Jesus Christ Died for the Ungodly

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Romans 5:6-11 ESV)

Not one of us, in our own flesh, can be saved from our own sins and have eternal life with God. We cannot, in our own selves ever be good enough to be acceptable to God. It is only by the grace of God, through faith, that any of us can come into genuine relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and be assured of salvation from sin and of eternal life with God. For even the faith to believe in Jesus comes from God, is persuaded of God, and is gifted to us by God and is not of our own doing, lest we should boast.

For it is while we were yet sinners that Jesus Christ died for us on that cross. While we were still weak in our flesh, Jesus Christ died for the ungodly of this world. Not one of us is deserving of God’s grace, even if we have lived a good life and we haven’t done anything really bad. All of us have sinned and not one of us is saved by our own merit. All of us fall short of the glory of God, of his divine approval and acceptance, in our own flesh. And we are only justified and made right with God because of God’s grace to us.

But what is faith? And what is salvation? And what is grace? There seems to be much in the way of misconceptions and false teachings on this subject these days. For if this is not of our own doing, then we don’t get to decide what faith, grace, and salvation look like, either. We cannot define these for ourselves to fit with our own lifestyles and our own comfort level. We have to go by the teachings of Christ and of his NT apostles to define what these are so that our faith in Christ is genuine and not of the flesh of humans.

Well, the Scriptures teach us that we cannot even come to faith in Jesus Christ unless God the Father first draws us to Christ, unless he first persuades us of his holiness and righteousness and of our sinfulness and of our need to repent of our sins and to now walk (in conduct, in practice) in obedience to our Lord and to his commands. And that is what faith is, divine persuasion. And he persuades us that we must deny self, die to sin, not just once but daily, and that we must walk in obedience to his commands.

So faith is not just words, and it is not just a feeling or a profession of something, but it is action, i.e. words put into action. And we are saved by God’s grace out of our lives of slavery (addiction) to sin so that we can now serve the Lord with our lives in surrender to his will and purpose for our lives in walks of obedience to his commands. And God’s grace trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we await our Lord’s return for his faithful ones.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:23-31; Hebrews 12:1-2]  

And not one of us is beyond repair. It doesn’t matter what we have done in our lives that is sinful. Just think of the apostle Paul (previously Saul) who, at one time, was a murderer and a persecutor of Christians, thinking that he was doing the right thing. Jesus did not write him off as a “lost cause,” but he visited him in a vision on the road to Damascus where (then Saul) Paul planned to persecute even more Christians. But in that encounter with Jesus Christ, Paul had a life transformation of heart, mind, and behavior, of God.

And Paul became the apostle Paul who taught the gospel to Jews and Gentiles alike, and who nurtured the believers in Jesus Christ to spiritual maturity, and who served as a shepherd to the flock even at the cost of much rejection and persecution against himself and false accusations and arrests and incarcerations and beatings which left him almost to the point of death sometimes. So the Christian life is not a promise of ease and comfort, but a promise that if our walks of faith are genuine God-persuaded that we will be hated and persecuted and cast aside as unwanted like Jesus was.

But I must tell you from experience that there is no better life to have than a life that is surrendered to the will of God, dying to sin daily, and walking in obedience to the Lord and to his commands, even if it means being hated and rejected and persecuted and unwanted. And I have experienced all of that throughout my life, at many times and places, but even more so since the Lord called me to this ministry 20 years ago. For Satan does not like it when we are serving the Lord with our lives in sharing the truth of the gospel so that many people can turn from their sins and now obey God.

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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