Reconciled by His Death

“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Romans 5:10-11

“We have been saved from the wrath of God,” Paul said in Romans 5:9. God was not only angry at the concept of sin, but his righteous anger was also directed against sinners in their sin. He continues, “While we were enemies…” He is not speaking here of our heart attitude of rebellion, as true as that was, but that God viewed us as his enemies! It was not merely that we were opposed to God, it was that God was opposed to us! Even though God saw us as his enemies, he reconciled us through the death of his Son!
 
Previously Paul said, “While we were sinners Christ died for us.” Christ did not die for us because he saw our hidden potential, our future faith, or that we were “just worth it.” We were despicable sinners worthy of eternal punishment and God freely chose to love the unlovely. There was no righteousness or virtue in us that drew him to us. He reconciled his enemies. As he told the Israelites many years ago, he did not choose them as his treasured possession because they were righteous or upright in heart, but that he loved them because he loved them. It was God’s grace from beginning to end.
 
We were recipients of his reconciliation. There was nothing that we could do to earn it or deserve it. He did it all through the death and resurrection of his Son. Our salvation didn’t end there, it only began there because “now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” God applied all the work of Christ in his perfect life, sacrificial death, victorious resurrection, and now Christ ever lives to make intercession for us. God continues to save us and he will carry us all the way home! Later Paul will add, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we should also live with him” (Rom 6:8). In salvation we were united with Christ in his death and resurrection. (cf. Rom 6:2-5) Paul’s point is that all the benefits of Christ have become ours through faith in his death and resurrection and eventually, inevitably we will experience the full expression of his work for eternity.
 
This is why Paul rejoices! We need to recognize the depth of our depravity and complete unworthiness to receive salvation to get a true glimpse of God’s amazing grace! We were enemies and by nature children of wrath. (see Eph 2:3) By his sheer goodness he brought us to himself, forgave us for all our sins, adopted us into his family, and has given us his indwelling Holy Spirit. Before we came into a relationship with Christ, we were all in the same boat. It does not matter a person’s background, education, race, or degree of sinfulness, we were all enemies of God. His grace saves to the uttermost anyone who comes to him. We confront our own sinfulness, not to grovel in our unworthiness, but to marvel at the expansive nature of his undeserved favor towards us.