Introduction
This time of year we celebrate the undeniable fact that Jesus entered into human history. There is more historical documentation for Jesus than for any other person in all of ancient history. There is such a vast amount of evidence that points to Jesus’ existence that every serious historian acknowledges His existence. Not only does history prove Jesus’ existence but it also proves that He was a remarkable man. He has been called the most significant person in human history ever.
The first and most important evidence we have for Jesus’ existence is the Bible. The Bible is the most reliable book in the world. It has proven over and over again to be accurate in its history, its archeology, its science and in its prophesy. The Bible is so widely regarded as an authoritative source that over 150,000 copies of the Bible are either bought or given away every single day. It has been translated in over 1200 languages and is widely considered the most accurate and trustworthy book that has ever existed. The Bible not only testifies about the existence of Jesus, but is centered on the person of Jesus. Every one of its 66 authors is, in some way, pointing forward to the coming of Jesus or recalling the ministry of Jesus.
Don’t fall for this line, “Prove to me that Jesus is real and don’t use the Bible.” When we set the Bible aside, we are setting aside the most credible resource you and I have available. It’s like saying, “Let’s have a sword fight, but you leave your sword at home.” The Bible is the most tested and verified book in all of history. It has never been found lacking. Every conversation about the existence of Christ must begin with what the world’s most trustworthy book has to say about Him.
With that being said, secular sources prove Jesus’ existence as well. Ancient writers and historians from Rome, Greece, Babylon, Asia Minor, Syria as well as from Israel all attest that Jesus was not only real, but He was remarkable. Although the Bible has the most accurate and detailed account of Jesus’ life and ministry, we can confirm facts about Jesus from secular, historical sources:
- Jesus was a real historical person
- Jesus lived in Palestine in the first century (Christmas really happened)
- Jewish leadership was involved in Jesus’ death
- Jesus was crucified under the authority of Pontius Pilot (Easter really happened too)
- Jesus’ ministry was associated with supernatural (not naturally explained) displays of power.
Jesus was a historical figure – v.6
Our faith in Jesus as a historical person is verified from trustworthy sources. It is not a blind faith. It is a faith based on facts, evidence and eye-witness accounts. His life is well documented in the most trustworthy history book in the whole world – the Bible – as well as by other secular sources.
The remarkable ministry of Jesus, however, had a fairly humble beginning. During this Christmas season, we celebrate Jesus’ birth. His birthday is notable because it symbolizes a tangible time in history where God interacted physically and socially with His creatures.
Jesus (who is God in the flesh) came down physically and was born in a stable. The Christmas narrative, in places like Luke 2, points out that Jesus was not just an ethereal idea, but He came into the real world, in a real time, in real history.
Then what is more impacting to me, is that God (in the flesh) interacted socially with his creatures. Jesus went to school and went to parties and had friends and attended weddings. He grew up in a family and he even learned His father’s profession.
Unlike many of the myths and various false gods who have been worshipped over the years, Jesus did not come outside of time and space. Jesus entered real human history. Jesus was born in a real place called Bethlehem. Luke 2:1-2 says that Jesus was born at the time when Quirinius was governing Syria. We know when that was. He was born on an exact date in a specific place.
People knew Jesus. They grew up with Him. They went to parties with Him. They worked with Jesus and perhaps Jesus even worked for them. Could you imagine Jesus coming over to your house and building a table or fixing your door? I bet He did a great job!
Then when the time in history was right, he built his ministry.
- He demonstrated His power.
- He invested in disciples.
- And… ultimately, he died on the cross for our sins and rose again victoriously.
It was all in history. It is all documented and it was all according to God’s perfect timing. Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection is summed up and presented as real, historical fact in verse 6, “6 For while we were still weak, at the right time
Mini Review: The Book of Romans began with a lengthy explanation that the wrath of God is directed against sinful people. Our ungodliness makes us estranged from God and at odds with God. That’s where the gospel comes in…. That’s why Jesus comes into the picture… The gospel is the power for reconciliation with God. Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” The gospel is the terms of everlasting peace with God.
– We were powerless to escape from our sin.
– We were powerless to resist Satan.
– We were powerless to please God in any way.
In our weakness and inability to do anything to earn our own way into heaven, God sends His son, Jesus. “6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” Christ comes on the scene and makes a way for us when it was impossible for us to make a way for ourselves!
Then Paul slightly shifts gears here. As he continues to build a case for how to have peace with God, he shifts his focus to God’s love as it is put on display at the cross. He explains how different God’s love is from our love.
Let’s first look at our basis for love. The kind of love that is natural for humans is based on worth. We are inclined to love people who are attractive to us. We are drawn to love others if they love us.
Human love is based on worth – v.7
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
We generally think that a good person (or a good friend) is someone who shows love and affection and concern for us. Those aren’t bad things. The Bible would call all believers to display those traits. Love and affection and concern are the basic character traits of a good person and those traits should be common in a believer (because of Christ’s presence in a believer).
Sometimes even non-Christians can show some form of love and affection and concern for someone else. They usually hope other person will show those feelings back to them. But regardless of their motivation, it is possible that one person might feel so loved by another person that they be willing to die for them. (It’s rare, but it’s possible)
…perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die…
Even people who are totally godless will, at times, be willing to jump on a hand-grenade for a close friend, if they are a good person. (But if they were a dirty rotten scoundrel, do you think they would do the same? Probably not!) Natural human love is based on merit. Humans are naturally drawn to love people who love them. Jesus observed that fact in Matthew 5(:46). By nature people figure that if they show someone love and affection and concern that they’ll probably show love and affection and concern in return. (It’s reciprocal…. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours… You give 50%, I’ll give 50%)
People tend to think that God shows loves in the same way that we do. We assume that God’s love for us is dependent on either how much we love Him or on how nicely we behave or on the good deeds we perform.
But…God’s love is pure. It is not like mankind’s imperfect love. Our love tends to be somewhat dependent on how we feel and how we are treated. God’s love is steadfast regardless of how He feels or how He’s treated.
When it says that Christ died for the ungodly, it means that God did not wait for us to get our act together before He extended His love toward us. His love for us is in no way dependent on our loveliness or our lovability. His love for us – and the salvation He extends to us – is completely dependent on His character and His consistency…. Not on whether or not we first showed Him love affection and concern.
The Bible makes it clear that God deeply loves us. God’s love goes way beyond affectionate feelings in His heart and is displayed by His actions. He proves His love for us by Christ’s death on the cross. Previously in Romans 3:25, Paul had written that God’s justice was demonstrated on the cross. In that verse, Paul says that the cross,“was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”
We studied Romans 3 a few weeks ago. (You can listen to those teachings at vitalchurch.online) When we studied that passage a few weeks ago we discovered that God’s forgiveness of sin is good news for us, but it challenges the authenticity of God’s perfection. When God passes over sin, it makes Him look unjust – like He does not really care about sin. BUT… Nothing could be further from the truth.
Paul reinforces his argument in the next verse to show us that the Cross was a display not only of God’s righteousness, but also a display of His love.
God’s loves us in spite of our unworthiness – v. 8
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Notice the tense of the verbs. The word “shows” is in the present tense. The word “died” is in the past tense. That is not a grammatical error. The verse reads the same way in the original language. This verse is saying that God shows us his love today (right now) by what he did on the cross in the past.
The word, “shows,” is a good literal translation of the original Greek word, but the word, “shows” is not nearly strong enough in English to express the depth of God’s love displayed at the cross. Some versions say it demonstrates God’s love. That’s better, but “demonstrates” is still too weak of a word to communicate the concept involved.
The Greek word can also be translated as “PROVE.” Prove is a good word to communicate the concept involved here. The verse could read like this: “God ‘proves’ his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
The proof of love is the giving of yourself for the wellbeing of someone else. In a healthy family, love is shown between family members by their willingness to make sacrifices for each other’s well-being. If you or I have a child who is trying to put their well-being over a sibling’s well-being, that is a time for discipleship. It is a time to help that child understand that love gives itself for the well-being of others. Love is always giving itself away. Families that love each other are constantly making sacrifices to prove their love.
(I asked permission from Nathan to share this story) Nathan once saved up his money for months so that they could buy some pretty valuable gifts for his brother and sister. One gift was around $20 and the other cost over $50! I was blown away. They were tremendously valuable gifts that were given in order for Nathan to demonstrate his love for his brother and sister.
When God wanted to put His love for us on display, He gave a tremendously valuable gift. He proved His love by meeting our most desperate need with a gift of unfathomable worth. The proof of God’s love is when He gives of Himself for the wellbeing of mankind. “God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son…” Or course that’s John 3:16. 1 John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation [atoning sacrifice] for our sins.”
You might ask, “why didn’t God just wipe out human sin? Why didn’t he just say to the guilty ‘FORGIVEN’ and be done with it? Why did there need to be such a bloody, painful sacrifice?
Sin is a really big deal to God. Sin is grossly offensive to Him. If the Lord had simply passed by sin, then he would be saying that sin was not a big deal to Him and that’s not true.
God is perfectly just and in His perfect justice, sin had to be accounted for. A good judge does not let criminals go free without someone paying the penalty for their crimes. God could not still be good and let guilty men go unpunished for their unrighteousness. Letting guilty men go free is wrong. If God let guilty men go free, that would be unjust and sinful.
However, God loves us perfectly and He desires to put His great love for us on display. The degree of a person’s love is proven, in part, by the costliness of the sacrifices made to display that love. The more the display of love costs the giver (and the less the giver deserves it,) the greater the love is proven to be.
Measured by these standards, God’s love, as it is proven in the person of Jesus Christ, is utterly unique. Jesus is infinitely valuable and we are totally underserving. He gave everything and we deserved nothing.
If we were to pay for our own sin, it would take an eternity of God’s judgment poured out on us to pay that price. In 1 Thessalonians 1:9, Paul is talking about those who do not know God and who do not obey the gospel. He says, “9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” However, God made another way, but it was a way that caused God a great deal of pain.
God in his infinite love for us offered His own Son as the payment for our sins. God willingly poured out His wrath on Jesus (instead of on us) on the cross so that all who call on Jesus as Lord and Savior might be forgiven from the penalty of their sins and have peace with God.
God, in His love, saved us from His wrath – v. 9
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Sometimes people think of Jesus as the good cop and God the Father as the bad cop. God the Father is sitting up in heaven ready to unleash his wrath on us and Jesus is the one trying to hold Him back. God wants to judge, but Jesus wants to forgive.
The Bible says that the cross was God the Father’s plan. In fact, in His humanity, Jesus asks God the Father to provide another way than the cross if it is possible. In Luke 22:42 Jesus says, ““Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless,not my will, but yours, be done.”
The cross was God’s will and God’s plan. God’s plan was to satisfy His wrath and clear His holy Name through the punishment of Jesus. [But…. here is what blows me away by this passage:] Jesus did not make the ultimate sacrifice and give his life for perfect, warm, lovable, deserving people. Jesus came and gave his life for those who were totally unrighteous and undeserving and unlovable. In a word, Jesus gave His life for his enemies.
Even if men openly hate God and do not have the slightest desire to give up their sin, God’s redeeming love and his offer of salvation is still extended to them until the end of their physical life. The offer of salvation extends to all of mankind – regardless of their rebellion toward God in the past. Jesus didn’t come to offer salvation to God’s friends. Jesus came to extend the offer of salvation to God’s enemies.
Paul says in Romans 10:13, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Saved from what? Saved from God’s wrath. How do we know for sure that we’ll be saved? Paul reasons in verse 9 that if God was willing to sacrifice His own Son for our salvation, certainly he will be more than willing to accept Jesus’ payment as an atoning sacrifice for all who call upon His name.
Through Jesus, God made peace with His enemies – v. 10
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
I’m not naturally prone to make peace with my enemies. I used to live and minister at a church in Phoenix. As I was driving down the road one day, I came to a stop and the person behind me ran into the back of my car. As I got out of the car to assess the damage, the person who had run into me backed up, turned hard to the right and kept on driving.
My first thought was not, “Man, I’d like to have that guy over for dinner. I wish I had his number… Too bad he drove away… bet we could have been friends….” It was more like, “Hey you dirty rotten scoundrel, get back here and pay for my car.” Honestly, I was angry. He ran into my car, it was 100% his fault and didn’t even stop to see if I was ok. My first response (even as a Christian) was not love, but it was to get what I deserved.
If Jesus had been rear-ended in Phoenix, would he have responded like I did? The proof we have from scripture is that Jesus took every opportunity He could to direct attention to God the Father and to make a display of God’s love. I think Jesus would have been disappointed if the man drove away – not because of the insurance money, but because He wouldn’t get the chance to show that man love that he totally did not deserve.
Before the Lord, you and I were guilty of something much more serious than hit and run. Even worse, as guilty people, we were shaking our fists with contempt at the judge Himself as rebels against His law. Paul just said “we were enemies” with God.
The reconciliation needed to go both ways. We already established that Jesus made a way for sinners to be right with God. But Jesus also paves the way for God to be an object of desire and worth for the sinner. Many people who are spiritually dead are hostile towards God. They can’t imagine needing God in their lives.
When Jesus intervenes, He does so in a way that reconciles God to man and man to God so that ultimately we can have peace with God.
We sing the Christmas song, “Joy to the World the Lord has Come.” When people prepare room in their hearts for their King, what is the result? Joy. When a heart prepares room for the Savior, Romans 10:11 says that ““Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” Not only does the gospel deliver us from shame but Romans 5:11 says that the result of the gospel is joy.
The Gospel results in joy – v.11
11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
When Christ opens up our eyes spiritually to see who God is and we see the tremendous opportunity we have to be God’s children, it results in thankfulness for all God has done to make a way for us to be saved through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Life Application
Are you lacking joy in your life? This passage give a couple reasons why joy could be lacking in your heart this Christmas season:
- People who are constantly trying to be a good person in order to earn God’s favor are on a never-ending performance plan that will only end in exhaustion, not salvation. The only way we can be reconciled with God is through His son, Jesus. Do you know Jesus? Have you reached out to receive His free gift of salvation?
- Is there an area of sin you are still holding on to? Is there an area of your life that needs to be reconciled with God? It’s time to let that sin go and to trust that following God’s commands will result in far greater joy than holding on to sin.
When we really embrace the joy of our salvation and the incredible value of the ultimate gift of love God gave us in Jesus Christ, it results in Joy. The psalmist put it like this: (PS 98 is the bases for Joy to the World)
98 Oh sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
2 The Lord has made known his salvation;
he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
Teaching Outline
Jesus was a historical figure – v.6
Human love is based on worth – v.7, Matthew 5:46, Romans 3:25
God’s loves us in spite of our unworthiness – v. 8, John 3:16, 1 John 4:10, 1 Thessalonians 1:9
The proof of love is the giving of yourself for the wellbeing of someone else.
The proof of God’s love is when He gives of Himself for the wellbeing of mankind.
The degree of a person’s love is proven, in part, by the costliness of the sacrifices made to display that love.
God, in His love, saved us from His wrath – v. 9, Luke 22:42, Romans 10:13
Through Jesus, God made peace with His enemies – v. 10, Romans 10:11
Application
When we really embrace the joy of our salvation and the incredible value of the ultimate gift of love God gave us in Jesus Christ, it results in Joy
98 Oh sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
2 The Lord has made known his salvation;
he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
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