Discourse Two: Romans 5:1-8:39

Welcome

Good morning,

We’re so glad to see all of you here!

I’m so excited because I think we’ve resolved some of our technical issues

I want to say why I think this is so important:

We need to connect to people where they are, which is increasingly online

I feel like the world needs to hear the good news that we have

I know that God has placed things on my heart to proclaim

And as I’ve gotten to know you, I know that you all have a message the world needs

Having good online presence is the first step to reaching people today

So I appreciate your patience and support while we try to make these things better

Briefly I wanted to mention Zoom:

What I’m trying to do with our ministry here is to be intentional

We use Zoom to facilitate discussion on Wednesday evenings

So I see purpose that is beneficial to everyone for Zooming Wednesday

My sermon is being live-streamed because we want to connect to a broader audience

But our purpose is not to replace in-person worship with digital worship

We want you to be present when you are physically able to be present

So I want to hear your thoughts about whether or not we should keep Zooming Sunday

I invite you to come down and share your thoughts with me in person, to call me, email me, or connect with me on Telegram

Challenge

Our challenge this month is to create a friendship prayer-list.

1 Timothy 2:1–4 (CSB)

1 First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

These challenges are designed to teach us how to fight our spiritual warfare using the weapons that have been given to us. And one of the most powerful spiritual weapons we wield as Christians is the weapon of intercessory prayer: our privilege to enter the presence of God and make requests of him has the ability to shake the foundations of the world. I’ve seen it move nations!

So what is “intercessory prayer”? This is the kind of prayer in which Christians take up God’s cause in someone’s life to intercede on their behalf according to God’s will. This kind of prayer requires persistence (i.e. “knocking”: Luke 11:9) and personal holiness so that you can discern the will of God (i.e. “renewing”: Romans 12:2). So what cripples the effectiveness of our intercessory prayer the most is wavering in inconsistency and personal compromise by which we are defiled by worldliness. Where our intercession is fruitless, these things are sure to be found. So part of our challenge this month is to build upon this foundation by becoming more faithful in our intercessory prayers for those God has put into our lives.

Assignments

Read Romans 5:1-2.

God’s Righteousness: Revealed Through Faith

Romans is one of the longest and most important writings in the New Testament. It was written by the apostle Paul, who was formerly known as Saul of Tarsus. He was a Jewish rabbi belonging to a group known as the Pharisees. He was passionately devoted to observing the Torah (Law) of Moses and the traditions of Israel. And he viewed Jesus and his followers as a threat to these traditions. So he sought to kill the followers of Christ and eliminate his teaching from the land. But, while he was on the way to kill Jesus’ followers, he encountered the risen Lord in such a powerful way that he could no longer deny him. He became a follower of the Risen Lord and was commissioned by him as his official representative to the Gentiles.

Rome was the capitol city of the most powerful military and economic force on earth at the time. Their history, culture, and background is radically different from Paul and the Jewish people through whom the Messiah has come to the world. Paul’s letter to Rome must bridge these gaps in order to explain the meaning of the gospel to a small group of disciples who have been battered by the overwhelming social, political, cultural, and spiritual challenges that they were facing. And we also remember that it was not very long before this letter that Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome (A.D. 49), which is what led to Paul meeting Priscilla and Aquilla in Corinth, and probably provided him with this connection to Rome.

So Paul opens this letter by introducing himself and his Kingdom-commission from the Lord to bring the gospel to the gentiles. He reminds the Christians in Rome of the power of the Lord because it is by this power that they must overcome the challenges they face, just as we, today, must also overcome our challenges by the power of the risen Lord.

Paul gives the essential premise of the gospel that “the righteous must live by faith” (Romans 1:17) and then begins in Romans 1:18-32 with a creative retelling of Genesis 3-11 in order to explain how the world was separated from God and lost their knowledge of the truth. Both Jews and Gentiles have rebelled against God, and Israel’s sin against God is even worse because, unlike the Gentiles who were ignorant of God’s glory, Israel saw his power and recieved his precious promises, but still turned away from him. But the gentiles aren’t off the hook because of their ignorance either. No. In fact, even though they are ignorant of God’s glory and covenants, they still agree with his moral standard through the knowledge of his law that is written upon their hearts (i.e. “their consciences”). So chapters 2 and 3 make the case that all humanity is hopelessly trapped and guilty before God.

Within the context of human brokenness, Paul introduces the ideas of “justification” and “righteousness”. There ideas are so closely interrelated that they are sometimes interchangeable. And they refer to being set right and living right with God. So how can humanity be made right with God? Through the law? No. We are so broken that the righteous law of God only brings condemnation to us because we can’t ever possibly live up to the standard of his glory. The good news of Jesus is that God has made another way for us to be made right with him through his faithful love. And this is very good news because its success depends solely on God’s unfailing love, which is why “faith” is the means for our being made right with him. Now that there is a new way for broken people to be made whole in God’s love, we find that God is bringing out of Jesus one new unified humanity: people of every tongue, tribe, and nation are being called together and made one through the faithful love of God!

So in chapter four, Paul explores the huge implications that all this has for those who can now become part of this new family through in following the footsteps of Abraham’s faith. He turns to Abraham’s story in Genesis 15 to explain how Abraham was made right with God before the law of Moses was ever given by his radical faith in God to do the impossible. This “faith” is what now unites the diverse gathering of peoples in the Church together in one, new, huge family.

We have just finished working through this first discourse and are now ready to enter Paul’s second discourse which explains how God redeems one unified humanity in Christ.

God Redeems: A Unified Humanity

After showing that Jesus is forming a new covenant family of diverse peoples from every tongue, tribe, and nation, Paul goes on to explain in this next discourse how these people are a kind of “new humanity”, which truly satisfies the righteous requirements of the Torah through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

This redemption is what the prophets of old foretold:

Zechariah 8:8 CSB

8 I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their faithful and righteous God.”

God is reforming out of unfaithful humanity - represented by Israel - one new faithful humanity that will live with him in peace by his faithful love. What the Jews missed was the transformative nature of God’s promises. They were like those who wanted to put new wine into old wineskins. But God is making something new.

This Jerusalem is this new humanity in which God dwells in perfect peace:

Revelation 21:2 CSB

2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

Revelation 21:22 CSB

22 I did not see a temple in it, because the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

Again the prophets speak about the future of God’s redeemed humanity:

Isaiah 54:13–14 CSB

13 Then all your children will be taught by the Lord, their prosperity will be great, 14 and you will be established on a foundation of righteousness. You will be far from oppression, you will certainly not be afraid; you will be far from terror, it will certainly not come near you.

The prophets envisioned one humanity that would be established upon the foundation of righteousness. There they would not know the oppression of sin and death; their terrors would be far from them because of the Lord who leads them in the ways of life.

This was realized in Jesus:

Matthew 7:24 CSB

24 “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Really, you could not regret taking time to read Isaiah 54 and meditate upon Isaiah’s words. Jesus has come and taught us his living way in order to establish his people in righteousness. He is building something new - the Church - upon an unshakable foundation. He is calling forward a new people.

Then perhaps the most important prophetic foretelling of the new covenant is made by the prophet Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 31:31–34 CSB

31 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.

You will see deep connections between this and Paul’s writings in his second and third discourses (chapters 5-11). A new covenant established upon the faithful promises made to Abraham and realized in Jesus has been established. This is the Lord’s promise to complete our reconciliation to him. His righteousness will finally be written within our hearts. He will be our God alone, and we - those who believe him - will be his people. A new people not like the old ones who constantly rebelled against God and defied him all their days. A new people that will know the Lord even from the least unto the greatest.

And look how they are established: “for I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.” The new humanity that walks in God’s ways will be established in righteousness by the grace of God!

Chapter Five: The New Adam

So Paul begins his second discourse by explaining how Jesus’ family is a new kind of humanity in chapter five. He looks back at Adam as a representation of all humanity (Adam’s name literally means “humanity” or “mankind”). Just like Adam, who chose sin and selfishness over God, all humanity rebels against God and becomes like their first father. So, just like him, we will all face the consequences of our sin in God’s justice. We have all become like the slaves of Sin and are led by our cruel task-master into his house of death. So humanity is characterized by Paul as slaves to Sin and Death through Adam.

Romans 5:12 CSB

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.

Paul then contrasts Adam with Jesus, who is like a “new Adam”.

Romans 5:17 CSB

17 If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

So Jesus lived in faithful obedience to God through his act of sacrificial love.

Hebrews 5:8–10 CSB

8 Although he was the Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. 9 After he was perfected, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, 10 and he was declared by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Jesus, who was God in the flesh, took humanity upon himself and lived out our necessary obedience, and through his faithfulness offered his life as a gift to others, so that we could be justified before God. And now Jesus stands as the head of a new humanity that is being transformed by the very same gift.

Chapter Six: Immersed into Christ

All of this leads into chapter six, where Paul reminds the Christians in Rome that choosing to follow Jesus means leaving their old Adam-like humanity behind and entering into the new Jesus-style humanity by walking in God’s promises by faith.

This is Jesus’ call to cross-based discipleship:

Luke 9:23–24 CSB

23 Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it.

The new humanity that is emerging from the cross of Christ through faith are like sojourners in this world. They are passing through, not digging in. We are not trying to justify our old lives, we are entering new ones! Like immigrants, we aren’t trying to bring the old country with us, we are entering a new and better home.

And the sacred covenantal sign of this transition is the immersion of our baptism:

Romans 6:4 CSB

4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.

Our old humanity dies with Jesus as we enter the water, symbolizing Jesus’ death and burial. But, just as Jesus burst out of the tomb in the mighty triumph of his resurrection, so we are born anew through faith in him as one, new, unified humanity when we rise with him from the dead, which is symbolized by our coming up out of the water.

In this manner, as we entrust our life to Jesus, we become joined to his life and what was true of Jesus’ life becomes true of ours also. This embrace of a totally new identity in Christ transforms us from the inside out so that we are liberated to become wholehearted people who love God with their whole beings, and love their neighbors as his creation.

Chapter Seven: The Law?

So if creating this new humanity through Christ was always God’s purpose, “then”, Paul asks in chapter seven, “what was the point of God giving Israel the Law?” He says that the commands in the Torah were good and showed God’s will for how Israel should live. However, if you read the storyline of the Torah, Israel broke all of its commands.

Exodus 32:7–9 CSB

7 The Lord spoke to Moses: “Go down at once! For your people you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly. 8 They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them; they have made for themselves an image of a calf. They have bowed down to it, sacrificed to it, and said, ‘Israel, these are your gods, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.’ ” 9 The Lord also said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.

Israel had always conceived of their national identity based on their heritage: Jews were born to the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And second to that, based on their possession of the Law. But God conceives of his people at a deeper level defined by the faithfulness of their heart.

At the very beginning, God saw that Israel was rebellious and corrupt. Moses had no more than gone up the mountain than their hearts had gone astray and exchanged the truth of God for a lie to worship the golden calf!

So the more laws Israel received, the more they replayed the sin of Adam in rebellion. Even when God gave his people specific rules to obey, it didn’t fix the problem of the sinful human heart.

So, paradoxically, the laws of the Torah made Israel even more guilty. But Paul says that paradox was the very point. God’s goal was to make it crystal clear that evil had hijacked the human heart, and humanity could never live up to God’s standard because of their brokenness. So the law was meant to humble us by giving us the knowledge of sin and exposing our guilt.

And so it is not those who possess the law but break it that are righteous before God, but those who have been instructed in humility that will be justified in his sight through the abounding grace of Jesus Christ:

Matthew 5:3 CSB

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Luke 18:13–14 CSB

13 “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Chapter Eight: New Life in the Spirit of Adoption

Finally, in chapter eight, Paul explains how the solution to these problems has been revealed through Jesus and realized through the work of the promised Holy Spirit.

Whereas the commands of the Torah had acted like a magnifying glass, focusing our attention on the problem of the human condition as illustrated by Israel, so also will the solution to this very problem come from Israel in the person of the Messiah.

Romans 8:1–2 CSB

1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, 2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

Jesus absolved our sin through the outpouring of his blood from upon the cross. Jesus conquers the grave through the power of his resurrection by the Holy Spirit. And Jesus sent his Spirit into this new family of faith to transform our hearts so that we can truly satisfy the ultimate call of the Torah, which is to love God and live at peace within his creation.

Romans 8:38–39 CSB

38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This outworking of God’s grace that takes hold of the inner-person, and transforms them through the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit so that they daily are conformed to the likeness of the new man - Christ Jesus - is the foundation upon which everything Paul is writing hinges.

The righteousness of faith moves to this point.

The unity of the Jews and Gentiles moves out from this point.

The identity of Christ’s followers is found in this point.

So the good news of Jesus Christ is realized in the new creation:

Galatians 6:15 CSB

15 For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation.

Humanity Rescued By The Grace of God

So God’s renewal of humanity is the fist step in his larger mission to rescue and renew all creation, making it into a place where his love gets the final word. Paul is explaining how it is “faith” - not the law - that transforms broken people and gives them new life through the grace of God. And this is the power of the good news that we preach: that God’s grace can take hold of the broken and radically reshape them into the glorious image of his Son.

This new life isn’t based on their strength, no, for then it should surely fail. Instead, the good news we preach is based on the faithful love of Christ.

And so I want to return to something that we have brought out numerous times throughout this series, and that is the deliberative nature of Paul’s writings: this letter to the Christians in Rome is not meant to be received passively, to be marveled at, and then tucked away. It calls on us to respond. And this is the superior nature of the righteousness that comes by faith: it is responsive to the things of God.

So what do these things call on you to do? What do you think about the kind of community we are being transformed into? What do you think is the fitting response of those who are being made right with God Almighty in this manner according to his faithful love?

Let us consider these things as we prepare to observe the Lord’s Supper and lift one voice together to worship our God and King!