Hello everybody, it’s good to be back with you. Nothing, I was ill for quite some time, nothing serious, plumbing problems as the euphemism is, but very protracted, inconvenient and painful. But I thank you for all your prayers, and I thank KLT for taking care of my programs, for doing repeats for me during this time of illness. And it’s just good to get back to the Word. The Lord has been gradually healing me, and His Word sustained me during this time. You know, when in the hospital bed in the middle of the night, you know, when the nurses constantly wake you up, you just realize how precious it is to be able to talk to God in the middle of the night when you’re incapacitated and the bed is uncomfortable and the bells are ringing and the alarms are going off and the nurses are intruding. It’s really beautiful to be able to speak back into your heart and mind the promises of God. I must say, I couldn’t remember many of them with the various medications they gave me, but they did sustain me, and it was the Lord that sustained me. I give thanks to Him. I give thanks to you for your prayers and your constant support. So, there we are, enough of that. And I hope you are well. We are, of course, in the book of Romans, as always. But I was trying to think as how far we got. I know we got into Romans chapter 5. And I have to tell you, over the years… Romans 5 has intrigued me more and more. Now, you’ve heard me say that over the years, the book of Romans itself has intrigued me. It has over the decades, many, many decades. But chapter 5 is particularly interesting shocking, alarming, no, alarming isn’t the word, shocking and delightful and full of surprises. We’re at the place, I think, where Paul is going to tell us about the plan of God to redeem all mankind. It’s in chapter 5, and it can be summarized in that verse 18. Therefore, as through one man’s offering, sorry, therefore as through one man’s offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one man’s righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. Now that’s just a summary of several verses that Paul is going to be talking on as the chapter unfolds, as this part of the passage of the chapter unfolds. But how did he get there to this point? You see, many theologians have thought that Paul, as I think I’ve mentioned to you many times before, was simply introducing a whole new strain of thought here that didn’t belong anywhere. But that is the view of many, because in my humble opinion and the opinion of others, they haven’t grasped the real message of the book of Romans. The message of the book of Romans is, of course, that Jesus Christ has taken upon himself the Son of God, God among men, the Son of Man, the judgment for all humanity. For he, according to chapter 3, verse 25, is the propitiation. He is the propitiation for all of humanity’s sins. Now, what does that word propitiation mean? You remember, it means taking appeasing wrath. Well, you won’t mind saying, well, is God so mad with us? He hates us. He has to have his son suffer for us so that his wrath is appeased. No, that’s a caricature. The real message is that God’s love is so great, so utterly incomprehensible, that he is enormously grieved and wrathful against whatever harms that love that he has for us. Humanity has ruined itself and is in the process of constantly ruining itself. And the book of Revelation makes it very, very clear that in the last days, the whole world will come to ruin. But God in his love will take that ruin upon himself as he did in Jesus Christ at the cross, so that he may not have to judge humanity for its utter stupidity, but he will take that judgment upon himself. Now that judgment is for everyone, of course. When we look at Romans chapter 5, this is the chapter that’s freedom from wrath, as you recall. And he says, therefore, since having been justified by faith, declared innocent, that is, the word justified, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, of course, the natural tendency is to think, who is the we he’s talking about here, that we have peace?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, he’s talking about believers, we say.
SPEAKER 02 :
But are you sure about that? You see, the more you grasp what Paul is saying, the more you realize that he’s talking about the whole human race. It’s just that we, believers, understand what he has been doing because we believe it. but unbelievers don’t see it yet. And this peace is established for all, all humanity. And the revelation of Christ will slowly spread throughout the world and through the last days, and in the judgment, the final judgment, when all men will stand before God. and every knee shall bow, and every tongue acknowledge that God alone is their righteousness and strength. You remember that’s Isaiah 45. So this peace he’s talking about is for everyone. It’s not human peace. Not at all. That’s fake, phony peace. This is peace in the heart that is established by the love of God expressed in the sacrifice, the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus for us, so that we can have peace at last, that God has done something for us that no one else could do. And so, you see, when we go on, through whom we have also obtained access, by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. You don’t apply that just to believers simply because we believe. It’s applying to the whole world who will come to believe. It’s not that they will have access to God without belief. No, everyone will be brought to that belief. For no man can come to the Father except the Father draws him. Well then, if we come to Jesus because the Father has drawn us, because does not God love all the world? Indeed he does, and therefore he will draw all the world. And then, you see, we move on in chapter 5 to verses 6 onwards. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Well, now, who is without strength? You see, we Christians look at this and we say, yeah, I remember the days when I was without strength, when I was in my total addiction, addictive state, when I had no longing or interest in God. And so they naturally and quite properly apply it to themselves. Praise God for that. I’m glad you do. But look what it says further. Christ died for the ungodly. And then you think, well, I’m a believer now and I realize Christ died for me. But wait a minute. Did Jesus simply die for you because you believe? Jesus died for ungodly people who don’t believe and who still don’t believe and who will die not believing.
SPEAKER 01 :
What about them then?
SPEAKER 02 :
Does Christ’s atoning work apply and is upon those who in this life have not believed, because in the judgment the revelation of the Lamb of God upon the throne as one slain will cause all the earth to grieve and mourn, and the revelation of God’s glory will be so great? that all humanity will tremble in its boots if they had them on at the time and will fall before God. acknowledging, oh, Lord, I never knew you. Oh, have mercy upon me. And so, you see, when you think it through carefully, you begin to realize that Paul is not talking about individuals only. Yes, he is talking about individuals. This applies to you and me, thanks be to God, because Jesus died for the world as if there were only one man on the planet or woman on the planet. But when you think it through, you begin to realize that there is something utterly astonishing going on here. For when we were still without strength, the world is without strength. When we were ungodly, the world is ungodly. But God demonstrates His own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The world is sinners, every one of us. And verse 10, for when we were enemies, for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, reconciled to God as enemies, yes, you can believe that about yourself because you have now become a friend of God, because you have come to believe, you’ve repented of your sins, you’ve trusted in Christ. But this is talking about more than what you have done in your life and how you have responded. because enemies do not respond to God. And yet God has reconciled himself to them. And the gospel is the work of Christ through the Holy Spirit and through his people to bring all the world back to him. Do you realize that you are a precious treasure in the kingdom of heaven? You are a vessel of mercy designed to make jealous the vessels of wrath. This is what Paul is going to talk about in Romans chapters 9, 10 and 11. And so you see, all that Paul has said so far in Romans chapters 5 verses 1 through 11 is building up to this enormous, I don’t know how to describe it, words fail me, this enormous panorama that is about to be displayed in verses 12 to 21.
SPEAKER 01 :
that God has set up a new Adam. The first Adam brought devastation, sin, ruin, and death upon the whole planet.
SPEAKER 02 :
We did not do Adam’s sin, but we went down in judgment for Adam’s sin. That’s what it says in this passage, which we’ll look at carefully, verse by verse. That first Adam is not going to have the last word, because God has planned and has enacted his plan to introduce to the world a second Adam, a second head of the human race, Jesus Christ. And as everyone went down in Adam, even though they had no part in his sin, so also everyone will come up in Christ, even though they have no part in his righteousness. That is the message of Romans 5, verses 12 to 21, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you. Thank you then for joining me today. This is Colin Cook, and you’re listening to my program, How It Happens. You can hear this broadcast any time of the night on your smartphone. Simply download soundcloud.com slash faithquest or podbean.com and key in how it happens with Colin Cook when you get there. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
