1. I am going to preach this morning on the significance of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. One thing I have observed over the years is that sinners have no strength to do right. That was my condition before God saved me.
3. The good news ("the Gospel") is that "when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (5:6).
4. This Resurrection Sunday we thank God for His great love.
5. "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (5:8; cf. John 3:16).
6. God's love has no parallel among men. The hymnwriter said, "O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!" (Samuel Trevor Francis).
7. Regarding Romans 5:7 and 8, James M. Stifler said, "What men can scarcely do for the good, God has done abundantly for the vile and the despicable" (The Epistle to the Romans).
8. Here is where many sinners get tripped up. "Vile and despicable"? they ask. "Maybe we are not very religious and maybe we do sin sometimes, but we are not vile and despicable!"
9. We read in the newspapers about this Russian immigrant who allegedly killed and dismembered his roommate in Sheepshead Bay, and we say, "That is vile and despicable!"
10. Yes, it certainly is but according to our holy and righteous God all sin is vile and despicable! Our sin nailed Jesus to the cross.
11. And according to the Bible, the worst sin of all is the sin of unbelief.
12. By the way, we should not be surprised by the brutality and barbarity of some of these Russians. For over 100 years they have been brainwashed by atheistic communism.
13. There are many great doctrinal words here in our text, and one of them is "reconciled" (5:10). It simply means, "to reconcile those who are at variance" (5:10).
14. The word "atonement" in Romans 5:11 means the same thing. Strong's Concordance says the word means, "the restoration of the favour of God to sinners that repent and put their trust in the expiatory death of Christ."
15. According to the Bible, sinners are at variance with God -- they are God's "enemies" (5:10). They need to be reconciled, and that can only be done on the basis of the cross (5:8-11).

I. ENEMIES BY SIN

1. Different words are used here to describe the miserable condition of sinners. They are "without strength" (5:6). Sin has weakened them.
2. Sadly, they are often strong enough to get into mischief. They are strong enough to turn on the television or the computer and look at filth.
3. They are strong enough to drink, smoke, gamble, curse, steal, commit adultery, and do many other wicked things.
4. But when it comes to doing good, they are "without strength."
5. The Greek word translated "without strength" means "weak, infirm, feeble."
6. The same Greek word translated "without strength" is elsewhere translated, "sick" and "impotent."
7. Men are weak and sickly and feeble because of sin (cf. Romans 1:21-32; 3:23; 5:12).
8. Colossians 1:21 says sinners are alienated from God and enemies in their mind by wicked works.
9. Ephesians 2:3 says sinners are "by nature the children of wrath."

II. RECONCILED BY THE CROSS

1. There is only one way to be reconciled to our holy and righteous God, and that is by the cross (5:6-11).
2. Colossians 1:21 says, "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled."
3. Notice the verb tenses -- Christians were sometime alienated, but now are reconciled.
4. Second Corinthians 5:18 says God has "reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ."
5. "By Jesus Christ." Not by Mary or by Allah or by any other god or religion or by good works or by baptism, etc. (cf. Eph. 2:13-16).
6. The Bible teaches that sin separates men from God.   Isaiah 59:2 says, "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."
7. The Bible teaches that God hates sin. Proverbs 6:16 says, "These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him..." Then God says He hates pride, and lying, and hands that shed innocent blood, etc.
8. Psalm 7:11 says, "God is angry with the wicked every day."
9. John 3:36 says, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."
10. The wrath of God abides on sinners, but Romans 5:9 says, "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."
11. Romans 5:10 basically says the same thing in different words: "we were enemies," but we have been "reconciled to God by the death of his Son."
12. Sometimes we find certain people who do not understand the Bible, and they object to preaching against sin, and the blood of Christ, and on judgment, and on the wrath of God, etc.
13. They insist we should just emphasize the love of God. But we cannot appreciate the love of God until we first understand the enormity of man's sin. First John 5:19 says, “the whole world lieth in wickedness.”
14. "The whole world"!That is why there is so much trouble in this wicked, sin-loving world.
15. I heard about a Christian man who heard a scoffer say there is no devil. The man shook his head and said, "No devil? If there is no devil, then who is behind all of this devilment?"
16. Indeed! That is good theology. There is indeed such a person as the devil, and according to Genesis 3 he did bring sin into this world when he tempted Adam and Eve (Rom. 5:12).
17. The good news this Resurrection Sunday is Jesus died for our sins, but the grave could not hold Him, and He rose from the dead on that first Resurrection Sunday 2000 years ago.
18. "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). Often preachers refer to sin in a vague way, but the Bible is very specific when it comes to sin.
19. In Jeremiah 5, God condemns the sin of adultery. Jeremiah 5:7 and 8 says, "They then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses. They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife."
20. Jeremiah 5:4 says, "Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God."
21. Bible preachers preached against sin. John the Baptist confronted Herod about his adulterous relationship with his brother's wife. He said in Matthew 14:4, "It is not lawful for thee to have her."
22. Stephen preached against sin.  He said in Acts 7:51, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye."
23. And today we still see stiffnecked sinners resisting the Holy Spirit!
24. According to the Bible, sinners are condemned (Romans 2:5-9). And the only way they can be reconciled is by the blood of Christ (5:8-10).
25. The Bible teaches we are "justified by faith" (5:1). Grace is the source of justification and faith is the condition.
26. Works are the evidence, and that is why James 2:21 says, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?"
27. Grace is the source, faith is the condition, works are the evidence, and the blood of Christ is the means. That is why Romans 5:9 says, "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."
28. Hebrews 9:22 says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sin.

III. SAVED BY GOD'S GRACE

1. Romans 5:9 says, "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."
2. This means we are saved by God's grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins. We are "now justified by his blood" (5:9).
3. That is why "we have peace with God" (5:1). We are no longer at war with God.
4. Furthermore, "we shall be saved from wrath through him."  This refers specifically to the fires of hell (cf. Revelation 20:11-15; 21:8).
5. There was an old Indian out in Arizona who heard the Gospel and got saved. Friends asked him to explain how his life had changed so much. He grabbed some leaves and formed a circle, and then set it on fire. Next, he picked up a little worm and dropped him in the middle of the ring of fire. The worm crawled around, frantically trying to escape the fire, but could not. Then the old Indian reached down his hand and rescued the little worm. He turned to his friends and said, "I was that worm, hopeless and helpless. And God reached down and saved me!"
6. That is the grace of God. God reaches down and saves sinners that are "without strength" (Rom. 5:6).
7. Like the song says:

             Once my soul was astray from the heavenly way
             I was wretched and blind as could be
             But my Savior in love gave me peace from above
             When he reached down his hand for me
   
             When the Savior reached down for me
             When he reached way down for me
             I was lost and undone without God or his Son
             When he reached down his hand for me.

8. Romans 5:10 says, "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
9. Reconciled by His death (on the cross), and saved by his (resurrection) life. That is the message of Resurrection Sunday!
10. It is not about chocolate bunnies or Easter eggs or worldly Easter parades, etc.
11. The interposition of "his life" (5:10) completes that of His blood. This ensures not only our justification but our sanctification. This is developed further in chapters 6--8.
12. Sanctification always follows justification. It never precedes it.
13. F.L. Godet put it this way, "It (justification) rests only on faith in the death of Christ. Sanctification flows from the life of Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit" (The Epistle to the Romans).
14. Salvation is more than being "saved from wrath" (5:9). It is walking in "newness of life" (Rom. 6:4).
15. This is the real meaning of Resurrection Sunday!
16. "Christ giving His life for us saves us from the penalty of sin; Christ giving His life to us saves us from the power of sin" (John Phillips).

CONCLUSION:

1. Note these two glorious words in Romans 5, verses 9 and 10 -- "much more." Paul uses them again in verses 15, 17, and 20, where he is speaking of the abundant grace of God!
2. If God could do so much for us when "we were yet sinners" (5:8), and "when we were enemies" (5:10), how much more will He do for us now that we have been reconciled!
3. Have you been reconciled to God?