Romans 5:1-11

Intro

Good morning

I really feel like today is for everyone but especially if you are newer in your walk with Jesus…If you are here investigating faith or if you maybe you have a long term faith that has grown cold.

I feel like today is especially for you

Now Just as a reminder the book of Romans is written to new Christians in Rome who did not yet have the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.

They didn’t quite yet have a gospel, it was word of Mouth so the apostle Paul sets out to write his gospel. His good news… He wants the church to have a solid foundation in following Jesus and so he writes them the letter that we are going though today.

In the first week of this series I read to you parts of Martin Luther’s introduction to the book of Romans

And I just want to reiterate three sentences that Luther shared:

“It is well worth a Christian's while not only to memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul. It is impossible to read or to meditate on this letter too much or too well. The more one deals with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes”

I feel like as we get into chapter 5. Chapter 5 is one of these chapters…

And if you are here wondering, what? We skipped chapter 4? Well sort of. Chapter 4 is up on our podcasts and I did an overview of it, Chapter 4 is basically taking an example from chapters 1-3 and saying look, Abraham has faith and it was credited to him as righteousness…This was before the law and before his circumcision….

So Paul is trying to help the Jewish Christians look…Just because you have been circumcised…Just because you have the law….It doesn’t mean your saved! The foundations of all of that is Faith in God…

See what Paul is tapping into here is this idea that was around at the time that the Jewish world felt like they were good, they didn’t need to be saved from their sin, because they had the law, they were the circumcised elect of God

And Paul’s big point was that Justification by faith happened before Abraham was ever circumcised and 400 years before the law…This was all chapter 4…It is paul re-iterating his main point…

So if you are following along and concerned that I am skipping a chapter…I know! It was hard for me to do but I think that chapter 4 was simply a summary of all the points that Paul had already made.

So today we get into chapter 5 and the very first sentence is a summary of chapters 1-4

Let’s get into it today:

Romans 5:1–11 NIV

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while 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! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Therefore since we have been justified through faith:

This sums up all of chapters 1-4

This is what Paul will argue over and over again in the beginning chapters of his Gospel. Being made right with God comes from Our faith in what Jesus has done

And the way that this is written grammatically is called “the Aorist Past Participle”…It means it is an action that happens in completion and that complete act never ends…Like it is complete but always happening.

What Commentators say about this sentence is that Paul wanted to make clear that the Justification of the believer in Jesus is a once and for all justification.

Once you are justified by faith you can’t be any more saved! (Now We believe that overtime God can and will make you over into his image more and more but this doesn’t make you any more saved)

The author of Hebrews makes this claim too but I think in a really clear way

Hebrews 10:10 NIV

And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Paul wants there to be no mistaking that what Jesus did for us on the cross is complete, The price Jesus paid is enough to pay for your sin and it will always be enough to pay for your sin…

Nothing else needs to be done, Jesus paid your bill now and forever…

Now both Paul and the Author of Hebrews asks the question: Basically do we get a free pass then to go on sinning? And Paul says NO! basically when you are justified by God the old desires begin to change

Because we have been made right with God (Justified by faith) there are now two things possible:

We have peace with God through Jesus

First there is one thing I want to point out…Its a word that Paul loves to use…

It is the word “Through” He uses it 49 times in his gospel but almost always to communicated something about Jesus to us

If you are paying attention to the way he uses this word in his letter almost everything happens “Through Jesus”

In Chapter 1 he tells the church that he has been praying for them, through Jesus

And now in like one fell soup he says we are Justified through Jesus

and we can have peace with God through Jesus!

Everything for Paul happens Through Jesus!

This is such a key point because following Jesus should be a new set of glasses that we see the world with.

For a time those WWJD bracelets were really popular in the church…What Would Jesus Do. It got made fun of and ultimately went out of style but these things were hugely popular…

They reminded you when you were about to reach out and smack someone that you live through Jesus and not on your own power

So we are made right with God through Jesus

and now Paul says we have peace with Jesus….

This is a huge point…Why? because our peace with God was broken when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden…

After this point Adam and Eve and the rest of humanity with them lived in utter rebellion to God.

There is no peace in rebellion!

So here the idea is that because of our justification…Or our declaration of being Not Guilty by the blood of Jesus…We can now have peace with God

Its not just no hostility but in the old testament sense, we can have shalom with God, the way things were always meant to be.

Shalom is a Hebrew term that encompasses a rich and multifaceted concept of peace, well-being, and wholeness

It goes beyond a simple greeting, carrying deep theological significance in the Old Testament. Shalom represents a comprehensive state of harmony, security, right relationships, health, and prosperity. One theologian describes it as "the structured order, or government, of God's love".

This concept is rooted in the creation stories of Genesis and is seen as a counterpoint to various forms of brokenness in human relationships and society. Shalom has both individual and communal dimensions, emphasizing not just personal well-being but also social justice and care for the marginalized.

Shalom originates from God and available to those who trust in Him.

In the context of biblical prophecy, particularly in Jeremiah, the promise of shalom was contrasted with societal unrighteousness, suggesting that true peace cannot exist without justice.

So to day that because you are Justified by Jesus you can have this peace or shalom with God. This is HUGE!

And I think that one of the biggest things that causes people to not accept this is pain and suffering

You hear it all the time…I don’t know, God and I are not on good terms…

Why did this or that happen in the world…

Why do babies starve in China and Africa…

Why did my grandma who is the greatest person in the world get cancer and die?

There are some that when suffering comes and their personal life is not experiencing Shalom then there is an assumption that your life with Jesus is not in Shalom…But what does Paul go to next?

Which actually brings Paul to his next point Romans 5:3 says

We can have glory in our suffering

What Paul wants the church to know is that your being made right with God though Jesus transcends any suffering that you are going though and actually gives it new meaning in Jesus!

And I know that this is hard to hear when you are suffering…

But you have to remember that Paul is writing to a church that is probably under the reign of the emperor Nero…and at the time of writing he had not yet stated his official policy of killing christians but there was plenty of Christian Persecution happening

being a christian in Rome was living in opposition to the government

It was living in opposition to the culture and you would have suffered for it.

So Paul says that Suffering brings out three things in us:

Suffering produces:

PERSEVERANCE:

CHARACTER:

HOPE:

I want to give you a sense of what this means in really practical terms…You all know I love riding bikes…Every week on Tuesday nights I go on a training bike ride that is probably one of the hardest and fastest group rides in northern California. It hurts so bad. I have seen many people throw up…I have thrown up on this ride….I have seen people just abandon the ride…I have seen people go off the road and break bones…I can not tell you how many times I have hunched over my bars after the final sprint barley able to peddle…I have seen it all out there…But the ethic of the ride is to go as hard as you can until you can not go any more…And I can tell you that there is a point that every week I want to quit the ride but I don’t because I am not in it alone…I know in just a few seconds someone will come around the front and let me recover for a second….It is voluntary suffering…

Why? because in the world of bikes, we just know that the people who give it their all on that ride stand on podiums in races!

The people who go deep on Tuesdays win on Saturdays

Tuesday grows your physical endurance…. actually grows it grows your perseverance

It grows your character…When everyone else is suffering in a race you know in your head that you have been on harder training rides than this and you can keep going

And suffering every Tuesday night gives you this unshakable confidence that you can win a race…You enter the race with hope! and you need that confidence in a bike race or you won’t make the moves you need to make to win…

Here is my point…In the world of bikes…We absolutely know the benefit of suffering….You immediately get that suffering builds perseverance, character and hope…

But this wasn’t written to athletes…It was written to the church

Paul tells the church look…When you have your confidence in Jesus your peace with God will not be disrupted by suffering, instead suffering will grow you

Its actually one of the points that Paul will make much later in his letter

Romans 8:28 NIV

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

What Paul wants the church to know is that God wants to use everything you are going though for good!

What Paul wants you to know is that everything needs to be looked at differently because of the messiah Jesus…And he will transform everything and be with you in suffering and even in your pain…Even though you are walking though loss…Even though you might be walking through a hard medical diagnosis…Even thouhh you have that person in your life who won’t stop bringing you pain

What Paul wants you to know is

The pain of the world does not nullify the peace of Jesus, if anything the peace of Jesus expands in your pain.

and trust me. as a pastor I have sat through my fair share of suffering with families…

There is a huge difference…

Families that love and follow Jesus…As they experience pain …They grow in perseverance, character, and hope…There is a strange sense of Shalom because they know that they are not going through pain alone

Krimmel story???

My Friend John lost his wife a number almost 10 years ago now…

She had one of the worst cases of Ulceritive Colitus in the world…Pain medication didn’t work on here and she was allergic to Anastasia…This woman endured the most pain and suffering I had ever seen…Not to mention her family…

Her husband John started being the worship leader at my former church as apart time job because her medication was $800/mo

She eventually was diagnosed with cancer and because of her pre-existing medical conditions, she nearly immediately went to city of hope…All of the medical attention in the world couldn’t help her

She eventually passed away leaving behind 3 small children and a husband…

The night she died, John and I were at the hospital and we were just heartbroken so I told him he needed to eat and I bought him dinner…

And I will never forget what happened next…We laughed we cried, we joked we got serous

I said, John are you upset at God at any of this…

And he was actually kind of taken back by the question…Upset at God? How can I be upset at God. He has given me 10 years with Laura…three kids…God has given me everything…No I am grateful

Romans 5:3–5 NIV

suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame….

Families that don’t follow Jesus…The pain triumphs over hope!

But it doesn’t have to work this way…

Right after Paul says that suffering gives us hope…He says

Romans 5:5 NIV

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Someone might look at you and the suffering that you have been though and say, how are you even still standing after all of that.

Paul answers that question…

and it is kind of a train line of thinking…

You are Justified by the blood of Jesus…You have peace with God..>Suffering takes on a new meaning and you can stand strong in the midst of it…why?

Because God pours his love into our hearts

The phrase “Poured out” wants you to envision like a jar of water…

Like God is constantly pouring his love into your hearts…

like….Oh your suffering…I’m still pouring…Oh your going through hard times…I am still pouring

The human heart is the receptacle of which the divine love is poured out onto

And the longer you sit at the feet of Jesus the greater your capacity to receive that love

It means ;that

As a christian I have access to the love of God to be used in my life

Paul tapps into this idea of God pouring out his love…

if you were a Jewish Reader of romans you would probably think of

Isaiah 44:3 NIV

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

God’s love poured through the holy spirit

It is what he has been promising for hundreds of years before Jesus

that there will be a day when God pours himself out onto his people

And I love that the Biblical authors are in harmony here…

Paul says we don’t love by our own power but by the power of the Holy Spirit…God has poured his love into our hearts

and he constantly is doing this, it is unending…

I love what The apostle John says…Its a simple truth

1 John 4:8 NIV

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

He says look…All love comes from the source…it comes from God

God is love…And you are getting the very source of love poured into you…

And then Paul explains what this love is all about…

Again and again Paul will tell this story because he wants you to know that you are the object of God’s love

\Christians have understood this for centuries

4. Elisabeth Elliot (Missionary and Author)

After her husband Jim Elliot was killed by the Waodani people in Ecuador, Elisabeth famously returned to live among the same tribe to preach the gospel. Many came to faith in Christ, including some involved in the killing.

Elisabeth later wrote:

“To love the people who killed your husband—this is not possible with human love. It is only possible when the Holy Spirit fills you with the love of God.”

-Elisabeth Elliot

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his sermon on loving your enemies

“The type of love that will make you love your enemy is not a human love. It is a divine love. It is the love of God operating in the human heart.”

-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

My point is that God Pours his love into you and when you experience that you can not help loving people that you otherwise thought were unloveable!

Romans 5:6–11 NIV

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while 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! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Our sin positions us as enemies of God.

This goes back to the very beginning of chapter 5. before our forgiveness by Jesus we were estranged from God

Living in sin separates us from God and makes us his enemy

We live in the absence of Shalom…But Jesus changes is all…Paul says that

Jesus demonstrates God’s character of loving his enemies by giving his life for us

Why? because sin is almost like a cover that doesn’t allow you to see truth and reality the way it really is

Jesus dies for the ungodly

He took the wrath that was meant for you and me

He tool your punishment for the sinful things that you have said or done.

Simply put Jesus erases your sin

Paul even sums everything up for us in this phrase:

Romans 5:6–11 NIV

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

I think the point that Paul is making and will make over and over again

Is that Because of Jesus’ work on the cross

and because of our faith in him

We are new creations…

A new kind of person…

I mean who suffers and then sees it as a net benefit?

Who suffers and finds meaning in Jesus?

Who else out there knows that their ability and capacity to love is only built on the love of Jesus being poured into them.

This is a demonstration of the kind of love that God pours into our hearts…a sacrificial love

This is a demonstration of the kind of love we experience when we are walking through suffering

This is a demonstration of God’s love for you

Response

Communion

Today we are going to celebrate communion:

This meal that Jesus invites us to eat to remember his own suffering on the cross

His own suffering that actually brings us peace with God

But I also want to acknowledge that as we take this meal many of you might be suffering and you might be looking for prayer…We just gathered a few of our prayer warriors who want to pray with people and they are wearing badges in the back…if you want prayer they will be happy to pray with you

So maybe your here and you have never experience the overwhelming love of Jesus

Maybe you’re here and and you want to take communion

You’re here and you need to put your faith in Jesus

You;’re here and your suffering