Message Notes

SENIOR SUNDAY SCHOOL                                          3 December 2023

Text: Romans 5

Subject: Understanding the Love of God

⁶ For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 

⁷ For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 

⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

Romans 5:6-8

1. When we were without strength

a) No strength

i) To be righteous

ii) To do that which is good

b) The true state of mankind

i) Morally inept

ii) Spiritually dead

c) We could not have done anything

i) To be justified

ii) To be saved

iii) To please God

2. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ

a) He died for the ungodly

i) A reference to the world

ii) A reference to sinners

iii) Without strength

b) The Lord Jesus died vicariously

i) It should have been our death

ii) The natural consequences of our sinfulness

iii) But the Lord Jesus died in our place

3. Is it an easy thing to die for someone?

a) Perhaps one could die for a righteous man

b) Or one could die for a good man

c) But even then, one will not sacrifice oneself easily

d) The Lord Jesus died for the ungodly!

4. The motivation behind the death of the Lord Jesus

a) God’s great love resulted in the giving of His only begotten Son to die for us

b) The great love of the Lord Jesus to willingly bear the penalty of our sins on our behalf

i) To be saved

ii) To please God

TREMENDOUS STATEMENTS OF LOVE

1. A lasting love

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.   

 John 13:1

a) The Love of the Lord Jesus for “His own”

b) He “loved them to the end”

2. No greater love

⁹ “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 

¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

¹¹ “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 

¹² This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 

¹³ Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 

John 15:9-13

a) A divine love

b) The greatest kind of love is to lay down one’s life for another

OUR CHALLENGE

1. To appreciate afresh the greatness of God’s love

2.To abide in His love

3. To love one another as the Lord has commanded us