Justified and waiting

Romans 5:1–5 NIV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 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. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 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.

introduction

my experience in watching a badminton match which i already knew the result - confident and not anxious

that is the hope we have in waiting for Jesus’ second coming

what is our anxiety?

the answer is in the justfication through faith (v1a) - brings us blessing. “therefore, since we have been justified through faith” (v1)

we have peace (v1b-2a)

the peace here refers to “peace with God.” Peace is a rich biblical word. all people give different meanings to the word “peace”, and almost everyone wants it. people want to be at peace with themselves, and they hope to rest in peace. yet no ultimate peace is possible withouth coming to terms with God. people who search for peace will never find it until they find peace with God.

disruption in our relationship with our creator effects all areas of our existence. No one can experience true peace until he or she has peace with God, available in JEsus CHrist, who is our peace. we can enjoy the peace of God only by first establising peace with God.

the power of the gospel put us who are locked up in sin and under sentence of God’s wrath into a right relationship with God.

we know that our sins are forgiven. we have eternal life, having assurance to enter the kingdom.

we have peace with God - reconciliation. HE declares us innocent and absolves us from punishment for our sins, and he removes the hostility that existed between us and him.

we are justified, but we have not yet appearead before God on the judgment day. we are justified but waiting. How can we know that this verdict of justification will do us any good when thay Day comes? the apotle’s answer is clear: in justifying us, God has already pronounced his verdict over us. it can be neither rescinded nor changed. We will stiill appear before God to have our case disposed of, but we can face that day with utter confidence, since God has already decieded the case in our favour. Justification releases us from any uncertainty or fear about that judgment.

but let us not misunderstand what the peace tht God wants to give us really means. True peace, we are tempted to think, shoud mean that we have no more worries and no more problems. some Christians, teach that if we exhibit real fith, we will enjoy material prosperity and physical well-being. we prone to the tendecy to dismiss suffering as a rather remote possiblity and perhaps to regard it as something basically out of keeping with the victorious Christian life.

if we have the peace with God, we should live at peace with one another.

we have hope (v2b-4)

suffering of glory. suffering can actually be a spur to hope.

“rejoice” in the hope - both the idea of taking confidence in and of rejoicing in; soe versions translate boast.

the hope we have as Christianis to share in God’s glory, but we also rejoice in our sufferings. Christian living is not a trouble free existence. our lives will not be a bed of roses because we belong to God.

Christians will continue to suffer, but life’s difficulties do not contradict God’s blessing. God uses our suffering to bring us even greater blessing. the key is the way we respond to the difficult trials. what we must do is to recognize that God uses them to build into our lives “perseverance” which in turn leads to “Character”.

Thus, it is important to take to heart what Paul says about suffering in verses 3–4. These verses make four points, implicitly or explicitly, that can give us a better perspective on suffering. (1) Suffering is a normal part of a consistent Christian life. Just after he planted churches on the first missionary journey, Paul warned his new converts, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Jesus himself promised that “in this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). Paul can even call suffering a gracious gift from the Lord: “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him” (Phil. 1:29).Everywhere the New Testament assumes that believers will suffer. God has adopted us as his children, but we still live in a world hostile to God and his values. Precisely because we are God’s children, and to the degree that we live out his values, people hostile to God will be hostile toward us. Paul assumes this perspective by introducing the fact of suffering in verse 3 without any preamble or explanation. (2) God uses suffering to accomplish his purposes. What Paul says about suffering in verses 3–4 is echoed in James 1:2–4 and 1 Peter 1:6: The trials of life are a means of testing our faith and giving substance and strength to our Christian commitment. I wish this were not so. I do not take any perverse pleasure in going through hard times. I certainly do not look forward to painful experiences that will undoubtedly yet come. But if I am honest, I must also admit that I too easily settle down in this world. I am prone to lose my fervor for God and his work and to seek security and comfort in this life at the expense of my Christian values. I know from experience that the difficult times I go through loosen my tie to this world and bring me closer to the Lord. A young pastor in our area, a man with three children still at home, was dying of cancer. He said that he would not have wanted to avoid this trial because of the wonderful spiritual benefit it brought to him. I sometimes wish I could mature in Christ the way I should without having to suffer. But I know in my heart that I am just not built that way and that only suffering will pry me from this world and its pleasures. (3) We are to rejoice in the midst of, but not in, suffering. The pastor whom I just referred to was sincere in what he said about the spiritual benefit of his suffering. But this does not mean that he did not grieve to be leaving his family behind or groan from the pain. He did not think the cancer was a good thing or something to rejoice in. Yet some Christians almost go this far in their application of verses like Romans 5:3—as if we are to praise God for cancer, the loss of a job, or the death of a loved one. We must never praise God for, or rejoice in, evil things. God hates these things. They are no part of his original creation, and he will someday eradicate them. Paul calls on us to rejoice in the midst of afflictions, and even to rejoice because of afflictions (knowing what God will accomplish with them). But he does not ask us to be joyful about the affliction itself. (4) The suffering Paul speaks of here includes all the difficulties of this life. The word Paul uses for “sufferings” in verse 3 is the plural of thlipsis (tribulations). He sometimes uses this word to refer to persecution in the narrow sense—that is, difficulties experienced because of one’s witness for Christ (e.g., 1 Thess. 1:6). Some interpreters think that most New Testament passages about suffering, including this one, have this more restrictive meaning. They are certainly right to claim that suffering “for the sake of Christ” is often the focus (see, e.g., 1 Peter). But even in texts such as these, I am not sure that we can confine the reference to persecution. In a certain sense, everything that a Christian suffers is “on behalf of Christ.” The evil things we face reflect the conflict between “this age,” dominated by Satan and sin, and “the age to come,” to which the believer has been transferred by faith. All suffering betrays the presence of the enemy and attacks our relationship with Christ. Furthermore, as we have argued, the end of chapter 8 and the beginning of chapter 5 are closely related. This means that the suffering Paul mentions in 5:3 is likely related to the trials he lists in 8:35: “trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword.” More than persecution per se is included.

We have love (v5)

hope does not put us to shame, we learn to love others as we are loved.

God does not mete out his love for us in tiny measures, he “has poured” it into our hearts. this verb is used to describe the “pouring out” of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

it is the Spirit, dwelling in the heart of believers, who communicates God’s love to us.

v7-8 gives us a picture of how we are to extend his love. Paul reinforces it with an anology. “very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.” A righteous man is one we might respect, but a good man is one we might love. rarely will a person give his life for someone they merely respect, but occasionally a person dies for the sake of someone they love.

Conclusion

all these becasue of God’s grace. Paul claims that we have continuing “access” to grrace and that we “stand” in it. Grace stands over the entire Christian experience. We not only get into relationship with God by grace; we live out that relationship day-by-day by grace. Thus, we must never fall into the trap of thinking that we can put grace behind us. We should live out the grace.

The daily provision i enjoy comes not from my hard work but from God, who has chosen in his grace to bless me. Whatever good i accomplish in ministry comes becasue God graciously works through me. I “stand in grace”; i live out my life, in all its dimensions, within the sphere of blessing that Chrsit has won for me. THe famous hymn “Amazing Grace” puts it well. Yes, as the first stanza reminds us, God’s amazing grace has “saved a wretch like me.” But that same amazing grace undergirds all my life. we go on to sing in the fourth stanza, “this grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”