Church bulletin:
Rom 5:8-10, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (9) Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. (10) 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.”
When we think of Christ’s work of salvation, perhaps we relegate it entirely to the past. The Son of God took upon Himself flesh and lived a life we can never live – keeping God’s law perfectly on our behalf (Gal 4:4-5). In this sense we are saved by His life. When we exercise faith, His righteousness becomes ours through imputation. Being united to Him, He is our righteousness meaning His moral perfection and obedience becomes ours even though we are sinful. Salvation is not just the cancelation of guilt; it is to be made righteous.
Of course, we are also saved by the past event of Christ’s death. He was imputed with our guilt and experienced the suffering and death we deserve. We refer to His death as “penal substitution.” He died on account of us and for us. In dying a judicial death under the wrath of His Father He experienced hell, perhaps best captured in the cry of dereliction “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me.” We cannot understand all that is involved in the forsakenness of Christ, but we do know as Paul states in Rom 5:10 that it accomplished reconciliation – He was forsaken that we might be reconciled to God.
Further to this, we are saved by the resurrection of Jesus. No resurrection, no salvation (1 Cor 15:13-14). The resurrection validates all that Christ said about Himself, it demonstrates that His death on our behalf has been accepted by God as payment for sin and having no sin of His own He threw the grave clothes off and left the tomb. We are spiritually risen in Him, and we await a future physical resurrection. Once more we are saved by Christ’s life (resurrection life), and this is also a past event.
When Paul says in Rom 5:10, “having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” he is not thinking about what Christ has done, but what He is presently doing and will continue to do until He returns. The apostle has in mind Christ’s mediatorial work at the right hand of His Father in heaven. The book of Hebrews expresses it most clearly – Heb 7:24-25, “But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. (25) Therefore, He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
You are not only saved by what He did in the past but by what He does every day. As the Godman, He represents us all and intercedes for us all at the same time. He prays for you while you sleep and work, when you are tempted, when you fail, when you are ill, when you doubt and are discouraged. It’s not your own prayers (as important as they are) that keep you in the faith; it’s His prayers (Luke 22:31-32).
Let us rejoice in and give thanks for the present, perpetual saving ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.