8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8
Many years ago, I remember watching the movie “Facing the Giants” and being moved by the message of the film. The message is essentially that with God, all things are possible, and that you can defeat the giants in your life if God is for you. At the end of the movie, they show a plaque on the wall in the home of the lead actor, and it’s of Romans 5:8. From that moment I had the desire to know more about that and for the first time with any real interest, I read the entire book of Romans. Then shortly after, on a vacation/work trip with my wife in Tampa and Clearwater, we both decided to get a tattoo and I chose this one for myself. It was of a cross with Romans 5:8 at the base. It gave me peace, but not for the reason that it should have.
An Incomplete Testimony
Everyone knows the verse John 3:16. The reason why is that anytime you go to church, your church is sure to tell you that God loves you for who you are no matter what you do. Sadly, that message is very incomplete and what a church will probably never tell you, because it won’t put butts in the seat, is that God loves you, but he detests your sin (Psalm 11:5, Provers 6:16-19, Leviticus 20:23, Psalm 5:6 etc.). I had an interesting discussion with an amazing woman a month ago or longer. In that discussion she looked at me and told me that she didn’t understand us Christians. When I asked her why, she told me that to her “to be a Christian you have to believe that if you are a sinner that God hates you and there’s no place in heaven for you”. It struck me as odd and funny at the same time because it’s literally the exact opposite of my prior statement. On one hand, you are told when you go to church that God loves you no matter who you are no matter what you do and that your life is fine just the way it is. Yet this woman believes that if you are a Christian, God hates anybody that is a sinner. For whatever reason the Holy Spirit gave me the exact right thing to say at the right time. I asked her if she was a parent. She said yes. I asked her if she had a son and a daughter and the son hurt the daughter by hitting her, what would you do? She said “I would reprimand the son and teach him what to do and what not to do.” I told her that’s the same way we need to view God. God is our heavenly father, and he wants us to return home and ask for forgiveness when we sin against him. He loves us all the time but if we are actively living in sin, He hates it. He hates it because it prevents us from becoming the people that he is destined us to be. He hates it because it separates us from Him (Romans 1:18-32). Imagine being a parent and being separated from your child because of your child and not because of anything you did. You then might get a fraction of an idea of how God feels when we sin against his laws and essentially Him (Exodus 2:20). My opinion is, its the same as your child telling you they don’t love you. After that point, you could tell she was thinking very intently upon what I said. I believe she even agreed with it. She then turned to me and asked another question. She said, “so who is God to make all these laws, and why is his law the final say”? I then replied when you told your son to not hurt your daughter, whose rules were you reciting? She said “well, that’s just decency and I guess it would be my rules”. I then said then why do you believe that you the parent can make the rules of your home but the God of the universe does not have the right to make laws for us? She ended the conversation with me by saying “ I’ve never had anybody explain something like that to me and I need to go home and think about that.” I love that even in my life that was filled with sin, God can use me to plan a seed in the life of someone else.
“They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” Revelation 12:11
If I ended the story there, you wouldn’t know the full details and you’d be left wondering. The reality is I wish I would’ve had somebody tell me that story 20 years ago. Because what I didn’t know was that I was using a verse in Romans to justify the fact that I was sinful but “God still loved me”. It gave me no motivation to change who I was. No motivation to change my situation because I was regularly told that God was OK with who I am. God is not ok with us living in sin especially if we have accepted Him as our savior. In fact, the punishment can be worse eternally (1John 5:6, Matthew 12:30-32). The Bible says that there is no one good. Not even one ( Romans 3:10-12, Psalm 14:1-3,Psalm 53:1-3). That means that none of us live up to his expectations 100% of the time. We need God to forgive us, give us grace and mercy, and teach us how to be more like Him by dying to ourselves. I never understood that until someone was able to tell me the painful truth in love. God’s love. If there was more of that in this world, we would see a totally different place where we live. That is why, after coming to this realization, I added the names of my children to the cross and the Romans 5:8 tattoo that I had done years ago. I knew immediately that I needed to do for my kids and those that I love what someone had the courage to do for me. That is why you regularly hear me say I will not be quiet about what God has done for my children and I. My kids will know at a very young age what it took me 45 years to understand.
Summary
I still love the verse that “God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16) because it makes known that God wants us to have a relationship with Him. Once we come to this realization, then the hard work must begin. We must ask to be forgiven and resist sin at all times. When we do fall back into sin, we must begin again and ask for forgiveness. You will not hear this in most churches, but it is Biblical. We are commanded to forgive those who have hurt us even if we don’t want to (Matthew 6:15). We are commanded to restore and reconcile relationships and families (Romans 12:1-2). We are commanded to love our neighbor the same as we love ourselves (Mark 12:30) and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44). Most importantly, God wants us to understand that if we have been saved by His Grace, that we are doubly accountable for not only making those of us we lead (kids and family) to understand the same, but also to not stumble (Luke 17:2). Likewise if I have accepted the Grace, I must understand what happens if I continue to sin (Romans 1:18-32). To know and to still sin is far worse in Gods eyes than being ignorant of that sin. I will not stop sharing the words of my testimony and what God has done for me because I know there are millions more like me that struggle with the exact same things. As for me and my family, I want the blessing of God on us and I will not allow continued sin to sperate us from that blessing!
