Forgiven Enemies // Romans 5:8

There is a lot of hope in today’s verse! We read that God took the initiative to save us before we even deserved it…as if we could…by sending Jesus. Jesus sacrificed His life for our salvation before we even knew we needed saving. It echoes so loudly of Jesus’ prayer from the cross for God to forgive those who nailed Him there because they didn’t know what they were doing (Luke 23:34). The reality is our sin was heaped on His shoulder, too, even though we wouldn’t make those messes for some 2,000 years! But this is God’s love, making salvation possible for us even before we deserved it. Roman’s 5:10 puts this image in even starker language as the Apostle Paul wrote, “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” (NIV)! And it’s that life we live and are freely given that God wants us to use to help others find reconciliation with Him. He paid the debt and cleared our ledger. He closed the gap and crossed the chasm. All for you and me. So, will you live for Him? It will change your life and you’ll find that God uses changed lives to help change the world.