Standing in Grace

gospel - rejoice in the tribulation that washes you up against your saviour

Argument - Transformed hearts produce peace by standing in God’s Grace

There are things that we do sometimes because we enjoy the activity, we know the outcome so we endure the pain. Hunting for me is one of those things. My dad has got us into hunting ever since we where old enough. Now my brother is a little more hardcore then I am, but I have always enjoyed doing it. I get up early in the morning, walk miles just to try and find the elusive monster buck, or just to feed my family. The outcome is not always secure, it is a bit of a gamble. One year I went out though, the outcome was a little more sure. We got drawn to go moose hunting near where I grew up. My dad owned land that bordered a big stand of trees and then a lake. we had a secure place to hunt. My brother was out the day before and spotted a smaller bull moose he passed on because he was looking for the elusive montser. I needed meet more then antlers so he let it go and said I could ttake it the next day. the outcome was more or less secure. I made the 600 km trek back home with all of my gear, woke up way to early the next day and walked a few miles into the bush. We sat down close to where the bull had made an apperance the previous day and started calling. After only a few seconds of calling the moose popped up and then very quickly dropped again.

the walking, the driving the money, because I had the security of a place to hunt, a place to sleep, family to visit, a somewhat secure outcome, because my dad owned the land. Because of this I could easily go through the work to get my moose.

We go through things in life and we wonder sometimes what is the point? why do we go through things, like insecurity in our faith, trials in our marriages and how do we do it? as followers of Jesus we learn that we do it because our outcome is secure, we know the ultimate plan of our father in heaven, we stand in His grace and because of that when the waves of life crash up against us instead of railing against the waves we can thank them for pushing us to the father.

in order to do this we need transformed hearts that have produced peace in us by standing in the grace of God.

but with this comes knowing first what our secure foundation is.

5:1-2 - The secure foundation

We have a secure foundation to stand in we are told. But if we do not understand this I think we will fail to stand. So to bring understanding we look into the study of God which we call theology. I think often what causes our struggles is a weak theology. This is probably one of the reason why Paul goes into the theology of the gospel of jesus and then how that should play out in our lives.

I think that we hear the word theology and our eyes glaze over and the snoring strats. But theology is so important because it is the study of God. sometimes we want to the application, how does this actually work without the theology behind it. Like just wanting the cliffnotes version of the book rather then digging in to what this actually means.

We have been learning about how the gospel works, about universal sin, How we are all guilty, how we are justified not on our own but through faith in Jesus. Now we are going to see how we can stand firm in this. Dont be scared of diggin deeper into the word of God.

Romans 5:1 CSB

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember when we see a therefore, we are going back to what has been said. So in light of the previous chaoters, in light of our sin and grace offered through Jesus, In light of all we have learned, then we move on to how this should affect out lives.

In light of what we have been learning, if we give our lives to Jesus in faith then we can be at peace with God. Thios is the objective we work towards, being at peace with God. Being justified means we are no longer enemies of God. we once stood at odds with God, enemies and under His wrath. But through the blood of Jesus we have access to the peace of God through faith and devotion to him.

Romans 5:2 CSB

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.

Through Jesus we can approach the throne of God.

We can boldly appraoch the throne of God. That is what the specific wording means here when it sais that we have obtained access to the presence of a superior, or the rpesence of a king.

This may not seem like a big deal these days, but to gain access to a king you can not just walk in. remmeber Esther, who was married to the King and could not enter into His presence without approval first. You can not just go to the prime ministers house or his office and knock on the door and get in getting some sort of laundry list of issues you have with the way he is doing things. How much more impossible do you think it is to access the throne room of God?

Through Grace

But through the grace of God we have access to the king of kings. The veil. The holy of holies was behind the veil in the temple. The high priest entered behind the veil into the Holy of Holies only once a year on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) to make atonement for the sins of Israel. The high priest had to complete several before he could step behind the veil into the Holy of Holies.

But the day that Jesus died on the cross the veil was torn in two from top to bottom. The significance was that we did not need the high priest to do that anymore, we could access the thholy of holies because we now have a perfect high priest that died himself for sin on the day of atonement.

The book of Hebrews talks about this as well.

Hebrews 4:14–16 CSB

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.

If we have been justified by the grace of God through faith in Jesus then we can boldly approach the throne of God, which is something that I think we sometimes take for granted. Through Him we recieve mercy and find grace. Even when we fail and fall to sin we have an advocate. One who knows what we are going through because He was tempted like we are, he went through what we go through yet without sin.

so because we have access to the throne of God through Jesus blood we go back to Romans 5:2

Romans 5:2 CSB

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.

because we have access to the throne room of te king of kings, we stand in the grace of God as we boast in the hope of being in His glory.

God’s grace is not something that we merely visitwhen we feel like it, we can not borrow it and then give it back when we do not want it anymore, I mean well you can but that is not what we are supposed to do. rather stand firmly on the grace of God.

This is an eternal position tht we are in when we become followers of Jesus. Our position puts us etrnally secure in Jesus. Which is different from our condition, which is current struggles or failures. When our condition worsens we remember the postiion that we are in.

We have a secure foundation and it starts with grace

Are we standing firm on the grace of Jesus

We need a proper understanding of theology od the gospel. In it we learn that we can boldly approach the throne of God and stand firm on the grace of God. This is the position we are or can be in as children of God. We stand eternally secure. Once we come to this understanding we can rejoice with hope because the outcome has been secured, we will one day rest with God in eternity. So stand firm on the grace of God, never waivering. Only when we have this understanding can we go through what we are reminded of next

5:3-5 - Glory in tribulation

Because of the hope of glory and our eternal security we can also glory in tribulation. If we have an improper view of theology we will not get this, if we want to move straight to application thne we will not be on our firm foudnation. And we need this understanding because of what we read next

Romans 5:3–5 CSB

And not only that, but we also boast 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.

This is why we need a proper theology before we understand how to apply it. if we do not understand the why how hare we going to understnd How we do this.

We once lacked the glory of God - As we have learned, we once lacked the glory of God but through the work of Jesus we have access to that through His grace so we rejoice.

The theology of pain

we do not merely endure we are not merely okay in spite of tribulation but we glory in them. We must be careful that we do not become massochistic. It is not that we inflict pain on ourselves and are happy about it, that is not what this is saying. In context we read trials and tribulation are the result of living in a sinful world that has turned against God and therefopre will turn against us. We do not have to seek it out, it will find us. It is not saying “Oh goody, I snapped my arm, I am going to treasure this for eternity and hope the pother one breaks as well.”

But rather we see what is temporary pain and rather see them as opportunites for growing closer to God for we need His strength to endure them. The benifit far outweighs the cost.

The order of this is no accident either.

affliction -> endurance - Endurance itself is a valuable fruit. Lets say that you want to run a 5k for some unknown reason. I could do it, but to get up and just run it I would not make it very far. I would need to train. The training is not fun either, especially at the beginning it hurts, you are winded all the time. But the more you train, the easier it is to endure and before you know it you are running 5k with some ease.

without some tension, without some push back there would be no endurance, because there would be no need for it. So instead of praying for God to take away the trials, maybe we can pray for God to draw us to himself through them. We need perseverance because the trials will not go away toill we go to be with Jesus and they can be used to strengthen our relationship with the Lord.

Endurance -> character - Character is the seen as being morally good over time. proven reliability over time. Character becomes dependent over time and in trials. It is easy to fake good character when it is easy to do, but turn the fire up and you will really see a guys character. Endurance produces morally good character when lived for the Lord over time.

Character -> Hope - So the more e build Godly character the more we build hope in our lives and even in the lives of others because we begin to see the work of the Lord in our lives and the more we become sure of the outcome.

but why will this hope not dissapoint? Because God’s love has been poured out on us through the work of the HS. The work of the HS assures us God’s love and secures His hope within us.

Steadfast endurance leads to quality of "tested" and proves God's faithfulness, resulting in an increasing confidence of hope. Hope = desire with expectancy (both aspects must be present). It is a settled assurance which comes from accepting promises of One who cannot fail

So What?

This is the proper theology of suffering, and it all starts with standing firm in the grace of God. when we do that then the trials come and it brings us closer to God. We have learned the consequences of sin, that we all fall short of the glory of God but that there is hope in Jesus and His forgivenes. In this we stand firm. Because id we do not when the tribulation comes we will not stand. So we boldly approahc the trone of God with hope

rejoice in the tribulation that washes you up against your saviour

I heard a quote from Spurgeon “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the rock of ages.” How do we rejoice in the wind and waves of life? By remembering if we look to the Lord we will be washed up against our Lord and saviour. If we are standing firm on His grace.

Christians must absorb this “theology of pain/suffering” now, before the worst trials hit. It is a consistent biblical theme (especially in the New Testament) that provides comfort and perspective in suffering. Suffering is not pointless; God uses it to form endurance, proven character, and unshakable hope rooted in His poured-out love. affliction can give us hope because the outcome is assured, and because the pain is worth the outcome of eaven.

So then where are you standing?