2:5\u00a0even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ\u2014by grace you have been saved\u2014<\/b><\/p>\n
“Even when”. Those are two powerful words that are often glanced over in the anticipation of what comes next. There is great peace and hope that comes in what follows, as Paul describes that we were once dead, but now have life; having been saved by grace.<\/p>\n
We should pause and reflect on, “even then”. In our sin and in spite of our past, He loves us. Like me, you may not have a checkered past. Having been reared in a Christian home and exposed to the Gospel early, I’ve never felt the sting of a hangover and was virgin when I married.<\/p>\n
Perhaps my sin was worse! I knew better! I walked the path of addiction. I rebelled against my earthly and heavenly Father. I neglected to heed wise counsel. “Even then” He loved and still loves. Romans 5:6-10 are key to understand this truth. Verse 10 summarizes God’s love in this way, “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.”<\/p>\n
I am thankful for His love, “even when” I was a sinner who kept on sinning.<\/p>\n
2:5\u00a0even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ\u2014by grace you have been saved\u2014 “Even when”. Those are two powerful words that are often glanced over in the anticipation of what comes next. There is great peace and hope that comes in what follows, as Paul describes that we were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,8,5],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":364,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions\/364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}