Latest / LifeAudio / Your Daily Bible Verse - Experience God's Extravagant Love (Romans 5:8)

Transcript

Your Daily Bible Verse - Experience God's Extravagant Love (Romans 5:8) · LifeAudio

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life Audio Hello and thank you for listening to Your
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Daily Bible Verse, the podcast that examines one verse each
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: day to learn more about God and His will for us.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jessica VanRoekel, and after this short word
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: from our sponsor, we'll dive into today's Bible verse, Romans 5,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: verse 8. Today's Bible verses Romans chapter 5 verse 8.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: But God showed his love for us in that while
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Years ago,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: I loved watching a show called Trading Spaces, where friends
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: would swap home projects and add their creative spin onto
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: it with the help of an interior designer. I still
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: love to watch the transformation of an inefficient kitchen design
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: transformed into a beautiful workspace. The before pictures show worn-out
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: floors and crooked cabinets, and the after pictures reveal beautiful
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: light fixtures, a new floor, and rearranged cupboards. I'm inspired
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: to start my own projects and have a big reveal
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: with friends and family members. We love a good transformation,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: don't we? But Christianity can sometimes feel we need to
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: wait to be accepted by God until we're ready to
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: show Him our after. Today's verse takes us back to
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the before. Jesus didn't die for the new and improved
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: version of us. He died while we were still in
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: the before stage because he loved our unimproved selves. It
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: is his love that transforms us. The Apostle Paul strips
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: away our preconceived notion that we need to be good
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: before God can receive us. Instead, Paul brings us back
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: to the wonderful and mysterious truth found in Jesus' death
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: and resurrection. God loves loved us in our sinful and
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: unloving state. While we were still far from him, Christ
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: died for us. All people are sinners in rebellion and
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: opposition to God, and according to his perfect law, we
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: are pronounced guilty and condemned to eternal death. But God
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: made a way for his perfect law to be justified.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: When a person turns from their own way to accept
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Christ's sacrifice and enter a right relationship with God, it
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: is as if that person never sinned. God credits them, us,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: with Christ's righteousness. The law is satisfied because of justification.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: This is kind of a big word, so let's dive
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: into justification. Justification means to be made righteous or to
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: set something right, and it's directly related to God's forgiveness,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: which is made available through Jesus Christ's sacrifice. God displayed
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: his great and amazing love to the loveless, the unlovable.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Paul describes the greatness of God's love given to the undeserving.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: God's love for us has nothing to do with us
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: and our qualifications or lack thereof. It has everything to
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: do with his compassionate heart. The first several verses in
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: chapter 5 tell us important truths. The first two verses
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: show the benefits of believing in Jesus. The next few
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: verses flip our understanding of hardships because of what they
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: can produce in our lives. Then, Paul begins describing God's
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: love for us. He used a phrase, in due time,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: regarding Christ's time on earth. This is important because at
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: the time of Jesus' earthly ministry, the world was prepared
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: for Jesus. It was prepared spiritually, economically, linguistically, politically, and geographically.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: The world was connected due to the extensive nature of
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: the Roman Empire and so that the gospel could spread
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: throughout the known world. Paul continues to explain how God's
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: love goes beyond the best love of the best human being.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: He used the example of how a good man might
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: die for another good man, but Jesus died for the ungodly.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: This Greek term for means for the sake of or
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: on behalf of. Jesus died for those who were neither
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: righteous nor good. We often treat God and Jesus as
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: separate because of their different roles in the Bible, but
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: it's a good thing to remember that they are still one.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Jesus said that if we see him, we see the Father.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Jesus told us he came to do the Father's will
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: because he and the Father are one. When we consider
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: the agony Jesus went through on our behalf, we need
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: to remember God experienced the same agony. God's love exceeds
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: anything we can reasonably comprehend. There is no sin that
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: is not covered by God's grace. He stands ready to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: receive us because of His inexhaustible and all-consuming love. God's
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: provision for our sin was made while we were still
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: sinners and far from Him. In our culture of proof
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: before belief, we can begin to believe that God does
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: the same, but He doesn't. He has wholeness available for
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: those who believe. That means we don't have to clean
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: up our behaviors before belief. He cleans us up when
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: we believe because He He transforms us from the inside out.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: God's love for you is extravagant. He calls you to
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: come home to him while you are still messy and
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: don't have things figured out. Turn to him and believe
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Jesus died for you even while you were far from him.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: He's calling to you today. Be brave and turn toward him.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: wildly extravagant love. Lord, it's the kind of love that
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: I struggle to comprehend, the kind of love that is all-encompassing,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: the kind of love that can wipe away the worst
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: of our mistakes. Thank you, Lord, that you sent your
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Son to die in our place, to take the punishment
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: that the law said that I deserved. Lord, God, I
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: pray that today we would remember your extravagant love and
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: receive it to our hearts to realize that we don't
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: have to clean up our before so that we can
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: experience your after. But Lord, that you want us to
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: come in all of our messes and all of our
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: hurts and all of our regrets. Lord, you want us
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: just to come to you and say, God, I believe
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: I'm going to put my trust in you. Thank you
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: for your extravagant love in Jesus name. Amen.