Romans 5:10-11
"Saved By His
Life"
Romans 5:10-11, “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! Not
only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received reconciliation.” “Turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 5,
open our Bibles together to Romans chapter 5. For the fun of it, let's read altogether verses 10 and 11 of Romans the fifth chapter, verses 10 and 11 out of all of our varied translations. OK, you ready? On your mark, get set, “For if while we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, having been
reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only this, but we also exalt in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” We
were reconciled to God through the death of his son. Throughout the Bible we see that the message
of Christianity is a message of reconciliation. It's a message of God calling men and women to be brought back into
harmony and friendship with him. To be
reconciled means that you're back in friendship, you're back in harmony. When we say a marriage has been reconciled,
often times we get a mental picture of a husband and wife who've maybe even
separated and moved apart, but through the grace of God, I've seen many
marriages reconciled, they've come back together, and they're friends and
lovers again. And that's really a
simplified version of what the Gospel is. Through sin we were alienated to God, we stopped being his friends. But through Jesus Christ, we can have a
relationship re-established with God again. Ephesians chapter 2,
verses 13 through 16 says, “But now in Christ Jesus, you who were
formerly far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself
is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the
dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its
commandments and regulations. His
purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace,
and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by
which he put to death their hostility.” [These verses are in context with
the hostility between Jew and Gentile which Jesus reconciled and abolished, not
that he abolished the moral law and ordinances of God, with the exception of
the ceremonial laws and regulations which prevented Gentiles from mixing with Jews. Got to take this in context with the subject. seehttps://unityinchrist.com/whatisgrace/whatisgraceintro.htm] We have been brought near by the blood of
Christ. Jesus reconciled us to God
through his body on the cross. Jesus
needed a body, so that he would have something to offer as a sacrifice, and so
the 2nd Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ [Yeshua haMeschiach] came, he took on a body, that's what the
Christmas celebration is all about [or should be all about-it has been horribly
commercialized]. We call it the
incarnation, he took on a body, that he might have a body to offer, something
to offer as a sacrifice for our sins. In
Colossians 1, let me just read it to you, I'm going to have you look up one in
a second. Colossians 1, verses 19 through
22 we read, “For it was the Father's good pleasure, for all the fulness to dwell in him, and through him” -- that's through Jesus
-- “to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the
blood of his cross.” And then he goes on to say, “He has now
reconciled you in his fleshly body through death.” [Read the whole piece, it's beautiful] Jesus has reconciled us to God. This teaching of reconciliation is probably
summed up in a bow put on it with 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. It's just a beautiful statement, and I would
want us all to look at that together. If
you have a Bible, go to the right of Romans to 2nd Corinthians
chapter 5, and we'll look beginning at the 18th verse, 2nd Corinthians 5, verse 18. [Actually this whole statement
starts in verse 11 and goes through verse 21] And you might look for a key word. In fact, I'm going to tell you what it is. Look for the word reconcile or reconciliation. And with your Bible underliner or marker, here's some fun for you, underline every time he speaks of our being
reconciled to God, it's a real neat statement. Verse 18 – “Now all these things are from God, who” -- what? – “reconciled us
to himself through Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation. 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. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as
though God were entreating through us, ‘We beg you on behalf of Christ be
reconciled to God.’ He made him who knew
no sin to be sin on our behalf in order that we might become the righteousness
of God in him.” I like the way the living
Bible translates verse 20, it says, “We are Christ's ambassadors, God is using
us to speak to you. We beg you as though
Christ himself were here pleading with you, 'Receive the love he offers. Be reconciled to God.’” Now how were we reconciled to God? Going back to Romans 5:11, it says “We
were reconciled through Jesus Christ.” Verse 10 says, “through the death of his Son.” through Jesus Christ. How is this done? What has happened? I've got a little illustration that I need
two guys to volunteer to come up and help me out. Don't worry, it's nothing weird, I'm not
going to make you do anything weird. But
quickly, two guys. Don't everybody jump
up at once -- OK, I got three. Since
you've got the tie on, you can be God, OK? [laughter],
nice to have the Lord with us. The Bible
teaches us, when God created man, this man, he represents us -- this is God,
with the tie -- this is us. So anyway,
when the Lord created man, he created man perfectly, and there was this perfect
relationship between God and man. Man
was in friendship with God, they loved one another. But when man sinned, sin broke that
relationship. OK? And man turned away from God. And when man turned away from God sin broke
this relationship, and now there's this gulf between God and man. We've talked about that a lot, sin has broken
the relationship. Now is God mad [angry]
at us? No, God's still reaching out, but
there's no bridge. That's where Jesus, Yeshua comes in. He
came from the Father. And he bridged the
gulf between God and man, and he gave his life to die for us, he offered his
life as a sacrifice. So through him, man
can have that reconciliation to
God. Now the message is, “Do
you want to be reconciled to God?” “We'll
you can through Jesus.” It's
through Jesus that we had that reconciliation, that relationship restored. We're reconciled
now. And so you today can have that
reconciliation to God. But you've got to
turn around. You've got to understand,
God's not mad at you, he hasn't turned his back to you. God has always been reaching out to you. God isn't some angry God, mad at you. In fact, the Bible says “For
God so love the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, in order that we might have eternal life” -- if we put our
faith in him, if we believe, if we trust in him. So you can be reconciled to God.
How We Are Saved By And Through Jesus’ Life
Being reconciled to God means that you are the
beneficiary then of Jesus' life. “We shall be
saved by his life,” the Scripture goes on to say. The Good News doesn't stop with reconciliation, it goes on to say in
verse 10, the latter part of Romans 5, verse 10, it says, “Much more
than having been reconciled by his death, we shall be saved by his life.” You see that at the end of verse
10, “Much more, having been
reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Well, what life? What life of Jesus, Yeshua saves us? The life that he gives us, the
life that he gave for us on the cross. Yes, but at the same time, we're also saved by the life that he lives
right now. And
we're going to look at both of those. We're saved by the life that he gave us. This is really illustrated in a true story I read, happened during the
French-English war, when Napoleon was emperor of France. During this time, a man was drafted into the
French Army. He was supposed to go and
fight, and the officers came to deliver the papers and take him off to the army
and he started fighting them, he said, “No, no, you can't take me. You can't take me, I'm not going.” And they said “Why aren't you going?” And he said, “Because I died two years ago!” And they're looking at each other, like, “Oh no, this
guy's a loonie.” And so they started to arrest him, and he
says, “No, no you can't take me.” “Why
can't we take you?” And he says, “Because I
died two years ago, I died two years ago, let go of me!” They said, this guy needs help, they took him, they arrested him. And finally they became so insistent about this, they saw that
everything else he talks about, he seems pretty sane, let's do some
checking. And what they did was, they
checked into the French military records and they discovered that truly two
years ago he had been drafted. When the
draft papers came, a good friend of his came over to his house and said “I just heard
the news that you've been drafted.” He
says, “You can't go, you've got a wife, you've got all these children to take
care of. What if you die? Who would care for them? Let me go in your place. Let me take your place.” And so the man, his good friend, took his
place, he took his name, he took his address, and he went and joined the
army. Only, in one of the first battles,
he was shot and killed. Word came back
to the man who's place he had taken that his friend
had died, and he realized, that actually he had died. Incredible. Well, when they heard this, they didn't know what to do. Do we let him go? Do we let a substitute take his place? Can another man take his legal
responsibilities like that? Did he
really die? And finally that case went
all the way to Napoleon Bonaparte. And
finally, when Napoleon, when he heard the case, Napoleon said, “In his
judgment, the man was free, because somebody had took his legal
responsibilities for him, and had died in his place.” It was officially declared that he had died in
the person of another. It was made
official in the court records that that man had died two years before. And now he was free because his friend had
taken his place. Interesting. Because in the same way, we are saved by the
life that Jesus, Yeshua gave us. He took on himself the responsibility for all
of our sins. He took the legal
responsibility for what we were supposed to do. We were supposed to die for our sins, for the
wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), but Jesus, Yeshua took our place. And if we receive him
as our Savior and our friend, then we have died in him. And that's the truth, that maybe for the
first time you understand. Let's look in
Colossians 3. Go to the right until you
hit Colossians, the book of Colossians chapter 3, verses 3 and 4. We have died in the person of another, we
have died in Christ. It's not a morbid
thought, it's a glorious thought. It
wasn't a morbid thing for this man to send someone to take his service for him. And then when his friend died, he realized, ‘My friend
loved me so much, he actually died for me. But now I'm free, you can never draft me again.’ Colossians 3, verse 3, “For you
have died, and your life is hidden with Christ [Messiah] in God. When Christ, who is our life is revealed,
then you also will be revealed with him in glory.” What is Christ? Christ is our life! He's my life, because he lived
his life for me. He's my life. His death was my death. And his resurrection is my resurrection,
all because of that linkage of faith. I've trusted him as my Savior, and I believe in him. So we're saved by the life that Jesus lived.
We Also Saved By The Life That Jesus Now Lives
But we're also saved by the life that
Jesus now lives. What Paul means is this. If his death made you secure in
salvation, just think what his life can do to make you secure in your
salvation. Look at John 14, verse 19. Jesus said the most amazing thing, and I'm
really excited about it. John 14,
verse 19, Jesus says, and we're just going to look at the very last part of the
verse, and we're not really taking it out of context, because it stands all by
itself. In the latter part of the verse
Jesus says in 14:19, “Because I live, you shall live also.” Because Jesus is alive right now, I'm going
to live. Jesus says, that because he is
alive, I'm going to have the life too. [Now I want to put what Jesus said here in context with the rest of the
verses around it. How will Jesus' life
make us alive, what takes place here? Let's read starting in verse 19 and go through verse 23, “Because I live, you also will
live. On that day you will realize that
I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is
the one who loves me. He who loves me
will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. If anyone loves me, he will obey my
teaching. My Father will love him, and
we will come to him and make our home with him.” How will this occur? Verse 26 explains, “But the Counselor, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and
will remind you of everything I have said to you.” Verse 16 elaborates a little more, “And I will
ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever --
the Spirit of truth.” verse 18, “for he lives with you and will be in you.” I.e. God the Father and Jesus Christ live
within us, have made their home in us by and through the Holy Spirit whom he
has placed within each and every believer. Jesus lives his life in us through the Holy Spirit living within
us.] Because he is alive, I'm going to
have the life too. Paul says in verse 11 of
Romans 5, “The result of this is that we exalt in God”, we are really
excited. Why are we exalting in
God? Well, first of all because Jesus
lives to be a compassionate High Priest. Jesus, Yeshua is living right now. We're not serving one of those religions who's god is dead. We're not following the founder of a religion who we can go and visit
his tomb [except his empty tomb!], Jesus is alive. His resurrection is one of the most
indisputable facts of history. There's
so much evidence for his resurrection. Not just the hope of Christians, but the facts of the faith are founded
in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He
lives right now to be a compassionate high priest. Look at Hebrews chapter 2, and we're going to
spend a little time in this book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 2, and we'll look at verse 17. Hebrews 2:17, “Therefore
he had to be made like his brethren in all things, that he might become a
merciful” -- or you could translate ‘compassionate’ -- “and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation
[atonement]” -- or to be the ‘mercy seat’ -- “for our
sins” -- ‘for the sins of the people.’ “For since he himself was tempted in that which he
has suffered, he is able to come to
the aid of those who are tempted.” Jesus, Yeshua,
we are told right now, lives to be a compassionate high priest. Right now in heaven, your Savior is full of
mercy and compassion for you. Hey, ever
get around somebody who's never been sick in their life? And you, maybe, have your aches and
pains? Ever be around them, and do you
realize how cold they are toward you? You tell them, ‘Oh man, you know, oh my back’ or ‘oh my
arthritis’ or something, ‘oh, man, I.’ or whatever you've
got. And they just sort of sit there and
they almost act like you're a hypochondriac, you know. It's like, ‘Well, come on! Cut it out! Act like a man.’ or something. ‘Stop being
such a baby.’ But do you know what happens to
that person when they get sick? I've
seen this happen to people where they get some kind of extended illness, and
all of a sudden they're talking about ‘oh, how we need to be so
compassionate towards people who are ill and who are hurting.’ And I thought, ‘Where were you a year ago?’ You see, they understand, because they've gone
through it now. And who
do we have minister to other people? You
try to find somebody who's gone through something, I try to find people
who've gone through the pain of divorce to minister to others who are going
through that, or long-term illness to minister to others, or those who have
problems with their children, and you know, the Lord's given them some kind of victory so they can minister
to those are going through the same thing. In a like manner, Our Lord is not in heaven going 'What's the matter with you guys!?! Come
on! Get with it! He's compassionate. He lived on this earth. He was despised and rejected of men. He knows your loneliness. If you're the only Christian in your family,
he understands what it's like to be the only Christian in the family. He
knows what it's like to have people make fun of him. He knows what it's like to
have people reject him. He knows what
it's like to feel so far from God when all of our sins were laid on him, he was
rejected of God. Wow! He understands. So in heaven right now, one of the things we
exalt about is there's somebody who knows what it's like to have no money! Remember tax time came, the disciples
panicked, ‘We don't have money for the taxes.’ Jesus said, ‘Peter, go
fishing. First fish you catch, open its
mouth and the money will be in there.’ What pond was that? I would like to find that pond. [laughter] He knows what it's like to have God
supernaturally supply those needs, too. He is a faithful, compassionate, merciful high priest in heaven. And he is able to come to the aid of
those who are tempted. Amen? So we rejoice. He's alive right now, a compassionate high
priest. Hebrews 5. But that's one of the qualifications for a
high priest. In the Old Testament, he
had to be a guy who could understand the people. "For every high priest, he says" in
verse 1, "taken from among men, it's appointed on behalf of men in things
pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for
sin." So the high priest was
supposed to represent God to the people. His life, even his clothing, of the high priest, actually, was to
represent God to the people. And then in
turn, he was to represent his people to God. He was the intermediary, he was the inbetween, he was the mediator as you call them. Well, isn't Jesus the perfect mediator? He's part man, part God, well not part, he
all man and all God. It's a mystery of
how he can be 100 percent of both, but he is. And he represents God to us. He
says, “If you've seen me, you've seen” -- who? -- “the Father.” And then he represents us to God, clothed in
his perfection we stand complete in him. Hallelujah, what a neat priest we've got! But not only that, he also offered the
sacrifice for our sins. The high
priest's job was to offer the sacrifice once a year for the sins of the entire
nation. Jesus, Yeshua did that [for the entire world!], only he was both the priest and the
sacrifice. Incredible. He was the high priest, and at the same time
as the priest, he offered himself to God. Incredible. Not only that, it
goes on to say, that he needs to be the kind of guy, verse
2, who can deal gently with who? -- the ignorant-[the NIV has “He
is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since
he himself is [was] subject to weakness.”] Now that's me a lot of the time. How about you? The ignorant. That is a good word for us. You
say, ‘I'm offended by that.’ Well,
sorry. But maybe you don't know that
you're ignorant. And that's really being
ignorant. [laughter] He can deal how? Gently, with the ignorant. Oh boy, that's not the way I am. How about you? These ignorant drivers on the freeway
[laughter]. That ignorant person who
crowded in front of you in the grocery store. That ignorant relative of yours who's making your life a hassle. He deals gently with the ignorant, doesn't he? And, he says, “with the misguided.” A lot of people in life, ignorance and being
misguided are their biggest problems. That's their problem, they're just ignorant. They're misguided. And he can deal gently with them, since he
himself was beset with weakness, he knows what it's like to go through the same
things that you and I go through. And
yet he's standing before God [and don't forget, he is God also, God the Son, he
was more than likely the Yahweh of the Old Testament, the Great I AM]. It's incredible. [Hebrews 4:14-16, “Therefore,
since we have a great high priest who has gone into the heavens, Jesus the Son
of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is
unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted
in every way, just as we are -- yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with
confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time
of need.” That is Jesus job right now,
he's the high priest, and he will yet sit in the Millennial Temple after he
returns and be the King of the world (Zechariah 14:9) and he will also be the
high priest for the whole world, for those who believe then. Just as he functions for us right now in that
role, he will return and function for all those who believe then, in the
Temple, as a perfect high priest. Isn't
it amazing how the whole Plan of God comes together?]
Jesus, Our Advocate, Defense Attorney Before God
The Father
Secondly, we exalt in the fact that he lives
to be our advocate with the Father. Look 1st John chapter 2, the first verse, “My little
children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin” -- in other words, I'm
trying to help you live a godly life -- “and if anyone sins, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and he himself is the
propitiation (or Mercy Seat) for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for
those of the whole world.” Jesus is the Mercy Seat, the
Atoning sacrifice for our sins, and if we sin, he is with the Father, the One
who gave his life to die for that sin, and rose again after paying for that
sin, now stands next to God the Father when you commit the sin. I mean, you've got it all in Christ, Messiah. He's standing before God as your advocate, or
we could translate it, defense attorney. Not that God's out to get you. But I'll tell you who he's defending you against, he's defending you
against the accusations of the evil one, of Satan. In Zechariah, we won't go there, but in
Zechariah 3 there's an interesting occurrence. Joshua the high priest is standing before the Lord to minister to the
Lord, but Satan is standing at his right hand to accuse him. He's pointing out all of Joshua the high
priest's sins. Symbolic of his sins,
Joshua the high priest who should be clothed in a white garment is clothed in
filthy rags. Satan's saying ‘Look!
Look! Look what a sinner he is. Look at
how filthy he is, look at how dirty he is.’ And then an interesting thing happens. The Lord stands up in his defense, and says ‘The
Lord rebuke you, the Lord rebuke you Satan. Is not this man a brand plucked out of the fire.’ In other words, it's like you saved a piece
of wood from getting burned in the fire. And then the Lord says, ‘Now clothe Joshua the high priest with
clean clothes, because this is what I'm going to do for my people.’ Satan is called the accuser of the brethren
in Revelation chapter 12, and he truly is there to accuse you before God day
and night. And Jesus, Yeshua is the defense attorney. Jesus says, ‘The Lord rebuke you
Satan, I died for Mark and he's covered with my righteousness, I've covered him
with clean robes and clean garments.’ Isn't that cool? God is good. Jesus pleads for us. And he
stands there in heaven, the trophy of a finished work. There's no more work to do to save you. It's all been done. Jesus is proof of that. His blood guarantees our justification. And it guarantees that we're going to escape
the wrath of God, and it best guarantees our reconciliation with God. And now his present life guarantees that
we're going to heaven. [Or for some, ‘We're going
to be given entrance into the kingdom of heaven, wherever that might be or end
up (cf. Rev. 21)’]
Jesus Our High Priest
And that's the third thing Jesus is living to
do for us right now, he's living to get you to heaven [or entrance into the
kingdom of heaven, called in other places, the kingdom of God]. Chapter 7 of the book of Hebrews, again Hebrews describes
the word of our high priest. Chapter 7,
verse 25. You know I'd rather start with
verse 22, and the discussion here, is he's talking about the Old Testament
priests and how they were representative of what Jesus would come to do. But there had to be many of them, because
they die. You know, they'd live so long,
and die. Another one would come on, live
and then die. But Jesus has an endless
life. Verse 22 says, “So much the
more also, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. And the former priests on the one hand
existed in greater numbers, but that was because they were prevented by death
from continuing. But he on the other
hand, because he abides forever holds his priesthood permanently, hence also,
he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he
always lives to make intercession for them.” Jesus lives forever to make intercession for
us, and he's able to save-how long? -- forever, those
who draw near to God through him. Now
the King James Version translates this interestingly, it says “he is able to save to the uttermost,” and for years I thought that meant. I thought, well, you can be the worst of
sinner, and Jesus will save you. “Saved to the uttermost,” and I'd hear preachers say ‘even to the guttermost,’ they would say. Well it sounds good when you're preaching,
but it's not what the verse means. It is
true that Jesus can save guttermost, he can save you
in a gutter, he can save you from your drugs, he can
save you in your sin. To the woman
caught in adultery he right there offered her salvation [and said to her, “go and sin
no more”], to crooked businessmen like Levi, he offered him salvation. Another crooked businessman, Zachias who was really up a tree, he offered him
salvation. So it's true that Jesus will
save us in our sin [and through the indwelling Holy Spirit, save us out of our
sin, helping us to come out of our sins]. But that's not what this verse means. This verse means that he'll save you to the uttermost point, he'll save
you from here to forever, to infinity. It's
a term that means forever -- that point that never ends out there. That's how long, that's how far his salvation saves
us and how far it reaches, and how far it continues, it's a forever
salvation. Can you say Amen to
that? It's a forever salvation. And he's living right now to make it possible
for us. Remember that song, maybe you
sang it? “I serve a risen Savior, he's
in the world today, I know that he is living, no
matter what men may say. I see his hand
of mercy, I hear his voice of cheer, and just the hour I need him, he's always
there.” And the chorus is “He
lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today!” “He walks with me, he talks with me, along
life's dreary way. He lives, he lives,
salvation to impart. You ask me how I
know he lives? He lives within my heart. [cf. John 14]” Jesus lives, that's the
message of Christianity [and now Messianic Judaism, Yeshua lives]. The cross of Christ, Messiah is
a wonderful message, but if it stops there, people, we'd all be dead [dead in
our sins, with no power to overcome them]. The cross is not all of it, you have to have a risen Saviour. You have to have both. That's why the symbol for Christianity isn't
really Christ, Messiah hanging on a cross, that's not all the gospel. Paul says “I delivered unto you the
gospel that I preached to you that Christ died for our sins, and that he was
buried, and he rose again the third day.” And so
that's why so many Christians prefer the empty tomb, because it reminds them
that the One who died for them is now living for them in heaven. And also in application to all of this, it
means that you don't need an earthly priest in order to intercede for you to
God. You know, I'm not your priest. And we don't have a group of priests
here. And you don't need a priesthood,
an Aaronic or Melchizedekian priesthood. Why Jesus, if you read the book of Hebrews,
Jesus is a priest forever. He holds his priesthood permanently, after the order
of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was
a king and a priest [some think he was actually Yahweh, in some human form
during the time of Abraham, who later became Jesus Christ, Yeshua haMeschiach. This is one Biblical mystery of many that will be cleared up at Yeshua's 2nd coming]. So I don't need an earthly priesthood bestowed
upon me. I don't need an earthly
priest. But it is wrong to say, “I
don't need a priest.” Sometimes I
hear Protestants saying that. “Well,
I'm a Protestant, I don't believe I need a priest!” Wrong, you need a priest. You just don't need him on earth, you need
him in heaven. You need a priest. You need someone to represent you to God, and
someone to represent God to you, and that is Jesus Christ, Yeshua haMeschiach. And he's alive, gang! I know it's
not resurrection Sunday, but every day is, really, because he's alive and he
lives in us, and his life [on the cross] took my place. And when Satan comes knocking on my door and
he says “The wages of sin is death" I can say “You can't have me, you can't have
me, I died, I died two thousand years ago!” People
think you're crazy until they actually read the records. And they read the legal document that says, “yes another man took your place, yes, it's all been paid in
full, you're free, you can go.” So we
exalt, Paul says, we exalt, we rejoice in what Christ is in his life, in his
ministry. Praise God. You can have that life this morning. Many sitting around you have that life
already. But you can have the life of
Christ credited to you this morning. “How?” you say “how? How can I be reconciled to God?” The Bible says you've got to turn
around. Just like you saw here. You're facing in the wrong direction, the
Bible says to turn around, that is what the word “repent” means. It means “turn around.” And you'll discover if you turn around, just
like you've heard today, that God is reaching out his arms to you. God isn't mad [angry] with you, God wants to
save you. That's what Christianity is
all about. So you've got to turn around,
and then you've got to believe. You've
got to believe two things. Number one,
that you need a Savior, you've got to believe you're a sinner. A sinner is somebody who isn't perfect,
somebody who has missed the target. Have
you ever made a mistake? ‘Yes.’ How many mistakes have you made? ‘Well, I don't make many.’ Well, what if you made one a day? How many is that a year? 365. I
heard a guy the other day saying, ‘What if you appeared before a traffic judge
and you tell him you're a good driver, I only make got one ticket a day.’ If you appear before a judge with 365 tickets
what is the judge gonna say? ‘You're a good driver?’ ‘Get out of here. I know where to send you, and it's not
traffic school.’ When you appear before God,
even if you're a good person, you still can't plead that you're a good guy,
because you've got too many tickets racked up. You're a sinner, admit it. Turn
around. Admit that you're a sinner,
believe that. And then secondly, believe
that God has provided the answer for your sin, and that's Jesus who took your
place and died for you. God made Jesus
who knew no sin, Jesus wasn't a sinner at all, even his judge said that. His judge, Pilate
said, ‘I find no fault in him.’ Then
why did they go ahead and execute him. Good question. The reason why
they went ahead and executed him was because it wasn't for his sin he was
dying, he was taking our places. He took
our place, God put all of our sin on him. That great transaction, if you believe in it and accept it with all your
heart, will save you. You've got to
believe it. You've got to trust in it
alone for salvation. Now look, we're not
asking you to believe in a church, we're not asking you to believe in your
baptism when you were a baby. We're not
asking you to believe in your confirmation when you were 12 or 13, because the
Bible doesn't teach that any of those things saves you. The only thing that can save you is faith,
personal faith in Jesus Christ, your faith, not Mommy and Daddy's. ‘Well, we got a priest in the family.’ My whole family thinks that they're going to
heaven because, not me, but I have a cousin who's a priest. And I'm constantly hearing, ‘Well,
you know your cousin Myron.’ And I'm
thinking, ‘You guys, he's not gonna get us to heaven, because he didn't die for us. Only Jesus, Yeshua saves.’ ‘Well, my mother was a great Christian woman.’ Yeah, but do you know Jesus? He doesn't have any grandchildren. You've got to be a child of his firstborn. And so look, I'm offering you today the
option, heaven or hell, Jesus, to accept him or reject him. That's the decision today. Jesus says “Because I live you can live” -- you'll live
also. But if you reject him, you are
rejecting life. The Bible says, “In
him was the life.” And if you want life, you can
have it now. In a moment, I'm going to
give you an opportunity to ask Jesus to save you. I'm going to ask you to pray a prayer,
because the Bible says the way you get saved, you turn around, you believe, but
then it also says that you must confess with your mouth what's in your
heart. You believe Jesus died and rose
again for you? Then you need to confess
that and call on the name of the Lord, whoever calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved. So in a moment I'm going
to give you that opportunity to pray that prayer. If you pray that prayer, there are four
things that you can be sure of. Number
one, you can be sure that the emptiness in your life that you've been trying to
fill with things, cars, relationships, houses, clothes, that emptiness inside
will be filled because God's place in your life will be filled with God. Secondly, you're not going to be lonely the
way that you're lonely now. Because
you're going to have Jesus, Yeshua with you, in you,
and you're going to have the Holy Spirit in your life. God will come and live in you. Thirdly, you can get rid of your guilt, your
guilt will be rolled off your shoulders, because Jesus
died for all the things you did. You
see, you're carrying it [now], but you can be sure that will be gone. And lastly, you don't have to fear death
anymore. You can be sure that when you
die, you'll be absent in this body, and you'll go directly to be with the
Lord. That's what the Bible says. It's a great thing, and God has got his hands
outstretched to you, and I'm his messenger, and today I'm begging you, if you
haven't yet, be reconciled to God. Let's
pray.” [Transcript of a connective expository sermon on Romans
5:10-11, given by Pastor J. Mark Martin, Calvary Community Church, PO Box
39607, Phoenix, Arizona 85069] Go back
to the end of the "Romans 5:9 part 2" transcript for a section on
this short prayer, if you haven't seen it before.
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