ordinances or laws that only frustrate us because of our flesh. Through submission to the will of God, we accept completely the forgiveness of our sin that only comes through Jesus. Through the intercession of Jesus, God gives us all things that He has promised. Through Jesus’ death He saved us and now through Jesus’ life He sustains us. No sin can destroy the work of Christ on Calvary because Jesus’ work on Calvary destroyed the power of sin and paid the penalty for our sins. God is the only judge that determines a person’s eternal state. No one else can condemn us—not even the accuser of the brethren, Satan. There is nothing we can do to repay God for what He has done for us nor is there anything we can do to make ourselves self-sufficient enough to please Him. God is pleased when we have faith in what He has already done. Reconciling love is not to be earned but received and appreciated. Once appropriated into our lives, there is nothing that can separate us from the reconciling love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Robert C. Hudson March 1, 2017