Great Gospel Texts: Romans 8:32

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (ESV)

God is doing all He can to make you like His Son, to make you like Jesus. God has unreservedly blessed you in order to do this. In fact, our verse is telling us that He has given heaven’s best and all the rest to accomplish His goal. He will spare no expense to welcome you as a son in His family.

The gravity of your issue is answered by the value of the Gift. You are a sinner before God, having missed the standard of His glory (3:23). You are ungodly, not bearing any of the characteristics of God’s family. You are estranged from God, and unable to approach Him with any merit of your own. And God knows this better than you! But rather than disqualify you from His plans as a hopeless case, and rather than lowering the criteria of entrance into His family to something a select few may attain, He provided the perfect gift to satisfy both you and Himself.  He provided His own Son – the perfect Man, Jesus – as the One in whom and through whom you can be made right and welcome as a son in the family of God.

The uniqueness of the Gift displays the heart of the Giver. Your sin problem is humanly insurmountable, and its wages, death (6:23). Payment for sin, by death, must be exacted, or justice is compromised. But who can pay? Will you die for your sin? This is where Jesus steps into your shoes. He is God’s eternal Son, forever existing in perfect relationship with the eternal Father, who is gifted to humanity via the virgin Mary, to sacrifice His perfect life in death for your sin. He is the only Son who has always pleased His Father, but God loves you in this way. He gave Him over to the cross that your sin’s payment would be made and that you might step into His shoes!

The generosity of the Giver extends beyond the Gift. God does not hold back. Having solved your sin problem, He welcomes you into His family. Now as a son in the family, His eye is on you for good. He will never let you go. You are set free from sin’s authority, enabling Him to mold you according to the image of the Son He wouldn’t spare to save you. And all of heaven’s resources are mobilized to do so.

But this begs a question: Is God at work in your life, making you like Jesus? If not, it is because you have not been willing to receive His Gift and gifts. Our verse tells you that God is graciously, unreservedly giving. He gives you His Son Jesus as the answer to your sin problem, and will never stop giving until His goal is reached. Is your heart closed, your mind shut to His gifts?

Receive the Gift, the Son, to your eternal glory – refuse Him to your eternal peril!