Scripture
6When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners… 11So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. Romans 5:6-8,11
Observation
The first Adam made a decision based on self-centered pursuits and doomed us all to eternal death for sin. Jesus, the Last Adam made a decision to die for all mankind and secured eternal salvation for all who would believe. As Paul said, this is truly “great love”! The contrast clarifies the sacrifice and leads to our response- a life of rejoicing about our new relationship with Jesus as friends of God. That’s right! We should be the happiest people anyone will meet as we become living memorials to the ultimate sacrifice and living proof of a God who loves us and has redeemed us as His own!
Application
This is Memorial Day weekend. We all know that this is a good time to reflect upon the tremendous debt that we owe all our veterans who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom in the country. Yet, for most of my life I’ve loved this weekend as the unofficial beginning of summer that brought me BBQ’s, pool parties and an extra day off. If we're not careful we miss the lesson of Memorial Day for lesser things. Each Veteran who has laid down their lives for people who could care less about them were following in the foosteps of Jesus. We may not all be in the military, but we are all called to to do the same and lay our lives down for others. Two weeks ago I had the privileg of helping with a Celebration of Life of Chrissy Grissom. The Church was standing room only for this woman of God who impacted so many with her joyous and sacrificial faith. Her memorial was filled stories of how she served Jesus by serving others not begrudgingly, but with joy. I honestly can’t remember laughing so much as we did in that memorial service as friends and family recounted the various and creative ways she would bring the joy of Jesus into people’s lives. The challenge I gave at the end was simple: “Let’s be living memorials of Chrissy to everyone we meet and share the reason for the joy we’ve been given. What a tragedy it would be to let a live so well lived end at the end of the memorial service.” This is what Paul is saying here in Romans 5 as well. If we simply receive the salvation, but don’t show it or share it after we are saved then the world will never know that what Jesus did for us He also did for them! We can sing all we want about this “great love” but if all the world sees is mopey, grumpy, and cranky Christians then they won’t know why Jesus is so great. The number of adults in the US who are clinically depressed is at an all time high even as they pursue temporary highs. People we know and work with will be going into this Memorial Day weekend looking for an escape that will end Tuesday morning when they have to go back to work and school. What if we looked for creative ways like Chrissy did to show the joy of being friends with God. This will require us laying down our agendas, our preferences, our schedules so we can meet people in their low places as living memorials to a living God who loves them!
Prayer
You have made me a friend of God. I’m just letting that sink in this morning. You died for me and all mankind knowing full well that most of us would spurn your sacrifice and raise our fists to The Heavens and blame You for our bad choices. Yet, for those who repent and surrender You met us in our lowly place and filled us with joy. I can’t pay You back for what You’ve done for me, but I can pay it forward to those around me as a living memorial of God's Love!
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