How do we live in a world that defines and practices love very differently than Jesus commanded us to love as followers of Christ? Loving in light of the gospel means we love others not in response to what they do or don’t do to us, but rather in response to what God has and will do for us.

Love. It’s what God demonstrated when he sent Jesus to die on a cross to take our place, and it’s what should motivate us to go and demonstrate it to others, but what does loving in light of the gospel look like?

There is no doubt that the love of Christ is what must motivate our living for Christ. It doesn’t matter what else we do. It doesn’t matter if we are faithful to do everything else Paul says in these last five chapters, if it is not done motivated by love, then we are not faithful to live in light of the gospel.

When we think rightly about the gospel, we should grow in thinking more rightly about ourselves, our identity, our purpose. We should think more rightly about our gifts and how we are to use those gifts in the context of the body of Christ.

In light of Jesus' life sacrificed for us, we should live all of life sacrificially for him.

This is the good news of God – God accomplishing his plans and his purposes by keeping his promises through Jesus. Jesus is the yes and amen of God’s promises and it is why your faith must be in the work of Christ and Christ alone. For your salvation, for your sanctification, for your glorification – but for God’s glory. This is why Paul ends in Romans 11 by saying, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever."

This is why we have the good news of the Gospel and it is why we must believe it. So that in the end we all look back and see and the only thing we can point to, the only thing that we can declare is that God and God alone is worthy of all the glory! There are no other answers. There are no other options. There are no other ways. We come to God by faith in the Son of God, because of the mercy of God, as a result of the sovereignty of God or we don’t come at all.

God is the only hope for ethnic Israel and He is the only hope for spiritual Israel. Faith is the only thing that matters.

He is sovereign. It doesn’t mean that he is happy about everything that happens, but it does mean that everything that happens will be used to accomplish what he wants and knows already, will happen. His purposes will be accomplished. Our salvation, our sanctification, our glorification, our good and his glory will be accomplished.