If God brings us to Himself through the death of His Son, can you imagine what He does through the life of His Son, now that we are near? If God loved us enough to reconcile us to Himself while we were still in rebellious sin against Him, can you imagine what He will do for us now that we are on His side?
The questions above reflect the heart of God’s Word found in Romans 8:10 (NASB), “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” The words of this passage have on different occasions penetrated my mind and soul at least three times in the past few months.
Perhaps at times fearful we will be functioning in fairy-tale land if we hope too much, I believe followers of Jesus sometimes live far beneath His blessing because we do not digest His truth as He intended. The message is right there in Paul’s letter to the Romans: God saved us from His wrath by Jesus’ death, and He shall surely deliver us in all ways imaginable by Jesus’ life. We need not be afraid that this verse is too good to be true. After all, fairy tales are the result of human imagination flowing from a mind given by a God who has an unbelievable “end” to this “story” of life. In other words, we can only dream of great endings because we were made in the image of the all-creative God who has planned from the foundation of the earth a real and tangible culmination to history that defies the highest expectation of limited, human reasoning. Fairy tales do not discourage me, but rather remind me that we were originally intended to “think big.” The momentous point to remember is that the God behind our creation is actually able to complete His plan for reality! Human fairytales are feeble, short-sighted shadows pointing to an Almighty God who works in the stuff of actuality and truth.
Friends, stand on the promise that “we shall be saved by His life.” Jesus’ death was so powerful it brings sinners close to a holy God. How much more powerful is the life of Jesus! For one, we know that as He lives, He intercedes for us. Hebrews 7:25 (NASB) proclaims, “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” The sacrifice of Jesus’ life and blood paid the cost for our nearness to God, and now that we love our King, Jesus is so pleased to present us continually to the Father for help and deliverance.
We also know that the resurrection of Jesus has caused us to be “born again to a living hope” (I Peter 1:3, NASB). As a child comes out of a mother’s womb and is surrounded by air he must now breathe, so Christians emerge from sinful darkness and are now enveloped by the hope of God they must now take in.
Do we face difficulty and disappointment? Certainly we do. However, do we have God’s promise for ultimate deliverance? Absolutely, we do! As surely as spring follows winter – and as surely as Jesus’ resurrection followed His death – that is how surely our deliverance will follow difficulty and disappointment.
If God loved us when we were rotten and staunchly turned against Him, will He not love us now that we have run into His arms? If God thought us valuable enough to send His Son to die, does He not count us valuable enough to benefit from His Son’s life? This metanarrative – this overarching plan of God for the universe – turns out greater for followers of Jesus Christ than our minds can comprehend.
Actually, it does not just “turn out” that way; it exceeds what we can imagine in this present moment, because not one circumstance is lost in the working of God. Jesus, the Son of God, is all-knowing. He lives and intercedes for us. He does not miss one thing. Not one. As He goes to the Father on our behalf for every great and infinitesimal circumstance of our lives, the Holy Spirit moves in ways sometimes obvious and often mysterious to save us completely. We are being shaped into who we need to be for God’s glory and to shine in that beautiful Heaven of His. This is no fairy tale, but a true account of the God in charge of reality.