The result of justification (11): Receiving future salvation (Romans 5:10)

The result of justification (11):

Receiving future salvation

 

 

“For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:10)

 

 

 

                The Bible says there was a time when we were God’s enemies (Rom.5:10).  How have we become God’s enemies?  In Genesis, after God created the heavens and the earth and created Adam, the first man, He allowed Adam to eat from all kinds of trees in the Garden of Eden.  But he commanded, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  God said, “You will surely die” on the day you eat the fruit (Gen. 2:16-17).  However, Adam fell into the temptation of the crafty serpent (Satan), disobeyed God's command, and ate the frit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  As a result, Adam and all his descendants became God’s enemies.  And Adam and all his descendants received the wrath of God, and they had no choice but to perish in the eternal pit of fire.  In this way, in the past, we were God’s enemies, and we were people without love.  But God, who is love [“… God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8, 16)], poured out his love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom. 5:5).  So now we who believe in Jesus have God’s love.  How did God make this possible?  Look at 1 John 4:9 – “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”  God sent his only begotten Son into the world to save us.  The only begotten Son, who was sent into the world, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness (Phil. 2:6-7).  Jesus, the sinless God and man, was born/incarnated into this world to save us (1 Jn. 4:9). 

 

                Romans 5:10 says, “through the death of his Son”.  Who is more dear to God the Father than to Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, that is “his Son”?  But God the Father did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all (8:32).  In other words, God the Father gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross for us, who were God’s enemies.  Look at 1 John 4:10 – “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  When we were God’s enemies, God loved us and sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as a propitiation for our sins.  That is why Jesus Christ was sacrificed on the cross for us (Rom.8:32).  Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son who could not die, was in the form of God in order to die for us, but did not consider equality with God even though he was being in nature God, made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness (Phil. 2:6- 7).  And the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, appeared in human form, humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death on a cross (v. 8).  Because we are all God’s enemies, we must all suffer eternal punishment in God's wrath on the cross, but Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son, died on the cross for us.  Therefore, by destroying enmity through the cross, He reconciled us to God (Eph. 2:16).  God was pleased to be reconciled to Himself through Jesus Christ by making peace through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ that was shed on the cross (Col.1:20).

 

                We have been reconciled to God (Rom.5:10).  God reconciles us, God's enemies, and he did it once for all.  What he did, he made it possible by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Heb.10:10).  In other words, when we were enemies with God, we were reconciled to God (Rom.5:10) through the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, on the cross once for all (6:10).  Look at 1 John 2:2 – “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (Note: Rom. 3:25).  Here, the word “propitiation” means “satisfaction,” which means that Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice of the Passover lamb, thereby satisfying God’s holy requirement to punish sin (MacArthur).  The Apostle John said this in 1 John 2:2 as well as in 4:10 – “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.”  He is saying that God sent his Son Jesus into this world as the propitiation for our sins.  It is because God loves us.  Look at 2 Corinthians 5:19 – “namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”  Look at Colossians 1:22 – “yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”  This reconciliation is an eternal thing that can never be broken.

 

                God no longer regards us as enemies, but has reconciled us to God through the death of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross, making us His children.  Therefore, now we can approach God, we can call God “Abba Father,” and we can have communion or fellowship with Him.  We are no longer God’s enemies, but have been reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ.  The Lord has given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18).  And the Lord has entrusted us with the word of reconciliation (v. 19).  Therefore, we must be ambassadors for Christ, begging, ‘Be reconciled to God’ (v. 20).

 

                Romans 5:10 says, “how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”  Here, ‘he’ refers to Jesus Christ who came to this earth and died on the cross to reconcile us to God.  And “his life” (v.10) refers to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3-4).  And the resurrected Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God after witnessing his resurrection for 40 days.  The Jesus that the Apostle Paul met on the road to Damascus did not meet the resurrected Jesus, but the Lord who was resurrected and ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God (Acts 9).  This Lord will surely come back to this world (the Second Coming).  Then we will be saved (Rom.5:10).  Salvation here means that when Jesus Christ returns, the saints who have already died will be resurrected with an incorruptible body, a glorious body, a strong body, and a spiritual body (1 Cor.15:42-44).  Until then, the living saints will be transformed into an incorruptible body, a glorious body, a strong body, and a spiritual body (v. 51), and will wear a glorious body like the resurrected Jesus (Phil. 3:20-21).  After that we, the survivors, will also be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, so that we may always be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:17).  And we will participate in the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven (Rev. 19:9).  We will receive this salvation.  How much more, we will be saved through the resurrection of Jesus (Rom. 5:10).  Here, “how much more” emphasizes ‘must be’.  That is, we will surely be saved in the future through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  If Jesus came to this world and died as a propitiation on the cross to save us when we were helpless, sinners and God’s enemies, how much more we are 100% certain that we will be saved when Jesus comes back to this world.  We must have the faith and assurance of this salvation.

 

                The Lord will surely and surely come again!  Our dead saints will surely be resurrected, and those who are alive until then will surely be transformed to meet the glorious Lord.  Look at 1 Corinthians 15:52-58: “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.  When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’  ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”  In the faith and hope of this resurrection, we must be steadfast, unwavering, and always diligent in the work of the Lord (v. 58).  The reason is because the Lord will reward us.  Look at Revelation 22:12 – “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.”  In the parable of the mina (Lk. 19:11-27), the person who earned ten minas with one mina and the person who earned five mina with one mina hear from their master, “Well done, my good servant!” Their rewards were ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities and of five cities respectively.  A “mina” was the currency of Israel at the time, and a mina was the price of a laborer’s wages for three months.  However, the reward given by the master was incomparable to ten cities and five cities respectively.  I hope and pray that we will be praised and rewarded by the Lord when we stand before the Lord and settle accounts (Mt. 25:19).