Romans 5:8
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A few years ago, I was driving home from the lake in my mom's car, and compared to my 20-year-old car, her Buick seemed like a spaceship. And because of this, I was wrongfully driving way too fast, and I got pulled over, blue lights flashing behind me, and I was given a significant ticket, the kind that you can't just pay and move on. I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I figured I had some major consequences.
But surprisingly, through a series of phone calls and emails, suddenly everything was just dropped. All the charges against me were gone. Even though I'd broken the law, I was guilt-free only because I was given what I didn't deserve. That's the idea we're going to be focusing on tonight, being given what we don't deserve.
Our text this evening is Romans chapter 5, verse 8. It can be found on the front page of your bulletin or on page 942 of your Red Pew Bible. Let's read the verse. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The main point of our text is this, believe that you are loved by God and justified undeservingly.
And there's three simple questions that I want to ask and answer for you tonight. So it's the what of God's love, the when of God's love, and the how of God's love. And there's actually a simple progression throughout the verse. So you've got the what in the beginning of the verse, the when in the middle of the verse and the how at the end of the verse. So let's take a look at the first question. What is this verse talking about? This verse is talking about God's love. Look at our verse. But God shows his love. The context for our verse is Paul talking about the gospel.
Paul says that the gospel is an act of God's love. Love is what causes God to send his son. notice the detail about this verse. Notice the word shows. Shows means that God's love is a love that can be seen, it can be gazed upon, it can be looked at. God demonstrates or displays his love. God shows his love with a tangible evidence. So showing love is what happens at the end of a wedding ceremony. A few months ago, Mariah and I, we got married and we made our vows of love to each other. And what do we do at the end of our ceremony? We kissed. We displayed our love with a kiss. Our love was seen. God's love is a love that's shown. It's able to be seen.
We can live with the confidence that God has shown his love. So I want to focus on a reason that may make it difficult to see God's love. It may make it hard to see God's love because we cloud it out by talking about God's sovereignty way more than we talk about God's love. God gives life and breath to all things. He upholds the universe by the word of his power and he calls into existence things that do not exist.
But God's sovereignty is not his only attribute. Nearly every time God's sovereignty is mentioned or alluded to in the Bible, it's nearly always accompanied with his love. The pages of Scripture are filled with both God's sovereignty and God's love. Your thoughts and your speech should be similar to the Bible. If the Bible speaks of both God's sovereignty and God's love, then so should you somewhere you may see this come up in your life is when you're suffering when it feels like things aren't going your way when life is hard you may be tempted to just throw up your hands in acceptance of well god sovereign you know you're given some bad news um it's it's all good god sovereign yes god is sovereign but he's ordained this difficulty not just out of an abundance of his sovereignty, but also out of an abundance of
his love. God is both sovereign over and sympathetic in your suffering. Embrace your trials with the knowledge of both God's sovereignty and the comfort of his love. So we've looked at the what of God's love, but when does he show it? So the second question of our verse, when does God show his love? Look down at our verse. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So right in the middle of our verse, he says it's while we were still sinners. A sinner is someone who's broken God's law. The surrounding verses of our passage give us some synonyms for what a sinner is. Verse 6, a sinner is ungodly, someone who's not like God.
Verse 10, a sinner is God's enemy. They're opposed to God. We would expect God to love a different kind of person. We would think the passage would say, but God shows his love for the super religious rule follower, or the straight-A student, or God shows his love for the person who does more good than bad. But God's love is almost the opposite. God shows his love to the rebel, the outcast, the sinner.
Paul is saying that God loved you even when the most accurate word to describe you was sinner. notice a detail about this word this verse notice the word sinner paul does not say that god showed his love for you while you were sinning he says that god showed his love for you while you were a sinner sin is not just something you do it's who you are and this is true for every christian in this room you were a sinner and yet god showed his love for you. It was while you were a sinner that God showed his love for you. You didn't do anything to earn or deserve God's love. So Christian, the logic of this passage should change the way you react to sin. Listen to the logic, an argument from the lesser to the greater. If God loved you
while you were a sinner why would he love you any less now that you are his son? If God loved you while you were his enemy why would he love you any less now that you've been reconciled by faith? So when you sin how do you respond? Do you delay confessing your sin to God? After you sin are you tempted to wallow in your sin for an unhealthy amount of time? You may be tempted to think that extended periods of guilt over your sin are so godly and holy and pious.
But reacting to sin this way makes much of your sin and not much of God's love. Your confidence level to confess to someone shows the level of love that you think they have for you. If you do something wrong against them and you don't think they love you very much, you're going to run away. You don't want to confess to them. But if you're confident they love you, it's much easier to confess. You're much more willing to confess when you're wrong.
Christian, the same thing is true for your Father in heaven. Confess your sin to God with confidence that he loves you. God has proven his love for you. You can be confident that God loves you even after you sin. God loved you while you were a sinner, why would he love you any less now? If you're here and you're not following Jesus, I want to ask you, who else offers you this kind of love?
To love you at your worst. To love you in spite of everything that you've done against them. To love you when you have nothing to offer. no other religion or relationship or career can offer you this kind of love. Every other religion says that you have to earn God's love. Muslims have to keep the five pillars of Islam. Catholics have to keep themselves free from mortal sin.
Or your good deeds just have to outweigh your bad deeds. But Christianity is the only one that says God loves you even while you're a sinner. And that's good news. It's good news because you already qualify. If you're applying for a job and you fill out an application and you're asked to describe yourself and you write down weak, ungodly, sinner, they're not going to accept your application.
But if these terms describe you, you're the exact candidate that God is looking for. You can put in an application for God's love. The way you get God's love is not by earning it, but by receiving it. You can be fully loved and be freed from not being good enough by trusting in Jesus to forgive you of your sin. Based on what he did and not what you do.
He will trade you, your sin and your guilt, for his perfection and his righteousness. Repent of your sin and trust in Jesus to forgive you. So we've seen the what of God's love, the when of God's love. And our third and final question, let's look at the how of God's love. So third and final question from this verse. How can this be? God loves sinners?
How can God love people who are evil? Look down at the end of the verse. Christ died for us. Christ died for us on the cross. Jesus dying on the cross is how God can love sinners. God is able to show love to sinners by pouring his wrath on Jesus on the cross instead of on sinners. Jesus is the substitute for all the sinners who believe in him.
Listen to the words used for Jesus in the place of sinners. He was afflicted, oppressed, pierced, crushed, wounded, slaughtered. But now listen to the words of God's love for sinners. Peace, healing, accounted righteous. Jesus stood in your place. Jesus was crushed so that you might be counted free.
Jesus took the wrath so that you might be given righteousness. Jesus bore the blame so that you might be blameless. Jesus was afflicted so that you might be shown God's affection. It's at the cross where God's justice for sinners and God's love for sinners is reconciled. God looks at Jesus on the cross and crushes him as a sinner. And now by trusting in Jesus, God looks at you and only shows love.
Come to the cross and receive God's undeserved love. All praise to him whose love is seen in Christ the Son, the Servant King. Let's pray. God, we thank you that you love sinners. We ask that you would cause us to run to you in faith even after we sin. We ask that you would give us confidence in your love for us.
And we ask that you would draw sinners to yourself. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.