Atonement

Rom. 5:8-11 Notes

Atonement

Rom. 5:8-11 (NKJV) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. [9] Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. [10] For if when 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. [11] And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

The Message puts Romans 5:7-8 into modern language: “We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. 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.” What great love God has for us.

Rom. 5:8 Note 1: This verse is commonly quoted to illustrate the unconditional love that God has toward sinners. While that is certainly true and this verse does clearly teach that, this is not the point that Paul was making. In context, Paul was talking to Christians about the grace of God. He was making a comparison, and Romans 5:9-10 are the point of his comparison. He was using this truth here about God commending His love toward us while we were still sinners as a step to another truth.

Not viewing this verse in context has caused many people to accept salvation by grace but then come back under the deception that they have to live good enough for God to use them as Christians. While realizing one truth, they completely missed the whole point of what Paul was talking about. These verses, in context, conclusively prove that we begin and continue our walk with God through faith in His grace (Col. 2:6).

Rom. 5:9 Note 1: The phrase “much more” that is used in Romans 5:9-10 is wonderful. It would have been awesome to think that after salvation, God continued to love us with the same love that was manifested toward us through the death of His Son. But Paul was saying that once we are justified by grace through faith, God loves us much more. Being loved the same would be great, more would have been awesome, but much more is beyond our ability to comprehend.

Many Christians accept the love of God for the sinners. They extend love toward the drunks or adulterers as long as they are lost, but if the drunks or adulterers receive the forgiveness of God and ever commit one of those sins again, they show no mercy. They actually believe that God loves us much less now that we are saved. We got by with things before we were saved, but now we have to be holy or else.

These verses clearly teach that is not the truth. God loves us much more now than He did before our salvation. And before our salvation, He loved us so much that He died for us. He loves us even more now.

Does this mean that living a holy life is not necessary? It means that our own holiness is not a requirement. We are acceptable to God by grace through faith. But those of us who are truly born again have had a change of heart. We want to live holy (1 Jn. 3:3). However, we all fail to be as holy as we want to be. When we fail, this knowledge that God loves us more now than when He sent His Son to die for us will keep us from being condemned and draw us back to serving God.

Rom. 5:10 Note 1: Romans 5:8 is often taken out of context and used to stress that God loves sinners. But Romans 5:9 is the point Paul was getting to. If God loved us as sinners so much that He was willing to die for us, then much more does He love us as saints. These two thoughts are combined in this verse. Jesus’ death paid our debt and reconciled us to God. His resurrection gave us His supernatural power to reign in life (Gal. 1:4).

Rom. 5:10 Note 2: We can be continually saved, healed, and prospered by His life in us “we shall be saved by His life” since Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Rom. 5:11 Note 1: The Greek word that was translated “atonement” at the end of this verse is “KATALLAGE,” and it means “exchange, restoration to (the divine) favor.” Christianity is the great exchange. We exchanged our sin for His righteousness (Rom. 5:19 and 2 Cor. 5:21). We exchanged our sickness for His health (1 Pet. 2:24). We exchanged our sorrow for His joy (Isa. 61:3). It’s already done. We have received it already. Thank You, Jesus.

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2 Cor. 5:19 Notes

Ministry of Reconciliation

2 Cor. 5:18-19 (KJV) –And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; [19] To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

2 Cor. 5:18 Note 1: Having reconciled us unto Himself by Jesus Christ, He has also given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Having brought us into this blessed position through grace, He calls us to make it known to others and lead others to Him. What we have received we are to use in our ministry. And every reconciled one is called into this service to exercise the ministry of reconciliation and be a soul-winner. “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. Him who knew no sin, He hath made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” This is the great message of the true minister, and all believers can be true ministers and proclaim the message in Christ’s stead and point sinners to the cross, where He who knew no sin was made sin for us, where redemption full and free is offered to all.

Word of Reconciliation

2 Cor. 5:19 Note 1: The Apostle Paul has been painting a picture for us in Chapter 5 of Second Corinthians. Line upon line, and stroke upon stroke, he has been drawing a portrait of a Christian living in the midst of a dying world. We have been learning what a Christian ought to be like in a world like ours today, which is comparable to the world of the 1st century, filled with despair, hopelessness, corruption, deceit and darkness.

Paul has pictured here a change of viewpoint that comes to a Christian. He says, “We do not look at people anymore from ‘a human point of view.’ We don’t judge them by outward standards; we don’t value them because they are wealthy or influential or famous. We see everyone as made in the image of God but having lost the likeness of God. Yet they are able to be restored to that relationship…” (2 Cor. 5:16 RSV). Any life, no matter how dissolute, wasted, empty or lonely, can, by the touch of the divine life, be restored to usefulness, joy, peace and power, can be part of a new creation that God is working out.

We are to live like that. We are to have that in our thoughts every day. We are to be renewed in our minds by the Spirit of God so that we always look at life that way because that is the way it really is. Having said all that, the apostle goes on to describe the ministry that God has given us. These words are among some of the most remarkable in the Scriptures. They are a description of the greatest, the most powerful, the most effective work going on in the world today. I do not hesitate to say that, yet this is a description of your ministry and mine, what Paul calls, “the ministry of reconciliation.” Listen to these words from Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verses 18-20:

What a tremendous ministry that is! How fitting it is that we should be considering it during this Christmas season when we are celebrating again that initial breakthrough of our Lord into time and space, coming to reconcile sinners unto himself. We need to understand this “ministry of reconciliation” very carefully, because this is our ministry. This is what God has called each one of us who knows Jesus Christ to do. That is why he has left us here in the world. This is not merely Paul’s ministry, or an apostle’s, or even a pastor’s ministry. It is our ministry. Notice how Paul uses the words “we” and “us” all through this passage. He shared it with those Christians of that early day in Corinth, and he shares it with us today. This is what God has given us to do. There are five things in this passage I would like to call our attention to: Notice, first, that this ministry comes to us from God himself; it originates with him:

Now if this ministry comes from God, that means that you and I are responsible to him to do this, not to anybody else. When Paul went around the Roman world he did not have to check in with the twelve apostles in Jerusalem to get permission to go into another country. They did not give him his commission; God did. He did not send them monthly reports on how he was doing. He had no board or authority over him, and neither do we in this regard.

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