The Heart of the Gospel

Rome was known for it's great road system. So Christians call five verses in the book Romans that lead us to salvation the "Roman Road". Today's Bible Study, Romans 5: 1 - 9 (NIV), takes a look at the passage surrounding the middle verse of the Roman Road:
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 rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given 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 man, though for a good man 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. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!
The verses on the Roman Road are 3:23, 6:23, 5:8, 10:9-10, 10: 13. Since this is the middle verse, you could call this passage the heart of the Gospel. Let's take a look at the verses in this passage.
First, Paul reminds us that it is faith that makes us right with God. Hebrews 11:6 says we must have faith to please God. Jesus said faith is the one work that God requires from us (John 6: 28, 29). James 2:17 says true faith is not just a thought, but will move us to action.
Then, in verses 3 - 5, Paul says that our sufferings produce perseverance which leads to character, which results in hope. In other words, the events of life can strengthen our faith, and that gives us more and more hope in God. Suffering is never pleasant at the time, but it can cause us to become more mature and maturity helps us realize the hope that God's love gives us.

Now the passage gets to the heart of the Gospel: that God loves us so much that he came and died for us - even while we were his enemies. He died for us while we were sinners who did not believe in him or even know him. That's an amazing truth - that's amazing grace! What this tells us is that God's love is unconditional. We did not and cannot earn his love.
It is important for us to know this because it reminds us that God loves everyone and we cannot earn more love than anyone else. Even while we were under God's wrath, he still loved us enough to die for us. So we should never look down our noses at another person. God loves that person as much as he loves you! It also shows us how to love each other like God does: unconditionally.
This brings up an interesting question: If we can't make God love us more than he already does, why try? The answer is, we want to obey God and we want him to be proud of us. Jesus said we will obey him if we love him (John 14:15). We know God loves us, but do we love him back?
Any good parent loves his children whether they are good or bad, but I want to be a child that makes God proud. How about you - are you God's child? Then make him proud!