Your All-Access Pass
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:1-8
Have you ever had a VIP backstage all-access pass? You don’t just get to go to the concert or event. You get to go behind the scenes and meet the stars of the show. You can go places the rest of us poor slobs can’t. You have access.
Access is a popular term right now. There’s talk about access to housing, access to education, access to healthcare.
What about access to God—access to God’s grace?
Unlike access to housing, education, or healthcare, access to God’s grace costs nothing. Isn’t it incredible? The most valuable of all these is given away for free. It comes through faith in Christ Jesus. Earthly housing, worldly education, and physical healthcare are only temporary. A heavenly home, divine guidance, and the promise of a new and glorious body are eternal. And yet these are the free gift of God.
These verses turn everything upside down. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Someone might be willing to die if they thought the other could still do more good. A parent will die protecting their children. Soldiers will die in the hope that their fellow citizens will use their sacrifice to better the world.
But Christ died for sinners. He died for us. But he is better than us, more righteous than us. Does that make any sense? He could have stayed alive forever and done immeasurably more good than we could have ever hoped to have done in our lifetimes. He could have let us die and let our evil die with us.
Instead, while we were still sinners, the righteous Christ died for us. That’s grace! His death is our all-access pass to God’s grace. In this grace we stand. Under this grace we live. From this grace we draw our strength to live for God until Jesus returns to take us to be with him in heaven.