Alive Again: A Life in Christ

"Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ² We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³ And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, ⁴ endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. ⁵ This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
⁶ For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. ⁸ But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! ⁹ Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. ¹⁰ For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life! ¹¹ And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have now received this reconciliation through Him."
Romans 5:1-11

The Book of Romans has been held in the highest regard by Christian theologians over the centuries. Countless people have become Christians by reading its verses. Among these were Augustine, Luther and John Wesley. So the influence of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is unquestioned. If there is any controversy, it is what passages in the book are the most influential. Some of the candidates are Romans 1:16-17, Romans 5 and Romans 8. These are indeed high points in the book. But the high points of the book are set up by Paul’s detailed arguments in the other chapters. Today, we will look at Romans 5:1-11.

Today's Message: Alive Again: A Life in Christ

Good Morning Beloved,
Thank you so much for joining us today
I'm glad you're here

Good and gracious Father,

We give thanks to You today, for the precious truths of your Word were are about to receive. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit, and for Your Son, Jesus Christ.

Lord, we just thank You for the understanding and assurance that we live in the marvelous realm of settled peace and permanent grace, justification by faith in Jesus Christ and eternal salvation. We simply cannot thank You enough for these gifts, gifts of Your perfect and Sovereign love. 

Father, help us to rest in this magnificent knowledge and allow them settle deep within our hearts, our minds and our souls. We so humbly thank You for these precious gifts. And we realize, they are indeed gifts from above.

Thank you for Your marvelous and mighty works on our behalf, for Your gentle loving kindness, for Your undeserved mercy toward us, we're so unworthy. Lord, we love You in return and we want to love You more than we do, serve You more faithfully, spreading the message of grace, and of salvation both far and wide. 

Father, we ask that You would just help us to understand how precious these gifts truly are, then, enjoy them, rejoicing our salvation, resting in the assurances of it, so that we may not troubled or anxious, in these matters, but rest in grace and peace in You.

Use us, O Lord, to boldly share these gifts of grace, peace and salvation to others, these precious gifts, that we have been given freely, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. All of these things we pray for Your glory and Your increase in the Kingdom
In the sweet, precious name of Jesus 
Amen

Today's Message: Alive Again: A Life in Christ
 
We are so incredibly blessed to be presented today, with the rich and glorious section of Scripture. Open your Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 5, verses 1-11, allow me to read from today's text, to settle it within our hearts and minds, if you would just follow along with me please.

"Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance,  endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.  This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly.  For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!  Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath.  For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life!  And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have now received this reconciliation through Him."

In order to comfort the believers at Rome, and elsewhere, under the sufferings which the profession of the gospel brought upon them, the apostle Paul proceeds to enumerate the privileges which belong to true believers in general. And from his account it appears, that the privileges of Abraham’s seed by faith, are far greater than those which belong to such as were his seed by natural descent, and which are described, Romans 2:17-20. The first privilege of this spiritual seed is, that, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Having been alienated from God and exposed to condemnation and wrath, this is no longer the case, as we have been brought into a state of reconciliation and peace with Him, through Christ Jesus.

Romans chapter 5, is set up by the example of Abraham in the 4th chapter of Romans as the example of one who was justified by faith and not works. The apostle Paul had, in the first three chapters of the book of Romans, showed the impossibility of being made right before God on the basis of one’s own works. One was not justified by placing one’s good works on one side of the scale and one’s bad works on the other. If the good outweighed the bad, all would be well. 

This, however, was Egyptian thinking. And it is the thinking of many who feel that they are essentially good, and as long as we acknowledge our imperfection and do good works, we shall be saved. The apostle Paul, however, completely overturns that concept, quoting scripture after scripture against that thought. And, in chapter 4, Paul shows us that all is not lost, as there is help. And this comes by the life of Abraham, who is considered to be a spiritual giant and forefather.

The Jews revered Abraham and felt that the covenant promises given to Abraham irrevocably applied to them as well. They were the elect. They were his physical descendants, after all. However, Paul refutes this argument undisputedly. Abraham was saved by faith. He believed God and it was counted as righteousness for him, as told in Genesis 15:6, "Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness." Abraham was also a man of many sins, much like us. The book of Joshua tells us that he had worshiped other gods before God called him. Even in his walk with Yahweh, he lied on several occasions and even let his wife be taken into a harem twice. However, since Abraham’s position with God was based on faith, his salvation was built upon a solid foundation.

Physical descent means nothing. Was not Ishmael and six others, physical descendants as well? And what about Esau? In fact, it we trace our ancestry back to 1900 BC, virtually all of us are descendants of Abraham, and that many times over. But this does not make one a child of the promise given to Abraham. We, like Abraham, are saved by faith, without reference to the works we have done, good or evil. Works are however. important, as they spring forth from faith. They are a by product of our faith, not the origin of it.

Chapter 5 now applies the implications of what justification by faith entails. The first fruit is that we have peace with God. This is made possible through our Lord Jesus Christ. This peace is based upon what God has done for us, and not what we have done for God. Notice that it does not say “we should have peace.” This is not a hortatory subjunctive which tells us to appropriate something we don’t already have. It is the realization that you actually are at peace. The call is then to live the reality. The newborn is equipped with everything it needs to develop. The child is already born with the means of walking and talking. It isn’t visibly demonstrated at birth, but it is actually there. It will happen.

Likewise, since peace is a gift of God’s grace, it will become increasingly exemplified as we grow in Christ. We have full access to this unprecedented peace through our faith in Christ on which we stand. The Greek word for "stand" is a perfect indicative. The perfect tense in Greek emphasizes a current ongoing future reality based upon a past act. Christ’s crucifixion and death is the act, and the implication is that we now have standing with God due to our faith and continue to have this standing without end. It is not a Greek imperfect which would tell us that we once had or currently have standing, for now, as though it could be cancelled. The indicative is the perception of factual reality. It is not hypothetical anomaly.

Because we have standing, we can boast in this standing. Our hopeful boasting glorifies God and not ourselves. Boasting in ourselves always results in disaster. It also causes disharmony in the body of Christ. But if our common boast is in God, then we are unified in our faith. We should also realize in this sentence that hope is not wishful thinking. Our understanding of hope is wishy-washy. We might make a statement: “I hope to win the lottery.” This reality is very unlikely to happen and would usually result in a false hope. We might foolishly buy tickets in the hope of being an exception. But this hope is highly likely to be disappointed and has led to the ruin of men and women, not to say their children as well. The Christian hope is a real hope based upon the promise of a God who cannot lie. We yearn for the ultimate fulfillment of the reality, but our faith is not a leap into the dark as some theologians of the existential school postulate. It would better be seen as a leap into the light.

In verses three and four, Paul goes on to add something really shocking. "And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope." The but here in Greek is the "but" of replacing. The notion of boasting in the glory of God is replaced by our boasting in our troubles.

I suppose the question at hand, is why should we want to replace our boasting in God’s glory with boasting in our trials? Why would anyone even want to replace Calvin’s theology of glory with Luther’s theology of the cross? Unfortunately, within many Christian circles, the possibility of suffering is unfathomable. The misconception is that of one suffers, it is because that person lacks faith. But the apostle Paul, as well as others completely dismiss the inaccuracy of this theological teaching and then goes on to qualify his statement.

Rather than trials destroying our faith, it has the opposite effect, as it strengthens and builds up our faith. Another asset of our enduring trials, is it helps to produce steadfastness of character. It has been often said that trials make the man. The Greek word here has the idea of patient endurance. Faith tells us that the same God who began a good work will continue it onto perfection in the day of Jesus Christ. It helps us to appreciate our faith even more. Then this patient endurance leads us to approval. The Greek word is used to describe the refining process of metal in which impurities are separated from the pure metal by the use of fire. The purified metal receives the stamp of approval. The same is true of us. Beloved, an approved faith is always a tested faith! The inauthentic aspects of faith are burned away, and the result is a purified faith. We need certain hope and a true purified faith.

It is the trials we go through that actually serve to our eternal benefit. It is our form of the wilderness experience of Israel. Its not that God that directly tempts us, but it is the trials and temptations of life which relentlessly pursue us, which God uses for our eternal good. This purified hope means that our hope is no longer uncertain and unstable, but certain. There have been many who have been shamed by false hopes.

Now, Paul moves on to love. We know of God’s love for us, because He has poured out His Holy Spirit into us. We can be confident, that God has been with us all the time, even in the midst of our trials. And He confirms His love for us by His presence in us. Never, do we go through our troubles alone. We are not left alone in the wilderness. The Holy Spirit makes a home in us just like He did in the middle of the Israelite camp in the wilderness.

Not only is the love of God demonstrated by the giving of the Holy Spirit, it is demonstrated in the death of Christ. Romans 5:8 is indeed Paul's equivalent to John 3:16. We, that is the human race, were without any means or strength to rescue ourselves. We are in ourselves beyond hope. But the God who loves us sent His Son to die for us. Christ’s love for us submitted Him to the humiliation and pain of the cross. This was the due season of God’s gift. The cross is at the center of Christendom. In the Old Testament, the saints looked forward to that time. Similarly, we look back.

We were ungodly, without hope, condemned but Christ died for us. The apostle Paul apprises that some people have died for good causes and others for a good man. These are indeed noble acts of sacrifice. But God’s love goes far beyond this. There is nothing ultimately good about us. In fact, we counted God among our enemies, our chief enemy. Why should a holy God die for us ungrateful and rebellious sinners? The world praises those who die for their country. Even the movie Patton indirectly agrees although it says rather we should have the other person die for his country. But it is outlandish that one die for his enemies. But this is exactly what God did in Jesus Christ. He reconciled us to himself. We should have suffered and died as the enemies of Christ. Christ had the ultimate power to put his foot on our necks. He could have then stepped on our neck and crushed us. Some wonder why He just didn’t forgive us. That has been the source of many a theological arguments. But what is extraordinary is that Christ died for us. It is in this that we boast.
All praise be to God!

In Closing...

There are several applications that could easily be made of this text. One of these would be to preach this text through Advent. These four themes of Advent, hope, peace, joy and love are all inclusive, if we take our boasting to be joyful one. One could ultimately speak of each of the four themes during the season of Advent, in which we prepare ourselves for the Lord’s return.

Another application for this is a funeral. All to often, funerals have become memorial services and celebrations of life in which the deceased is remembered. We often share stories of the life of one who had meant so much. We might even throw in a wink and a nod to salvation such as talking about the deceased’s profession of faith. It is alright to eulogize the dead to some point, but would it not be better to have the congregation remember the work of God that makes the difference. We have something more than memories and an ineffectual hope.. Until Christ returns, death is to be the final trial of our earthly life. Should we not remember the One Who is the Resurrection and the Life?

Ultimately, it isn't whether or not the deceased was a good person. But the goodness of Almighty God. Subsequently, it is not how much the deceased loved, but how much God loves us. It isn’t that this person died, but that Jesus Christ died for all of us. This, beloved, is what makes the difference in death. It is in this we should boast. May it then be so!

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

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