Resurrection and Justification / Thoughts of Paul Metzger
Romans 4:25 “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
Jesus’ resurrection was necessary not only to miraculously establish His victory over death, the final “sign” attesting to His divinity, but also as the sacrifice He would present to the Lord, as the justification for us sinners. Thus the torn curtain before the Holy of Holies, His “entrance” before God the Father, presenting the final sacrifice. John MacArthur quoting the great preacher Donald Barnhouse, writes: “Love that gives upward is worship; love that goes outward is affection; love those stoops is grace.” End of transcription.
Reading Pastor Barnhouse’s consideration of love I remember reading in Genesis 6:8, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” By research I found that the Hebrew word used for God’s favor for Noah, was “He stooped.” God stoops, reaches down, to bestow on us His loving grace. (What a wonder!). God stooping down was/is certainly God’s expression of love.
God’s Expression of love is clearly stated in the apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, consider: “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).
Now the crux of the matter; The Book of Romans (see chapters 3 and 5) teaches us that we are all born sinners, and this results from Adam’s original sin of disobeying God. But one might protest, “l didn’t ask to be born and furthermore, I wasn’t personally there when Adam chose to sin. Why, therefore, am I condemned along with Adam, and sentenced to death because of my sinning? Such a complaint ignores the obvious, since every-one sins and experiences the result of sin, spiritual and physical death.
Those who would protest the sentence of the Romans 3 and 5 miss the joyful reciprocal reasoning. We weren’t there when Christ died for our sins, but even so, we have access to exoneration from our sinning, and eternal life because of His sacrifice 2000 years ago, should we choose to accept the second part of that reciprocal equation found in Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Security of Salvation
Because of Jesus’ accepted sacrifice and God’s love for you, for me, and all who put their trust in Christ, we have peace with God.
The Constancy of God’s Love
Romans 5:6 “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”
“If God loved us because we loved Him, He would love us only so long as we loved Him, and on that condition; and then our salvation would depend on the constancy of our treacherous hearts. But as God loved us as sinners, as Christ died for us as ungodly, our salvation depends, not on our loveliness, but on the constancy of the love of God.” (Charles Hodge quoted in John Macarthur).
Paul