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- Today's teaching will be part four in series I've chosen to title; "There's Something Missing in My Life."

- In the first five verses we’ve successfully identified, and uncovered five possibilities as it relates to what could be missing in our Christian lives.

1. Peace with God (Verse 1)

2. Access to God (Verse 2a)

3. Confidence in God (Verse 2b)

4. Character of God (Verses 3-4)

5. Spirit from God (Verse 5)

6. Love by God (Verses 6-8)

-v6 The Apostle Paul writes how that at just the right time, when we were still powerless in and of ourselves, Christ died for us as ungodly people.

-v7 He then tells them how rare it is for anyone to die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to do it, maybe.

-v8 Paul describes how God, in and through this, demonstrated His own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Jesus Christ died for us.

Charles Spurgeon – “This is a rich gospel verse in which every word drops fatness. We were powerless, but Jesus came to us, came at the right time, came to die for us, to die for us as godless beings, who had no merit and no fitness for His astounding love. Surely, we must praise Him for this, or the very stones will cry out.”

- Would you believe me if I told you that there’s nothing you can do, or not do, to make God love you less, or more? God just loves you!!!

- If you were to ask me what I thought was one of the greatest difficulties for us as believers to wrap our minds around, it would have to be this.

- Sadly, many a Christian is unnecessarily riddled with doubt about God’s love for them. They become deceived and believe God’s mad at them.

William Newell – It is most astonishing, this announcement that God is “commending” this love of His for us,—a love “all uncaused by any previous love of ours for Him.” Salesmen “commend” their wares to those whom they deem able and willing to buy them. God “commends” His tender love to us; for He loved us as wretches occupied in sin, unable and unwilling to pay Him or obey Him. This is absolute grace.

John 15:13 NIV Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Romans 8:35-39 NIV Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (36) As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." (37) No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (38) For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, (39) neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

- Notice Paul doesn’t say that we cannot separate ourselves from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Listen to what Jude writes:

Jude 1:21 KJV Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

- Perhaps it can be better said in this way; “we need to keep ourselves under that spout where the love of God comes out.” If we don’t, we won’t.

- If we don’t keep ourselves in God’s love, we won’t have His love in our life. If that’s what we’re missing we’ll look for love in all the wrong places.

- When we do that, we end up loving other gods who in turn cannot love us. They are false gods, gods of money, gods of power, and gods of lust.

- Do you realize how much you are loved by God? Do you know that this love by God never fails or disappoints? It’s a perfect and unfailing love.

Proverbs 19:22a NIV What a man desires is unfailing love…

7. Justification through God (Verse 9)

-v9 Paul takes it a step further saying that since we’re justified by His blood, how much more will we be saved from God’s wrath through Christ.

- The key word here is “justification,” which we’ve talked about at length in previous studies. Simply put, it means that it’s “just if I’d” never sinned.

- Herein lies the problem for us as Christians. We dwell on, and live in the sins of our past, and this gives the enemy permission to condemn us.

- If the truth be known, we are all prone to borrow, from both the present and the future, in order to pay for the past not realizing we are justified.

- Living our Christian lives like this will give way to an insatiable quest for an illusive end, which leads to a Christianity that simply does not work.

- If my Christianity doesn’t work, then I will give up on it, or try to fake it, or worse yet, just hide it, which in turn will usually result in my backsliding.

Roy Hession – “This fact is extremely dangerous and that from two points of view. If [one] cannot as a Christian “get the victory” (as the saying goes) he may be tempted to say, ”What is the use of being a Christian at all?” and giving up his profession altogether, go back into the world. Perhaps that is the rationale behind some cases of backsliding – not that the world is so attractive, but that the person concerned cannot” make the Christian life work” and so gives up. On the other hand, he may settle for something less than the best and rationalize these things.”

- Here’s what I’m thinking, if I do not understand what justification means in my life, I’ll end up finding all kinds of justification for the sins in my life.

- If this justification is what’s missing in my life, then I need look no further for the source of the defeat of my life, and the condemnation on my life.

Roy Hession – “…I have come to see that the guilt and power of sin are not two separate things, but that the power of sin over me consists in its guilt, its power to condemn me. This means that it is possible for a man to have committed a certain sin years ago, a sin which he has never committed since, and yet to be under its dominion to this day, if only because it is still condemning him. Its hang-over of guilt is still there in his heart, either consciously or subconsciously. In that condition his relationship with God is of course blurred, and he lacks the peace and joy that is promised to believers. … This is just the result the devil intended when he provoked that Christian to sin. He hopes that this will lead to further sin and that in turn will give him the opportunity to accuse him further and so on and so on. The sin is one thing, but the superstructure of guilt the devil builds on it is another, and is sometimes far greater than the original sin on which it is built.”