Preach Apr 20 2008
Enniscorthy Christian Fellowship – 20th April 2008
The Reasons for Rejoicing Romans 5:1-5
A young man wanted more than anything to take a cruise aboard a luxury ship. But he didn’t have much money. Eventually, after a lot of effort, he saved enough money to purchase a ticket. As he packed, the young man knew he would be travelling with no money for food. So he carefully packed some bread and cheese for his meals.
He really enjoyed the cruise. But as he walked around the ship and watched people eating in the dining and banquet halls of this amazing boat, his joy started to fade. After two weeks, his bread and cheese had already gone mouldy, and the young man was starving. And as he walked around the ship, people started to notice how painfully thin he’d become.
An older man was really worried about him and asked him if there was anything wrong. Slightly embarrassed, the young man explained that he didn’t have enough money for food. The older man took the young guy by the shoulders and said, “Don’t you know, that all your food was paid for in the price of the ticket?”
The young man was astonished—all this time he could have been enjoying the wonderful banquets, but he hadn't known it! He didn’t know all that was included in his ticket!
Are we are sometimes like that in our lives? Do we ever miss out because we don’t know all that we have? Are we missing out on what is already paid for?
In the first 4 chapters of Romans we’ve seen that all of us are guilty before God. However we can be right with God if we have faith in Jesus Christ because of his cross. We don’t need to do nothing - no effort, no religious ceremony, no keeping God’s law. Faith in Jesus Christ is all we need. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Acts 16:31
If we have put our faith in Jesus, then we can be sure that we are justified, we are declared right with God – because as we saw last week, God has the power to keep his promises, and God is always faithful to his promises! And many of us here have trusted in Jesus and are saved.
But, it’s possible that we are saved by faith in Jesus, and yet living as if we’re not! We could be forgiven and yet living with guilt and fear. We could be a child of God and yet living as a stranger. We could be like that young man, living our lives missing out on what is already ours! Missing out on enjoying what has already been paid for!!
Paul doesn’t want us to miss out. And so we tells us some of what we have in Christ so we can enjoy our salvation to the full. As he does so, he gives us 5 reasons to rejoice in our salvation. Read Romans 5:1-5
What we have through Faith
In this section Paul describes some of the amazing reasons to rejoice in our salvation. And these blessings are for everyone who has faith in Jesus. In fact, Paul’s point is that everyone who has faith in Jesus already has these blessings: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have…” v1
These are not things that we should aim to achieve someday. They are not possible blessings we might someday achieve if we really live for Jesus. Rather they are the present possession if we have simply put our faith in Jesus.
So these are not rewards that we need to earn, but simply gifts that God wants us to enjoy. He is not teaching us this so that we will obtain these blessings, but that we will rejoice in them!!
1. We Have Peace with God v1
Our first reason to rejoice is that we have peace with God. When the second World War started to go against Japan in 1944, a Japanese soldier called Shoichi Yokoi fled to the island of Guam There he lived in a cave. Fearing for his life, this man lived in a jungle caves for twenty-eight years in the jungle cave. He only came out at night and lived on frogs, rats, snails, shrimp, nuts, and mangoes.
Yokoi said that he knew the war was over because of leaflets that were scattered throughout the jungles of Guam. But he was afraid that if he came out of hiding, he would be executed.
Finally, two hunters came upon him and told him that he need not hide any longer. At last he was free, and with new clothes to wear and food to eat, he was taken by plane to his home.
Paul wants us to know that the war is over. “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” v1
a) We were Enemies
Outside of Christ, Paul says in v10: “we were God’s enemies.” This is because of our sin. “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.” Colossians 1:21 We had rebelled against God’s rule and come under God’s wrath! And it didn’t matter what we tried, how many prayers we said, how much money we gave away, we could never experience true peace with God!
b) Jesus is our Peace
But through his cross, Jesus has reconciled us to God. Because we have been justified by God, we are reconciled to God. “ But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight.” Colossians 1:22
Jesus has brought this true peace; this true completeness in the loving embrace of our heavenly Father by paying the full price for our reconciliation with God.
“But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
And so our salvation is not only that God has as judge declared us righteous in his sight, it is that God has in love brought into a relationship with himself.
c) No More Fear
And so we can rejoice because we know that whatever we do or don’t do today, we don’t need to hide from God. We don’t need to live in fear or guilt any longer. God will never condemn us. He will never turn us away. He will never punish us as our sins deserve.
Our relationship with God is secure. He is no longer our enemy, but he is our Father and we are his children.
I wonder have we really grasped this. God is our friend. Nothing else is required to make him accept us. Through faith in Jesus we have been reconciled to God!
2. We Have Access to God
And so, we have access into the intimate presence of God. “Through whom we have grained access by faith.” v2
a) We were excluded
In Jesus’ day, people went to the temple to meet with God. It was called “the house of God” (Matthew 12:4).
In the temple, there was the outer court, the Court of the Gentiles. The Gentiles could approach God in this court and learn from Israel about the true God. This is why Jesus was so angry when this area was turned into a market place by the money changers.
But that’s as far as the Gentiles could go. Ephesians 2:12: “At that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise.” In fact there were notices at the entrances into the next court that warned Gentiles that if they went any further they would be killed!
Only the Jews could enter the next court, the Court of Women. From there only male Jews could go further into the Court of Israel. Inside this court was the Court of the Priests. Then came the temple itself with the Holy Place, that only priests could enter at various times. Finally behind a curtain was the Most Holy Place that only the high priest could enter, and only once a year with a blood sacrifice, on the day of Atonement!
So the temple was a place to meet with God, but it was restricted access.
b) Complete Access
But when Jesus died: “At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” Matthew 27:51. In a remarkable way, God showed that the way to his presence was now open for everyone. By His death, Jesus opened a new way into the presence of God.
As he writes in Ephesians 2:18: “For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” Jews, Gentiles, male and female, all of us have got the awesome privilege to approach God at any time! We’re invited into the very intimate holy presence of God at any time!
c) Access to the God of Grace
And this presence, is his throne of grace. Paul says we have access “into this grace.” We do not come into the presence of God as our Judge, as someone to fear. But we come to the God of grace. Hebrews says: “ Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16
We come to the one who accepts us as we are. The one who loves us and gives us the grace we need.
d) Invited to Stay
And it is not just that we can come into God’s presence now and again, but it is our continual home: “in which we now stand”
We do not come as a visitor to the gracious presence of God, but as one whose home is God’s gracious presence. We will never fall out of God’s grace. No we stand in grace. Psalm 23:6 speaks of the blessing we have now in Christ: “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”
This is the reality in our lives. Most people could never even visit God’s intimate presence. Through Jesus, we have set up our home there. We are invited to stay! We never need to leave!
What an amazing privilege. Do we enjoy the privilege of living in the intimate presence of God, or do we linger on the outside?? As Hebrews 10:19-22 says: “Since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus… let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.”
3. We have the Expectation of the Glory of God
In 1997 the journal of the American Heart Association reported on some remarkable research. Susan Everson of the Human Population Laboratory in California found that
people who experienced high levels of despair had a 20% greater occurrence of atherosclerosis – the narrowing of their arteries – than did optimistic people.
“This is the same magnitude of increased risk that one sees comparing a pack-a-day smoker to a non-smoker.” Said Everson. In other words, lack of hope can be as bad for you as smoking a pack a day!
a) We Were Without Hope
Without Christ, Paul says that we were “without hope and without God.” Ephesians 2:12
We were made in the image of God, created to reflect his glory, his moral beauty and perfection. (Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 9:6; James 3:9 1 Corinthians 11:7). And yet as Paul has said earlier: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23 We’ve all fallen short of the men and women we were created to be. And as that we saw a few weeks ago, Paul says “we keep falling short of the glory of God.” We cannot change this situation. No matter what we do or try we cannot recover what we have lost through sin! Without Christ we have no hope!
b) Now we have a Certain hope
But in Christ, we have a wonderful future to look forward to. “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God!”
“Hope” for the Christian is not uncertain. It is a joyful and confident expectation which rests on the promises of God. And Paul says that we rejoice, our expectation of the full revelation of the glory of God. “We wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ,” Titus 2:13. We wait for the day when the glory and power and beauty of Jesus will be revealed to all the world.
But the amazing thing is, we will not only see this day of glory, but we will share in it! 2 Thessalonians 2:14: “ He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
And so, no matter what we face in our lives, as a Christian we are never without hope. Perhaps we will face situations that look hopeless. Sometimes we might feel like there is no hope of our lives ever being different. And yet one day we will share in the glory of Christ. One day we will be like him: 1 John 3:2: “We know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
God has a wonderful, amazing, mindblowing future for us! A sure and certain hope that we can rejoice in now!!
4. We have Purpose in Suffering
But our reason for rejoicing is not just because of what will happen in the future. We can rejoice because of what is happening now – even if that involves suffering. “We also rejoice in our sufferings” v3
a) A Difficult Life
The Christian life is not easy. God never promises that being a Christian means that we will have an easy life. In fact, being a Christian means that we will face some additional hardships. Jesus said in John 16:33: “In this world you will have trouble.”
In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus said that some people will only last a short time in following Jesus because, “when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.” Mark 4:17
b) Promise in Suffering
And so we can rejoice even in those difficult times, because we have God’s promise in suffering that nothing can steal our hope of the glory of God. We have “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you,” 1 Peter 1:4 As Jesus said, “Take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
c) Purpose in Suffering
But we can also rejoice because God has a purpose in suffering. One day a man found a cocoon of an emperor moth. He took it home so that he could watch it emerge. He sat and watched the moth struggling to force the body through a little hole. For hours it struggled but couldn’t seem to force its body past a certain point.
Deciding that something was wrong, he took scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The moth then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.
He expected that the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the little moth spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.
What the man didn’t understand was that the struggle required for the moth to get through the tiny opening was the way of forcing fluid from the body of the moth into its wings so that it would be ready for flight. Freedom and flight would only come after the struggle.
In our lives it is similar. It is through the struggle of suffering that God has chosen to help us to grow. “Because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.” v3-4 God’s promise is that even although we might not understand why, even although we might not see it happening, he will not waste our pain. Instead he will use them for our good!
It’s through suffering we learn to persevere, to keep going when it is difficult. A North Korean Christian said that when he and his friends were under great pressure from the authorities, they said, “We are like nails: the harder you hit us the deeper you drive us.” Suffering doesn’t destroy faith, it deepens it as we learn to depend more on Christ.
And this perseverance produces character. The proven character of someone who has been tested and passed the test. Paul said of Timothy he “has proved himself,” Philippians 2:22.
And this character, produces hope – the growing confidence that God will see us through, whatever we will face. The deeper appreciation that God is faithful to his promises, that God can be trusted.
And so we rejoice in our sufferings. Not that we enjoy our struggles. Not that we always need to look happy as we go through tough times. But in the middle of our pain, we can rejoice because we know that God is still with us, God is still in control, God is still working for our good, God is still transforming us to be more and more like Jesus!
5. We Have the Love of God
And this growing confidence in God “does not disappoint us,” v5. We will never be disappointed by this hope, we will not be ashamed of hoping in God:
Psalm 25:3: “No-one whose hope is in you
will ever be put to shame.”
a) Love in Our Hearts
The reason for this is “because God has poured out his love into our hearts.” v5 God will never let us down because we have experienced his love in our hearts!
This love was poured into our hearts “By the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” v5. God has given each of us who have trusted in Jesus the gift of the Holy Spirit. Paul will make this so clear in Romans 8:9: “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” There is no such thing as a Christian without the Holy Spirit.
And one of the distinctive ministries of the Holy Spirit is to pour God’s love into our hearts. He makes us aware of God’s love in our lives. This is where the assurance of our salvation comes from as Paul will write in Romans 8:16: “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
Of course we have different experiences of this. Some may feel overwhelmed by God’s love. Others may need to accept this as a promise and we pray with Paul: “that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.” Ephesians 3:17-19
But the reality is that God has already poured his love into our hearts! We can rejoice in this because we know we have received God’s love because we have received God in our lives. It is the cross of Jesus that gives us this amazing confidence – as we’ll look at in more detail next week.
Conclusion
Of course, we’ve only skimmed over these amazing truths. It will take all of eternity to fully experience all of what we have in Christ.
A love that can never be fathomed;
A life that can never die;
A righteousness that can never be tarnished;
A peace that can never be understood;
A rest that can never be disturbed;
A joy that can never be diminished;
A hope that can never be disappointed;
A glory that can never be clouded;
A light that can never be darkened;
A happiness that can never be interrupted;
A strength that can never be enfeebled;
A purity that can never be defiled;
A beauty that can never be marred;
A wisdom that can never be baffled;
Resources that can never be exhausted.
If we’ve trusted in Jesus, we have so many reasons to rejoice. All these blessings are ours today, because they have been paid for in full by Jesus on the cross.
If you have not trusted in Jesus yet, then these can all be yours today – it doesn’t matter who you are, or what you’ve done, if you simply put your faith in Jesus, then this peace, grace, hope, purpose and love can be yours today!
So let’s not miss out! Let’s enjoy all that has been paid for!!
Who Am I?