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Friday 19 February 2016

Romans 5:5-7 - Hope does not disappoint

5:5
If one puts one's hope in something, and especially if one also publically declares that hope, but then the hope comes to nothing then we can feel ashamed. But our hope in Christ will not put us to shame, because our hope is in what He, the Son of God, has done, not in what we have done. We can be absolutely confident that He will complete the work that He has started. God had poured His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. So the work of Christ isn’t something that is impersonal that we happen to qualify for, God has poured His love into our lives. He has given the Holy Spirit to us, ie God Himself comes to dwell within us.

5:6
Christ died for us when we had nothing to offer. He died while we were still powerless, at just the right time. What was right about the time? It was God’s choosing, the moment in history was chosen. It was a time when Rome dominated Europe and the Middle East. There were good roads and a common language. So the good news could spread easily. And we were powerless. Christ died for the ungodly. He did not die for the good, there would have been no need to do that, but He died for sinners. Note “while we were still powerless” implies that we are no longer powerless.

5:7

Here Paul is referring to the difficulty in finding some who would willingly die for a righteous person. Righteous here means someone in right standing with God. Paul may have been thinking of someone who was “righteous” in the terms that Pharisees thought of someone being righteous. Then he refers to a good person. In the first instance it is someone who is “religiously” righteous, and such people are not always held in high regard, nor are they often liked. A “good” person is someone who is respected and admired by all. For such a person it is conceivable that someone might “dare to die” for a good person.

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