Eternal Life: Understanding God’s Gift to Us || Romans 5:6-8 || Manna for the Mind #198

Romans 5:6-8

NASB	NLT	VOICE
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.	6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.	6 When the time was right, the Anointed One died for all of us who were far from God, powerless, and weak.
7 For one will hardly die for a righteous person; though perhaps for the good person someone would even dare to die.	7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.	7 Now it is rare to find someone willing to die for an upright person, although it’s possible that someone may give up his life for one who is truly good.
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.	8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.	8 But think about this: while we were wasting our lives in sin, God revealed His powerful love to us in a tangible display – the Anointed died for us.

Humanity was at a point of weakness and helplessness because there was nothing that we could do to save ourselves from our sinful behavior. Someone needed to intervene in our destructive behavior and rescue us back to a path of righteous living. Christ was sent to the world at the perfect time in history. God knew that the Israelites needed an ultimate rescuer and savior to fix their sinful behavior. God controls all history and controls the plan down to the finest detail when it came to Jesus’ sacrifice, death, and resurrection. Does it mean that God sent Jesus to die for us on purpose? Yes…and no. This was not the ultimate plan. God gave the Israelites plenty of chances to get things right and they didn’t. The sacrifices they were making were a part of the teachings they had, but they lost their meaning. The Israelites were doing what they were taught, but they continued to sin. So, God said that they needed an ultimate solution.

Think of closing words in Verse 8: “…while we were still sinners.” God sent Jesus Christ to die for us, not because we were good enough, but because he loved us and wants us to spend eternity with him. God wanted his people to spend forever with him. He saw that the old sacrificial system was no longer helping them, so he had to take power into his own hands. He sent Jesus to the world, as the perfect sinless sacrifice that conducts the goal of the sacrificial system altogether. God sacrificed his own son, just so we can have a strong and righteous relationship with him.

Galatians 4:4

NASB	NLT	VOICE
4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,	4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law.	4 When the right time arrived, God sent His Son into this world (born of a woman, subject to the law)

For centuries, the Jewish people have been wondering and waiting for their Messiah to come. He came for them, to rescue them, at the perfect time needed. All of this can make us question God’s timing. We’re in a time when the world feels scary, panicky, evil, and more. We question, “Why is God allowing this to happen? When is Jesus’ coming back to take us to this new Eden?” We’re allowing the belief that God caused the evil to happen, when that’s not true. There are the positive forces of the universe that God permits, he also provides balance, meaning that there are also negative forces of the universe. The negative forces, managed by the fallen angel Satan, causes the chaos, evil, and sin. The consequences of our sinful decisions can also lead to the chaos of the world. We must trust that God’s timing is good, giving us time to both fix our sinful behavior and create a path and community of compassion and mercy that he gives to us  that we share with the community around us.

John 3:16

NASB	NLT	VOICE
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.	16 For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.	16 For God expressed His love for the world in the way: He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting destruction, but have everlasting life.

God’s love is not egotistical or self-centered. It reaches out to all people and draws people into a loving relationship. God is showing us a pattern of true love for all relationships: when you love someone dearly, you are willing to give to them whatever needed freely, to the point where you are sacrificing your resources, time, and energy. God gave to us the best of what he had, to the point of the ultimate sacrifice (the death of his only Son.) Jesus accepted the punishment of humanity’s sin through this crucifixion, a punishment made for the most serious crimes. Through his resurrection, he offers us a chance of a new life through his resurrection. This is offering us a place in the new Kingdom of Heaven after our earthly life has passed. When we share this news, our love must be like Jesus’ – willing to give up our own comfort and security for others might join us in receiving God’s compassion and mercy.

Some people aren’t interesting in the idea of eternal life because they believe it’s just a continuation of their earthly life. They view their life as miserable, evil, and not worth continuing onward. Eternal life is not a continuation of our life. In eternal life, there is no death, sickness, evil, or sin. It’s a place of ultimate love and compassion. It’s a place of completeness, fullness, and love. When we don’t know Jesus, we make choices as though this life is everything there is. It’s hard to understand a life beyond this one and that our decisions in this one could affect another life.

We often don’t talk about our eternal life. We don’t think about, even within Christian communities. It’s not natural to think that our decisions today will lead to a different outcome in a life beyond this one. Yet, Christians need to keep this in mind. The focus of our eternal life is one we can keep in our view when we work Jesus’ teaching and principles in our life today. The main decision that we need to make right now is asking Jesus for the new life he offers. Once we do this, we will start looking at everything that happens from a bigger, eternal perspective. We can start to look beyond today, while also staying focused in the present.

1 John 4:10

NASB	NLT	VOICE
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.	10 This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.	10 This is the embodiment of true love: not that we have loved God first, but that He loved us and sent His unique Son on a special mission to become an atoning sacrifice of our sins.

Because of God’s goodness, nothing sinful or evil can exist. He cannot overlook, condone, or excuse sin as though it never happened. He loves us, but his love does not make him morally lax. This is the reason why we should continuously ask for forgiveness and repent of our sins. A lot of people believe: “If I believe in God, and he’s forgiven my sins already, then why should I ask,” or “Why do I need to ask if God knows my heart.” God wants us to have an intentional and present role in this relationship. While he sent Jesus to forgive us of our sins, we need to work towards being more like him daily. The more we acknowledge our sin, the more we know where we struggle, and the more we know what we need to work on through the Holy Spirit. The more we become like him, the more we share his compassion to the world, and the more we grow the Kingdom.

Next slice of manna: Manna for the Mind #199