Romans 5 part 1

Assurance of future glory:   (click the arrow to listen)

Faith Triumphs in Trouble
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 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. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. 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.
Christ in Our Place
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:1-11)

An undeserved relationship
The section starts by declaring how much we owe Jesus. Through faith in Him we are justified. Justified means being declared ‘not guilty’ before God who judges our sin. Being The Judge is a vital part of God’s character and role: He is not just a loving Father, but a just Judge too. Being declared ‘not guilty’ doesn’t mean that we weren’t guilty as charged, but that Christ took our guilt upon Himself. This was the spiritual fruit of Christ’s death on the cross at Calvary.

This changes our relationship with God. Our sin had created a gulf between us and God. But now He is able to embrace us as His children. According to Jesus, we were once children of the devil; and according to Paul the Apostle, we were born children of wrath. But now God is our Father and we are no longer his enemies: we do not hate him anymore. The bible teaches that enmity is the default relationship of every human born into the world. But this new relationship is now one of peace. 

personal

But this new relationship is a dynamic one; it is not just a religious one. Religion is in fact a counterfeit experience. This new relationship is one of personal encounter and action. I may have a relationship with my cousins through family ties, but if I never speak to them or interact with them, it is only a relationship in name. This is like religion. But our relationship with God through Jesus is more than just in name: we are not simply a Christian – we are children having an active relationship with our Father in heaven. Being a Christian is an experience which changes our heart; it gives us new purpose and incentives in life.

And so, Paul explains how this active relationship works:
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. (Romans 5:2)
Every day we access grace by asking and receiving through a deliberate act of faith. This is similar to the way that, perhaps every day, we access the internet: we have to choose to connect. Accessing grace is a deliberate conscious choice. I am hoping that these studies will help us to access this grace, and thus to stand strong through faith.

confidence

Also, every day we thank God that we have been chosen to be part of his glory. Glory is the presence of a holy God. Being part of His glory also looks forward to what happens after we die: we enter eternal life and not eternal destruction; we become part of God’s new world on a New Earth; we have a maturing relationship with God with the promise of a future purpose. It is our hope, not because we have our ‘fingers crossed’ but because we have yet to receive it. I was written into my Mum’s will and so expected to receive something. I was confident in that promise even though I had not yet been given it – hope is confidence in what we shall receive. This hope gives us courage to face life and deal with everything it throws at us.

The Path to Maturity
The next section shows how this confidence bears fruit as we go through life. Bible writers are keen on lists of connected experiences – it is called ‘concatenation’ (one thing leads to another). Here is the Romans 5 list:

Paul says we glory in our sufferings – that is, we are to glory in all of life’s difficulties. Glory means that we praise God in all situations because of the confidence we have in Him. He is a loving Father; He is using sufferings to enrich our relationship with Him. Praising God in all situations is the mark of growing spiritual maturity. There is no shortcut to this: without trials and sufferings we would remain spiritual babies.

Sufferings
There are different words which express the conflicts Christians have – tribulations, trials, sufferings, temptations. It is best to view them all, as things which make life more difficult for the Christian, but which God uses for our gain. Try to learn not to analyse everything too much: live and think on the basis that God is in control of your life and circumstances. 

The word used here, suffering or tribulation, is based on the farming implement they used in separating the grain from the chaff. Basically, they beat the grain and threw it in the air until it was pure enough to be used for flour. The beating revealed what was hidden beneath the chaff. When thrown in the air, the wind blew the chaff away. The Holy Spirit is spoken of as being like the wind in the bible. It is wonderfully true that the Spirit helps to make us mature. Understanding this, we can see God at work – he allows our conflicts to make us purer. James put it this way:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:2-4)

Perseverance
We think of perseverance as ‘sticking at it’ or ‘just getting on with it’. But there is more to perseverance than this. The meaning of the word is patience. There are two kinds of patience in the New Testament – patience with people and patience with circumstances. The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5.22 is patience with people: each part of that 7-fold fruit is connected to making good relationships with others. It goes without saying that good relationships can’t be achieved by being a loner.

Patience, as used in Romans 5, is particularly how we deal with the difficult circumstances in which we sometime find ourselves. Patience is the quality we need to walk in the Spirit as we allow God to work out his purpose through our difficulties. One of the main benefits of patience, is that it stops us being distracted from our main work of doing God’s will. We may pray for changes in our circumstances, but should not be resentful if adverse circumstances persist:
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58)

Character
This word has a number of meanings which are different to our modern usage. We use character to mean colourful or expressive personality. The bible use is more along the lines of being reliable. One way of understanding character is to see ourselves as on probation. Probation is the time when people who start a new job demonstrate to everyone that they are up to the task. In spiritual life, character demonstrates our measure of maturity. Our conflicts and reactions to challenges show others whether or not we are becoming reliable people: others need to evaluate whether we will let people down, especially in times of spiritual warfare. An excellent example of the use of this word is seen here, where Paul tells the church about his right-hand man, Timothy:
For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. (Philippians 2:21-22)

Hope
Hope is much more than ‘keeping your fingers crossed’. It is frequently used along with faith in the New Testament because hope means expectation that what God promises will occur. We don’t see the timeline of God’s purposes, only He does. Hope is the assurance within us that His purposes will come to pass in His time. The word is used here to refer to our maturing as a worker for God. Many times in the bible, hope is used in respect of the future life in the eternal Kingdom, but the use here, promises that we can be useful to God as one who labours to do His will. Hope means you believe in yourself because the Holy Spirit assures you of purpose. 

This was how I expressed hope in my Mum’s funeral address:
“The hope in this passage is the ability to believe in yourself. It is the expectation that each of us can make a positive contribution to the lives of others. Now if, as an individual, we lose all hope, we are sadly surrendering something of our humanity. If faith is the way we connect meaningfully in a relationship with God, then hope is the way we connect positively with our own self. Hope stops us from sliding into the vacuum of cynicism about ourselves or life in general.”

Love
What I like most about this passage is that it applies practically to Christian life here and now. It doesn’t just relate to the future life on the New Earth. God wishes to pour His love into our hearts NOW. Even if this experience seems delayed – God isn’t trying to be annoying! The conveyor of this love is the Holy Spirit. Part of the progress of maturity, about which Paul is writing here, is to enable our relationship with the Holy Spirit to become more intimate: we are learning to walk in the Spirit.

The love poured out in our hearts (such an extravagant expression) has two values: firstly, it is a personal experience, a spiritual encounter with the living God. It is not merely an intellectual experience. Intellect can get in the way actually; this love is received through faith and hope. This love is an ecstatic experience similar to that which we see happening to the 120 on the Day of Pentecost. It is not a ‘spiritualist’ experience in which the person loses control of themselves. It is in fact a total, human and spiritual experience combined – the ultimate experience of joy. There is no other experience in life like this, as this deep quote says:
“Joy is different from pleasure, as grief is different from pain.” (Anon)

Secondly, this experience fills us with a divine love which compels us to share the good news of Jesus with others. We shall feel spiritually dissatisfied unless we allow this compulsion to express itself. The church actually exists for this aim! Paul expressed the two experiences in this way:
If we are ‘out of our mind,’ as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Corinthians 5:13-15)

‘If we are besides ourselves’ is the ecstatic experience: a zeal inspired by the Holy Spirit. ‘If we are in our right mind’ is the human experience – intellectual, emotional, from the heart. We are communicating the gospel in a way that people can understand, whilst being driven by this same zeal of the Spirit.

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