Epistle 0618 Reflection

The Epistle

Romans 5:1-8

Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person -- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

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If you ever want a Scripture that speaks of the grace of God, this is the text that you should read.  Paul reminds us here that we have not earned the love of God.  Indeed the apostle reminds us that we cannot earn this gift.  If we could, then we would be loved of God by right, and grace would no longer be grace.  But God has loved us when we were unlovable.  In Christ, God takes on death and sin, not his own but ours, in order that we might be clothed in the righteousness and purity that are not ours, but God's alone.  The awareness of such grace is that force that transforms us and drives us to live into that transformation.  When we boast in grace, we are not boasting in ourselves.  We are rather giving thanks from the depths of hearts changed by divine presence, and thus our boast is in God alone, who has done what in human wisdom is mere foolishness.  All this God has done out of love.  Jesus tells us that no one has greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.  He puts this into practice by showing us that when we were not yet "friends" (at least not by right or our conduct), he laid down his life in order to share all the gifts of God with us.

Father Tim+