Romans 5:8 Archives : Life with the King

I invite you to celebrate with me as Life with the King turns 7 this week! Last year, I wrote about the birth of this blog in my post, Seeking Life’s Deeper Truth on July 24th, 2025.

This post today also happens to be the 100th Life with the King blog post. Halleluiah, all glory be to God!

After 7 years, while 7 is known as a number of completion, I somehow get the feeling it’s just beginning. Some statistics: blog visitors have increased nearly seven times in the last two years. My most-accessed post is the very first blog ever posted in July 2019, What To Do When You Struggle With Faith, with over 1,250 views. The blog is meant to be shared with people who might need encouragement, who might be seeking Truth, and who might feel lonely in their faith journey. There has always been a hunger for Truth, Life, and God, but I’m seeing it multiply just in this blog’s stats.

God has given us all gifts to share for the good of all people, and He will give you what you need to make His plans for your gifts a reality, even if it takes 7 years or 77 years. Never give up. I’ve learned in my own life with the King that whatever God has given you to do, whether writing a blog or not, is worth doing. He will refine and transform you through it. He will help us see it through.

I wasn’t qualified to write about faith because of great faith or anything like that, but instead because of the shortcomings I had with faith. It was my doubt and failure to have faith that put me on a journey of seeking Truth and starting this blog. I knew what it was like to do the wrong thing and live the wrong way in God’s eyes. I knew I was a sinner 7 years ago, and I know I am a sinner now. But the more years go by, the more I know that “…God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). It’s all about what Jesus did for us, not what we have done, wrong or right. In putting our faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for us, we are, rather unfairly, forgiven. Halleluiah!

I was reading about that “unfairness” today in Romans 5. It reads, “one trespass led to condemnation for all men” (Romans 5:18), which sounds pretty unfair to me. There have been times in my life where I felt completely trapped by and resentful of that tie to sin that I could do nothing about whatsoever. It was inherited simply by being a human being just like Adam and Eve were human beings.

But there is hope, for the very next thing Paul writes is, “so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men” (Romans 5:18). Jesus’ act of righteousness, sacrificing Himself for us to pay the penalty, makes inheriting justification and life just as easy for us to have as our inherited sin! “For as by one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). Adam disobeyed God, Jesus obeyed God. We were made sinners by Adam, and we were made righteous by Jesus. It sounds simplistic until you realize the poetic depth and profundity of what Jesus did to undo the curse, oppression, and lordship of sin and death over the lives God lovingly crafted for us to live with Him in freedom and peace. We are loved enough by God for Him to bring that life, freedom, and peace about to completion (Philippians 1:6).

It’s all about what God has done for us, it’s not about us. It’s not about striving to be perfect, it’s all about Jesus. The reality is that we truly are desperate for Him, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1-2). We’re just so prone to forget. But even in our forgetfulness, there is so much grace from God, “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:16-17). There is grace upon grace for each one of us. Jesus is the Truth. Halleluiah!

If you’re a longtime subscriber, please know that I’m so grateful for you! I’m amazed every post is actually being read, even after 7 years of writing—thank you. And if you aren’t already, please take a moment to subscribe.

May you experience God’s kindness, peace, and grace in your own life with the King. Amen.

“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

I didn’t know what it meant to trust God until I had to trust God. I could talk all day calmly and logically about trusting God from a young age, but until I was faced with multiple medical emergencies, accidents, tragedies, and crossroads in life, I had no idea what “trusting God” meant. At first, I took these difficult circumstances as God’s indifference, and the chaos and cruelty of life. Now after more experience, I can say that I’m grateful for them. They have been opportunities, however difficult, to trust God more completely, wholeheartedly, and desperately. They’ve been a very quick and accurate test that shows me just how much I’m relying on God, or not.

We go to school to provide for ourselves in some way, intellectually or for new skills. We work to provide an income to pay for living expenses. Many of us do this all our lives. But we must never forget that it is God who provides for us, not ourselves. God, “who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’” (Deuteronomy 8:16-17). The pride of self-reliance is a trap I’ve fallen into many times. But we see in this passage, God tests us in this, and it’s for our good. It’s been the difficulties, such as those I faced when I could no longer rely on myself the way I was used to, that have helped me most to live life every day with the King.

In the Characteristics of God series, we have delved into the details of who God is, what He’s really like according to Scripture, and why we can trust Him in the first place. Knowing God’s character is necessary to begin to live in step with Him, His will for us, and the people in our lives. We cannot trust someone we don’t know.

God trusts you with the struggles in your life. He trusts that you will walk through them and discover how He is walking with you, and know Him better for it. He trusts that you will respond to His love once you recognize it. He trusts that eventually you will recognize how He provides for you in the struggle. God is patient to let you take your time in grasping the incomprehensibility of His sacrificial, unconditional love for you, and the amazing freedom you actually have in that great love.

Jesus never exploits us or forces us into loving Him. The Apostle Paul wrote, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He died for us while we were still sinning against Him. While we disobeyed Him and separated ourselves from Him, He still chose to sacrifice His life for ours. We only need to believe that He really is that merciful, faithful, good, and gracious. Jesus gave us reason to rejoice, and provided all we need, besides. We are truly safe and free in His love!

With every new challenge this past year, it was as if God was asking me the question, “Do you still trust me?” Physiologically this past year, I felt anything but safe or free. The time of establishing my faith was long over, and in this season, I was tested on whether that faith could be shaken. Not only that, but tested in learning to trust God in real time, while experiencing the panic and grief that came with burnout. Did I know what to trust God for? Did I know who He was and what He promises to His people? Did I believe they applied to me even while I was afraid? I needed God to walk with me through that test; I couldn’t endure on my own. He has been faithful to see me through to this new season, where there will surely be new challenges to face. But now on the other side of that particular test, I’ve learned by experience how much God can be trusted.

We all face challenges in our lives that are more than we can bear; each are invitations from God to lean on Him. He will get us to the other side of the challenges we face. We can’t handle them on our own, we need God to provide. The more we recognize that reality, the more God can work in our humbled hearts, ready and expectant for Him to work on our behalf, for our good. We need Him to free us from pride that keeps us bound in self defensiveness, fear, and selfishness. In the Book of James, James writes, “Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you” (James 4:10). The more I agree with the reality that God is in charge, not me, the more freedom I experience.

May God break every chain in us to live free in His love. Amen.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

“Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4).

Tag: Romans 5:8

Do You Still Trust Me?