The Romans Road pt.4 - This is Love

The Romans Road pt.4

Romans 5:8

This is Love.

Dear Family,

I wanted to write you about something life changing this week. You see, to those of us who believe in the bible, and call themselves “followers of Jesus” all too often find ourselves immune to the gospel. I don't mean to say that it's message has no effect on us, it's just that the story of Jesus dieing on a cross has become somewhat cliché. We have WWJD bracelets, we've got cross tattoos, we even have the story of Jesus on blu-ray DVD, and through all of these good intentions we've lost the meaning behind of it all.

I've been really searching scripture for anything that bears the image of or even looks like the church we all attend every sunday, and the fact of the matter is that I simply cannot find a single place in the entire word of God that tells us to meet on sunday morning, sit in rows, sing songs for thirty minutes, listen to someone talk AT us, and then everyone goes to lunch. Then, the apex is that we all go home feeling good about ourselves, because we've fulfilled our “christian” checklist for the week... really!!!??? Honestly though, I know I fall into this pattern way more than I should.

It's really easy to make our relationship with Jesus into a system, or a list of rules that need to be obeyed... a religion. But the fact of the matter is this. Romans 5:8 says that “while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us”. Bleh, we've heard that verse a million and ten times before. I know. Seriously, how many times do we need to hear that verse before we get it's meaning? I mean hello McFly! Jesus left heaven, put on skin, had boogers, got sick, threw up, who knows... maybe he even had dandruff. Then, He chose on His own free will to take everyone's tab, everyone's debt and pay it off once and for all. (That's what the dieing on the cross is all about, it's about Jesus paying the price of death, which we all owe now thanks to Adam and Eve.)

Do you see it yet? Jesus came while we were still broken, while we were still traitors. He lived for 30 some odd years exactly like us, (not in Heaven, but on earth) before He was beaten and died on a roman cross to pay that price tag that each and every one of us owe just because we were born. Let me explain, Imagine if you will, Osama Bin Laden, would you for even one second consider paying his price, his debt for the atrocities on mankind he is responsible for? Would you willingly stand in his stead? As tough as that question is to wrap your brain around, that's what Jesus has done for us. He has paid the penalty for our treason, our betrayal, and the reason for all of this is quite simply His love.

He loved His us so much that He made us to be Him for eternity. When we broke that communion and turned our back to the creator, to Love incarnate, He never turned His back on us. He launched a rescue mission unlike anything the world has ever known (and many still don't know).

However, to take it back to the beginning, it's like I said earlier, Jesus didn't die so that we could sit in a pew once a week, quite simply, that's idiotic and just plain stupid. Why would the God of everything, the King of Kings, the Creator, die for something as LAME as that? No, Jesus died so that we could be in communion with Him again, so that He could fix what we broke. He died so that our debt was paid. He died so that when He comes back to take us home, His Father can exist alongside us once again, just as it was intended from the start. Jesus' death and resurrection is not something cliché, this is revolutionary!

This thing that we stand for, this belief that we all too often hide behind is more than just words in a book, it's not something that we can slap on a bracelet, check off of our to do list and call it done. No! This is a call to return to the heart of the Father that created each and every one of us, it's a redemption not only from our personal sin, it's an invitation to return to our former glory as man, “made in the image of God”.

Until,

Hunter S. Brewer