Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Epistle Lesson just read, from Romans 5. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- We generally look at our life, and all of our experiences in life, from a rather selfish and self-centered perspective. It has to do with our comfort and our pain – and all of this is patently reasonable. When something hurts – it hurts. When something is pleasant – it is pleasant, and we want pleasure not pain.
- We also tend to look at life as though we were somewhat privileged, and consider ourselves to be deservedly privileged. That is, when I suffer I don’t think I deserve it, and when I have pleasure I think that I do deserve it. The reason for this is that we have an inaccurate view of our sin and what we are deserving of because of it, and also an inaccurate view of our goodness. We believe, generally, that we deserve much more good than we receive.
- There are reasons for all of this – why we think this way and cultivate our rationale for embracing this self-centered perspective. We don’t have time to go into all of them; this would take hours. However, the end result of this way of thinking is a great deal of indignation, anger, offended pride, and even negative and self-destructive temptations.
- The bottom line is that we do not appreciate or consider ourselves deserving of any of the negative experiences that we have in life – and of course we all have a lot of these negative experiences. In our text, the apostle Paul refers to them as “our sufferings.”
- God’s Word, and our relationship with God if we can bear His Word and receive it, provides us with a great deal of relief and wisdom in regard to these frustrations. But the logic and rationale is different than what we are accustomed to generating within ourselves, and the reality presented contradicts some of our deeply cherished and firmly held beliefs. So it is challenging, but God seeks to bring us to “HUMBLE FAITH AND TRUST” in Him, in His goodness and love, and to not only relieve us in our sufferings but to enable us to process them in a way that brings us greater blessings. It all begins when we:
I. Recognize And Remember That We Are Saved By God’s Grace Through Faith
Text: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
A. This Requires Proper Recognition Of Our Need For God’s Gracious Justification And Saving
Text: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. . . . God shows His love for us in that while were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Statement: We know that we are in fact “sinners.” We sin each day in thought, word, and deed, not only in the things that we do, but also in the good things that we omit doing. This sin hurts and harms others, and this is offensive to God – it provokes His wrath! It also provokes justice, for “the wages of sin is death.” [Rom. 6:23]
Application: This is what we deserve – and we may not like it, and may want to argue about this, against this correct judgment of God’s law, but we may as well argue with gravity; it is what it is, and our arguments about it don’t matter. But if we allow the reality to sink in and to humble us, then we will receive good news from God about His mercy, about a reprieve, about His pardon for our sin – and this is His “justification” of us in Christ Jesus. And so we must also:
B. Remember That We Have Been Justified By God’s Grace In Christ’s Shed Blood On The Cross, So That We Are Saved From God’s Wrath, And Now Reconciled To God
Text: “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.”
C. And This Brings Great Blessings, If We Humbly Receive God’s Grace And Mercy – We Now Have Full Access By Faith To God’s Grace; And We Have Been Given A Sure Hope Of Receiving The Coming Glory Of God
Text: “Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
Statement: Recognizing the nature of God’s grace, how it is that we now have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” in spite of our sin and guilt, that He is reconciled to us and that we have been saved from His wrath changes everything. We are then able to “rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have now received reconciliation.” And we stand in God’s grace. What this means is that whatever we suffer does not come to us by God’s wrath, or as just condemnation and punishment for our sin! Further, we are not destined for wrath and damnation; we have been saved, justified by God, forgiven, accounted righteous in His sight, reconciled to God, and at peace with God, and destined for His glory.
Application: These blessings came “when we were still weak,” “while we were still sinners” and enemies of God. This should keep us humble, and deeply grateful! But these blessings of justification, reconciliation with God, salvation, and peace with God provide us with a sure foundation and confidence about life – that what we suffer cannot ultimately or eternally harm us or separate us from God’s love or keep us from our destiny in His salvation. Whatever they are, wherever they come from, they will not have the last word or say in our existence, but rather are really only “temporary momentary afflictions,” as Paul elsewhere refers to them.
Transition: And even more importantly, according to our text and the rest of Scripture:
II. Certain Of God’s Love, We Are Also Certain Of His Blessings Even In The Midst Of Our Sufferings
A. Because God Actually Uses Our Sufferings To Work Great Blessings In Us
Text: “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.”
B. And As God’s Love Is Poured Into Our Hearts We Are Strengthened In Our Own Goodness And Love, And We Know That God’s Love Will Never Fail Us – Because Of What He Has Done For Us In Christ Jesus
Statement: So God’s Word certainly brings us down to earth and reality and humbles us, but His Word also builds us up and strengthens us with a sure and certain hope in His grace, mercy, and love. So our confidence is not a fake and a manufactured confidence of our own making, but rather we have confidence and hope in God, in what He has done for us in Christ Jesus, what He is doing for us even through our sufferings, and what He has promised and will surely do for us eternally in His glory. The goal is that we have “HUMBLE FAITH AND TRUST” in Him, and so be comforted, strengthened, and blessed in every experience that we have in life.
Application: This does not make our sufferings more pleasant or easier to swallow. But it is a gracious thing that God arranges for us to experience growth and blessings through unpleasant things that we would never invite upon ourselves our willingly endure. And rather than objecting, and kicking against God, and coming to anger against Him, if we have “HUMBLE FAITH AND TRUST” in Him we will instead thank Him and also eagerly await from Him the blessings He produces in us through the difficult things that we must suffer in this fallen world of sin. And always, we keep faith and trust in His gracious forgiveness and salvation, remembering that we are reconciled to Him and have peace with Him, and have already been delivered from His wrath.
Conclusion: So we are given choices when the Word of God comes to us and confronts us – and we are offered great relief from our frustrations and consternation, and also a way to experience great growth and blessings. God is love, no matter what our experiences and our sinful nature compel us to think.
If we have “HUMBLE FAITH AND TRUST” in God, knowing and remembering His gracious and wondrous love in Christ Jesus, we will have great peace and joy and fruitful growth in endurance, character, and hope. And that is immeasurably better than the sufferings, confusion, and anger that come from the proud, lazy, arrogant, and privileged assumptions of our fallen minds.
May God bless us all with such humility, faith, trust, and joy in His love. Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.