Romans Part 3 - LIFESample

The Cost of Reconciliation

“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” - Romans 5:10 NIV

When I first came to faith in Jesus, I started to read the Bible with new eyes and a new heart. I began to make connections throughout the Word, helping me understand God’s grand design of salvation for lost mankind. In the Old Testament telling in Genesis 22, God told Abraham, the Father of Faith:

“Take your son, your only son, whom you love – Isaac - and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

WHAT?!? How could a loving God, full of grace, demand such a thing? I can scarcely entertain the thought of harming a hair on the head of one of my own, let alone the finality of offering them to God on an altar pyre. Abraham’s relationship with Almighty God was such that they spoke on a regular basis, and Abraham believed God, (Romans 4:3), so, he proceeded up the mountain to kill and sacrifice his long-awaited, promised son to God.

Now, as the story goes, at the very last moment, at the perfect time, after Abraham assured Isaac that “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering,” an angel appeared and spared Abraham the ultimate agony of sacrificing his only son.

Moving to the New Testament, God took on himself this same agony, the blood sacrifice of his only begotten son, to redeem us, sinners, the “enemies of God.” How deep the Father’s love for us! The Blood was shed; the Lamb was slain; and those that walk in the faith of Abraham and declare Jesus Christ is Lord are now reconciled into a righteous relationship with YHWH, our Creator. And indeed, with the Resurrection of Christ on the third day, we are saved, freed, released, and rescued from a sinner’s death and the eternal damnation of separation from God.

“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” - Romans 6:4 NIV

-Matt Harry