Generous To a Fault || Romans 8:32 || Manna for the Mind #98

Welcome to Day 98 of the “Manna for the Mind” devotional! This series is about taking scripture passages (typically 1-3 verses) and building our understanding of their teachings through their context and connecting scripture. I believe that doing this helps us understand how to be the type of human that God created us to be.

Today’s passage is Romans 8:32. We look at it from the perspective of God’s generosity.

Romans 8:32

AMP	32 He who did not spare [even] His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?
NLT	32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else.
MSG	32 If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us?

God sent his own son to die on our behalf. If God will give us that eternal sacrifice so we can have a relationship with him, what else would he give? God showed us his true character in John 3:16.

John 3:16

AMP	16 “For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life.
NLT	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.
MSG	16 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed: by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.

God loves and adores his creation so much that He gave His one and only son to it. He did this so everyone who believes in the Son will have a life forever.

This is the central point of the Gospel message right here! God’s love isn’t static or self-centered. It’s inclusive and draws others into a lifelong relationship. God’s setting the pattern of true love, the foundation for all love-filled relationships, including romantic and close platonic relationships. We must be willing to give up our own comfort and security so that others can join us in receiving God’s love.

Some people might reject God’s love and plans for eternal life because they believe their lives are so miserable. It could be because of the things that have happened in their life, how they were treated, or something worse. Because of how their lives have been up to that point, they wouldn’t want to continue it as they were. However, eternal life isn’t an extension of our current life. It’s a place without death, sickness, evil, and sin. It’s a place where peace and happiness exist forever. It’s a place that we strive to have here on earth and fail at it because of the evil spirits that roam the earth and try to distract us and pull us away from the path God created for us.

When we share the Good News with others, our love must be like Jesus’—willing to give up our own comfort and security so that others might join us in receiving God’s love. In other words, you have to meet people where they are. This might mean we have to go into areas that aren’t the safest, go to places that pull off the rose-colored glasses to see people who aren’t like us and give us that feeling that we aren’t in our comfort zone.

When we don’t know Jesus, we make choices as if the only life we have is the mortal one. It’s hard to believe that there’s another life and reality where everything terrible, negative, and evil doesn’t exist. It’s hard to believe that we can access this reality of good and wonderful natures through our beliefs and faith. Eternal life can be something wildly different from how you live now. We can receive access to eternal life by asking Jesus for the new life he offers and following his commands to achieve it. Jesus’ way of doing life may be tricky, uncomfortable, and scary because of how intensely different it is from the past way of life, but it’s worth it. Remember what Jesus says about his life in Matthew 11:29-30.

Matthew 11:29-30

29          Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for you souls.

30          For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.

Jesus teaches us how to live like him in humble and gentle ways. The world around us might resist us as we make this transition, but there will be peace and rest amidst the chaos. Living as Jesus did is light and easy to carry.

From there, you will see all that happens to you from a new, eternal perspective and then continue to set your sights on eternity.

Believing in God is more than acknowledging from an intellectual perspective that Jesus is God. It means we’re trusting and confident in him that he alone can provide us salvation and have faith that this has happened. No works will accomplish this. It’s about putting Jesus in charge of our present plans and eternal destiny. Believing is about trusting that his teachings are reliable and relying on him for the power to change.

The reason why Jesus was sent down is shown in Romans 4:25.

Romans 4:25

AMP	25 who was betrayed and crucified because of our sins, and was raised [from the dead] because of our justification [our acquittal – absolving us of all sin before God].
NLT	25 He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.
MSG	25 The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.

Jesus was killed and resurrected to remove all of our sins before God. When we trust in Jesus as Savior, an exchange takes place. We give Christ our sins, and he gives us his righteousness and forgiveness. The only thing we need to do is ask God into our lives and believe that only he can save us from our bondage to sin. That’s it! A very simple process. God didn’t want to make it complicated for us. He wanted a simplified process that could restore us to the loving relationship he wanted for us in the first place.

Paul talks about God’s love in Romans 5:8.

Romans 5:8

AMP	8 But God clearly shows and proves His own love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
NLT	8 But God showed his great for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
MSG	8 But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

God both showed and proved his love for us by sending Jesus to die for us, even though we continued to sin against God. God sent Jesus to die for us, not because we were good enough, but because he loved us and wanted us to spend eternity with him. God’s people weren’t doing Christlike things, but God still chose and favored them to continue spreading the word about the Gospel. God chooses and favors us at all times. When we feel uncertain about God’s love for us, remember that he loved us before we became a Christ, even before we were born. God chose us and created us for a purpose and a promise. May we live that out in our lives every day!

Father God, thank you for the gift of your son! You sent him to us even when we didn’t deserve it. You went through pain and suffering to have him be sacrificed on the cross so that we could have the right relationship with you and live together forever. Help us remember how special, chosen, and loved we are because of what you’ve done. May we be as generous to those around us as you are to us. It’s in your name, we pray. Amen.