Let me pray for us.
Our Father and our Lord, we thank you that we can come and open your word.
And we ask, Lord, that by your spirit you will speak to each and every one of us.
Father, might you show us things that we might already know,
but might you illumine it and make it new and fresh for each of us.
We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
Okay, well, Elsa Piper is an Australian writer.
And she was intrigued by the concept of individuals being made right with God
by walking the Pilgrim's Walk in Spain.
Walking 1,200 kilometres is all it takes.
Every time you pass through a village, you get a stamp to say that you've walked through.
And when you get to the end, voila, your sins are forgiven.
And you are classed as righteous before God.
Now, this story intrigued me.
It's a book that I heard about and read with great enthusiasm.
Here is a woman who didn't know if there was a God.
Well, she wasn't certain what constitutes a sin, if in fact there were such things as sins.
And if there were such things as sins, she wasn't absolutely sure that there was a God
who was going to do something about removing those sins.
But nonetheless, Elsa blogged and she said on her blog that she was happy to carry the sins of other people
and she would do the walk for them.
She'd walk the 1,200 kilometres.
And in that, they would have their sins removed from them.
Now, many people contacted her.
They confessed their sins to her.
Some of them confessed.
It was the very first time that they'd ever confessed their secret sins to another person.
And so she promised that she would walk the pilgrim's walk.
But interestingly enough, in the book, she never felt the need to confess her own sins.
It was actually carrying other people's, which I found quite fascinating.
And so she decided to do that.
But to do justice to the fact that she was carrying the sins of other people,
she decided that what she would do is read the page of sins or pages of sins every day.
Just in case there was a God, and if there was a God, that he would, in fact, deal with those sins
and see that she was dealing with them in an appropriate way, and hence God would then forgive the people.
Now, the intended result would be owners would be released of the sins.
And let me say, it's an exercise that is not new.
It has happened for many, many years with the Catholic Church, and it's called Buying Indulgences.
Now, it's nothing new that people believe that they have to do something for God to see them as righteous,
without sin, and therefore just as if they had never committed any sins at all.
Am I knocking all the time?
What is it exactly?
My earring, maybe?
So sorry, folks.
Just remind me I only have one earring on later.
Now, as many of you know, you know, sort of over the years, I've loved talking to people about Jesus.
And it's easy sometimes to understand where a person is at in their relationship to Jesus by asking a couple of questions.
Now, I'm not being judgmental of the people when I say this,
but if I asked a hypothetical question of why would God let you into his heaven,
then often the answer will be, I haven't murdered anybody.
I have kept the Ten Commandments.
I'm a nice guy and I do good deeds.
That would be the very, very common answer that people would give me.
And so then they would think that they could actually enter into heaven.
But like the author walking the pilgrim's trail in Spain,
and many others walking the trail, I might add,
there was even, Vanda reminded me today, we've seen a movie of this same thing,
walking the trail called The Way.
A very fascinating movie for anybody who wants to see it.
But there are many, many people who feel that doing good things,
being a good person, a nice person, will earn their way to God.
That is nothing new.
Now, when we look at Romans up to this point,
Paul's focus has been on the power of the gospel for all people who are locked in their sin,
and they are under sentence of God's wrath.
Sam preached about that a couple of weeks ago.
And we learned that through the preaching of the gospel,
God invites all people, Jew and Gentile alike,
to believe in Christ and enter into this new relationship with him.
And chapters 5 and 8, where we get to 5 now,
chapters 5 and 8 is where we see Paul tie it all together,
righteousness by faith with a future hope.
That's sort of the umbrella between 5 to 8 in Romans.
Now, in these 11 verses of chapter 5,
our attention is turning not to only the blessings that come from those who are in Christ,
but also these verses give us a picture of what it looks like to be one of Christ's people.
Verse 1 tells us we have been justified through faith.
The word here is a legal word,
and it's meaning that our debt has been cleared.
So that when we respond to the gospel in faith,
God declares us innocent,
and our relationship with him begins straight away.
It's as if we had not sinned.
Now, in Jewish theology, justification and its opposite, condemnation,
they were verdicts that would be delivered, they believed,
only on the day of judgment,
not something that one could experience now.
Don't get me wrong, though.
The day of judgment will actually occur.
Romans tells us that very clearly.
But being justified, Paul is saying,
is both now and it's in the future.
And now but not yet, as we say.
And Paul is asserting that God is justifying us.
He has already pronounced his verdict over us in doing so.
It neither can be rescinded, and it cannot be changed.
True, we still need to face God
and have our case disposed of on judgment day.
But we can face that day with utter confidence.
Since God in Christ has already decided our case in our favor,
justification releases us from any uncertainty or fear about that judgment.
We're justified through faith.
That is a radical thought.
Contemporary Judaism believed that a man was right with God
based on the works of the law.
Just like the pilgrim walking in Spain,
the thought was and continues to be
that people instinctively think that salvation
depends on human goodness and self-effort.
Look with me at Romans 3.20.
Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in his sight
by observing the law.
Rather, through the law, we become conscious of sin.
Verses 23.24.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
and are justified by his grace
through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
28 says,
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith
apart from observing the law.
And of course, Ephesians 2.8.
For it is by grace alone you have been saved through faith.
And this is not by works so that no one can boast.
Now, don't you find scripture absolutely amazing?
Because just in case you think that being saved
has anything to do with about how faithful you are,
how many people you might financially support,
how kind you might be to everyone around you,
how many ministries you might get involved in,
be they here at church or elsewhere,
being saved has nothing to do with anything
that you have done or will do
so that you can't boast.
How God understands us so clearly
that we innately would want to take some credit.
But clearly we're told that it's not about us
and that we can't boast.
I find scripture quite fascinating
with things so clear as that,
to know what we are like as people,
that we would want to actually take that credit.
But righteousness comes from God,
depends on his grace.
Arising from faith, not works,
is a great surprise.
And because God has declared those who have faith in him
to be right with him,
we therefore have peace.
Now, we all want peace.
People want to be at peace with themselves
and they want to rest in peace.
World peace is called for,
mainly in pageants, I feel,
and in Miss Congeniality.
Poems are written, songs are sung,
and, you know, sort of,
we know that that's what people call for.
We pray for peace.
Yet no ultimate peace is possible
for those who are searching for it
without coming to terms with God first.
Peace here has two aspects.
First is the peace of God.
And in a sense of security and serenity
that wells up in our hearts
when we appreciate the blessings that we enjoy in Christ.
We read in the verse in Philippians 4-7,
and we often say it in church here
at the end of our services,
and the peace of God,
which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
But it's the second aspect
that Paul is referring to in verse 1,
which is peace with God.
The position we find ourselves in
because God has ceased to be hostile toward us
and has reconciled us to himself.
Verse 10 says,
For if, when 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?
There existed a state of war
between God and ourselves
before any of us were made right before him.
That is, we were enemies of God.
We distrusted God and we resented God.
But now, for those who believe,
there is a peace,
but not a passive peace,
a mere absence of conflict,
but positive, harmonious,
and loving relationships with God
that he himself has initiated
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Ephesians 2.14 tells us that Christ himself
is our peace.
And because we can have peace with God,
we can then enjoy the peace of God
that passes all understanding.
But the blessings of being justified with God
continue beyond peace.
We also have access to God
through faith into his grace.
This grace reminds us
that God intervenes on our behalf
of his rebellious creation
out of his own free will
and without obligation.
We not only get into relationship
with God by grace,
but we live out that relationship
day by day by day by God's grace.
The daily provision that we enjoy
comes not from our hard work,
but from God,
who has chosen in his grace to bless us.
So whatever good that we might accomplish
each day
comes because God has graciously worked through us.
We stand in grace,
as our verse tells us.
And we rejoice in the hope
of the glory of God.
We read that this hope
will not disappoint us,
meaning that we will not be disappointed
or ashamed on the day of judgment.
Our claim that God will rescue us
from God's wrath
will someday be vindicated.
God will do what he has promised to do.
How can we be sure?
Well, Paul gives us two basic reasons.
One is that God's love for us in Christ
and the second one is God's work for us in Christ.
God does not hold back his love to us
in any way whatsoever.
He pours out his love
into our hearts by his spirit
and the Holy Spirit
communicates God's love to us.
Verse 8 says,
but God demonstrates his own love for us
in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
The emphasis in this verse
is on the fact that we were still sinners
when Christ died for us.
You see, the wonder isn't that Christ should die for us,
but that he should do so
while we were powerless,
while we were ungodly,
while we were rebellious sinners,
while we were enemies of God.
He didn't die for his friends.
He died for his enemies.
He died for those who crucified him
and he died for you and for me.
So we have a hope
because of God's love for us,
but also because of God's work for us in Christ.
Since we have now been justified by his blood,
how much more shall we be saved
from God's wrath through him?
For if when 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 rejoice in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have received reconciliation.
We are to rejoice in the hope of Jesus,
but we're also to rejoice in our suffering.
In verse 3, it says,
not only so,
but we also rejoice in our sufferings
because we know that suffering produces perseverance,
perseverance produces character,
character produces 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.
Boy, oh boy,
how many times have I wished
that verses talking about suffering
did not exist in the Bible.
At first glance,
there seems to be a contradiction.
We've seen that peace is given in Christ Jesus
and now we see that suffering is expected
and what's more,
we're to rejoice in it.
Let me say straight up,
these verses and the others in the Bible
that talk about suffering
are not saying that we must be happy
with our suffering.
No, it's about a joy and a confidence
in Jesus Christ
and a knowing that God is sovereign
in all things
and is working out his purposes.
Now, I have experienced
a great deal of personal suffering,
which I can't go into at this moment in time,
but one day I will share my testimony,
which is really our whole family's testimony.
And really,
suffering still continues day by day
in various ways.
But I knew this week
when I was preparing this
that I needed
to preach these words to myself
over and over and over again
before I had the right
to stand up in front of you
and to encourage you
to persevere in any suffering
that you might be going through.
I actually had to own these words
and believe the truths
of these words myself.
Sufferings are not an end
in themselves,
for they nurture
something inside of us.
They nurture a peace
and a patience.
As active people,
we want to change things.
And especially,
we'd like to change
the unpleasant circumstances.
So this patience and endurance
does not come easy
for any person.
The word that Paul uses here
comes from the world
of the blacksmith,
where it was used
for hammering
of the red-hot horseshoe
or plough
where they are shaping it
and testing it
on the anvil.
This shaping
and testing
engenders hope
that is the hope
of the glory of God.
Where do I go
when I suffer?
I go to the cross of Jesus
and hope
that,
and the hope
that comes in knowing
that I have a saviour
who in verse 6
tells me
he died
for the ungodly.
That is you and me.
It is God's
unconditional love
and his solution
that I cling to.
And when I go
to the cross,
it is God
who is glorified
because of Jesus.
To turn to Jesus
and the cross
is a choice
of each and every one of us
when we have suffering
in our lives
and also
just in the everyday,
day-to-day living.
But we're not alone.
That verse tells us
that we have
the Holy Spirit
who will guide us
and direct us.
Now,
I don't know
if you fully appreciate
the work
of the Holy Spirit,
but let me assure you
without the Holy Spirit
in our lives,
we would be
totally on our own
and unable
to do any of this.
And any time
that we're in a place
of suffering,
we need to turn
to the hope
that is Jesus Christ,
knowing that we are
being moulded
and shaped
into the person
that God
intended us to be.
After one endures
many difficulties,
there's a strength
of character
that develops
that was not present
previously.
Such testing,
such tested character,
in turn,
generates hope.
And why does it
produce hope?
Because moral transformation
is evidence.
That change in us
as people,
it's evidence
that one is really
being changed
by God.
And so,
therefore,
assures us
that there is
the hope
of a future glory,
that it's not
an illusion,
that we haven't
made it up.
Because we know
that we cannot
change ourselves
by ourselves.
Friends,
any time we're
tempted to doubt
God's love for us,
we need to go back
to the cross
as we constantly
say here at St. Paul's.
If you struggle
to believe
that God loves you,
think about this.
If God loved you
enough to give you
his son
to die for you
when you were
his enemy,
surely
he loves you
enough
to care for you
now that you
are his child.
Having given
such a priceless
gift as his son,
he will most
definitely
give everything
else
that is consistent
with his glory
and what is good
for you.
we've been
given
everything
in Jesus.
We are
justified
and the blessings
come
with being
made righteous.
We have
peace with God.
We have
access by faith
to the very
presence
of God
himself.
We have
a grace
and a hope
in a glorious
future
with the
King
of Kings.
friends,
we can walk
away from
here
tonight
from this
message
with head
knowledge
of all
that these
verses
have given
us
and still
not
appropriate
it
to our
lives.
Not apply
what this
actually means
and not live
it out.
Do not be
fooled into
thinking
that knowing
with your
head what
the gospel
is,
is going
to save
you.
but engage
your heart
and with
great
thankfulness
that brings
you to
your knees
in humility
knowing that
all that
the gospel
gives,
you do not
deserve one
iota of it
and yet
it is there
for the
taking.
Our passage
today is a
renewed
invitation
to take
advantage
of all
the blessings
all the
privileges
of being
a child
of the
king.
Cling
to Jesus
as i will
rejoice
in the
hope
that is
for all
those who
believe
and you
will know
the joy
and the
peace
that comes
from
only
from the
one who
saves
the one
who counts
you
as
righteous
before a
holy
God.
Amen.