Romans 5:6-11

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 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! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

New International Version (NIV)

Do you ever have a particularly bad day and feel like God must be disappointed in you? It’s easy to assume God’s ashamed of us if we think we’re a lot farther behind in our spiritual maturity than we really should be. I know that personally, the seasons where I pray to my Father the least are the seasons where I am convinced that, because of my failures, God doesn’t want to hear from me. But the shame we think God has for us is none other than our own shame, not his. In truth, God is just as prone to help and comfort us on our bad days as on our good days, because despite every failure of ours, we have been reconciled to our Father.

 

Reconciliation is, in my opinion, a vastly underappreciated aspect of our salvation. After all, the very heart of the Christian life and the Christian joy is our relationship with God. And even though that relationship was marred and jeopardized by sin creating a separation between us and him, things have been set right, and we have God’s favor. But the best part is that God has done the thing to reconcile our relationship—God has done the thing, and it does not depend on us. Because Christ has taken on himself all of the Father’s wrath that we would otherwise deserve, all the disappointment God could possibly have in us has been completely done away with!

 

Just how loving was this divine sacrifice? With what kind of love did the Son of God take our place in death? With a love that is greater than any love human beings can even conceive of. Imagine being willing to give up your life for not just a family member or good person but a mortal enemy! This kind of love goes beyond anything the human race could ever come up with. This is a love that is entirely superior, more reliable, more steadfast, and more unbreakable than we could ever imagine. We are in Christ who died for us—we believe in him and submit to him. And that means we can have total confidence that our reconciliation with God, and his favor with us, are permanent and unconditional.

 

It is truly a wonderful comfort that the way God feels about us is not affected by our failures or bad days. It’s not about whether I’ve been good enough to earn his favor; it’s about Christ having already done enough. The cross was more than enough to reconcile us to our Father, and he loves us—oh, how he loves us. But it’s not that he loves us on account of us being lovable; rather, we are lovable because he has loved us. What a truly great comfort we have in the cross of Christ!

Pray with me: 

Good Father, it is an inexpressible privilege and joy that we get to walk and talk with you and know you personally and intimately. Thank you for bridging the chasm by your amazing grace through your Son and redeeming us to yourself. You have truly loved us more than we can possibly comprehend, and you are worthy of all the love we have to give in return. You have been so good to us, and so we wholeheartedly worship you. In your Son’s glorious name, Amen.

Our Saturday and Sunday devotionals are in the book of Romans. Join us for these devotionals as we learn together about our God and his Kingdom in the world.  

We also invite you to join us as we read through the Bible. Copies of the reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download your copy here:

 

2026 Bible Reading Plan

Manage your preferences | Opt Out using TrueRemove™
Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails.
View this email online.

555 Tallowood Road | Houston, TX 77024 US

This email was sent to ryancasinio@gmail.com.
To continue receiving our emails, add us to your address book.