Just over three months ago, it was New Year's Eve.
And on that night, you, because you're cool, would probably be doing all sorts of things.
If you're anything like me, you might have been asleep.
Because that's what I like to do on New Year's Eve, because my kids get up at 6.30 no matter what day of the year it is.
And so I need my beauty sleep.
But assuming your life isn't as tragically boring as mine, you might have been at something exciting like a New Year's party.
And at a New Year's party, it's an interesting kind of thing, because you start those parties by finishing off the year.
And you finish off those parties by starting the year.
And it's kind of like, what is the New Year's party about?
Is it actually about the year that's gone past?
Or is it about the year that's coming?
And I guess that kind of depends on the year you've had or the year you're looking forward to.
But most of the time, it's a transitional moment in your life.
You kind of go from one to the other and you're kind of like, hey, it started 2015 and now it's 2016.
And the text we're looking at today is a transition point in the book of Romans.
Romans chapter 5.
And it's a chapter that both looks back and looks forward.
And it looks back because it nicely rounds off a bunch of themes that have been going on in Romans throughout chapters 1 to 4.
In those chapters, Paul has been outlining for us how God brings sinners back to himself.
But Romans also looks forward in chapter 5 because it prepares us for what happens in chapters 6 to 8.
And in chapters 6 to 8, it's all about how to live life once you've come to Christ.
Because here's the beautiful thing about Jesus.
Jesus didn't just come to fix up your mess and wipe your slate clean.
He came to do that and to give you new life in order to live for him.
And so my sermon today is going to try and do both of those things.
It's going to try and show you the glory of Jesus by demonstrating how he deals with your past, how he secures your future, but also how he transforms your present.
So let's start with our past by looking backwards.
Take a look with me at verse 1 of chapter 5.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith.
Now, what does Paul mean by this word justified here?
In the simplest terms possible, it means that God has declared us to be not guilty before him.
See, the wonder of justification is that the future verdict you might fear has already been given in the present.
If you are in Christ, there is now no longer any condemnation, both now and into the future.
You have been justified.
It is a settled fact in Christ.
And that verdict will not change because Christ will not change.
And what he's done on the cross and through the resurrection will not change.
If you are in Christ, the verdict on your acceptance has already been given.
No matter what you've done, no matter what you've become, Christ can make you right with God.
And everything that Paul will say from this point onwards about the Christian life assumes you already know that fact.
It assumes you know that you're already justified.
Because if you don't start there and you start thinking about how to live the Christian life,
but you're unsure that you are a Christian, you're going to end up in all sorts of wrong places.
And friends, I need to ask you before we kind of embark on the journey, do you live with that assumption?
Do you live with the assumption?
It's easy enough to say or sing the words, I have been forgiven.
Christ loves me.
I've been justified.
But our actions and our attitudes so often tell a different story.
Do the anxieties of your spiritual life, and I get it, we've all got anxieties in our spiritual life,
but do your anxieties say that you're worried what God's verdict will be in the future?
Are you a hard worker in this church?
And every church has them.
People who basically make the place run.
Are you a hard worker partly because you're not actually sure whether God has really accepted you?
And you're trying to work your way back.
The text says, since we've been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
But note also that Paul uses other metaphors to describe salvation.
To describe what Christ has accomplished for us.
So in verses 10 and 11, Paul talks about being reconciled to God.
So justification is, if you like, a metaphor from the law court.
It's, whereas reconciliation is a relational metaphor.
Now one of the dangers for the metaphors we use to describe salvation is if you just focus on one,
you can actually end up distorting the gospel.
You can reduce it.
So if you only ever talk about justification, that means you tend to see God only as your judge,
whose job is either to declare us guilty or not guilty.
Which is true enough, but a judge is not necessarily someone you have a relationship with.
I don't know how many times you've been to court.
But like, when you go to court and the judge kind of goes, not guilty.
It's not like after that you sit there and great, we should have coffee sometime.
Like you don't, you don't hang out with your judge.
His job is just to basically say you're either in or you're out.
And that's why we need metaphors like reconciliation.
Because God is not merely our judge, he's our father.
And he wants you as his child.
You are estranged from God by your sin, but he has brought you back.
And as Tim Keller says, God doesn't want to be a concept, he wants to be a friend.
And so we need all the metaphors of the good news that we can find,
because without all the metaphors, you don't see the full richness of the gospel.
I remember once being in Rome.
I've only ever been to Rome once.
That makes it sound like I go all the time.
I remember the one time I was in Rome.
And all you do in Rome, as far as I'm concerned, is you go and see old monuments and eat gelato.
That's basically all you need to do in Rome.
That's enough.
And I went to a gelato store, and I'll never forget it.
It was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life,
because I went into a gelato store that had 130 flavours of gelato.
It had 11 different types of chocolate.
I wanted to die and live there forever.
And I tried to eat as many different types of gelato from that store,
but I couldn't manage to get around to all 130 flavours.
But I left thinking I've not experienced the full glory of this store,
until I've had 100.
129 won't do.
In a little way, that's kind of like what it is to hold all the metaphors of Scripture about salvation.
Because Jesus doesn't just bring justification.
He brings reconciliation.
At other points, it talks about that he brings liberation.
All of those things are true, and we need to hear all of them.
So the foundation stone of Romans 5 is that your past has been forgiven,
and you are at peace with God.
Whether you feel like that right now,
it is objectively true that in Christ you have peace with God.
And so having dealt with our past,
towards the end of verse 2,
Paul starts looking forward.
He says,
Through Christ, we now rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
It's one of those phrases,
I don't know if you've ever heard it,
but I don't know if you ever do this in Bible study group.
It's one of those phrases that people used to say to me,
and it was a nod and smile moment,
which is where you don't have any idea what people are saying,
but you know you're meant to know,
and say, oh yes, amen.
We rejoice in the hope of the glory.
That's fantastic.
I have no idea what you're saying.
And let's be honest,
we sometimes do that in the Christian church.
I didn't actually know what that meant.
Because it's got all the right terms to be a Christian quote, doesn't it?
It's got God, glory, hope, rejoicing.
Who doesn't want that for a poster?
Facebook status, ready to go.
But what does it actually mean?
Well, on the one hand,
many people would interpret it,
and they'd be fair enough in doing so,
as being the hope that we have for seeing God's glory at the end of time.
The hope that we have of being in his presence for eternity.
And that is a perfectly reasonable idea,
and perhaps is what is going on here.
But I think something else might be going on here,
because a little earlier in Romans,
Paul referred to the glory of God,
and he made this point in chapter 3.
He said,
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
That's his statement about human beings in Romans chapter 3.
Now, what's he meaning there?
Well, in Psalm 8 verse 5,
it says that human beings have been crowned with glory and honour.
And we're crowned with glory because we're made in the image of God,
made to know him and to show him,
made to be his representatives as we cultivate his creation.
And so we're called to this glorious task of imaging God
and reflecting his goodness to the world.
And the fundamental fact about human beings
is that we've all failed at that task.
We've all failed to live up to be the people that we were created to be.
We've all failed to live up to the glory for which we were intended.
And so what I think Romans 5, 2 might well be saying
is that through Christ,
God is going to restore us to the glory for which we were designed.
Not as our own achievement, but as Christ's achievement.
On that final day, you will not only be forgiven,
you will be everything that God intended you to be from the very beginning.
Because what Paul is saying in verse 2
is that we rejoice in the hope that we will be fully conformed
to the image we were meant to have from the start.
A little later in Romans 8, 18, Paul says,
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing
with the glory that will be revealed in us.
But note carefully, this glory is something that I don't have yet.
It's a hope.
It's a sure and certain hope,
but we don't yet have at least not in full measure.
And that highlights for us a persistent tension
that underlies so much of the New Testament,
which is that throughout the New Testament,
you have this constant tension between
we are already experiencing salvation now,
and yet we're still awaiting the completion of salvation
at the end of time.
We live between the two comings of Christ.
The first coming of Christ achieves and secures our salvation,
but it's only at the second coming
that you get the full benefit of the blessings.
And so the Christian always has to look at their life
as a mixture of the two,
of the now and the not yet.
So now we are already justified.
Now we are already reconciled.
But at the same time,
there are things we are waiting for.
And the tension between the now and the not yet
helps explain what might look initially weird to us
in verses 9 and 10.
I don't know if you saw that language in verses 9 and 10.
It says in verse 9,
having been justified,
how much more will we be saved?
Verse 10,
having been reconciled,
how much more will we be saved?
And when you first read that,
you're probably thinking,
aren't they the same thing?
Like if I'm justified,
aren't I already saved?
If I'm reconciled,
aren't I already saved?
Was I lying before
when I said that God's final verdict
has been given already in the present?
Was that just a kind of, you know,
a fake move to get on your side to begin with?
No, Paul is not getting you
to question your salvation.
What Paul is trying to tell you is
there is a sense in which
you have not yet been saved.
Because this morning when I checked,
I still didn't have a resurrection body.
To be quite honest,
when I looked in the mirror,
it looked more like a body of death.
There's a lagging indicator.
It's called my body.
And last time I asked my wife,
she confirmed to me,
Mark, your life still falls short
of the glory of God.
She's good at letting me know
that my life falls short
of the glory of God.
It always,
as in my body,
my holiness,
there's so much of my life
that doesn't yet have
the touch of God's salvation on it.
It will be touched one day.
I will be raised
with a body like his.
I will eventually be perfected in Christ.
But there are some things
that are not yet.
And this is why the New Testament
refers to salvation sometimes
as a future possession.
Not to get you to question
whether you're saved or not,
but to get you to understand
you don't yet have it all.
You are an heir of salvation,
but you haven't yet received
all the inheritance.
And so far from trying
to make us discouraged,
Paul is actually trying
to encourage us here,
because what he is saying
in Romans 5, 1 to 11
is that God who began
a good work in you
is going to carry it to completion.
The God who has started with you
is going to finish with you.
If you have been justified,
you will be saved.
God is going to get you home
because the problem is
we can get discouraged
living between the first
and second coming of Christ
because what if something happens?
What if something happens
between when I profess faith
in Christ and the day of the Lord?
One of the things
that really shakes us up
is suffering.
We really get ruined
sometimes by suffering
and Paul zeroes in on suffering
for us in verses 3 to 5
and teaches us to see our suffering
in a different perspective.
He says,
not only so,
but we also rejoice
in our sufferings
because we know that suffering
produces perseverance,
perseverance character,
and character hope.
And hope does not disappoint us
because God has poured out
his love into our hearts
by the Holy Spirit
whom he has given us.
Now for most of us
who are Christians
for any length of time,
the experience of suffering,
big, intense, chaotic,
absurd suffering,
is going to mess with us.
In fact,
it's going to sometimes
make you feel like
you're never going to make
the finish line.
You started the Christian life
so well,
things were so happy
and then it hit.
And it can make you feel
uncertain about the future.
Will I make it?
And part of,
let's be honest,
what fuels the despair
is sometimes
the thought
lodges in your brain.
This isn't meant
to be happening to me.
I'm God's child.
I'm his justified,
forgiven sinner.
We're done with that,
aren't we, God?
Why am I still suffering?
It must be that
there's something wrong
with me.
And Paul's answer is,
no, it doesn't mean
there's anything wrong
with you.
This is where understanding
that salvation
is both now
and not yet
is so helpful
because
Paul actually
assumes that
suffering of all sorts
is going to hit
Christians
if they live long enough.
And that's because
we live this side
of the second coming
and the end of suffering
is not yet.
And so if you understand
that we live
between the now
and the not yet,
you can use
your suffering
to galvanise
your hope.
So to rejoice
in our sufferings
doesn't mean
we do what some people
have tried to explain
to me sometimes,
as if we can reimagine
that our pain
isn't painful
or our hurt
isn't hurting
or persecution
is somehow fun.
No, no, no.
To rejoice
in our sufferings
is to rejoice
in the fact
that this moment
of suffering
is not the last word.
The better day
is coming
and not only that,
that God can even
use my suffering
to deepen my hope
and to form
my character.
But it's hope
that brings the joy,
not the suffering.
We rejoice
because Jesus
defeated death
and that I know
this suffering
will not be
the final chapter.
And so friend,
do not let
suffering
take away
your assurance.
God is going to
carry you
all the way
home.
And just at the
end of those verses
you have that
beautiful line
and hope
does not disappoint
us because
God has poured
out his love
into our hearts
by the Holy Spirit
whom he has
given us.
So Paul is saying
there that
part of our
assurance
derives from
the presence
of the Holy Spirit
within us.
Now we Anglicans
are good at
speaking about
the objective
facts of faith.
Christ died,
Christ is risen,
therefore we can
have hope
and that is true
but there is also
a subjective
dimension to
the experience.
When you come
to Christ
he fills you
with his Spirit
and the Spirit
it is said
pours out the
love of God
into our hearts.
In other passages
Paul talks about
the Spirit cries
Abba
Father
within the
forgiven sinner.
it is what
John Wesley
called
his heart
being strangely
warmed
by the
gospel of
Christ
as the
Spirit
touched
him
and
there is
a part
of me
cold
rational
Mark
philosopher
historian
white
Australian
male
wants to
run a
thousand
miles
from her
feelings
and yet
God
actually
sometimes
wants to
use those
feelings
to remind
me of
his love
that I
will even
feel
his love
for me
and he
will stir
up strong
affections
within me
and that
experience
of the
Spirit
we have
is part
of our
assurance
it's not
the only
part
of course
but it's
part
of our
assurance
that our
hopes are
not in
vain
Paul talks
at later
points about
that the
Spirit of
God is like
the down
payment of
heaven
in Ephesians
1 he
talks about
he's a
deposit
guaranteeing
our
inheritance
it's like
you get
just a
little
foretaste
of heaven
by the
gift of
the Spirit
within
and he's
reminding
you you
are loved
you are
justified
and the
best is
yet to
come
don't
give up
so Romans
5 says
your past
has been
forgiven
it says
your future
has been
secured
and so we
rejoice in
the hope
of glory
but what
about my
present
what about
my present
if my
future
life
is to
be
new
in
Christ
restored
to
the
glory
I
was
made
for
what
should
I
expect
right
now
in
the
present
we
already
know
that it
can't
be
perfection
that is
something
which
hasn't
come
yet
and
won't
come
till
his
second
coming
but
ever
since
Adam
our
focus
has
actually
probably
been
more
on
failure
have
you
ever
noticed
how
our
language
talks
about
failure
and
humanity
quite
easily
to
err
is
human
when
you
make
a
mistake
and
screw
up
people
go
you're
only
human
because
humans
by
definition
are the
people
who
constantly
screw
up
at
things
and
that
is
also
the
testimony
of
scripture
that
no matter
how good
you are
you're
really
actually
not that
good
that
actually
we
all
have
gone
astray
but
what
Paul
wants
to
say
to
us
in
Romans
5
and
then
he
goes
on
to
keep
on
saying
it
in
Romans
is
that
Christ
not
only
deals
with
your
past
he
not
only
secures
your
future
he
transforms
your
present
life
and
in
Romans
5
the
way
Paul
illustrates
this
is
to
show
that
Jesus
is
our
new
Adam
that's
why
I got
the
passage
to
continue
to
be
read
Jesus
is
our
new
Adam
and
he
gives
us
power
right
now
to
live
a
different
kind
of
life
so
Paul
in
this
passage
and
verse
12
starts
with
the
bad
news
in
Romans
5
12
Paul
says
that
what
Adam
did
in
the
Garden
of
Eden
affected
every
human
being
however
that
process
of
transmission
happens
and that's
something
you can
go to
theological
college
to
discuss
however
it
happens
that
Adam's
act
influences
us
the
foundation
stone
for
Paul's
argument
is that
when
Adam
sinned
then
death
came
to
all
people
because
we
all
sinned
and
so
we
are
all
in
Adam
we
all
suffer
from
the
brokenness
that
he
gave
to
humanity
and
if
you
sorry
every
person
shares
in
the
beauty
and
brokenness
of
Adam
if
you
like
for
every
human
being
we
all
have
a
family
history
that
negatively
affects
us
now
I
know
that
some
of
you
almost
certainly
will
have
a
family
history
that's
much
more
local
that
affects
you
might
have
an
experience
in
your
family
of
grandparents
parents
and that
what
they
did
in
the
past
negatively
affects
you
right
now
and for
the people
who I've
known
who've
had that
experience
it crushes
them
it colors
everything
they see
they sit
there and
the lens
of the
past is
the lens
through which
they view
the world
and if
you like
every human
being has
family history
we have
family history
going all
the way
back to
Adam
we've
all
got a
past
and it
conditions
us
to
thinking
we'll
never
break
free
so
when
you
hear
the
Bible
storyline
ends
with
you
being
perfected
in
Christ
perhaps
your
response
is
well
God
at
the
end
of
time
is
just
going
to
have
to
do
a
demolition
job
because
there
is
nothing
going
on
in
me
I
don't
know
if
you've
ever
seen
those
real
estate
ads
where
they
kind
of
put
out
a
thing
and say
renovate
or
detonate
okay
well
I think
sometimes
we feel
like with
our life
it's just
detonate
there's
nothing
here to
renovate
God
but
Paul
thinks
something
different
is
happening
to us
in the
present
and in
517
he says
for if
by the
trespass
of the
one
man
death
reigned
through
that
one
man
how
much
more
will
those
who
receive
God's
abundant
provision
of grace
and of
the gift
of
righteousness
reign in
life
through
the
one
man
Jesus
Christ
so
in
Christ
God
not only
provides
us a
sacrifice
for our
sins
he
provides
us
a new
Adam
who
can
enable
us
to
reign
in
life
and so
where Adam
failed
Christ
triumphed
where Adam
gave in
the
temptation
Christ
did
not
and because
of his
perfect
life
Christ
not only
becomes
our
means
of
forgiveness
he
also
becomes
the
fountain
head
the
source
of a
whole
new
way
of
being
human
and
Jesus
represents
everything
a human
being
is meant
to be
and by
his
resurrection
power
and by
the gift
of his
spirit
he does
the most
remarkable
thing
he starts
transforming
us
now
to be
like
himself
and so
the whole
comparison
between
Adam
and Christ
raises
an identity
issue
for us
as Christians
how do
you see
yourself
as a
Christian
do you
see yourself
as primarily
still in
Adam
that you
are forgiven
yes but
basically doomed
to failure
or do you
see yourself
in Christ
not perfect
forgiven
yes but
on your
way
to be
like
him
because
in
Romans
5
12
to 21
Paul
wants
to
use
this
Adam
Christ
comparison
to proclaim
that you
are no
longer in
Adam
you are
in Christ
and therefore
when you
come to
Christ
you aren't
just
wiped
clean
you are
made a
new
creation
because
of Jesus
there's a
whole new
way of
being
human
to reign
in life
as it
states
in verse
17
is to
actually
start to
be
transformed
in Christ
even
now
and so
as the
book of
Romans
moves forward
into chapter
6
it assumes
you can
be transformed
it assumes
you can
really change
friends because
of Jesus
you are no
longer defined
by your
past
so many
of us
perhaps
all of us
define our
life
in terms
of our
past
our identity
is based
on our
past
if I ask
you who
you are
you'll tell
me what
happened
to you
in the
past
and sometimes
our Christian
life is
defined by
our past
I just
can't
be holy
I just
cannot
change
Mark
you don't
know my
story
I'm a
screw up
that's
what I
do
I'm just
like Adam
yeah you
are
but because
of Jesus
your story
no longer
has to be
just about
your past
because with
him a
different story
has begun
where your
sins have
been forgiven
and you
are on the
journey towards
Christ likeness
and in Christ
we find a new
beginning which
means you are
not what you
were
you are in
Christ now
and your hope
and destiny
is to be like
him
now please do
not hear me
saying anything
that might smack
of triumphalism
as if your life
from now on
is going to
be one
long
victory march
not a
victory march
no no no
you are not
in some
victory march
that is the
life to come
but we are
in our way
this is
who you
really are
who you
really are
is not your
past
it's not even
your present
it's your
future
who you
really are
is what
you will
become in
Christ
on that
final day
your future
in Christ
is what
defines you
I love the
phrase Tom
Wright uses
he says
we are but
shadows of our
future selves
because that
is who I am
what I'm
becoming
in Christ
that's what
the Holy
Spirit does
to us
he brings
the life
of the future
into our
life in the
present
as we are
transformed
into the
image of
Christ
sometimes
when I
summarise for
people what
should you
really expect
from a
Christian
because there
are so many
people out
there who
expect that
Christians will
be perfect
and they're
thoroughly
disappointed
when they're
not
and then I
meet other
people who
expect that
there will be
no change
at all in
the Christian
life that
we're all
going to be
horrible until
the day of
the second
coming and
when somebody
does actually
have holiness
break into
their life
it's kind of
like wow
that's weird
and so how
do we capture
this tension
between the
now and the
not yet
I sometimes
like to say
that all
Christians should
have a little
tag on them
saying work
in progress
you know when
you go past a
building site and
it says work
in progress
when you see
that sign you
know that what
you see isn't
the finished
work
but you
also know
that something
has been
begun
because you
know that if
somebody puts
up a work
in progress
sign but
nothing has
been begun
you're kind
of like sitting
there going
I'm not sure
you should put
the sign
up
there's a
little saying
that I have
to try and
describe all
this
at every point
we should be
able to say
this about our
Christian life
I'm not
what I was
I'm not yet
what I will
be
I'm not
what I was
I'm not yet
what I will
be
I thought I
was so awesome
when I coined
that quote
I thought that's
a zinger
people are going
to put that up
on Facebook
for years
people are going
to copyright
I'm going to
make a lot of
money out of
this
that's a bang
on quote
and then I
realised about
200-300 years
ago John
Newton had said
something and
said it even
better
and so I'll
quote you
John Newton
he said I
am not what
I ought to
be
I'm not
what I
want to
be
I'm not
what I
hope to
be in
another
world
but still
I am
not what
I once
used to
be
and by
the grace
of God
I am
what I
am
let's
pray
Heavenly
Father you
are so good
to us
because when
you send
your son
you don't
just send
an atonement
for sin
you send
someone who
can enable
us to
become the
people you
always intended
us to be
that you
take away
our guilt
that you
justify us
completely
and then you
actually set
us free
to be more
like your
son
Heavenly
Father if we
are struggling
with our past
tonight
help us to
see that the
future you have
given us in
Christ is
what defines
us now
that we
are not to
be enslaved
with what
we've done
or even
what we're
failing to
do in the
present
but that we
are to look
forward with
great anticipation
straining
towards what
is ahead
because of
what Christ
Jesus has
won for us
we thank you
for your
rich and
overwhelming
gift of
salvation
in Jesus
name we
pray
amen