Benefit #9 - Being Joined Back to God

"For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (Romans 5:10)

Make no mistake about it, before we are saved, we are enemies to God.

A co-worker of mind made a very astute comment yesterday. Upon watching one of the most disobedient, defiant, and just generally bad kids that our after school program has ever known, he stated that "God sees our sin just as equal to his." And how true is that? All of us, no matter how "bad" or "good" we are, have sinned and become enemies to God because he hates sin. A common expression in Christian life today is "God hates the sin but loves the sinner." I am not 100% sure that expression is completely true. It is true that God loves his creation but he does not love it when he looks at us and sees sin, thus making us a sinner. When Jesus reconciled us to God through His death, God no longer sees our sin but sees Jesus in our place. Likewise, we are saved by Jesus' life and nothing else.

Another benefit of salvation is that we are joined back to God - reconciled. When we live our lives apart from Him, we make ourselves his enemy. As David Crowder writes, God is the "antonym of me." Through Jesus, God does not see our sin anymore. Does this fact allow us to live our lives anyway we please because we are saved? No, we are called to live holy lives (Rom. 12) in the thankfulness of what Jesus has done for us.