God Loves Us
God's Caring, Saving, and Upholding Love

God's Love as Victory over Death

Romans 5:18-21. The Message

18-19 Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.
20-21 All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.

For Reflection

One man, Adam, sinned and got us all to move away, not toward God. One man, Jesus, gave up his life in obedience to God and in doing so brought us all back to God, the source of all life. In Christ, we are made righteous.

When are we going to realize that one cannot legislate righteousness? When will we realize and accept the fact that the best way to approach perfect humanity is through the practice of grace? The promise of grace encourages righteousness that threat can never accomplish. Have confidence in God's will for humankind and trust the practice of The Way of Jesus Christ.


Pray

Pray for the confident obedience to the Lord. Pray for those who's action drives others away from God. Pray that you will be a willing and able servant whose main objective is to uplift all people with whom you come in contact.