Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Growing up as a kid through my younger years as a teenager, I used to live next to railroad tracks. I loved living out in the country. My friends would actually go down the railroad tracks and we'd hang out. But periodically some other neighbor kids would go down the railroad tracks and they would build a fort, and I would do the same thing. I would build a fort, and they would destroy my fort.
Me being a young, dumb teenager, I would then destroy their forts and it would go back and forth. Quite frankly, we were enemies. Did you know we were enemies with God before He saved us?
A Tremendous Verse About Restoration
We have a tremendous Verse of the Day today. It's Romans chapter 5, verse 10. "For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son."
Paul is writing—some people call it the Gospel of Paul. The theme of Romans is the righteousness of God. Paul is a servant of God. He preaches and worships Jesus Christ. He's not ashamed of the Gospel. In chapter 3, he talks about how there's no one righteous. There's not even one. There's no one who seeks God. We're in an incredibly difficult situation. We need to be rescued.
Justified by Christ
Here in chapter 5, he says that we've been justified. What does that mean? That means that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life for you and me. Then He died on the cross. God poured out His wrath on Jesus, on our sin while He was on the cross. He was buried. And then He rose again, proving that He conquered death. He exchanged that incredible work for us, so we live in this amazing status of grace.
Our Friendship Is Restored
He says here in our text, number one, our friendship is restored. Right there in the passage: "For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son." I just explained that when He died, He died so that we could have this restoration, this restored friendship of grace.
Secondly, because of that, we're forever saved. "We will certainly be saved through the life of His Son." I love the passage in Colossians chapter 1, verse 22. It says, "Yet He has now reconciled us in His fleshly body through death." We were once God's enemies, and because of the death of Christ, He took us from being an enemy to now being God's friend. It's incredible.
Two Closing Thoughts
Let me leave you with two quick closing thoughts. Number one, realize God's your friend. He loves you. He likes you. He wants to spend time with you. He wants to be your intimate, close friend. As a matter of fact, the Bible even says He calls us His friends. In other places, it says He's not ashamed to call us His brothers or sisters.
Secondly, realize that you are forever saved. You could say it this way. You have been saved. You are being saved and you will be saved. See, salvation in the Bible encompasses all of that. So, you are forever saved. If you're a friend of God, God's certainly not going to bail on you or not let you be forever forgiven. No, you are forever saved if you know the Lord Jesus Christ and John chapter 3, verse 3, you're born again.
Very simply, you're forever restored. No longer an enemy, but a friend of God. If you know Him, you're forever saved. You're forever loved. You're forever forgiven. You are forever declared righteous. You are forever secure in the arms of God because of Jesus Christ and what He has done for you and for me.
Let's live like we know what that feels like to be a friend of God.
