God’s love poured into our hearts

[Romans 5:5-11]

We believers in Jesus have a sure hope, a hope that does not disappoint (Rom. 5:5).  That hope is the glory of God.  Since we have been justified by faith in Jesus Christ, we are now able to rejoice in the glory of God.  Now we no longer have to wear a body that is reproached, weak, or perishable (1 Cor. 15:43, 54).  On the day Jesus returns, we will suddenly be transformed (v. 51).  At that time, we will be like His glorious body (Phil. 3:21).  We will fully participate in the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).  We will fully participate in the character of Jesus, who is God.  This hope is a hope that we can have confidently and not be ashamed of (Rom. 5:5).  Why?  The reason is because this hope that God has given us in Jesus Christ is based on God's love.  In other words, because God loves us with great love, this sure hope given to us who are chosen in that love and justified by believing in Jesus can never disappoint us.  In addition to faith, we who are justified by faith in Jesus Christ (v. 1), God has given us a sure and certain eternal hope that will not disappoint us (vv. 2, 5).  Furthermore, God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (v. 5).  In other words, God gave us faith, hope, and love.  What could this be but God's undivided grace?

Today, I am going to think about the love of God among the graces that God bestows on us, focusing on Romans 5:5-11.  In particular, if we look at Romans 5:5, the Scripture says, “Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”  I'm trying to think about what kind of love God's love is.  In the midst of this, we want to humbly receive the grace that God gives us.  God's love that appears in today's text is that God allowed His only begotten Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for us (vv. 6, 8, 10).  The apostle John says of this love: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn.3:16).  I would like to think about the great love of God who loves us even to the point of giving up His only begotten Son Jesus on the cross in three ways, centering on today's text.

First, God's love is the love that loves the helpless.

Look at Romans 5:6 – “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”  The apostle Paul, writing to the saints in Rome, tells them that Jesus Christ died for the ungodly Himself and for the saints in Rome at a time when the love of God will be manifested as planned from eternity (“at the right time”).  That's right.  God loved you and me, who were helpless and ungodly before believing in Jesus, and gave Jesus up on the cross.  Then, how were we helpless and ungodly before we believed in Jesus?  Before we believed in Jesus, we were in a state of helplessness and inability to do any good (Moo).  In a word, we were those of the flesh (Park).  And as people of the flesh, we lived according to the desires of the sinful nature (Gal. 5:16).  In other words, before we believed in Jesus, we lived doing the acts of the sinful nature (v. 19) in the desires of the sinful nature.  What are the acts of the sinful nature.  Look at Galatians 5:19-21: “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. ….”  This is what we were before believing in the unredeemed Jesus.  When we were in this state, God loved us and allowed Jesus to die on the cross in order to redeem us who He had predestined before the foundation of the world.  Can we really compare this love of God to anyone else's love?  It can never be compared to our human love.  So, Paul, writing a letter to the saints in Rome, says: “For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die” (Rom. 5:7).  The love of this world is not easy for those who die for the righteous.  In other words, people are those who abide by the regulations of the law, and those who die for the righteous they respect are not so easy.  However, as good people, that is, those who walk with love and are loved by the good people, there may be people who will die for the good people (v. 7) (Park).  But there will be no one in this world who will die for the weak and ungodly, for those who do the acts of the sinful nature in the desire of the sinful nature.  But Jesus died on the cross for you and me, those helpless and ungodly people.  Why did He do that?  The reason is because He wanted to reconcile us to God by redeeming us.  Therefore, we no longer walk the path of destruction and suffering, but walk the path of peace.  We have become godly (Ps. 32:6).  Does a godly person refer to a person who has never sinned?  It's not.  A godly person is one who confesses his sins to God and receives forgiveness.  It refers to those who have been justified by God, that is, you and I, who are “the righteous.”  This love of God was poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit when we believed in Jesus Christ (v. 5).

Second, God's love is the love that loves sinners.

Look at Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  The love of God is that before we believed in Jesus, when we were helpless, doing the acts of the sinful nature in the desire of the sinful nature, living an ungodly life and committing sins, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross for us, sinners.  This is God's divine love, unconditional love.  Look at 1 John 4:9-10: “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.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  The love of God poured out into our hearts is that He sent His only begotten Son into the world to die on the cross as a sacrifice for peace in order to bring us back to life.  God gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, to the cross as a sin offering to save sinners in His forbearance (Rom. 3:25).  And because He was nailed to the cross and shed His blood and died, we who believe in the power of His blood were forgiven of all our sins and justified.  Paul says that both Jews and Greeks are under sin (v. 9).  Again, he says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (v. 23).  And he says, “in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (5:12).  In other words, “the wages of sin is death” (6:23).  In this way, before we believed in Jesus, we were all under sin and were walking the path of eternal death under the wrath of God (1:18, 5:9).  We were walking the road to eternal destruction without any hope.  God unconditionally loved these hopeless sinners with His love.  God never loved us because we had something to love.  God loves us because He is love.  The greatest expression of God's love is the death of Jesus, the only begotten Son.  In other words, the greatest expression of God's love for us was for the helpless, ungodly, and sinners to have Jesus, His only begotten Son, die on the cross to redeem us.  Through the shedding of His blood on the cross, all sins of those who believe in Jesus are forgiven. All our sins have been taken away, and our sins are invisible to God (Ps. 32:1).  Pointing to such people, the psalmist says that they are blessed: “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered” (v. 1).

Third and last, God's love is the love that loves enemies.

Look at Romans 5:10 – “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!”  When we were still helpless (v. 6), that is, when we were still sinners (v. 8), we were at enmity with God.  At this time, Paul describes our thoughts like this: “the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so” (8:7).  After sinning, we humans became enemies with God.  Therefore, before we believed in Jesus, not only did we not submit to the law of God, but we could not, while thinking about the flesh in the desires of the sinful nature.  The reason why we became God's people and God's children in this enmity relationship is because Jesus, the only begotten Son, died on the cross.  Therefore, we have been reconciled to God (v. 10).  Therefore, Paul exhorts us to: “…  we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, …” (v. 11).  We should be rejoicing.  We must rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  The reason is because God loved us and saved us through Jesus Christ so that we could be reconciled to God.  Furthermore, we rejoice and rejoice in the Lord because God has given us hope for His glory in Jesus Christ (v. 5).  We rejoice even in suffering because we have this sure and confident hope in Jesus (v. 3).  

How should we live in this joy?  We are to love our neighbors with the love of God poured out in our hearts.  How are we to love our neighbors?  We must preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, which brings reconciliation, to those who do not know Jesus.  In other words, we must preach the gospel of Jesus Christ who died on the cross to those who are still helpless (the ungodly), sinners, and enemies of God.  And we must live a life worthy of the Gospel.  In other words, we must live by obeying the commandments of Jesus.  One of those commandments is Matthew 5:44 – “I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”