"Love bade me welcome . . ."

Romans 5 has pretty much fired me up! I'd kind of like to write something about Paul's use of the word "reign" there, and something else about his phrase "hope of glory." Maybe I'll get to that here, maybe not. But this morning something jumped out at me that I hadn't really noticed before. It happens right at the end of verse 10:

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.

Ray Ortlund, in his Romans devotional, Passion for God, translates it this way:

After all, if, alienated from him as we were, God broke down the barriers by the death of his Son, how much more certain is it, now that we are back on good terms with him, that we will be fully saved as he imparts his life to us.

It's that last phrase that really grabs my attention here. Ortlund's words, "... fully saved, as he imparts his life to us."

Boy, if that doesn't lift the shades on your wonder-window, nothing does.

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A timely post by Jared Wilson, quoting Augustus Toplady, might just relate. Also, this poem by George Herbert.