Read: Romans 5:6-11
Have you ever had an enemy? I hope as a child of God you don’t have any because God has transformed the hearts of His children that we have learned to forgive. However, most likely there has been someone in your life you once considered as an enemy, owing probably to a wrongdoing committed against you by that person. Now, this is a question for you: would you take that person’s blame? Would you take that individual’s punishment? Would you do a big favour for that person, so big that you would give your own life? You probably won’t.
Friendship usually precedes the asking and taking of favours, especially huge ones. The established relationship between friends presupposes each party’s entitlement to favours. Strangers, let alone enemies, do not usually exchange favours. That is why for someone to die in place of his enemies is completely out of this world.
Only a benevolent, loving, and gracious God could exhibit such an extraordinary act of mercy. The heart of the Bible says it all, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son,” (John 3:16). So great is His love that God, while we were still sinners, gave Christ to die for us, (Romans 5:8).
Sin has rendered man an enemy of God (Romans 5:10), and the fact that Christ died for His enemies, that’s us sinners, never ceases to amaze me. It should never cease to amaze you, too. A favour of this magnitude foregoing friendship is nothing short of amazing! As John Newton, the author of the classic hymn Amazing Grace, in his amazement of God’s love, wrote:
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch; like me!
How amazing is the love of God for us who are undeserving! His Son died for you and I. He took our blame on the cross. He paid the ultimate price that we may become His friends. He did away with the sin that created a wedge between God and humanity, rendering man God’s enemy. Christ died that He may reconcile you and I to the Father, that we may become God’s friends. And now that we are God’s friends, we have gained access and right to His many favours, meaning the abundance of His grace. Through our prayers, we ask God for favours, and our prayers are heard because our sins have been forgiven. Gone is the sin that separates us from Him.
So let us come to Him in confidence, for “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). Just come to think of it: if while we were His enemies, He granted us the greatest favour, how much more now that we are His friends, and more than that, His own children? God’s favours are rich and abundant, we just need to have faith and come to Him, and He will never fail those who trust in Him. Praise God!
Reflect:
This Lenten Season is a good time to think about forgiveness. Do you have someone in your life you need to forgive? If Christ did such a great favour forgiving you of your sins, why can’t you forgive others?
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