Big and little of what Jesus can do.

Best of Friends…who would you label as your best friends?

Romans 5:8-11 is all about friendship:

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."

Paul is using a “how much more” argument. It basically works like this: If the greater thing is true, then the lesser thing is of necessity also true. If God has done the harder thing, then surely He will do the easier task. Look closely at verse 9: “Since we have now…how much more shall we be…” And verse 10: “For if when we were…how much more…” Even verse 11 employs something similar: “Not only…we also.”

Since God did the more difficult task of justifying weak, wayward and wicked sinners, then to rescue us from wrath is relatively effortless. We could say it this way: If God has already done the difficult, can we not trust Him to do the comparatively simple thing of completing the task?

If Jesus can…____________ (Fill in the blank) than he can also… _____________ (Fill in the blank).

Paul is making some stunning statements in this section of Scripture to show HOW we are to live with the tension of what we have “already” and what is “still to come.” The best is really yet to be! In each of these three verses we’ll discover that Jesus has done the hard part of making friends with God a possibility thus…we can trust Him to make the future even greater.

The believer is blessed with friendship with God by reconciliation (to make friends again) and having Jesus living within.

You know I love ya, Don