| March 19, 2000 | Already At Peace | Romans 5:1-11
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I spoke to someone this past week who was really finding it hard to face life's struggles. They were even thinking about suicide. They had some really fundamental questions about Christianity, such as: If God loves me, then why don't things go well for me? If things are going poorly, then what can I do about them? I am trying to be a good person, so why is God punishing me? These sorts of questions get down to the basics of our faith and they are questions which are dealt with nicely by our text. It deals with these questions because it talks about suffering.
Our text challenges us to think about suffering differently that the world does. The world suffers with suffering. What are we called to do as Christians? We are to rejoice in suffering. Does this sound crazy to you? Why should we be happy we are suffering? The answer comes from what suffering brings us. It comes from where suffering takes us.
That is given in the text through this familiar chain of items: Suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character and character produces hope. Now just what is this about? This chain starts at suffering and ends at hope. You see from our text that hope is the secure end of the chain, for it says that hope does not disappoint us. Hope is our firm foundation. From suffering we hang on to the chain that is secured by hope.
This chain of suffering, perseverance, character and hope has to do with bringing our faith to a test. If we endure suffering and don't give up on our Lord in the midst of that suffering, then we become someone who has not given up on our Lord. We have persevered. Our faith has survived a test Holding fast to Christ leads to us developing the character of one who holds fast. We have that characteristic of not giving up. Now, finally, as we see what is happening in ourselves, as we observe ourselves not rejecting our Lord even while we suffer, our faith becomes strengthened. We see someone, that is, ourselves, who has been faithful through suffering, and this helps us see that the Holy Spirit truly has given us the gift of faith. Seeing that the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives, blessing us with faith and strengthening us in time of persecution, will end up strengthening us even more.
In this way, through this chain of links, suffering ends up blessing our faith. We see our faith at work and seeing that pumps our faith up even higher. This is the same faith that is a gift of the Holy Spirit from the start. We have the Holy Spirit giving us the gift of faith at the start and also then strengthening that same faith as we persevere in the face of suffering.
As a person faces suffering and trials, they often become very focused on themselves in their thinking. In doing so, he may feeling like he is the only one suffering. He may feel like his suffering is greater than others experience or have ever experienced. Now, when the text that is before us speaks of suffering, some will ask: Is our suffering the same today? Isn't it much harder today than it was in the time that Paul's Epistle to the Romans was written? This person doubts that the suffering described in our text was as bad as they are undergoing.
There are two answers to give here. First of all, we need to understand the nature of Scripture. It is, of course, God's Word. It is God's message to us. It is God speaking to us, and we know that God is constant and unchangeable. His Word is eternal. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. When He delivers a message, God speaks something which is true for all times. Now, the Epistle to the Romans may have been written almost 2000 years ago, but it remains God's Word which is spoken to us. God's Word is still meant for us. It is not some out-of-date historical book where we only read about what happened long ago. Rather, we have before us the living Word of God that says that suffering produces perseverance, and so forth.
The second reply to this suggestion that our suffering is different from the Romans is to consider that our suffering is surely not as great. At the time of the writing of the Epistles of the New Testament, many Christians were undergoing persecution from the Roman Empire to the point of death. They were being martyred, fed to lions, etc. All this happened to them simply because they confessed Jesus Christ as their savior and would not give this up even when tortured. Surely their suffering was much greater than ours is today.
Perhaps you are asking about this sermon: Where is the law? Perhaps you are asking: Where do I see that I am a sinner in need of forgiveness? I hope the confirmation students and the recently confirmed are asking that. As Christians, we learn that coming to see our sinfulness is an essential part of coming to know God's love.
Some people do not want to hear anything about their own sins. They would be much more pleased to hear that other people are sinners and they are the righteous ones. Actually, all of us would like to hear that, wouldn't we. However, we know that it would not be true. The truth is that we are sinners in need of forgiveness. Unless we come to grips with that idea, we never get to the Good News. So, we are to look for the law in sermons and apply it to our own lives. We are to ask, How have I sinned and fallen short of the glory of God?
Today's message would present the law to us as the sin of doubting God's love when we face suffering. These are the times when suffering brings, not perseverance, but doubt. Are there those times when you suffer, fail, or when things just don't go the way you would like and then you think that maybe God doesn't love you so much. You may think God is punishing you for something you did wrong. If things aren't going the way I want, then that must mean that I have fallen out of God's favor.
You may also find yourself thinking that you don't deserve suffering. After all, you go to church, read the Bible, pray regularly. You do all these things, so God surely ought not be allowing this to happen.
This attitude also needs to be confronted by the law. It is confronted by understanding that our lives are not lived good enough to deserve anything. Even our best works are useless. If we say that we have no sin, and that we therefore deserve to be without suffering, then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. It is, in fact, a sin to believe that our lives are lived good enough so that we should not have to encounter suffering.
Now, knowing that we sin, what comfort does our text offer to us? Where is the Gospel? It is so wonderfully laid out for us in this text starting with the first verse. "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," In the knowledge of our sin, we hear those wonderful words: "We have been justified." Justified means to have the charges against us brought to a conclusion. Justice has been done with regard to our sins. Notice carefully the words, "since we have been justified." It is already a done deal, despite our sins.
In case being justified is not enough or we do not fully understand it, we have even more: "We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Again, this is something we already possess. Peace has been made with God. He is no longer angry over our sins. He is no longer wrathful. We are not His enemies, but His friends. We no longer need to wonder if God is angry at us and if that has caused our suffering. We can know that our relationship with God is defined by the simple word: peace. This all comes through-Jesus Christ. It is through the work of Christ that we have this peace and justification.
This work of Christ is described in the wonders of its glories in our text: "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly." The work of Christ was to die for us. He sacrificed His life for us. He did it at the perfect time. The Lord always has perfect timing.
Now, did He die for us because we were worthy or because we deserved it? No, He died for the ungodly. He died for the ones who were not righteous, but rather were the ones rejecting God.
The wonders of this work are illustrated through contrast to what we could reasonably expect a human being to do. "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die." A human would never do any better that to offer his life for someone who is righteous and good. Even that would be very rare. Our situation is much different, however. We are not righteous or good people, but we are sinners. So, Christ offers His life in a sacrifice above and beyond what any human would be willing to do. So the text says in those wonderful words: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Christ's death justified us. Since justice is done for our sins, and we are declared not guilty on account of Christ's blood shed for us, then we can further know that we will not be punished for our sins. "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!" Christ's death also saves us from punishment. We have salvation in Christ.
The wonders of what our Lord has done for us do not stop at His work of dying for us. He also rose for us from the dead. "For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!" We are saved through Jesus' life. He came back to life and so we can know that we will come back to life also. Death is no longer our enemy for we are saved through the life of our Lord.
You heard it again in that last verse, that we are saved even though we do not deserve it. It happened when we were God's enemies. We are opposed to God and still He comes and saves us. What a wonderful blessing.
There is, finally, a powerful point made by our text, but it is a more subtle point. It has to do with passive verbs. Passive verbs are verbs where the subject is being acted upon rather than doing the action. Active verbs have the subject doing the action. Passive verbs have the subject being acted upon. For example, suppose you trip and fall down. There are two ways you can end up back on your feet. First you can get up. Second, someone can pick you up. If you describe this, you might say, first, "I picked myself up." Second, you might say, "I was picked up." The first is active; the second is passive. Passive verb expressions are not rare in our English speech. In Greek, however, which is the language of the New Testament, passive verbs are more rare. If you read a passive verb in Greek, that is something to which you should stop and really pay attention.
Our text has several passive verbs. "We have been justified through faith." "We have been justified by His blood." Notice the action is done by our Lord. We have been justified, but we have not justified ourselves. "How much more shall we be saved from God's wrath." Again, the action to save us is done by someone outside of us. We don't save ourselves. "We were reconciled to Him," says the next verse. Again, it is a passive verb. Again, God is doing the action of reconciling. There are more passives: "We were reconciled to him through the death." "How much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!" So, our Lord abundantly assures us in this text that He is the one at work saving us.
Quite honestly, I see many forces at work in our world that are trying to convince us that it is not entirely our Lord's work in saving us. There are those teaching that we must add something to the work; that we contribute somehow. A recent example of this would be the Evangelism/Revival Crusade in our area this week by the Power Team. This team demonstrates great feats of their own power. Then they have an altar call at the end. This altar call totally misleads people into believing that they must take that step in order for God to save them. They must contribute something by coming forward and committing to God. This teaches people to believe that their salvation is something in which they have an active roll. An altar call does not express the passive role that we have. It leads us away from the truth expressed in our text, which is, once again, that God is the one solely and completely at work saving us. In fact, that work has already been completed because Christ already died and rose for us.
This gives us the wonderful point we can hang on to in times of suffering. We hang on to the idea that God demonstrated His love for us by sending Christ to die for us. In the midst of suffering, if you think that God doesn't love you, then just consider if Christ still died for your sins. If Christ still died for your sins, then you know that God still loves you. With this in mind, we can endure the sufferings of this life, which last but a moment, for we know that our future life in heaven is secured and all prepared. We know it is ready for us to inherit, because the work to gain it came entirely from the done deeds of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.