“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while 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 5:6-10 NASB1995)

Not one of us, in our flesh, is deserving of God’s grace, his salvation, his forgiveness of sin, and eternal life with God. All of us are born into this world in the image of Adam, the first man God created, and the first man to sin against God. We are all born in sin, with sin natures, separate from God, and unable within our own selves to be acceptable to God. No amount of our own fleshly works will earn us salvation. It is a gift from God none of us deserves.

But the gift is not just a handout that we receive by a mere verbal profession of Jesus as Lord. For in Jesus’ death on that cross he put our sins to death with him, and he rose from the grave victorious over sin and hell so that by God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in him we will now die to sin and live for God in walks of obedience to his commands, in surrender to his will, by the grace of God, and in the power of God, as being led by the Spirit of God.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; Romans 3:9-26; Romans 5:12-19; Romans 6:1-23; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22,42-49; Ephesians 2:1-3,8-10]

For to be reconciled to God means that we change so that we are not the same people we were before, living like we did before, but we are now new creations in Christ Jesus created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. For we have, by faith in Jesus, exchanged the old life of sin for the new life in Christ so that sin is no longer our practice but obedience to God and to his commands is how we now live, by his grace and in his power.

And this is not to say that we will be perfect in every way from that moment forward, or that we will never sin again (see 1 John 2:1-2), but that sin should no longer be what we practice, by habit, in lifestyle. And obedience to God and to his commands is to be what we practice and live by as a matter of life course. For Jesus’ reconciling us to God is not all on him. We have to cooperate with God’s work of grace for us to be truly reconciled to God.

[John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

For By Grace

Based off Ephesians 2:8-10
An Original Work / January 27, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

For by grace we’ve been saved
Of all our sins,
So that with Christ Jesus
Our lives begin.
Cleansing us from sin,
He made pure within
All who trust in Him
As their Savior, friend,
So that with Christ Jesus
Our lives begin.

We’ve been saved through faith;
This not from ourselves,
Lest that we should boast
In our fleshly works.
Our salvation is
A gift from our God,
Who loves us so much
That He gave His Son
To die on the cross
For all of our sins.

So repent of all
Of your sins today,
And He’ll forgive you;
Wipe your sins away.
Obey all of His
Teachings given you,
So that you can walk
With Him now in truth;
So that you can walk
With Him now in truth.

While We Were Yet Sinners
An Original Work / April 10, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love