They say that it does not so much matter what you know as much as it matters who you know. Sometimes, having all the right qualifications and training for a position does not so much matter if you are competing for the same position with someone who has the inside track. Or sometimes, perhaps the shoe is on the other foot, and you are the one who knows someone on the inside who can vouch for you and put in a good word for you. Knowing the right people can be a great advantage when it comes to looking for a job and looking to get hired into a certain firm for a certain position.
Unless of course you are the vouch-er. It is nice to be the vouch-ee, that is, it is nice to have someone put in a good word for you, but if the shoe is on the other foot, if you are the one asked for a recommendation and the one asking you is undependable, if they are unreliable, if you know that they will perform poorly in the position, then, vouching for some one can almost be like putting your own reputation on the line, it can be almost like setting yourself up for the reputation of one who keeps bad company or judges character poorly. There can be times when vouching for someone can be risky.
That is precisely the thing that makes our text so mind blowing. Because our text talks about Jesus vouching for us, recommending us, standing up for us and beside us. That is what Jesus has done for us. Jesus is our man on the inside, the one who has put in a good word for us and who has made us a shoe in for heaven because of his personal recommendation for us. And not only has Jesus vouched for us, he not only put his reputation on the line for us –knowing full well that we were godless and unconscionable Jesus laid even his life on the line. When you think about it, it is unbelievable! For, our text says, “While we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”
The message of our text is one of God’s surpassing grace and mercy and generosity. It is one that demonstrates the outlandish and lavish and even excessive nature of God’s forgiveness. God doesn’t just forgive a little bit. He doesn’t just forgive those who are of a certain stripe or worthiness –he loves and he forgives those who are unlovable and not even anywhere close to being worthy to be loved. God loves everyone with this outlandish and over the top kind of love and therefore God loves you and me with an over the top and outlandish kind of love. For us, for sinners, that message is nothing but good news.
You and I have a tendency to guard our reputations very closely. We try to be very selective about those who we choose for our friends and about those who we allow to be members of our inner circle. There are times that we look around us in judgment of the ones who could be a part of our community. We would prefer to pick and choose the ones who are allowed to join with us. We do this in our social relationships – at times we can be exclusive and snobbish. We do this in our churchly relationships.
Certainly we know and have read Christ’s command that we are to go into all nations with His Gospel. We are to tell the world that Jesus has died and risen again for them and for their sin. Yet how many times are we guilty of desiring that the nations stay “out there”. They can go to heaven, God can clean them up and find a place for them there, put I would prefer that they not come here, to my church, to sit in my pew, next to my family. Are there perhaps times when we want to be selective about the people we will invite to become members of our own church fellowship?
Or are there times when we just don’t invite anybody? When was the last time you spoke with someone new and thought to yourself, “I wonder if they have a church home?” “I wonder if they would like to come with me to
But Christ has vouched for us. While we were still sinners, while we were still godless and irreligious, while we were still chasing after the impulses of our sinful flesh Jesus stood by us. That is what the phrase means. Paul says that “Christ demonstrates his love for us in this, while we were sinners Christ died for us” he is saying in that phrase that Christ stood by us, that he stood up for us, that he stood next to us. Our reputations were bad, as they could be, but Christ said, “yes that one there I will vouch for him, I will vouch for her. I will lay my reputation on the line that they are worth saving he should be included, she should be included. Lay their charge to my account.” So God did. And not that we were deserving, but He was so willing to vouch for us that it didn’t matter what the cost would be. It didn’t matter how much we would soil and tarnish his reputation. It didn’t matter how greatly we would spoil the perfect world that he made – he wanted nothing more than to have us and so he stood by us and stood up for us even when it cost him his life.
And now we have that treasure. We have been brought in. We are on the inside! We have that amazing, priceless, invaluable gift. It hasn’t cost us a dime and it is ours to share! Why don’t we share it! Why don’t we take the gift and spread it around and share it with everyone we know. Jesus has vouched for us, given us his own personal recommendation, we ought to vouch for each other!
But even that is not all that Jesus has done – there is more, much more, so much more. God has not stopped with his love and his forgiveness by simply standing beside us and standing up for us. He hasn’t just offered his hand to help us out a little bit along the way. Paul goes on to tell us,
“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by His life.” So we were enemies. Christ didn’t just think to vouch for someone who he got along with, someone who he knew deep down really cared. We were enemies – bitter foes, standing on opposite ends of a conflict. And it was while we were in the middle of our opposition to God that he came to us and found us and stood next to us.
Perhaps you have been there before – stood on either side of an argument with another person. A disagreement or dispute. Well that’s the scenario Paul mentions here – we were enemies, standing on opposite sides with God himself. (Who do you suppose would win that argument?)
And even then, God sent his son to stand by us. In His incredible love, he sent Jesus. And Jesus came to reconcile us to God.
Now put yourself back in to that conflict that you can remember having with someone else. Maybe it was your spouse, maybe it was your neighbor, maybe it was your boss or your co-worker. And suppose you didn’t do anything wrong. Suppose all the guilt was squarely on the shoulders of your antagonist. They were in the wrong. They said something, did something, far beyond what is right and proper, you were mistreated and you had every right to be upset or angry. They owed you. Your conscience was clear and the ball was in their court to make things right.
Now ratchet that up a few notches, as far, even further than it will go, understand that you and I were the ones totally in the wrong because of all that we are guilty of and God was totally in the right, the ball should have been in our court but even then it wouldn’t matter because there was nothing we could do to make it right. And it was there that God sent Jesus to us to reconcile us – to take responsibility for the dispute and to make right the wrong so that the relationship between us and God could be resolved.
And look at what God did to accomplish that. What’s the worst someone could do? Take your child, kill your son or your daughter? There is nothing that we hold more dear than our children. Today is father’s day – a day set aside for honoring and thanking our fathers for their love for us. Fathers would never give up their children, they would defend them even if it cost them their life. But God volunteered his Son, his Only Son for you to settle a dispute that you started, a dispute in which he had no responsibility and in which he shared no guilt. God gave up his only son so that the dispute between you and he could be made right. We are reconciled to God because of the sacrifice of Jesus.
Can we even begin to imagine the gift? All that God has given, all that God has done to wash away our sin, to restore us in our relationship to him. All of our guilt all of our sin and shame and overlooked it to stand beside us, he vouched for us as our advocate and friend and then he laid down his life as the price for our reconciliation so that we could be back “in” with God. Think of all that God has done for us.
And then think of all that we now have not only the freedom, not only the responsibility, but the joy, the sheer and utter and complete joy, to go out into our neighborhoods, down our streets, into our schools out on the ball fields and be the witnesses for God on behalf of this veritable goldmine of eternal riches.
Can you imagine being the researcher who eventually cracks the cure for cancer. With as many people who suffer every year from this so often unstoppable disease, with the many people who suffer from not only the disease, but even the treatments for cancer are painful and debilitating. Imagine if you were the one who after years of research got to announce to the world that no one would ever have to suffer from this disease again. You were the one, you found the wonder drug. You found the cure to make it all go away. You would shout it from the roof tops. You would want the world to know the amazing discovery you made.
Friends you and I have found something much better much more valuable much more exciting. We have discovered a cure not just for cancer, not just for a disease, we have found the cure for death itself! We have been given the cure for sin – we have received the key to unlock eternal life. It is ours, signed sealed and delivered. Earned by Jesus himself when he surrendered his own life for us on the cross. Given when that forgiveness was handed over to you free of charge when Jesus baptized you and sealed you for eternal life forever.
You are sitting on a goldmine. Don’t sit on it any longer. Pull out your treasure chest, unlock the lid, let your inheritance spill out on the floor to be picked up by everyone who walks by. Don’t worry, there’s plenty to go around. After all, God grace and forgiveness is over the top, it is extreme, it is excessive!
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