Reading through Romans

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Opening sentence

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory. You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.
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A reading from Romans: Romans 5:5b-8 (NLT)

For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, 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. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
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Reflection: Romans 5:5b-8 (John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World)

The results of justification (5: 1– 11)

The whole paragraph (verses 1– 11) depends on the opening words: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith.… Paul utters six bold assertions in the name of all whom God has justified.

d. We also rejoice in our sufferings (3– 8) Pt. 2 vs 5b-8

To be sure of God’s love… is the major secret of joy, peace, freedom, confidence and self-respect. The apostle spells out two major means by which we come to be sure that God loves us.

The first is that God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us (5b)…..

• The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to all believers (since Paul is listing the consequences of justification), so that it is not possible to be justified by faith without at the same time being regenerated and indwelt by the Spirit….
• The Holy Spirit was given to us at a particular time, namely at what is popularly called our ‘conversion’, or when we were justified.
• Having been given to us, one of the Holy Spirit’s distinctive ministries is to pour God’s love into our hearts. Indeed, he has done this in such a way that the initial outpouring remains a permanent flood.

The second and objective way of assuring us of his love is that he has proved his love by Christ’s death on the cross…. For ‘Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, and that is God’s proof of his love towards us’ (8).

• The essence of loving is giving…. ‘The Son of God … loved me and gave himself for me.’
• The degree of love is measured partly by the costliness of the gift to the giver, and partly by the worthiness or unworthiness of the beneficiary.

Measured by these standards, God’s love in Christ is absolutely unique. For in sending his Son to die for sinners, he was giving everything, his very self, to those who deserved nothing from him except judgment.

God has both proved his love for us in the death of his Son (8) and poured his love into us by the gift of his Spirit (5). Objectively in history and subjectively in experience, God has given us good grounds for believing in his love.
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Canticle

Christ, as a light illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen