From Helpless to Boasting

Romans  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
0 ratings
· 5 views
Notes
Transcript
Today we’re going to study Romans 5:6-11, and if you took notes last week, you will notice that we are double dipping in this passage to squeeze out more juice from it. By now, we all know that those who have been reconciled by faith in Christ will be saved. But if you look closely at today’s passage [explore], you will see that being saved is not the only result of reconciliation. We will see that boasting in God is equally a given as being saved.
So far, in our Romans series, we have learned that everyone is unrighteous. What does it mean that we are unrighteous? It’s not that we are generally and vaguely sinners, but it’s specifically relational. The unrighteous are people who have a broken relationship with God. People who do not have a right standing before God. This is because we all choose to worship or love something else more than God. In other words, idolatry or spiritual adultery broke our relationship with God. If you remember my story about the grandfather from my previous sermon, you’ll remember that we’re not sinners primarily because a certain law in the bible was unkept, but because a relationship was tarnished, we loved ourselves or something else more than God.
This means that to be righteous is to have a reconciled relationship with God. This is done through faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, who paid the penalty for our sins and rose from the dead to initiate a new humanity in him.
Kid version summary:
You were helpless, you are helpless. You need to believe that!
Context
The previous pericope includes two types of boasting: Boasting in the Hope that God will make all things right and boasting in affliction
Romans 5:2-5
1 Therefore, since we have been justified 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 boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast 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.
We see two examples of boasting that come in response to being justified.
We are justified by faith, therefore we have peace, therefore we have obtained access to his grace, and we boast in hope and in afflictions. Do you know that if you are saved, you are by nature hopeful people and therefore people who can overcome affliction?
Let’s continue with today’s passage:
Romans 5:6-11 (CSB)
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, 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 How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we 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 boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
Main Idea
As we can see, Reconciliation with God leads to salvation and boasting
Homiletical Main idea
In other words, we have moved...
From Helpless to Boasting
Commentary
The devastation of sin has pervaded every human being. Even if we don’t want to sin we sin. This is why sin is so detestable in the eyes of God, it can’t be washed away by any human effort. It spreads to all it comes in contact with, not only within humanity but all creation, destroying it from its intended beauty.
Sin leaves a stain on every person who experiences it and causes them to perpetuate it by sinning against others. It is a virus, it is a zombie outbreak in its truest form, it’s deadlier and more contagious than the worst pandemic we’ve seen. It leads innocent children to grow up to be murderers and adulterers, whether by the body or by the heart. As Jesus says, whoever hates another has committed murder in his heart, and whoever lusts has committed adultery in his heart.
It leads relationships that were meant to be beautiful - between husband and wife, parent children, and friends—to be the source of some of the greatest pains and traumas, ultimately, sin leads the images of God to reject God for idols and be condemned to an eternity in hell. The worst part of it is that sin causes people to love sin; sometimes knowing that it’s killing them, but other times unaware. It causes the images of God to believe that more idolatry is the only cure for the damaging result of idolatry. People try to escape the pains of a sinful world by creating different types of sin.
You are all victims of sin and you feel the ramifications of sin every day, every hour, every moment. You don’t want to sin against God and those you love, but you do. Even as people who have been made righteous by faith, we struggle with sin. The status of unrighteousness has been removed by the blood of Jesus but the stain still remains, it is in the process of being washed away as we live by the spirit, but until our bodies are renewed in heaven, the stain will remain in this side of life. Don’t you all sit here after a week of battle with sin? Some of you are sick and tired of it. Sick and tired of the sins that you commit. Knowing how damaging it is but feeling like you’re unable to escape it fully.
But sin is not limited to the ones we commit. Some of us are sick and tired of dealing with the consequences of the sins of others. Sick and tired of being victims of other’s sins. Having to sin in response to others' sin. Or seeing our children learn to sin or become more sinful because of our sinful habits. It is just as painful to see loved ones suffer from the sins of others. Some of us here have experienced our loved ones suffer greatly from the sins of others.
Victim-centered culture realizes that sin comes from beyond the actions of one person. But this doesn’t mean that we should celebrate victims to the point that they are responsible for none of their sins. Uvalde. Everyone plays a part in perpetuating the cycle of sin. Oppressors may contribute more, but victims are contributors of sin as well. As they say, hurt people hurt people.
But sin goes on beyond even this. Some of us are suffering from the effects of a sinful world. The way humanity’s sins have distorted God’s creation by bringing about pollution, disease, natural disasters, wars, and oppression. Is there anyone here who has not felt the devastating effects of sin? Or seen it with their own eyes? Yet the amazing irony is that we daily continue to contribute to the growth of sin on earth. This is the helplessness that we find ourselves in.
Sin, sin, sin. We all have different scales of sin. What is a horrible sin and what is not? In the end, all sin stems from idolatry (our breaking of our relationship with God) and leads to judgment.
All these we have seen from our perspective. Sin, no matter how devastating it is for us, is an act of rebellion against a God who still provides us with the rain to fall and the sun to shine. It is defying a God who exalted us and gave us everything we needed to flourish.
We can only see the effects of sin around us but God sees the consequences of sin throughout all time from the greatest tragedies to the smallest sufferings of every part of his creation. If we were given omniscience for a day, we would die of sorrow by seeing all the abuse, the brutal killings, the tortures happening underground, the terrorism, the injustices experienced by the marginalized people, the subjugation of certain ethnic groups or socioeconomic groups for the benefit of the rich and powerful, people falling under the spiral of addiction, depression, self-hate, families being broken apart, innocents being framed, peoples’ futures being ripped away… Even just a day of seeing all the sins in the world would be too much for any of us to handle. I probably can’t even handle seeing a puppy get killed, let alone a child being abused. Would you be able to handle it if someone tied you to a chair and made you experience just one atrocity first-hand? God had to experience every single atrocity first-hand from the beginning of the world to now. Sin causes a greater heartbreak for God than it does to us.
God experiences all the aspects of sin that I have just mentioned. But he didn’t only experience it as a spectator, he came to earth and grew up as a Jewish peasant living under the Roman occupation, he became a sinner by taking on our sin, lived in the world tarnished by sin seeing his earthly father die and growing up in a single mother household, and became a victim of the sins of the religious and political leaders.
We may blame others but, WE are the contributors and partakers of God’s suffering.
Who were we? We were…
God’s enemies (10)
Sinners (8)
The ungodly (6)
Thus, We were helpless (6)
But at the right time… at Christmas, Jesus was given…
Romans 5:6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

1. THE HELPLESS UNGODLY WERE GIVEN HOPE

Paul describes our state as helpless (hopeless) but Christ came at the right time. It was the perfect time.
We celebrate Christmas as the day when God became helpless for us so that we can be hopeful. Jesus willingly laid down his divine glory and was born as a helpless baby. He willingly laid down his divine power when he chose to be like a helpless lamb, humiliated and killed by crucifixion. He willingly became a victim of sin as a poor peasant under an oppressive religious and political system. Unjustly accused with lies, abused and humiliated, and killed. He identified with his suffering creation, have you been unjustly accused and sinned against? He identified with you on his way to the cross.
But you know what else? On the cross, he identified with us in a more fundamental way. He didn’t identify with just our sufferings, He made himself a sinner, as a lawless criminal against God, by taking on our punishment. The most innocent man, the creator God, became a sinner for us on the cross and became helpless for us so that we can be hopeful.
Jesus, entering the world stained with sin and its consequences and tempted in every way, remained righteous: loving God and loving others as himself, dying to provide what his enemies needed most when they deserved it least, at the highest cost to himself. All the sinful atrocities in all of human history, he took it upon his shoulders and took the just punishment for them all.
Jesus modeled righteousness (love God and love others as himself) on the cross. Jesus wasn’t there to check religious boxes, but to show what it means to have a relationship with God.
Summary: We were helpless. The cycle and chaos of sinning and being sinned against and living in a sin-tarnished world left all of us helpless.
From this helpless state, were we given hope? Yes, Christ became helpless to make us hopeful.
Romans 5:7-9  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. How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath.

2. GOD PROVED HIS LOVE IN THAT WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS CHRIST DIED FOR US

Have you ever asked “Does God love me? Or prayed prayers like.. Please be kind to me! Please be merciful to me…” He has already proven his loving-kindness, his mercy upon us. Not a single person can say that God has not proved his love towards them because of Jesus Christ. Do you want God to be kind to you? Merciful to you? Look and see that he already has completed the work of kindness and mercy to overflow for eternity.
God shows a love unique to God, unlike any other love
Jn 3:16 - has anyone else ever given the greatest value at the highest cost to himself to meet the greatest need of his enemies?
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us
When we were most helpless, Christ became hope for us
“Human beings can be very generous in giving to those they consider worthy of their affection and respect. The unique majesty of God’s love lies in the combination of three factors, namely that when Christ died for us, God (a) was giving himself, (b) even to the horrors of a sin-bearing death on the cross, and (c) doing so for his undeserving enemies.”
Are you suffering from the effects of sin?
The problem or the plot lies in whether we can trust this love
The previous pericope talks about sufferings: boast in our afflictions (verse 3) because, for believers, there is purpose and hope behind each one. When we were helpless in sin, the end of suffering was eternal death, but for believers, suffering leads to sanctification and God uses it for our good.
(verse 9-10) we have been saved through Christ from the guilt of our sins and from the judgment of God upon them, but we have not yet been delivered from indwelling sin or been given new bodies in the new world.”
who are we now if we're not helpless? John Stott
we are those who have peace with God, we are standing in his grace, and we rejoice in the prospect of seeing and sharing his glory. Even suffering does not shake our confidence, because of God’s love which he has both poured into our hearts through his Spirit (5) and proved on the cross through his Son (8). Because of what God has already done for us, we can say confidently that ‘we shall be saved’ on the last day (9–10).”
This is who we are
God’s love has been proven already . Enough for all eternity
Summary: Has God proved his love? Even in our afflictions? He was willing to be afflicted so that our affliction would have meaning. Remember, Christ became helpless to make us hopeful at the right time.
In our most helpless situation, in our greatest affliction, when we deserved it the least, he gave his most precious possession. If God loves me, why doesn’t he… why didn’t he… why won’t he… he gave you the greatest treasure so that all your other afflictions can now be meaningful and used for good. Although our current afflictions may be difficult and hard to understand, do you believe that you have been saved from your greatest affliction through love?
Romans 5:9-10 How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we 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.

3. CONFIDENCE IN SALVATION

Verse 9-10: We have been justified by his blood. If God was willing to die for sinners, how would he treat those who have been already justified? There is no question that we will be saved.
If God was willing to give up his Son for his enemies, what more would he hold back for his saints?
Now we are his sons and daughters, we can model Christ who died to save us to lay down our lives for the salvation of
John Stott“If God has already done the difficult thing, can we not trust him to do the comparatively simple thing of completing the task? If God has accomplished our justification at the cost of Christ’s blood, much more will he save his justified people from his final wrath (9)! Again, if he reconciled us to himself when we were his enemies, much more will he finish our salvation now that we are his reconciled friends (10)! These are the grounds on which we dare to affirm that we shall…be saved.”
Verse 9 passive tone: it’s being done to us: we have been justified, we will be saved, we were reconciled to God,
Summary: Can we have confidence in our salvation? What if we doubt? What keeps us from having this confidence?
Perhaps we don’t realize the costliness of the sacrifice for it to be sufficient for us. we still may think we have to save ourselves by being worthy of forgiveness. Unless we have a growing relationship with, we’ll never be confident. It has been done once and for all by God.
Romans 5:10-11 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 boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.

4. AS RECONCILED ONES, WE ARE SAVED AND WE BOAST

“We also boast” - Paul speaks of this as a given, as equal of a result of Christ’s work as salvation. Reconciliation leads equally to boasting as it does salvation
Romans 5:2 We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
Verse 2: we boast in the hope of the glory of God
What is the glory of God? - “namely his radiant splendor which will in the end be fully displayed.”
Revealed in the Heavens and the earth
Revealed in Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection
But glory will be fully disclosed when Jesus will appear “with great power and glory”
We will be changed into the glory- Image and glory of God fell short of his glory but now receive full measure of glory
Creation will be brought into the glorious freedom
Romans 5:10-11 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 boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
Verse 10-11: we boast in God through Jesus through whom we received reconciliation
Isn’t boasting bad?
Boasting in self or any other creation is arrogance
Boasting in God is humility. Attributing all things to him giving him all the credit all the glory
“For Christian exulting in God, according to Paul, is quite different from Jewish bragging about him. The latter was a boast in God as if he were their exclusive property and they had a monopoly interest in him, whereas the former is the opposite. Christian exultation in God begins with the shamefaced recognition that we have no claim on him at all, continues with wondering worship that while we were still sinners and enemies Christ died for us, and ends with the humble confidence that he will complete the work he has begun. So to exult in God is to rejoice not in our privileges but in his mercies, not in our possession of him but in his of us.”
What do we boast about?
Expensive things; accomplishments; our sources of confidence and joy
The costliness of our salvation - accomplished by the blood of Jesus Christ, the humiliation of God; bringing confidence of salvation
Verse 9 it was by his blood
Verse 10 it was when we were God’s enemies
It’s the greatest comeback story. To go from our place of helplessness and hopelessness to reconciliation.
What do we boast about according to Paul?
In God, in the hope of the glory of God (he will be glorified, he will make all things right), and affliction. Are you going through affliction right now? God says you can boast even now. As Christians you are uniquely positioned to be able to boast in suffering. Because our greatest affliction of sin has been washed away!
How do we boast?
Praising God
In God: his character
In the hope of the glory of God: we praise God for our guaranteed future, we rejoice in the reconciliation, when we will be made whole, when we are free from the world of sin and the body of sin.
Telling others
Missions and evangelism
Testimonies, discipleship, and teaching
Summary:
How will you boast when the Longhorns win the championship? I probably won’t boast because I haven’t been following them, but if I had been, if I feel connected to the team through having invested my time over the years. I would brag about their accomplishments. Same way for boasting in God, if I don’t feel connected to him or have invested in the relationship, there wouldn’t be much to boast about. Paul says that if we are reconciled, we will be saved and we will boast. Some people believe they are saved but not reconciled. They expect to go to heaven but don’t have a relationship with God. It may be because they don’t believe they were forgiven much. Or because they are not saved at all.
Saved people are children of God - how can they not have a relationship?
Saved people have the Holy Spirit in them, God’s spirit in them. how can they not have a relationship?
Saved people are the body of Christ, how can they be a part of his body but have no relationship?
Saved people are called followers of Christ, how can they be saved but not follow Jesus, having a relationship with him?
And helpless sinners who have become children of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, members of the body of Christ as his followers, not boast in the reconciliation bought by the blood of Jesus Christ?
To begin boasting, we must begin within our church. Share your testimony with your family, your lighthouse, and with the church. Boast in God. If you can’t boast in God with fellow believers, how will you boast to unbelievers? If you can’t talk about God in your home, how will you talk about it in LH? Normalize sharing what you have been learning from God after church, during pickleball, while doing all-nighters in PCL, and while eating dinner with your family.
Conclusion
We were once helpless but, as saved people, we boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ
We were once helpless and hopeless but we now have a hope from God that will not disappoint. God proved his love to us in that Christ died for sinners. How much more will we be saved now that we have been reconciled? Paul does not end with salvation as the end of our reconciliation, but he equates salvation and boasting in God as equal and natural responses to our reconciliation. Then as reconciled people, we are saved and saved people live boasting in God.
3 Application
Confidence in our salvation
While you were still a sinner
if you dont have salvation end this year commiting your life to the God who created you and gave himself up for you
Boasting in God
Remember that you were once helpless and hopeless. We need to remind ourselves of this truth. Reflect upon it and it will start to change your heart. We need to encourage each other to do the hard work of plowing up our hardened hearts. And when we do, the fruit will grow.
Giving hope to the helpless as it was done to you
Living as Righteous ones by Giving/Sending in love
What about those who have not heard? (Application)
Thus missions; we emulate what Jesus did in his righteousness. If to be righteous is to love God and neighbors as ourselves and to practice our own John 3:16, then we are to give or send (even at a high cost) for the saving of others.
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more
Earn an accredited degree from Redemption Seminary with Logos.