The Mystery of God's Love
Read Romans 5:6–8. According to these texts, what prompted God to bring salvation to us through Jesus?
God was not obliged to save the human race. It was not something that He was forced to do. It is difficult to imagine the Godhead saying, “Had we done this or that, Adam and Eve would not have fallen into sin. Therefore, now we should do something to save them from their predicament.” Instead, humans brought upon themselves the condition in which they found themselves after the Fall: “ ‘God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes’ ” (Eccles. 7:29, NIV).
If God felt obliged to save us, salvation would be something that we deserve. But the opposite is true; it is something that we don’t deserve, and yet, God was willing to give it to us anyway. This makes His work of salvation in our behalf even more remarkable, because He did for us, not what He was forced to do, but what He out of love chose to do. He, the Creator, was under no obligation to us, the creatures.
Read Romans 3:19–22. What is Paul saying to us here about how we are saved? What role does the law have in solving the problem cause by sin?
Because of sin, it is impossible for humans, through obedience to the law, to reconstruct their original relationship with God (see Rom. 8:3, Gal. 3:21). The law could no more save us than feeding a corpse could bring it back to life. If something was to happen, God Himself would have to take the initiative. And He did—through the revelation of His righteousness, revealed through Jesus on the cross. This righteousness comes to the believer by faith and not by works of the law. If salvation was something that we could earn through obedience, God would owe it to us to save us. Instead, God determined that humans will be forgiven and restored to permanent and eternal fellowship with Him only through the work and person of His Son, Jesus Christ.
| What means more to you (and why?): someone doing something nice to you because he or she was obliged to, or purely out of love? |
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