ISSL Reflections July 25 2021 Romans 5:1-11 Post 3

VIII.

Might we be able to see things in this passage that highlight the kind of living God desires for us.

Read the passage paying attention to what God wants for you – makes available to you – and you might pause each time you notice something.

IX.
Romans 5:1-11

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

X.
Allow me a moment to share what I notice –

“Since we are justified by faith we have … peace … grace … hope … glory of God … sufferings … endurance … character … hope … God’s love … the Holy Spirit … his love … reconciled … much more fully we having been reconciled by his life

Quite a list.

But not a list. More a pattern for our life with God. Our life in the world God has given us.

Don’t make this a checklist to measure what you “have.” Better to think of it as a map for the journey with Jesus.

It helps us know what to expect along the way and to smile when we come upon such and maybe even to offer an acknowledgement.

May we smile often.

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}


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